Beaufort Memorial Hospital has added the first midwife to its OB-GYN team, offering expectant mothers more birthing options. Janna Jones Kersh, a certified nurse midwife, has joined Beaufort Memorial Obstetrics &amp; Gynecology Specialists and will be delivering babies alongside board-certified OB-GYNs Drs. Christopher Benson, Gregory Miller, Berniece Redmond and Claude Tolbert.

[caption id="attachment_23452" align="alignright" width="200"]<a href="http://www.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/COMMUNITY-Janna-Jones-Kersh_Non-Labcoat.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-23452" src="http://www.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/COMMUNITY-Janna-Jones-Kersh_Non-Labcoat-200x300.jpg" alt="Janna Jones Kersh" width="200" height="300" /></a> Janna Jones Kersh[/caption]

“Having a midwife on staff will enhance our practice on several levels,” said Tolbert, who is serving as Jones Kersh’s supervising physician. “We will be able to offer midwifery care to those patients who prefer it, and with her handling routine pregnancies, we can focus on our high-risk patients.”

As a nurse midwife, Jones Kersh specializes in providing a safe, individualized childbirth experience for women with low-risk pregnancies. She is trained to take a more holistic approach to the birthing process, intervening only when necessary. Educated in the two disciplines of nursing and midwifery, she also will see patients needing gynecological and primary care services, including contraceptive counseling, family planning, preconception care, gynecological exams, menopausal management and counseling in health maintenance and disease prevention.

“It’s a myth that we just care for pregnant women,” Jones Kersh said. “We focus on pregnancy and birth, but we also are trained to treat all the usual gynecological issues.”

Jones Kersh received her B.S. in Family and Consumer Sciences from the University of Georgia in 2012. She went on to earn her Master of Science degree in Nursing with a major in Nurse-Midwifery this past December at Vanderbilt University.

Her clinical experience as a graduate student included primary care in rural health facilities, labor and delivery at Vanderbilt University Hospital and the full scope of midwifery care at a Maine OB/GYN clinic. She also was among the first students to participate in a new volunteer doula program at Vanderbilt.

Beaufort Memorial Obstetrics &amp; Gynecology Specialists are equipped with the latest screening and diagnostic services, including 3-D and 4-D ultrasound.