Greetings, I am Ruth Schlegel, CNM the older midwife working part time at Birth Care’s Northern office.  A mother cat from my childhood plus an unpleasant first birth experience led me to educate myself on the birth process and eventually to midwifery.  The births of my other daughters were much better experiences culminating in a home birth with my youngest daughter with Penny Armstrong, CNM as my midwife. Since then I have been privileged to witness the miracle of birth of more than 2,000 babies.

I have worked with home birth in Lancaster County for 25 years.  I started as an ICEA certified childbirth educator teaching alternative childbirth classes. As my interest in the natural birth process grew, I worked in the offices and was birth assistant to several home-birth CNMs through the years.  When my youngest daughter went to first grade I started my RN clinical training.  After obtaining my RN, I worked at Hershey Medical Center as I continued my education working toward my CNM.  And, finally as a certified nurse-midwife I ran a home-birth practice for eleven years.  I retired from my practice March 31, 2008 and started working for Birth Care in June, 2008.    

Happy Birthing,