Supporting Healthy Families in Cowley County

Sunflower Birth & Family Wellness (SBFW)  is a freestanding birth center in Winfield, Cowley County, KS. Two Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM)s, Tarena Sisk, MSN, CNM, APRN and Jamie Harrington, DNP, APRN, CNM, FNP-BC have been providing care with Sunflower OB/GYN to women needing healthcare in the Winfield area. Both Tarena and Jamie work closey with Sunflower OB/GYN physicians and have privileges at William Newton Hospital for labor and birth care. Both CNMs provide gynecological, well women, menopause, prenatal and postpartum care to women throughout the lifespan. Tarena and Jamie will expand their services to SBFW where all women can be seen in a comfortable enviroment for GYN and prenatal healthcare. Working in partnership with Sunflower OB/GYN, women who are low risk and pregnant will have the option to deliver at the birth center or hospital with one of the CNMs. Women with high risk pregnancies will be managed in collaboration with Sunflower OB/GYNs, but most can still deliver with midwives at William Newton Hospital. We will evaluate each woman's individual circumstances.

It is our hope that SBFW will be a place of community and support for women and their families. We will provide group classes that focus on women's healthcare, pregnancy, breastfeeding, parenting, and mental health care. We have already built a strong partnership with many Cowley County organizations to foster a foundation of solid resources for women and their families. Some of our future goals include the addition of a private space to provide care to women who are victims of sexual assault, a doula program to provide increased support for laboring women, providing mental health care on site, and adding CenteringHealthcare group prenatal visits to our program.

Your generous gift helps us to get SBFW off the ground and start providing much needed care to women in our community. This could not happen without your support. Thank you so much for helping give the families in our community a strong start.

Jamie and Tarena 

May 2020-July 2020-Purchase emergency equipment, autoclave, newborn hearing machine, and educational materials

July 2020-Hire lactation consultant and educational instructor(s) to conduct breastfeeding support and group classes

September 7th, 2020 Anticipate formal opening of Sunflower Birth & Family Wellness

September 2020-September 2021-Utilize salary funds for lactation consultation and educational instructor during this period.

Maternal mortality in the United States is increasing instead of decreasing like it is in other developed countries. One reason for this is limited access to healthcare. SBFW is located in a rural area where there is limited access to women's healthcare and maternity services. Within the last few years several of the surrounding communites are no longer providing speciailized women's health or maternity care. This requires women to drive sometimes over an hour to receive needed healthcare. This is unacceptable. We want women to be able to access reliable, safe healthcare. The addition of SBFW will increase midwifery and freestanding birth center care which have been shown to decrease costs and improve outcomes for women and their families. In the past 7 years, Tarena has delivered over 1,000 babies in the Winfield community, reduced the hospital primary c-section rate to less than 15%, reduced vaginal lacerations during birth and decreased induction of labor rates just by providing midwifery care to women. The addition of a freestanding birth center in Winfield will further improve outcomes by improving postpartum support, providing group support sessions on wellness, and increasing resources available to women and their families. It is our hope that SBFW will improve the Winfield economy by bringing more families to the area seeking midwifery and birth center care. Women that in return stay in the community, work and play in the community, and raise their families here.