Midwife Joins Johnston Health

November 3, 2011

Johnston OB-GYN Associates has added a nurse midwife to its staff.

 

Anne Tilghman grew up in California but has lived and worked in the Carolinas for the past 20 years. Before moving to Smithfield, she was a nurse midwife for five years at the Carolinas Medical Center at Myers Parker in Charlotte. Her experience also includes working in private and hospital-based practices in Monroe as well as Rock Hill and Charleston, S.C. since 1999.

 

“I’m excited about being here,” she said. “I love birth, and I love taking care of women.”

As a nurse midwife, Tilghman can do annual exams, prescribe and manage contraception, and test for sexually transmitted diseases. She can also do normal OB/GYN care, vaginal deliveries and assist with C-sections.

 

“If a patient has complications, I can collaborate with one of my physicians,” she adds.

Tilghman says she puts an emphasis on listening to patients. “I like to reassure, educate and empower women as best I can. They should have some control over what’s going on and not just do what the provider wants.”

 

Tilghman says as a teenager she fell in love with the birthing process after seeing a giraffe give birth at the San Diego Zoo. “I was completely in awe,” she says.

 

After graduating from high school, she tried several types of jobs. With a coworker’s encouragement, she moved in with a grandmother in West Virginia and enrolled in the nursing program at Bluefield State College. After earning her associate degree, she moved to South Carolina and worked as a labor and delivery nurse for seven years.

Tilghman says having a child influenced her decision to become a midwife. After having worked with high risk patients, she wanted a different, more natural birthing experience. So she chose a nurse midwife as her medical provider.

 

“In retrospect, I was a difficult patient,” she says. “I was a busy body. But my nurse midwife never made me feel that way. She wanted me to remember my experience as positive, and I did.”

 

Tilghman enrolled in the nurse midwifery program at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston and earned her master’s degree in nursing. She says she chose the private practice in Smithfield because she likes seeing patients in the office and delivering babies in the hospital. She also enjoys teaching.

 

“I encourage patients to exercise and eat well,” she adds. “It’s healthy for the baby and makes the labor and delivery easier. It also makes it easier to lose weight after pregnancy.”