Article in Local Paper

Article can be read online here.

Published: February 26, 2009 03:10 am |

MOTHERS’ HELPER

Pueblo woman specializes in childbirth education, encouragement
By MARY JEAN PORTER
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

Her services can be described in a word: support.

Gina Gerboth is a certified childbirth educator, a certified birth doula (assistant), an intern midwife and a certified breast-feeding consultant, and in each case she provides help for the mother-to-be or the new mom.

“My job isn’t advocacy as much as it is support – educational, physical, emotional,” says Gerboth, whose office message board bears the words, “If you don’t know your choices, you don’t have any.”

Gerboth started her career working for the USDA as a policy analyst for food stamps, but the Women Infants Children program staffers were nearby and she overheard a lot about the benefits of breast-feeding. Watching her eldest son thrive on breast milk – after initial difficulties – led her into a new line of work. Her degree in political science from University of Colorado-Denver has been helpful with midwifery issues and policy, “but I just didn’t think it would lead to this.” Sariah Walters is one of Gerboth’s clients and says her help as a birth doula made daughter Auriella Coffman’s birth easier.

“She helped me stay calm. At first, I didn’t want the medicine, then I did and it was too late. She got me calmed down and she helped me by telling me, ‘This is where you are at (in labor).’ She let me know what to expect.”

Since Auriella’s birth, Gerboth has helped Walters with breast-feeding problems.

“She wasn’t gaining weight. I thought I was going to quit,” Walters says. “I asked my mom some questions, but having Gina here helped. She could see me in the daytime when I needed her. Now Auriella is gaining weight and is a lot happier.”

Gerboth says support for a nursing mother – information, practical suggestions, encouragement, understanding – is the No. 1 indicator of whether a mom successfully breast-feeds her baby. She urges new moms to attend local meetings of La Leche League to get help and information and to be with other breast-feeding mothers.

Gerboth says she tailors her services to a client’s needs. Her work as a birth doula – the word is Greek for “woman’s servant,” referring to the continuous, hands-on support given to a woman in labor – means she works with fathers-to-be as well.

“A lot of the time dads just don’t know what to do. I think they appreciate that I can start something like rubbing the mom’s back during labor and they can continue it. A lot of times dads worry that having a doula means they are being pushed out of the way, but it’s nice to have a second person there. One can talk to the mom face to face while the other rubs her back.”

Gerboth teaches independent childbirth education classes and has taught weekend childbirth classes for Parkview Medical Center. And she’s working to become a certified professional midwife. In Colorado, midwifery falls under the Department of Regulatory Agencies, and a midwife must meet requirements established by the North American Registry of Midwives, Gerboth says.

She plans to go to Bali, Indonesia, for the month of September so she can volunteer at the Bumi Sehat birth center to get clinical experience and help the midwives there provide safe, gentle births for all women. The maternal mortality rate is extremely high in Indonesia – 373 per 100,000 live births compared with 13 per 100,000 in the U.S., according to Gerboth.

Gerboth’s office is located at Lancaster Chiropractic Center, 4736 Eagleridge Circle. The center will have an open house from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday to explain its services for pregnant women and babies.

For more information about Gerboth’s work, call her at 369-4368 or e-mail safepassagebirth@gmail.com .