When Special Beginnings opened its doors in 1997, David Paad was there. As a midwife, he delivered babies. As the only man in the center, he also helped move furniture, hang pictures and change light bulbs.

Today, he still changes the occasional light bulb. But his main focus is working with women and their families to bring miracles into the world.

“I’ve birthed close to 1,000 babies,” David said. “Miracles happen when babies are born.”

The center has changed a lot in the past nine years, but David’s love for birthing babies has remained constant.

He began his medical career in 1970 as a medical technician in the U.S. Air Force. After four years working at a USAF hospital in Ohio, he decided to pursue a nursing career. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in nursing from Northern Michigan University, David returned to the military by joining the U.S. Navy. He served as a labor and delivery nurse at the Naval Hospital Charleston in South Carolina for four years. David was the first male nurses to work in the unit.

David’s career as a labor and delivery nurse continued at a naval hospital in Orlando. At one point, he was the labor and delivery charge nurse. It was in Orlando that David first worked with a midwife.

David said he chose midwifery because it allows him to spend “more hands-on time” with the patient.

“It’s a more normal natural approach to working with women,” he said. “And I can stay involved with patient care.”

David said midwifery also allows the client to have more independence during the birthing process.

“Pregnancy is a health condition in life,” David said. “More often than not it’s not an emergency waiting to happen.

David switched from the navy to the U.S. Air Force in 1986, working for five years as a labor and delivery charge nurse in Texas. In 1991, he was accepted into Georgetown University, where he received a Master’s in Science degree with a specialty in midwifery. He was the first midwife to birth babies at the Naval Hospital in Bethesda.

He retired from the Air Force in 1997, but he stayed on as a part time instructor at Georgetown University until 2003.

When David started at Special Beginnings, about 50 percent of babies were born at the hospital and 50 percent at the center. Now, about 35 percent are born at the hospital and 65 percent at the center.

“Women are more knowledgeable about the birth center now than they were before,” he said.

David also sees more repeat business as the center’s reputation grows. Patients come into Special Beginnings for their second, third, even fourth child.

“They trusted us for their first baby, now they are back for their second or third… we must be doing something right.”