Improving the health of the community one baby at a time
With over 25 years as a certified nurse midwife at Aurora Health Care, Kate Harrod is a beloved fixture in her home community of Burlington and Lakeland. Designated as the first baby-friendly hospital in Wisconsin, Aurora Lakeland Medical Center became Harrod’s clinic home after starting her practice in urban Milwaukee in the 1990s. She maintains a busy practice providing individualized women and family-centered care.
As a nurse midwife Harrod works independently, but also collaborates with a physician to bring the care team together. Certified nurse midwives are important members of a women’s health care team. They work both in the clinic and hospital setting, assisting low-risk patients with pre-natal, delivery, post-natal and clinic gynecologic care. When a patient’s status changes and risk increases, midwives collaborate with their physician colleagues to seamlessly transfer care to their services.
“With building trust in the community, through collaborative work, we were able to reduce home births and improve the health of the community – doing outreach and focusing on what matters most to patients and families,” Harrod shares.
Harrod always knew she would be a nurse from a young age. When she learned in high school that there were nurses called nurse midwives that delivered babies, she knew she was called to do that. To date, Harrod has delivered about 6,000 babies. She now delivers the babies of the babies she once delivered, something she is not only proud of but humbled by.
Harrod completed her PhD and nurse midwife training at Rush University. Harrod is also a guest lecturer at Marquette University and regularly precepts nurse midwife students and family medicine residents. She was just chosen by the American College of Nurse Midwives for a Preceptor of the Year Award and is working on a Certificate of Holistic Health.
Harrod embodies a reputation in her community that anyone would be proud of. “Nurse midwives are who we are first. The best things about my practice are my clients, my relationship with the nursing staff and how people see me in the community. I feel relevant, needed. Every time a baby comes into my hands it is a miracle, especially if you know the family,” she reflects.
