I am a certified nurse-midwife. I received my Master of Science degree from Georgetown University in 1983 and my Ph.D. in Nursing and Health Sciences at George Mason University in 1999. I became a nurse-midwife after my career as a special education teacher for severely and multiple handicapped children in rural Virginia. As a midwife, I delivered babies at home in rural Virginia and West Virginia for 13 years. In those thirteen years I became a political activist and served on the Advisory Board to the Virginia Joint Boards of Nursing and Medicine, the state board who regulates nurse-midwives in our state. I was also appointed by Governors Baliles and Wilder to serve on the Statewide Council on Infant Mortality. Over the years I served on two task forces within the Virginia Department of Health Professions that were created by the Virginia General Assembly to study the status of maternity care in Virginia, specifically access to prenatal care and nurse-midwives. Because of the recommendations made by these task forces, Shenandoah University started the first nurse-midwifery education program in the state and invited me to become its Coordinator.
I’m still very active politically in my quest to increase the access to safe, cost effective maternity care for women in our state. In May, 2004 I was appointed by Governor Warner to serve on a Committee to increase access to obstetric care in rural Virginia. Here are the recommendations we made for increasing access to nurse-midwifery practice in Virginia.
In 1984 I became one of the co-founders of the Virginia Chapter of the American College of Nurse-Midwives and served as its second Chairperson. In 2001 I was one of the co-founders of M.O.M. (Mothers for Options in Midwifery), a state wide consumer group dedicated to increasing awareness of the benefits of midwifery care. Here is the link to this group: http://www.birthmattersva.org/
Throughout my career as a nurse-midwife I kept a journal which was published as a book in 1997. It’s called “Diary of a Midwife: The Power of Positive Childbearing.” My dissertation was on the caring relationship between a woman and a midwife. I believe that, if we extend ourselves to care for women, we help create the safety, the energy, and the possibilities for babies to come into this world as healthy as they can be. This is my mission, my love, and my passion.
Special Projects and Presentations
Presenter: "Diary of a Midwife: The Power of Positive Childbearing." Georgetown University Research Day, March, 1999.
Co presenter: "Home Birth: New Safety Research, Realities of Practice." American College of Nurse-Midwives Annual Convention, Orlando, FL, June, 1999.
Keynote speaker: "Defying our Boundaries" Virginia Perinatal Association Annual Convention, Bristol, VA, and the Virginia Rural Health Association Annual Convention, Petersburg, VA, October, 1999
*Keynote speaker, "To Be a Midwife in the Millennium" and Presenter of "Being in a Caring Relationship with a Midwife During Childbirth." International Homebirth Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March, 2000
Presenter, "The Direct Entry Midwife", North Carolina Chapter of the American College of Nurse-Midwives, April, 2000.
Presenter, "The Lived Experience of Being in a Caring Relationship During Childbirth," Shenandoah University Honor Society of Nursing, Second Annual Research Symposium, April, 2000
Co-Presenter: "Minding Your Own Business" Annual Convention, American College of Nurse- Midwives, May, 2000
Presenter, "Preceptor Workshop,". 3 CEU's. American College of Nurse-Midwives, June, 2000
*Presenter, "Informed Consent: The Ethical Relationship." Georgetown University Nurse-Midwifery Program, June, 2000
Panelist, "Born in the USA." Georgetown University and Childbirth Solutions, February, 2001
Presenter, "The Caring Relationship Between and Midwife and Woman" Annual Convention, American College of Nurse-Midwives, June, 2001
Co-Presenter, "Networking" in "Minding Your Own Business," Annual Convention, American College of Nurse-Midwives, June, 2001.
Presenter, "Medical Terminology," "Herbs During Childbearing," "Labor," "Emergencies and Complications." Midwifery-Birth Conference, Front Royal, VA, October, 2001.
Co-coordinator, Shenandoah University's First Annual Conference on Genetics, "Our Genes, Ourselves," March, 2003. Presented "The Pedigree Analysis."
Presenter, "The Caring Relationship Between and Midwife and Woman," The Farm, Summertown, TN, May 2003
*Presenter, "The Caring Relationship Between and Midwife and Woman," 25th International Conference On Caring, Boulder, CO, June, 2003
Publications
"Accepting Death: An Interview", Virginia Nurse, Spring, 1980.
"My Mother, the Midwife", Ms Magazine, September, 1984.
Diary of a Midwife: The Power of Positive Childbearing. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Company, 1998.
"Legislative News: Members donate $13,000 for legislative initiatives". Quickening (29)4, July/August 1998.
"To Be a Midwife in this Millenium." Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health: Vol. 46, No. 1, January/February 2001. 40-42
"Birth Control for Postpartum Women." Every Baby Magazine: Issue One 2001. New York, NY: Profile Pursuit, Inc. 165-169.