Midwife of the Week

Midwife of the Week: Jane Peterson

Friends of Michigan Midwives

jane petersonWhile working as a high school biology teacher in Wisconsin, Jane Peterson felt called to midwifery after several friends invited her to provide support at their births. Inspired by catching a baby for the very first time in 1979, she secured a short apprenticeship in Wisconsin and then traveled to Texas to attend a midwifery training program, before returning home to begin her practice. The state of Wisconsin regulated midwifery until 1953, when it ceased licensing new midwives. Peterson wrote and lobbied faor Act 292, or the Midwifery Licensing Act, which was enacted in 2006. She also authored and taught the educational components required for Wisconsin licensed midwives. Those components became the foundation of the core competencies adopted by the North American Registry of Midwives. She also founded the Wisconsin Council for Midwifery Legislation and served on its board. Peterson has served as President of the Wisconsin Guild of Midwives and is currently their Director of Community Relations.
To read more about Jane Peterson, see this news article celebrating her 35 years as a Wisconsin midwife.

This Midwife of the Week post was written by Valerie Meharg. It originated on FoMM’s Facebook page and is archived here on our website for your continued enjoyment!

Midwife of the Week: Margaret Charles Smith

Friends of Michigan Midwives

margaretcharlessmithGrand Midwife Margaret Charles Smith was born in 1906 in Eutaw, Alabama. After her mother’s death when she was three weeks old, the baby was raised by her grandmother, a former slave. In 1949, Smith became one of the first state-recognized black midwives in Green County when the Public Health Team awarded her a permit to practice midwifery. Even though Smith faced fierce racism, sexism, poverty, and the usual practical hardships in attending her patients, such as crossing fields or even occasionally wading through water, she nevertheless caught 3,500 babies during her long career. Despite attending women who were often malnourished and overworked, not a single mother under her care lost her life as a result of childbirth. After Alabama outlawed traditional midwives in 1976, Smith and others were threatened with incarceration if they continued to practice. The practice of midwifery for Alabama CPMs remains criminalized to this day.

Smith was the first black American to receive the keys to Eutaw, Alabama, holds a place in the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame, was honored at the Black Women’s Health Project, and earned a lifetime achievement award from The Black Midwife and Healer’s Conference. She passed away in 2004 at the age of 98.

To learn more about Margaret Charles Smith, see Diana Paul’s film, Miss Margaret, or Smith’s own book, Listen to Me Good: The Story of an Alabama Midwife.

This Midwife of the Week post was written by Valerie Meharg. It originated on FoMM’s Facebook page and is archived here on our website for your continued enjoyment!

Midwife of the Week: Claudia Booker

Friends of Michigan Midwives

claudiabookerOver the last eight years, Claudia Booker has served over 600 birthing women in the Washington D.C. area, and works in several other capacities. She is certified as a doula through DONA and ICTC, a La Leche League certified breastfeeding peer counselor, a CAPPA certified childbirth educator, and, most recently, a Certified Professional Midwife in the state of Virginia. However, she was first an attorney, and now uses her legal skills to remain active in social justice issues in midwifery, serve on D.C.’s Infant and Child Mortality Review Committee, and act as her state’s representative for ICTC. While working as a doula and midwife assistant in 2004, Booker founded a volunteer labor support program at The Family Birth and Health Center. It was the first program of its kind in the area and helps some of the poorest citizens of Washington D.C. The founding of this program earned her the American Association of Birth Centers Community Service Award in 2006. Booker now owns and operates Birthing Hands, L.L.C. Even though she is now a CPM, she continues to offer doula services to her community. Learn more about Claudia and her work at
http://www.birthinghandsdc.com/.

This Midwife of the Week post was written by Valerie Meharg. It originated on FoMM’s Facebook page and is archived here on our website for your continued enjoyment!

Midwife of the Week: Lesley Page

Friends of Michigan Midwives

This week’s midwife comes straight from the headlines! Duchess Kate Middleton is once again suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum, and husband William has recruited the help of Lesley Page, one of Britain’s most senior midwives and recipient of a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire). In her forty-plus years of practice, Lesley made her name as a women’s advocate, pioneering women-centered maternity care practices that reach beyond the UK. In 1993, she was part of a team that created the One-To-One Midwifery Model that operates by approaching every aspect of an individual woman’s life: culture, past experiences, family, health, etc., with specific evidence based practice to provide a unique, client-based experience. This attention to aspects of life that are often overlooked in maternity care has led to effective and efficient use of resources and a decrease in service duplication. Lesley is currently president of the Royal College of Midwives, a professor at the University of Sydney and at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, and, of course, advisor to the royal family. In this video, Lesley discusses the One-To-One Model: http://www.oneworldbirth.net/videos/the-research/prof-lesley-page-on-1-1-midwifery-and-evidence-based-midwifery/.

Midwife of the Week posts, written by Sirene-Rose Lipschutz, originate on FoMM’s Facebook page and are archived here on our website for your continued enjoyment!

Midwife of the Week: JayVon Muhammad

Friends of Michigan Midwives

Born and raised in San Francisco, JayVon Muhammad has been providing care to underserved women in nearby Marin County for over 10 years. In 2008, she founded Urban Midwifery to provide midwifery and educational programs to the community, and is able to offer services in ASL to deaf and hard of hearing clients. Despite her location and the ease of access to her services, JayVon continued to feel that the women who most needed care were not getting it. In response, she created SistaGirl Midwifery in 2010. SistaGirl began as a character JayVon thought young women would relate to, and quickly became a local brand. Since 2013, JayVon has has served as the CEO of Marin City Health and Wellness Center, a full service health center that provides care to homeless people and residents of public housing. One of JayVon’s goals as CEO is to make MCHWC a Center of Excellence for maternity care.

Midwife of the Week posts, written by Sirene-Rose Lipschutz, originate on FoMM’s Facebook page and are archived here on our website for your continued enjoyment!

Midwife of the Week: Sabera Turkmani

Friends of Michigan Midwives

After completing her training at Mashad Medical University in Iran, Sabera Turkmani provided reproductive health services to refugees from her native Afghanistan. Since returning to her home country, Sabera has worked as a midwifery trainer for the International Medical Corps, has served as technical advisor for John’s Hopkins Program for International Education in Gynecology and Obstetrics (JHPIEGO) pre-service midwifery education, and is president of the Afghan Midwives Association (AMA). The AMA was formed to support Afghan midwives, raise awareness about safe motherhood, and improve country-wide education and practice policies – the main focus of Sabera’s career. Sabera and the AMA are also working with the government to achieve three of the eight UN Millennial Development Goals: improve maternal health; reduce child mortality; promote gender equality and empower women. In this article, Sabera discusses how helping women achieve safe and healthy pregnancies ties in with fighting malnutrition: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/10/2012101192945904516.html.

Midwife of the Week posts, written by Sirene-Rose Lipschutz, originate on FoMM’s Facebook page and are archived here on our website for your continued enjoyment!

Midwife of the Week: Joni McCann

Friends of Michigan Midwives

In 2003 Joni McCann, LM, CPM, CCE opened the Birthing Center of South Florida, a full-service birth center that turns no one away, regardless of ability to pay. Joni was trained at the Miami-Dade midwifery program and holds a post-graduate certificate from the British Institute of Homeopathy. (Side note: the Miami-Dade program was the first in the U.S. to be offered in a public institution; sadly, it has just closed). She is a certified childbirth educator, is fluent in Spanish, and speaks some Haitian Creole. Her practice spans 37 years and between 2500 and 3000 babies.

Joni is featured in a video documentary series published on YouTube by Creative Bird Productions. Catchin’ Babies follows Joni and her assistant Andrea Casas as they strive to educate and empower women through home birth. The series was created to counter the negative stigma attached to home birth. Access the series at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY-rAssiPZokR-c1n-B8unQ.

Midwife of the Week posts, written by Sirene-Rose Lipschutz, originate on FoMM’s Facebook page and are archived here on our website for your continued enjoyment!

Midwife of the Week: Mary Cronk

Friends of Michigan Midwives

Through all the changes in midwifery during the half century Mary Cronk has practiced, she has always been considered a radical. After thirty years with the UK’s National Health Service, Mary left to practice as an independent midwife, in response to the increasing medicalization of midwifery under the NHS. She states, “I don’t like conformity…and felt the guidelines were not right for the women giving birth and individual care had been lost.” Mary considers herself an employee of the mother, not the health system. She is recognized an expert in spontaneous breech delivery, and is famous as an advocate for eliminating routine active management of labor. Mary has published professional papers and articles, served on the English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery, and Health Visiting, as well as on the board of the Royal College of Midwives. In 1998, Mary was awarded an MBE, Member of the Order of the British Empire, an award for outstanding service to the community. For an article about breech delivery, follow the link: http://www.birthworks.co.za/articles/midwifery-skills-needed-breech-birth-mary-cronk. See also this cartoon portrayal of Mary Cronk!

Midwife of the Week posts, written by Sirene-Rose Lipschutz, originate on FoMM’s Facebook page and are archived here on our website for your continued enjoyment!

BONUS Midwife of the Week: Community of Hope Family Health and Birth Center

Friends of Michigan Midwives

Have you watched House of Cards? Scandal? These popular and edgy programs show fictionalized drama in our nation’s capital. Unbeknownst to many is the real-life drama of bringing new life into this world, playing out at Community of Hope Family Health and Birth Center, an active Washington, D.C. midwifery practice. The FHBC provides birth services based on the midwifery model of care and integrated family health services to women and their families. Kevin Spacey and Kerry Washington may not be roaming the halls, but the midwives, doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, and other staff that help this community’s families are the real stars. We are excited to share more about this busy practice as part of our Labor Day Bonus!

The Family Health and Birth Center provides midwifery-model prenatal care, but with a twist. From their website: “For the first half of your pregnancy, you will have monthly individual visits with a midwife…For the last half of your pregnancy, you will be encouraged to receive your care in groups. You will join a group of women whose babies are due in the same month as you.” Group visits are held every two weeks and include prenatal education, prenatal yoga, meditation, and childbirth education. What an exciting way to provide care and also build community among the mothers and their families!

In addition, the center offers integrated health programs for the whole family, providing well and sick visits as part of their pediatric care, whole family care, gynecological services, family planning services, HIV/AIDS testing, chronic disease management, and breastfeeding support and education.

Center staff includes 4 Certified Nurse-Midwives, a nursing director and 3 nurse practitioners, and 2 MDs. The CNMs, who have privileges at a nearby hospital, assisted in 265 births at the center in 2012. Unfortunately, a scarcity of midwives has led the center to move births to the hospital until appropriate staffing levels can be achieved. Mothers nevertheless receive the benefits of intensive prenatal care, much like the model used in Jennie Joseph’s Easy Access Clinic (see our earlier post). You can read more about the FBHC at: http://www.communityofhopedc.org/healthcare/other-healthcare-services-your-family.

Midwife of the Week posts originate on FoMM’s Facebook page and are archived here on our website for your continued enjoyment! This post was written by Anna Boone.

Midwife of the Week: Whitney Pinger

Friends of Michigan Midwives

After championing home births in the 1970’s, Whitney Pinger, CNM, saw a need to bring the same kind of care to a hospital setting. She has been filling that need in Washington, D.C. for over 30 years. In that time she has worked in private practice, opened several low-cost clinics, and served on the faculty of Yale (her alma mater) and Georgetown Universities. Whitney founded, directs, and practices at Wisdom Midwifery, George Washington University’s midwifery service. Wisdom Midwifery is a “low-tech, high-touch,” full-service midwifery practice that emphasizes nutrition over medication, cesarean prevention, and vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC). Whitney developed a free training module, “Evidence-based Practice: Pearls of Midwifery,” with the goal of helping midwives and advocates to explain the midwifery model of care to newcomers or skeptics. The presentation can be accessed here: http://www.midwife.org/Evidence-Based-Practice-Pearls-of-Midwifery.

Midwife of the Week posts, written by Sirene-Rose Lipschutz, originate on FoMM’s Facebook page and are archived here on our website for your continued enjoyment!