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Holy Family's Mission
The mission of the service is to provide maternal and infant care within the context of the
family. Services shall be rendered in a God-centered atmosphere of compassion. Every
individual, as God's creation, has the right to safe, satisfying health care with respect for
human dignity and cultural variations. The individual has the right to self-determination, to
adequate information, and to achieve participation in all aspects of care.
About Us
If you're traveling down highway 88 through Texas's largely agricultural Rio Grande Valley,
you'll see an outcropping of cheerfully painted, bright yellow buildings situated on a flat piece
of land that once served as a cucumber field. This is Holy Family Birth Center, located 11
miles north of the Mexican border in the town of Weslaco. Holy Family was founded in
September 1983 by Sister Angela Murdaugh, along with Sisters Mary Thompson, Damien
Francois, and Ann Wojtowicz. What started here as a small clinic is now a model birth center,
the oldest one in Texas, and comprises a range of facilities: six birthing suites, a clinic, a
classroom, a chapel, medical storage rooms, and housing for the many resident staff,
volunteers, students, and visitors.
Since its inception, Holy Family has been staffed exclusively by certified nurse-midwives and
registered nurses. It has become an important clinical learning site for many student nurses and
midwives. Holy Family offers students a chance to experience midwifery at its best -- in a
family-centered, culturally sensitive, holistic environment that provides thorough,
individualized care and teaching to its patients. Holy Family offers three and six month clinical
fellowships to recently graduated nurse-midwives and accepts volunteer R.N.'s for service
periods of one year.
Our History
In the early 1980's, Sister Angela Murdaugh was a Certified Nurse-Midwife at Su Clinica
Familiar, a community clinic supported by federal grants in the Rio Grande Valley. When she
discovered that more than 1,000 pregnant women in Hidalgo county still lacked prenatal care,
she decided it was time to open her own clinic. The initial grant for Holy Family was given by
the Meadows Foundation, under the umbrella of Catholic Charities in the diocese of
Brownsville. Seven years later, Holy Family became separately incorporated as a non-profit
organization in its own right. Sister Angela is on sabbatical from Holy Family Services until
January 2008.
The past 20 years has been a time of rapid population growth and development for the Rio
Grande Valley. Many families still lack access to health care. Many of Holy Family's clients
are undocumented or do not have health insurance or Medicaid and cannot afford care. Holy
Family also serves patients who simply choose Holy Family over other providers: we
received the highest client satisfaction rating in a benchmark study completed with 33 other
birth centers nationwide in 1999. Through the volunteer efforts and generous donations of its
supporters, Holy Family has grown and the services it offers have widened. Besides
maternity care, Holy Family offers social services, a food pantry, clothes and baby supplies,
well-baby care, a variety of classes and volunteer opportunities (patients as well as staff).
Sr. Angela Murdaugh, who founded the birth center in 1972, was inducted into the Texas
Women's Hall of Fame in 2002. She was selected in recognition of her leadership to remove
barriers to midwifery practice, her efforts to create regulations for birth centers in Texas, and
her innovative service to the impoverished families in the border region.
| Where Birth is a Blessed Event |
| Founder, Sister Angela Murdaugh, CNM |
| Entrance to Holy Family Services Birth Center- 5819 North FM 88, Weslaco, Texas |
| Outside in the Holy Family garden |
For more information, please contact: Holy Family Birth Center 5819 North FM 88 Weslaco, Texas 78596 Tel: 956.969.2538 Fax: 956.969.5884 Toll free- 1-800-506-2237 |
| Holy Family nurse admiring a new healthy baby after a lovely birth |
| A well baby visit |
To Donate and/or volunteer for Holy Family Birth Center please go to our Contact/Donations page |