Clinic offers more than midwifery

Certified nurse midwife Honey Newton is the type of person who greets people with a hug instead of a handshake. Her face, sprinkled with freckles, emanates a peaceful joy.

Newton, 42, runs Hearts and Hands Midwifery and Women’s Health with office manager and doula Krystle Oftedahl.

During an interview at her office on 65 Commons Way in Kalispell on Dec. 15, Newton swung back her long hair, knotted in a braid, off her shoulder with a hand that has helped deliver countless babies to women of all socioeconomic statuses around the Flathead Valley and Browning.

The mission of Hearts and Hands is to treat anyone, regardless of ability to pay.

“If you can’t pay I don’t care I want you to come through these doors and give you help,” Newton said. “When I went into this — having grown up very poor myself — I thought, you know, often money is a barrier to care. It’s a barrier to access to care. It’s a barrier to continuity to care, and I made a personal pledge to myself when I entered the field of medicine to never let that be part of the practice if I had control over things.”

It was the birth of a friend’s baby 14 years ago when Newton found her calling.

“I was attending a friend’s birth as labor support and her midwife didn’t get there in time and so I caught her baby. It felt like breathing it felt so natural,” Newton said. “I didn’t know this was inside me. It awoke something I guess I was always meant to do.”

She went on to become a labor and delivery nurse in a hospital and eventually enrolled in graduate school to become a midwife.

Babies are “slightly addicting” said the mother of 13 children, both biological and adopted.

“They are the best teachers. The best source of reminding us how to unconditionally love,” she said.

“And for many women they are what it takes to recreate their lives. That whole process of pregnancy and learning how to be selfless, and letting go, and sacrifice, all these components that you have to have to bear life create this opportunity for change that you will never see in any other situation,” she said.

Some of the women Newton cares for lead very difficult lives. Some of her patients live in poverty, are homeless, are dealing with drug addictions, or mental health issues — a segment of the population where prenatal care is critical to health of baby and mother.

“The research shows if a momma has prenatal care she is going to have a healthier birth and a healthier baby,” Newton said.

“If we can’t get them into care because they’re afraid to come or don’t have transportation, they don’t have money, whatever the barrier is, or simple fear that they’ll be judged because their clothes are dirty and they smell bad, then we’re not creating the change that we want,” she said.

The need for change is clear to Newton.

“Nationally, our maternal morbidity and mortality is abysmal. We’re behind all of the developed world and some of the third world in some of our maternal and neonatal outcomes,” she said.

When given the resources, care, love and compassion a pregnancy can be transformative, Newton said.

“You have women leading lives of drugs, poverty and abuse and starting over, and getting sober, and going to college and holding a job down. Instead of taking from their community they infuse their community back with all of the gifts that they have,” Newton said.

And while Newton said she realizes that not everyone is ready for or open to change, that doesn’t alter the fact in her mind that proper prenatal care should be available to every pregnant woman.

“I don’t want hurts, habits or hangups to ever be a barrier to someone getting help if they want it. You can’t force people of course, but if they’re ready then it should be available,” Newton said.

When she started caring for women in Browning, Newton said she was astonished at the lack of resources.

“I’ve seen stuff that should only exist in a third-world country there. Just incredible poverty. I watched a mom wrap her babe in newspaper the first week I was there to take it home. I came home so shaken from that,” Newton said. “They need help. They need nurses, they need doctors. Now I’m trying to get other people to go up there.”

Heart and Hands reaches out to women in desperate situations by word of mouth.

“When you see those moms reaching out to other mommas it’s so powerful and exciting,” Newton said.

Newton and Oftedahl will meet pregnant women anywhere, whether it’s under a bridge or in a tent. If a mother needs transportation, Oftedahl is there to provide a ride.

When Newton started reaching out to pregnant women in these situations she had no idea the extent of the need.

“If they’re [the community] like me they’ll think how could that be — a pregnant woman on streets,” Newton said. “But they exist.”

Oftedahl added, “It’s also like — how can we have moms who are addicted, how can we have so many teen pregnancies? It’s a lot of stuff you don’t want to believe exists. You want to believe it exists in Browning or in a big city, but we see it all the time. We don’t judge.”

“Just come,” Newton said.

Sometimes people like Newton who are giving of their time and expertise are often the ones that also need help. Oftedahl, 31, who had two babies delivered by Newton, stepped in to assist Newton as the practice grew.

“Honey and I are both very strong, independent women and have a hard time accepting help for ourselves even though we give help to everyone else,” Oftedahl said. “I could tell Honey needed help, so I would bring my baby with me and I would help her — clean her house for her, watch her kids for her when she worked, and helped her at the clinic more and more.

When Newton started Heart and Hands she had a few patients, now the schedule is packed from open to close.

Outside the office, Oftedahl maintains a trailer stocked with a variety of donated baby and maternity items, often from Newton’s own patients who also see the need.

“We have moms who have delivered and said, ‘hey I don’t need this crib anymore, or my child’s outgrown this pack and play and they donate it,” Newton said.

“It’s mommas helping mommas,” Oftedahl said.

Recently, Newton and Oftedahl went to open the clinic and found stacks of individually wrapped blankets and bins of knitted hats at the door donated by community members.

Items that are always in need are car seats and diapers of any size.

“Sometimes a mom will have a baby but also have a 2-year-old and will have to decide who gets diapers,” Oftedahl said.

Newton added that nursing bras and nursing pads, which may be considered a luxury, are essential in encouraging mothers to breastfeed and are also a need along with maternity clothes.

“So often moms won’t nurse simply because they don’t have nursing bras or pads and they’re embarrassed and they can’t go back to work because they’re leaking through their shirt,” Newton said.

Heart and Hands also has a “mothers in need fund” set aside for donations to benefit women in high-need situations.

Newton emphasized that she is just one part of a larger network of agencies assisting pregnant women in need in the Flathead, such as Hope Pregnancy Resource Center and Clear Choice Clinic.

“I definitely don’t want this to be just about us at all because we’re only one piece of this network that’s reaching out to these women. We are point people. I feel we are the bridge builders — connecting needs to resources,” Newton said.

“Our community is amazing. We have so many people in this community that want to help. Want to make a difference and simply don’t know how or where to go. For a long time I think I felt like that and these doors opened, so I could start to reach out to these pregnant mommas and babies.”

For more information call Oftedahl at 406-871-5711, or email honeywnewton@gmail.com.

Reporter Hilary Matheson can be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.