Carson Ragan, CNM, Director of Providence Midwifery Services
Carson was born in Georgia, spent most of her childhood growing up in Birmingham, Alabama. She started her family at a very young age, and after her second child was born emergently by c-section three months premature, she knew she wanted to be a L&D or nursery nurse, so she returned to Georgia to attend Columbus State University for her undergraduate nursing degree. After experiencing birth trauma in her 1st 2 births she knew she wanted a more hands-off approach and ended up having 2 unmedicated VBACs. While in nursing school she gave birth to her third child under the care of a certified nurse midwife (CNM). Immediately, she knew that was exactly she wanted to become: a certified nurse midwife.
She graduated as a Registered Nurse in 1999 and immediately began working in her favorite area of nursing, Labor & Delivery. Over the years as an L&D nurse, she felt honored to provide care to thousands of families during one of the most intimate and memorable events in their lives. Before starting graduate school to become a CNM, she also pursued an internship and worked a few years as a Neonatal ICU nurse. It was important to her to learn more about what happened to the preemie and sick babies when they left the delivery room and how could she best educate and support her future patients as a CNM. After she gained years of bedside experience as a L&D/NICU nurse, charge nurse, CPR instructor and Nurse educator/Clinician, she finally went back to graduate school to pursue her dream. She graduated from Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing in 2010 and began working as a Certified Nurse Midwife in our community.
Often as a provider, Carson would have patients scheduled back to back, sometimes double-booked, leaving very little time with each patient to assess, treat, educate, and bond. Patients would also become frustrated with long waiting room times while struggling to balance work, family, and frequent doctor’s office visits during their pregnancy.
Several years ago, as a busy working mom of five children, and while working as a CNM in a large OB/GYN practice, Carson recognized a need for change and a desire for women to have the OPTION of convenient, quality healthcare delivered to them in their home or office.
Carson was born into a family of entrepreneurs and forward thinkers. The time and personal experience of both being an expectant mother and working as a provider in OB/GYN services created the dream of CHANGE. Thus, a unique concierge model of care was conceived, and over many years of research and planning is being delivered to our community.
Most recently, she has been asked to serve at the Director of Midwifery Services to help further build and grow a specialized team of midwives to care for the many wonderful patients of Providence Women’s Healthcare.
In Carson’s time away from caring for her patients, she enjoys spending time with her amazing husband and five (mostly grown) children, traveling, scuba diving, and snow skiing J.
FUN FACT:
In her most recent ski trip in 2021 (the 3rd one in her life EVER), she fell not once but FOUR times on a blue slope and took her husband down in the process on one fall and they rolled down the mountain a few times! She just knew she would start an avalanche or something crazy :-0!!! These were not graceful, pretty falls, no way…. Absolutely…. Terrible AND Messy. What did she learn from that that applies to many aspects of her life???
- GET UP and TRY AGAIN!
- ACCEPT HELP from those around you! She would not have made it safely down
that CRAZY blue slope mountain without the help of her husband and family friend!! - KNOW YOU LIMITS ! She will now stick to the GREEN/blueish slopes for the next trip. Honestly, if the whole event had been recorded on America’s Funniest Home Videos she believes it would have won hands down!!
