Meet Traci Santangelo! Traci is a Midwife at BirthPointe, which is a nurse midwifery practice that serves women in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Texas Woman’s University and started her career working in a local Labor & Delivery Unit. She is a certified Nurse Midwife and her practice performs primarily out-of-hospital births. She also cares for women at her clinic. She is considered a primary care provider, whose services include well woman care, breast screening, pap smears, hormone replacement therapy and general health wellness. She meets with patients for prenatal appointments at her clinic, with the births taking place primarily in the patients’ homes. Occasionally, she’ll do birth centers as well but most of her patients prefer the intimate experience of a home birth. Appointments can be made by calling 972-215-6934.
Traci has been happily married for 18 years and has two children she is very proud of. Traci has a very interesting job and a genuine passion for her patients!
Q: What inspired you or led you to your current career?
I’ve known that I wanted to be a midwife since I was 9 years old. My stepfather was a physician and he asked me if I wanted to be a doctor. I remember telling him “no”, it’s nurses who do the work, so I just kind of stayed with that path. It’s important to me that the women in my practice feel cared for and listened to, rather than like another number. I enjoy the connection that midwives have with their clients. My patients are people that I care genuinely and deeply about. My prenatal appointments are about an hour long. I feel like women have a lot on their minds and sometimes it takes talking “to your girlfriend” for a while, for that relationship to develop. During a prenatal appointment, we’ll go over everything. I get to know my clients very well and the great part about that is I can look at them, for example, and say, “this is what I need you to do right now” when they are in labor, and they’ll do it. They have complete trust in me. and I have full trust that they are going to listen to me because we have built a relationship. You must have that trust, especially if you are giving birth outside of the hospital.
My job is to constantly evaluate risk and mitigate that risk. Monitoring the risk level is constant during the birth process and if it rises too far then we go to the hospital but most often we have a very intimate and natural birth, right in their home!
Q: What is the most unusual job you’ve ever had besides this?
A: I scooped ice cream when I was 15. Oh, and I used to work in a health department where I did teen clinic, which was where we treated young teens looking for birth control.
Q: Do you have a hobby or interest that you enjoy?
A: My family says I’m a cereal hobbyist. I like to quilt, make soap and bake. You name it and I like to do it. I find an interest and then tend to collect everything I need to make that happen.
Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Flower Mount and what do you love to eat or drink there.
A: Thai Ruby is by far my favorite and the Pad Kee Mao is my favorite there. They kind of know me there!
Q: How long have you lived or worked in Flower Mount?
A: 2 years.
Q: Was there anything unusual challenging or interesting you want to share that shaped you into who you are today?
A: What shaped me deep within my core, is that my Dad is a Vietnam Veteran. He had PTSD and the “good” thing about that is that I learned to read people quickly because I never knew exactly where he was with his mood. The unfortunate side of that was, that as a child, I never really knew where we would be with his mood. I have a large respect for Veterans because of that and I sympathize with the children of Veterans and Veterans who live with this unfortunate diagnosis that is beyond their control.
Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in Flower Mount?
A: That would be the owner of Epic Gelato. I don’t really know a lot about him, but I would like to know more. He used to work for Microsoft and traveled the world while employed with them. He did a lot of work in Italy, where he became enamored with making gelato! He also knows everything there is to know about coffee beans. That speaks passion to me. He is someone that I would like to hang out with and know more about.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be? And why?
A: Bora Bora because of those cute little bungalows on the water. I need to do that!
Q: What is the favorite vacation that you have ever taken?
A: Every 4th of July, we choose a state and we go to a small town in the USA to experience July 4th. This year we are planning a trip to Yellow Stone. Our favorite state has been South Dakota. You would think there is nothing there, but there are many amazing things to do. I would love to return.
Q: What is your favorite movie OR what is the first movie you remember seeing in theater?
A: My favorite movie is Steel Magnolias because it’s the first movie I ever watched that made me laugh and cry at the same time.
Q: What advice would you give a crowd of people?
A: Wash their hands with soap and water especially with the illnesses that are going around. (We interviewed Traci before the Coronavirus hit; this was her original answer!)
Q: What is something on your bucket list?
A: This is going to sound a little crazy, but I really want to scuba dive in one of those shark tanks and I want somebody to chum the water so that the great white’s will come over and chew on my cage. (Traci has a fun and adventurous spirit- and evidently is a bit of a thrill seeker!)
Q: What is your favorite music/ 3 bands you would like to see (dead or alive)?
A: I don’t really have a favorite band, I like music based on my mood. Everything from old country, spa music to pop. I don’t like heavy metal.
Q: Where do you love to shop in Flower Mound?
A: The Painted Tree for sure and Target.
Q: Choosing anyone alive and a non-relative: with whom would you love to have lunch? Why? Where in Flower Mound would you have lunch?
A: It would be a woman entrepreneur in a service industry. I enjoy meeting women who own a business. I like to talk to women who have broken boundaries and overcome obstacles in a creative way. We would eat at Thai Ruby.
Q: Are you involved in anything in Flower Mound that you really enjoy outside of work and family life?
A: I am involved in a business book club for women. It’s a weekly dose of business/relationship building/gossip/you name it and I do love that!
Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?
A: I see myself still living in Flower Mound, owning a birth center probably in old town Lewisville, which is where I would like my clinic to be located eventually. There a lot that I like about “old town” Lewisville.
Q: What 3 words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?
A: Soft place to fall, love and acceptance.
Q: If you could have a super power what would that be?
A: I would like to be a Psychic. I would want to find people who have been kidnapped or are dead and help their family know where they are. I could not think of a more painful experience than having a family member kidnapped or missing, and not knowing where they are.
Q: If you were cast into a major motion picture and had your choice of anyone to be your co-star, who would you choose?
A: Brad Pitt because he’s cute!
Q: If you had a full-time staff member that was fully paid for, who would you choose; Chef, Housekeeper, Driver, Coach, Physical Fitness Trainer, or Nanny?
A: A coach because I feel like I need somebody to tell me “It’s ok Traci just keep going” and other days I think I need somebody to tell me, “put that social media down because you have got something to do here”. I think I’d be inclined to do more if I had somebody directing and encouraging me.
Q: What’s the favorite book you have read during this past year?
A: I would say Traction. The one that I tore through before that was Before We Were Yours.
