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Midwife helps deliver her own great-granddaughter

She's been helping moms deliver babies for three decades. This week, a midwife in Colorado had a very special mom and baby come through her delivery room.

LITTLETON, Colo. — Diana Buckwalter can only guess the number of babies she has delivered in the past 30 years.

“I think it’s in the thousands,” she said. “I think it's a lot!”

As a nurse practitioner and certified nurse midwife, there have been many memorable moments throughout her career.

“I think the reason I love this so much is because babies bring so much happiness to families, she said. “They also bring healing to the families.”

This week, a very special mom and baby came through the delivery room. Buckwalter’s own granddaughter, Caroline Price, gave birth to her first child on Tuesday at a hospital in Littleton. Buckwalter got to help deliver her great-granddaughter, Raya Price.

“When I got pregnant, I was like, ‘You’re going to take care of me!,’” Price said.

“And I said, ‘Of course I am!’” laughed Buckwalter. “I was so, so lucky to be able to be involved with this birth and to actually deliver my first great-grandchild. We thought that was a beautiful moment in time,” she said.

Caroline’s mom, Mary Price, was also in the delivery room – along with several aunts and sisters.

Credit: Mary Price
Diana Buckwalter holds her great-granddaughter, Raya. Buckwalter's grand-daughter, Caroline Price, delivered the baby girl Tuesday with Buckwalter as her midwife.

“The empowerment you get from the women that love you, that have done it before, that have the compassion – it's so empowering!” she said, turning to Caroline. “Did you feel empowered by all those people?”

“I had, like, a circle of women around me while I was giving birth!” Caroline said.

“And was it helpful?” Mary asked?

“It was!” she answered. “I felt like it would be overwhelming but it…it worked.”

“It was a little bit difficult keeping the tears from my eyes because it was such a sweet and special moment,” Buckwalter remembered. “And as I caught this sweet little baby, I was like – this is such a sweet, wonderful moment in time and I am so lucky and I’m so blessed and I have such a great family.”

Family is very important to Buckwalter. She has seven children of her own, plus 30 grandchildren and now one great-grandchild. She has been involved in a small number of other family births, too.

For years, Caroline Price has watched her grandmother work. Diana's passion for helping moms and babies has inspired Price to consider a career in nursing, too.

“I always wanted to be her. I always wanted to do what she does – so that’s my goal,” Price said. “I think birth is really cool. It’s beautiful.”

Baby Raya Price was born on her due date: Oct. 4, 2022 just after 3:00 p.m. She weighed 6lb, 12oz and measured 19 ¾ inches long.

Out of those thousands of babies Diana Buckwalter has delivered, this one will remain one of the most special.

“First of all to be a great-grandmother, not very many people get to be a great-grandmother – because they’re usually already dead!” she joked.

“But I get to be a great-grandmother and deliver a great-grandchild, so I feel very blessed, it was wonderful.”

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