SPECIAL BEGINNINGS

Birthing Center

Special Beginnings OB/GYN Practitioner

The primary caregiver at Special Beginnings - for all OB/GYN services - is Betty Winford, RN, CNM. Over the past 20-plus years, Betty has played important roles in the deliveries and early lives of thousands of babies. In addition to her many years as a labor and delivery nurse, she has worked as lactation consultant and childbirth educator and spent countless hours in neonatal intensive care units. After extensive work in these positions, Betty realized that nurse-midwifery was the only profession in which she could attend to the needs of women across the entire spectrum of women’s health. To pursue this goal, she relocated from Florida to attend Dallas’ Parkland School of Nurse Midwifery (now part of UT Southwestern Medical Center). The training at Parkland prepared Betty to deliver babies in hospital, birthing center and home settings.

Upon graduating from Parkland in August of 2003, Betty pursued several part-time positions that continued to hone her OB/GYN skills. She worked as a nurse-midwife in a Dallas birthing center where, in addition to delivering babies, she saw women for a variety of healthcare issues. For a time, Betty also continued her work at Parkland, but now in Intermediate Critical Care (women’s emergency medicine). Betty spent the largest part of her time there in triage. She also continued to gain experience in obstetrics while working in a Dallas-area High Risk OB unit.

As seen, Betty brings to the Birthing center a high level of technical expertise coupled with a wealth of practical experience. This combination places her in a position to provide extraordinary care for Special Beginnings' women. “From a very young age," says Betty, "I knew in my heart that I was called to be a midwife. I honestly feel that midwifery is a calling – just as any other ministry. There is nothing more gratifying than being part of the miracle of birth and holding that precious gift from God in my hands.”