NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Saturday, October 16, 2021
Dial B for baby delivery at old phone company
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
WALLOWA MOUNTAIN MIDWIFERY
Who: Eleanor (Nora) Hawkins
What: Midwifery
Where: 301 E. 1st St., Wallowa
Hours: Open Wednesdays or by appointment.
Phone: 541-263-1724
Email: info@wallowamountainmidwifery.com
Online: wallowamountainmidwifery.com
WALLOWA — Want to
call someone in Wallowa to
get a baby delivered? Try
dialing the old Home Inde-
pendent Telephone Co. build-
ing downtown.
Actually, the historic
building is where Elea-
nor “Nora” Hawkins has
moved her midwifery prac-
tice, Wallowa Mountain
Midwifery, from where she
both visits with expectant
mothers and reaches out to
them in their homes.
A midwife specializes in
child delivery, pre- and post-
natal care. After returning to
school to become a midwife
and then practicing briefly in
Central Oregon, she moved
home and opened her prac-
tice in 2017. She has seen
clients primarily in their
homes until now.
“Midwives practice a
model of care that focuses on
individualized patient care
and a thorough, informed
choice about every step of
pregnancy and birth,” she
said. “Rather than having a
baby at home, a birth center
or in the hospital, midwifery
care is the standard in much
of the world.”
Hawkins said the U.S. is
one of the only places where
physician care is the standard
for low-risk pregnancies.
masonry work done. She
elected to keep the word
“TELEPHONE” at the top
of two sides of the historic
building.
Since buying the building
Hawkins said she also put on
a new roof and has completed
a full remodel of the inside.
“It was in a state of disre-
pair,” she said.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Nora Hawkins sits on the bed in one of her two examination rooms Sept. 29, 2021, at her re-
cently opened Wallowa Mountain Midwifery in Wallowa.
and maternal well-being,”
she said. “It differs in that
midwives are just special-
ized in the childbearing year
of a woman, so I don’t do all
of the other things a doctor
does.”
That “childbearing year”
is the nine months of preg-
nancy and the first three
months of a child’s life.
Also, since a midwife
specializes in child delivery,
pre- and postnatal care, she
does not do or have training
in many of the other skills a
“But in Europe, in Austra-
lia, in Canada, you go to your
midwife,” she said. “Having
an OB (obstetrician) is some-
thing you’d do only if you
had a complication — a
risk factor — in much of the
world.”
She said midwifery care
very much parallels the care
an obstetrician would give.
“We do the same prenatal
visits, the same blood work,
lab work, the same ultra-
sounds, the same vitals and
statistics to monitor both fetal
Forecast for Pendleton Area
| Go to AccuWeather.com
TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
Pleasant with sun
and clouds
Clouds limiting sun
Partly sunny and
cooler
Milder with
abundant sunshine
Increasing
cloudiness
68° 42°
58° 37°
65° 48°
67° 49°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
73° 41°
71° 49°
63° 37°
69° 47°
66° 46°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
62/51
68/44
68/39
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
72/47
Lewiston
65/51
73/41
Astoria
64/50
Pullman
Yakima 67/37
65/50
74/44
Portland
Hermiston
67/51
The Dalles 73/41
Salem
Corvallis
68/46
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
67/48
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
70/47
79/45
74/46
Ontario
70/38
Caldwell
Burns
69°
43°
67°
39°
84° (1963) 20° (1969)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
68/46
Trace
0.04"
0.34"
2.71"
2.00"
6.01"
WINDS (in mph)
70/46
71/28
0.00"
0.06"
0.48"
5.06"
9.26"
9.69"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 68/46
68/49
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
75/44
71/45
68°
43°
65°
42°
84° (1991) 23° (1897)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
67/49
Aberdeen
66/41
63/43
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
65/51
Today
Medford
77/44
Sun.
SSW 3-6
W 4-8
Boardman
Pendleton
Historic preservation
Hawkins obtained a
matching grant from the
Oregon State Historic Preser-
vation Office, which admin-
isters the Diamonds in the
Rough grant through the
Oregon Parks and Recreation
Department. She said the
grant helped refurbish some
of the building’s exterior.
With the grant — and
her own funds — she was
able to get new awnings and
College Place eyes monthly
utility fee to shore up EMTs
By EMRY DINMAN
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
75° 44°
general practitioner does.
WSW 4-8
WNW 4-8
Open for business
Prior to opening about a
month ago, Hawkins set up
two examination rooms —
one with a double bed and
the other with a typical medi-
cal examination table — and
a couple of sitting rooms.
The front room has a small
table and toys to keep older
siblings occupied while mom
is getting examined.
Hawkins has her office
day on Wednesdays. Wind-
ing Waters Medical Clinic in
Wallowa has also started leas-
ing the building on Thursdays
for its clinic to have a space in
Wallowa as they prepare to
build its own place.
She hopes to have both
massage and acupuncture
available in the building
soon, as well.
Hawkins received train-
ing and national certification
as a certified professional
midwife, state licensure
as a licensed direct-entry
midwife and certification as
an internationally board-cer-
tified lactation consultant.
She said she believes she’s
the only licensed midwife in
Northeast Oregon. Although
she gets calls from all over
Eastern Oregon, she only
serves Wallowa and Union
counties, working closely
with Wallowa Memorial
Hospital and Grande Ronde
Hospital and their practi-
tioners.
She said she generally
charges $4,000 for the pack-
age of her services, which
includes prenatal care,
birth and postpartum care.
She said that is less than
a mother would pay for a
hospital delivery.
COLLEGE PLACE —
Facing increased call volumes
and overworked ambulance
staff, College Place is consid-
ering a monthly utility fee of
$8.52 per unit in order to hire
four more firefighter/emer-
gency medical technicians to
service city residents.
The city, which started a
basic life support ambulance
system at the end of 2018, has
one paid EMT on-duty every
day, 24/7, supplemented
largely by volunteers. This
system can fail when there
are multiple calls at once or
when staff are sick or on vaca-
tion, and it puts undue pres-
sure on staff and volunteers,
said Chief David Winter at a
city council meeting Tuesday,
Oct. 12.
“We’re at a crisis point
where we need some help
from you for funding authori-
zation to get some more staff-
ing so that we don’t burn out
our volunteers,” Winter told
council members.
The utility fee of $8.52
across 4,273 units would
pay for an additional EMT
to be on-duty 24/7, Winter
said, and would make the
city’s ambulance system
more reliable. With call
volumes increasing 20% in
the last year, and with each
call taking longer during
the pandemic, the backup is
greatly needed, he added.
The city’s ambulance
services is funded from
four sources, Winter said. It
receives part of a countywide
emergency medical services
property tax, and it receives
federal funding to subsidize
the transportation of Medic-
aid patients who can’t pay
their full bill, though it only
makes about half of the lost
revenue.
The ambulance service
also receives revenue by
charging a flat fee for trans-
porting patients, either $695
for county residents or $895
for patients who do not live in
the county. However, on aver-
age, Winter said, the ambu-
lance service only receives
about half of that after deal-
ing with insurance compa-
nies, averaging about $350 in
revenue per transport.
Whatever doesn’t get
covered by these three fund-
ing sources is covered by the
city’s discretionary fund.
Without a utility fee or other
new revenue source, cover-
ing the salaries and benefits
of another four EMTs would
cost the city’s general fund
more than $436,000 per year,
said city Finance Director
Brian Carleton during Tues-
day’s meeting.
The city has discussed the
utility fee several times in the
past, and Winter suggested he
would dance if it passed.
“You might get to see that
Adventist interpretive dance
at the next meeting,” he joked.
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
74/34
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
7:13 a.m.
6:07 p.m.
5:03 p.m.
2:42 a.m.
Full
Last
New
First
Oct 20
Oct 28
Nov 4
Nov 11
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 97° in McAllen, Texas Low 8° in Eagle, Colo.
IN BRIEF
Yakima man charged with
rape, threats to kill at
Walla Walla Sleep Center
WALLA WALLA — A man accused of
sexually assaulting a woman at the city of
Walla Walla’s Sleep Center last week is in
Walla Walla County Jail facing three felony
charges.
Will A. Stubblefield Jr., 46, was arrested
Oct. 6 and charged with first-degree rape and
first-degree burglary, both Class A felonies,
and with harassment, a Class C felony.
Stubblefield, whose permanent address is
listed by the courts in Yakima, is accused of
entering the woman’s hut at the Sleep Center,
1181 W. Reese Ave., at around 6 p.m. on Tues-
day, Oct. 5, raping her, stealing a $5 bill from
her and threatening to kill her.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Drivers should be ready for
lane closures near Meacham
MEACHAM — Motorists driving on
Interstate 84 between Spring Creek and
Meacham next week should be ready for lane
closures because of road restoration work by
the Oregon Department of Transportation.
The left lanes in the westbound and east-
bound portions of I-84 will be closed, starting
Monday, Oct.18, between milepoints 237.5 to
241.5. This span starts at Meacham and runs
4 miles east. The lanes will be closed to allow
for the installation of a concrete barrier in the
center median, for cable rail construction and
bridge work. Weather permitting, striping is
tentatively planned for late in the week, accord-
ing to an ODOT press release.
— EO Media Group and
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
CORRECTION
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showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
ice
50s
60s
cold front
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