A LONG AND COLORFUL HISTORY
Seattle Home Maternity Service founders Marge Mansfield and Suzy Myers have been active in the development of the midwifery profession in Washington State and beyond:
Located in Seattle's vibrant Columbia City neighborhood, Seattle Home Maternity Service was co-founded in 1980 by midwives Marge Mansfield and Suzy Myers.
Marge and Suzy began their training together in 1975 as part of a women’s community health center in Seattle. With physician supervision, their group attended more than 250 births over the following three years. Recognizing the need for formal education and licensure, they co-founded Seattle Midwifery School (SMS) in 1978. Today, SMS stands as an internationally recognized model for midwifery and doula education in the United States.
In 1980, Marge and Suzy were among the first midwives educated in the United States to obtain Washington State midwifery licenses. In 1983 they established a birth center at Seattle Home Maternity Service, now the oldest licensed birth center in the state.
Over the past thirty years both Marge Mansfield and Suzy Myers have played a variety of other key roles in the development of midwifery locally and nationally. Read more about their roles in midwifery history and politics.




