Laura Souza was expecting her first baby last fall when Kaiser Permanente Hawaii rolled out a new program offering trained midwives as an option to doctors for labor and delivery.

A Kaiser neonatal intensive care nurse for nine years, Souza said, “;I was just thrilled that we got a midwife. I think it was a perfect time to have a baby.”;

Adriana Alohilani (Hawaiian for “;brightness of heaven”;) was born at 12:31 a.m. Jan. 21—weighing 7 pounds, 12 ounces.

“;It was very much like a home birth experience, just like how we wanted it to be—calm with a peaceful atmosphere and minimal medical intervention,”; Souza said. “;It was an awesome experience.”;

Dr. Keith Ogasawara, chief of Kaiser Permanente Hawaii's Obstetrics/Gynecology Department, said the Midwifery Program “;was a big dream I had from years ago.”;

He said midwives ran a whole section of the hospital when he trained at the University of Southern California and had a maternal fetal medicine fellowship. He also was exposed to midwife programs at Kaiser's medical center in Northern California and at other hospitals, he said.

“;It seemed like a nice option for women to doctors. It was a complementary thing.”;

In Kaiser's system, he said, midwives are part of an integrated labor and delivery team with nurses and physicians, and they also work with women in the clinics.

“;We have a midwife on labor and delivery with us, managing low-risk patients,”; he said. “;If a complication occurs during labor, the physician is immediately there and knows who the patient is because we co-manage.

“;It's a very seamless delivery system,”; Ogasawara said. “;It's just been beautiful.”;

Kaiser's five nurse midwives are certified by the American College of Nurse Midwives and have Hawaii State Advanced Practice Nurse Licenses, which require continuing education.

Ogasawara said midwife training is more holistic and patient-centered.

“;It's not that physicians aren't patient-centered,”; he said, but the midwife approach is “;much more personalized.”;

He said he is “;ecstatic”; about how well the program is working out with physicians and patients. “;It has been a great plus.”;

One Kaiser midwife, Linda Chong Tim, had been the only midwife in private practice with an Oahu physician and said she felt from the patient volume that there was a big need.

Midwives deal with women's health issues from conception through menopause and focus primarily on aspects of natural childbirth, involving partners and family, she said.

“;Nurse midwives are extremely passionate about moms and babies and families,”; she said. “;We get very involved and excited seeing them through the entire pregnancy and birth and through the transition postpartum period.”;

There were no midwives in Hawaii when she had her first two children, said Tim, 45, of Kaneohe. Her last two children, 5-year-old twins, were born prematurely in a high-risk pregnancy, she said.

She said Kaiser's Midwife Program “;is off to a great start,”; adding, “;I think what we've done in just the past few months is amazing, and it's exciting to see what's going to happen in the next year or two.”;

Souza said the midwife, nurse and doctor were at her side during the birth, and her husband, Palani, a civilian in the fire department at Kaneohe Marine Base, was with her in a birthing tub coaching her.

“;It's like being home in a tub. You don't feel it's such a hospital setting,”; she said. “;It's really great for pain management. I was able to have a natural delivery without medication. It was wonderful, just how it was supposed to be.”;