Kassidy Grames has always felt like she’s had a great team around her to love and provide expert care for their sweet patients at All About Babies in Argyle. But when you’re responsible for roughly 100 midwife-guided pregnancies and births a year, you will need a bigger team — one that is compassionate, loyal, skilled, and shares a like-minded approach to helping families grow.
Thankfully, that’s never been a problem, either. As the needs of her patient families and practice have grown, so has her team.
Today, that team consists of midwife Kyndal Laird, student midwife Mabry Smith, registered nurse Diana Borders, birth assistants Megan Sharp and Sarah Thompson, and childbirth educator Brooke White.
That’s seven women committed to one cause — delivering healthy babies.
“We’re all very much the same, which I think our patients find comfort in because they can count on seeing the same smiling faces throughout their care and developing a trusting relationship with every one of us. But we each also add a little something different, and that’s what makes us unique,” Grames said. “It was me and two others when I started. We’ve slowly grown and become a steady team over the past few years. The biggest thing for us is that we all love the Lord and share a desire to serve our patients.”
All About Babies is a certified professional midwife-led birthing center and has served Argyle since 2010. What is midwifery? It is a respected alternative to an OB-GYN that has been around for hundreds of years and offers many benefits for women with low-risk pregnancies who desire a more personal birthing process. Instead of working out of a hospital, a midwife is trained to provide similar care to an OB-GYN at the birthing centers or the patient’s home. More importantly, it is a profession that deals with low-risk pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, in addition to the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives.
Through its midwife-guided process, All About Babies delivered 80 babies in 2022 alone.
The year before that, there were 100 births, and the same was true in 2023.
Grames, a Licensed Midwife (LM) and Certified Professional Midwife (CPM), joined the team as an apprentice in 2015 while in the middle of a midwifery training program through the Association of Texas Midwives. She earned her license in 2018 (when she was just 22 years old) and, along with her parents, Kenny and Anita, bought the practice two years later when the previous owners retired.
In the years that followed, she steadily expanded her practice and team to meet the demands of a growing community.
Laird is a Licensed Midwife, a Certified Professional Midwife, and a Certified Lactation Counselor. What that means is that she and Grames can offer personalized prenatal care at regular intervals throughout the pregnancy, including blood work, labs, ultrasounds, and delivery at their peaceful birthing center — which has several suites decorated to look and feel like a home rather than a hospital. Laird joined All About Babies in 2021 after spending nearly three years as a student at a high-volume charity birth center in the Philippines and has since created quite the dynamic duo with Grames. Thanks to a unique rotation schedule, patients work with both of them throughout their care, and their shared goal is to empower moms to be active participants in their care.
“We do get to work with the best families, and we’ve managed to become friends with them in so many ways,” Laird said. She and her husband, Logan, welcomed their first baby, Ada, last year and also relied on All About Babies during that process. “The team here prides itself on being more than just care providers. We are a family.”
It won’t be long before All About Babies has three certified midwives. Student midwife Mabry Smith has wanted to be a midwife since she was in middle school and is currently in the licensing stage of that journey. Much like Grames, her favorite show growing up was “A Baby Story.” She rarely missed an episode and saw herself in those same shoes one day — whether as the doting mother to a handful of her own children or the confident birthing professional who helps families bring their babies into this world safely.
After years as a full-time nanny, Smith started midwifery school in 2020 and her apprenticeship the following year. She has recently become a Placenta Encapsulator and considers it an honor to play a role in each patient’s story.
“Coming here was a God thing. I was looking for another placement after being at another practice for nine months, and Kassidy took me on,” Smith said. “We are intertwined in many ways, and we trust each other. The care we provide is similar, but we also have our special interests. Kyndal is a breastfeeding consultant, Kassidy loves researching and discussing supplements, and I enjoy car seat safety.”
Borders, a nurse for 44 years with experience in neonatal intensive care and labor and delivery, rounds out the primary care team at All About Babies. Since moving to Denton, she has discovered the world of natural childbirth and has become fixated on applying her skills and knowledge to help the midwifery profession provide the best care to women and their babies.
Borders teaches Birth Workers NRP (Neonatal Resuscitation Program) and BLS (CPR) with an emphasis on out-of-hospital births. She loves her job because she feels valued and sees each birth as a unique and beautiful experience.
“I like to tell people that when I came here, I died and went to nursing heaven,” Borders said with a laugh. “The environment here is so calm, relaxed, loving, and beautiful — we just want to love on our patients and make sure we address all their fears and concerns. We want their birth to be exactly what they hoped it would be. This is fulfilling work, and I have a great team around me.”
Birthing assistants Megan Sharp and Sarah Thompson are just as integral to the All About Babies team, as is childbirth educator Brooke White. All three round out the patient experience by assisting the midwives with whatever they need to ensure successful delivery and equipping patients with the proper education and guidance as they move forward in their parental journey.
Once the baby is born, All About Babies’ care continues through six weeks postpartum. They’ve also developed close relationships with other medical professionals to create a holistic approach to care. This includes OB-GYNs, pediatricians, counselors, women’s wellness, massage therapy, birth photography, and more.
Sharp has been doing birth work since 2017, while Thompson, who also plans to be a midwife someday, joined the team a little over a year ago. White became a Lamaze Certified Childbirth educator in 2014 and has since taught childbirth education to over 500 couples.
“Working here has been a huge blessing for me, and I truly feel as if God has been opening every door along the way,” Thompson said.
Grames agreed, adding that having a team like this is 100% God’s doing.
“We cover every possible base for our patients throughout their journey,” she said. “It’s great having this team around me. But more importantly, it’s great to know our patient families get to experience this team setting, too. When our repeat patients return, they feel incredibly comfortable because they know what to expect. It took a lot of work to get here, and we couldn’t be happier.”
Please visit allaboutbabies.net to learn more about this fantastic team of medical professionals and to schedule a tour.
(Sponsored content)
