The Steering Committee
The Steering Committee for The MAMA Campaign is composed of two representatives from each of six partner organizations. Mary Lawlor, President National Association of Certified Professional Midwives, and Susan Hodges, President of Citizens for Midwifery, serve as the co-chairs of the campaign Steering Committee.
Co-chair- Mary Lawlor, CPM, LM, NHCM, MA
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Mary holds the national credential of Certified Professional Midwife (CPM), and is licensed in both Vermont and New Hampshire. Mary is the president of the National Association of Certified Professional Midwives (NACPM).
NACPM is a professional association for midwives that works to support midwives in individual states and to ensure that CPMs are represented in the development of public maternal health policy on the national level. NACPM is part of the national effort to grow the profession of midwifery and to increase access to midwives, and to ensure the success of the ultimate goal: the availability of a midwife for every mother.
Mary studied midwifery at The Maternity Center in El Paso, Texas in 1980-81, a free-standing birth center operated by midwives and a training center and school for midwives. She has been in practice in southern Vermont since October, 1981. She earned a master’s degree in Counseling from Lesley University in Boston in 1989. She has been active in the licensing of midwives in both Vermont and New Hampshire, as well as in the successful effort in both states to ensure that women wanting VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) at home will have access to Licensed Midwives for that choice. She serves as a Midwife Advisor to the Office of Professional Regulation in the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office.
Co-chair- Susan Hodges, MS
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Susan Hodges has served as president of since she helped start the organization in February 1996. She has been an advocate for midwifery since 1985. Susan has worked in Georgia, including grass roots organizing, drafting legislation, testifying, getting rules changed, and lobbying an evolving midwifery bill over many years. She founded and chaired Childbirth Alternatives Network in Athens, Georgia; has co-chaired Georgia Friends of Midwives.
On the national level, Susan is a member of the Midwives Alliance of North America; was a consumer participant in the Certification Task Force of the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) that created the Certified Professional Midwife credential, chairing the Experienced Midwives Committee (NARM) 1995-1996; is a member of the Consumer Panel for the Cochrane Collaboration’s Pregnancy and Childbirth Group; is a member of the new Evidence in Action Committee of the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services; and is an advisor to the Big Push for Midwives Campaign
Susan has a Bachelor of Science degree from Columbia University's School of General Studies and a Master of Science degree from Cornell University, Dept. of Plant Pathology, on an Andrew D. White Fellowship. She is a happily married mom of two mostly home-schooled children, now 19 and almost 23 years old. "I was very fortunate," Susan says, "to have midwives willing and able to attend the births of both my children at home. These were very significant experiences for me. I want to do whatever I can so that midwifery care in all settings will be available to whoever wants it."
Steering Committee Members
National Association of Certified Professional Midwives:
Mary Lawlor and Dolly Browder
Midwifery Education Accreditation Council:
Ellie Daniels and Jo Anne Myers-Ciecko
North American Registry of Midwives:
Ida Darragh and Brynne Potter
Midwives Alliance of North America:
Geradine Simkins and Maria Iorillo
:
Susan Hodges and Nasima Pfaffl
:
Shafia Monroe and Claudia Booker