Dr. Antonino Barbera just doesn't thrive in a big setting. He doesn't like feeling he's “just a lab coat like everybody else, doing my shift.” So when he was searching for a community where he could recognize folks on the street and establish human relationships with patients, he chose Summit County.

Barbera joined High Country Healthcare as the newest obstetrician and gynecologist last November, bringing with him an impressive resume and extensive experience in high-risk pregnancies.

Originally from Sicily, Italy, Barbera was fascinated with the pregnant belly from an early age. So fascinated, in fact, a young Barbera found he couldn't keep his eyes off his older sister-in-law's stomach when she was pregnant. She later told him she could see him becoming an OB/GYN. Nonetheless, when he started attending medical school he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to specialize in. He was a well-liked internal medicine intern his fifth year of medical school when he attended an OB/GYN lecture.

“This thing was so crazy, so complex and so interesting at the same time,” he said. “At the end of the lecture, I told myself, ‘that's what I will do.”

So Barbera scored an internship in the local labor and delivery unit, a spot where he ended up spending most of his time. He dedicated himself to his work, even leaving Saturday afternoon soccer games — when he didn't have to — because he knew there were patients in labor at the hospital. As a student, Barbera wasn't allowed to assist in deliveries, and said he probably saw about 1,000 before he actually performed one himself. He always stood on the patient's left side, and would go home to his mother's house with scratches all over his right arm. To help put patients at ease during delivery, he started bringing in soothing music and slides of ocean views and sunsets.

After finishing medical school at the age of 23, Barbera started his residency. He applied for a grant to study fetal circulation in Milan and got it. His mother, he said, was impressed. The chairman of the hospital was impressed with him too. Barbera ended up transferring his residency there and stayed for 18 years. Over the years, he traveled to Portland, Ore., twice for fellowships: one in cardiovascular fetal physiology and the other for maternal-fetal medicine. He also spent time in Denver studying intrauterine growth restriction, which is where he met his wife.

Innovator

In 1993, Barbera started accessing how babies were coming through the birth canal with a method no one else had used before: ultrasound. He later presented his findings at a labor and delivery conference, and when he finished, everyone was quiet. A few audience members laughed. Finally, one man stood and clapped, prompting everyone else to do the same. Today, other doctors are starting to use his method.

“The people who were laughing at me in previous years are starting to do the same thing,” he said.

A small setting

Barbera tired of working in a large university setting, so he moved to Tricase, a small, coastal town in southeast Italy. He found a job at the local hospital — which eventually turned into a highly-coveted vice-chair position — and also opened his own practice. It was at the practice, Barbera said, that he really felt involved in patients', and their families' lives. He would see patients until 11 p.m., and had a waiting list three-months long. People would come over with wine, and leave fresh fish and fruit on his doorstep. One man helped him shake the olives off a backyard tree, because Barbera was too busy to do it himself. Another built him a fence. If he went to dinner in town, someone might offer to buy his meal because he had delivered their child.

“It was ridiculous, but did I like it? Oh my gosh, I loved it,” Barbera said. “People knew me.. there were a bunch of kids who were born with me. For me, that was extremely rewarding.”

People like him, he said, because he tried to make his patients as comfortable as possible, and spends extra time with them if needed. He wants patients to feel empowered during delivery; “I let them express the way they are,” he said.

In March of 2002, Barbera moved to the United States with his wife and two children, both of whom he delivered. He studied for his boards, and started teaching in the perinatal department at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He went through residency, again, for the next four years. Barbera said it was a hard period in his life; he was forever working, and ended up divorcing his wife. In 2008, Barbera got a job at Denver Health.

“I really liked the population, but felt I wasn't able to change anything,” he said. “I was just a lab coat like everybody else, doing my shift.”

Looking for a community were he could develop more of a long-term relationship with his patients, Barbera found High Country Healthcare. He's enjoying the mountain setting so far — Barbera likes to sail, hike and bike — and has started volunteering at the Women's Resource Center in Dillon. He travels to Denver to spend time with his children, now aged 11 and 9, to coach soccer and play baseball with his son.

And he's already established long-term patients relationships within the community — at the Hot Buttered Rum concert in Frisco a few weeks ago, Barbera saw five of his patients.

“Now finally I'm meeting people in the street, and I know who they are,” he said. “For me it's a nice feeling.”

Barbera delivered Carrie Miano's first child, a daughter, this past February. She said he was extremely accommodating, and was “in the front lines” when most doctors rely on nurses.

“He was phenomenal,” she said. “There was a point in the delivery where the pain was taking me out of my body a bit. I was thinking I couldn't make it. He looked right at me and said, ‘Carrie, don't be afraid. You can do this.' It was what I needed to hear.”

Further study

When he came to Summit County, Barbera also brought his expertise and management of high-risk pregnancies; most patients are usually sent to Denver. He wants Summit to become the high-risk reference point for the neighboring counties.

“I would like to establish a mom and baby unit here that provides full support for preeclampsia,” he said. “That's one of my goals.”

Barbera also recently received a grant from the Colorado Medical Society to direct a pre-term labor study, looking at the physiology of the cervix. Expected to begin in about six weeks, the study includes himself, a bioengineer and a biophysicist. Their focus is on figuring out why babies are born prematurely and reducing incidents of cesarean section.

“We do not know why women go into labor,” he said.