HILDALE, UTAH – The Heritage Midwifery Clinic rang in the new year with its first birth of 2026, marking another milestone in what has become Utah’s busiest birth center.
On January 9th, Joseph David Stubbs arrived at 9 pounds and 21 inches, delivered by midwife Helen Barlow and her colleague Erma. The healthy baby boy is the seventh son in his family and came as a sweet surprise to parents who had been expecting a girl.
“From start to finish, I felt so safe, so supported, and so deeply cared for,” said Pamela Langford Stubbs, praising the wisdom and guidance of the midwifery team. “What a blessing it is to have a place like this in our small town.”
As the first baby born at the clinic in 2026, Joseph David’s arrival kicks off what promises to be another busy year for Heritage Midwifery. In 2025, Barlow and her team attended to an average of 12 births per month, handling more births than any other birth center in Utah.
A Journey of Growth
Helen Barlow, who holds midwifery licenses in both Utah and Arizona, has built something remarkable in the twin communities of Hildale and Colorado City. The clinic’s 2025 numbers tell the story: 139 births at the center, plus 10 home births across Utah and Arizona.
But the journey to this level of service has been one of constant expansion. Barlow restarted her midwifery practice in 2014 in a small apartment in the back of the Sam Barlow house, which she decorated as an intimate birth center. “We outgrew that pretty quick,” Barlow recalls.
The practice then moved to the former Louis Barlow home, but quickly outgrew that space as well. The different regulatory requirements between Utah and Arizona meant Barlow needed a dedicated facility on the Utah side of the state line.
On February 29, 2020 – fittingly, on Aunt Lydia’s birthday – the practice moved back to Hildale. The location held special significance: the birthing room occupies the exact GPS coordinates where Aunt Lydia once ran her own clinic, with the bed positioned in the very same spot.
Expansion and Legacy
Near the end of 2024, the UEP Trust approached Barlow to see if she was interested in purchasing the lease for the remainder of the Hildale Clinic side of the building. The timing was significant – the UEP is completing the transfer of the remaining commercial properties, and they saw Heritage Midwifery as the right steward for this historic space.
The lease purchase was approved by the board in 2025. Now, Barlow and her team are in the process of renovating the upper level for the prenatal clinic – the very space where the original clinic once operated upstairs. It’s a full-circle moment that honors the building’s legacy while expanding services for future generations.
For the Stubbs family and the many others who have passed through Heritage Midwifery’s doors, the clinic represents more than medical care – it’s a place where birth is honored as sacred, where experienced hands guide new life into the world, and where the tradition of women supporting women continues to thrive.
As Helen Barlow and her team welcome Joseph David and look ahead to the rest of 2026, one thing is clear: in Hildale, the future is being born into very caring hands.
