Seattle Home Maternity Service and Childbirth Center
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Seattle Home Maternity Service Founders, Marge Mansfield and Suzy Myers, continue their participation in local, national and international midwifery for more than three decades

Marge was a founding board member for SMS in its early years, then for the Midwives Midwives' Association of Washington State (MAWS). As a member of the Interim Registry Board which became the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM), she helped develop a national certification examination for midwives. In addition, she served on the Washington State Midwifery Advisory Committee from 1995 – 1999, in the role of chair from 1997-1999.  Marge has also worked with the Midwives’ Alliance of North America, and most recently the Division of Research, in the development of a data collection tool.  She is currently active on the MAWS Quality Management Program committee. Interested in international issues and global health, Marge has participated in a variety of roles to support the legalization of midwifery in both Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. She has attended and been a presenter at several conferences of the International Confederation of Midwives. 

In the early 1980’s Suzy was active in legislative reform of Washington’s Midwifery Act and served on the first Midwifery Advisory Committee, writing rules and developing the licensing examination. In 1983 she helped to launch the Midwives Association of Washington State and served as its first president from 1983-1985. In 1988 she earned a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Washington’s Maternal and Child Health Program. She co-authored the first study of outcomes of licensed midwife-attended births in Washington, which was published in the journal Birth in 1994. More recently, she wrote a chapter for the second edition of The Labor Progress Handbook, by Penny Simkin and Ruth Ancheta

Suzy has continued to be involved on many fronts in support of the development of professional midwifery.  She served 14 years on the Board of Directors of a Joint Underwriting Association created by the Washington State legislature to provide medical malpractice insurance to midwives and birth centers, and is currently a member of a state task force of midwives and obstetricians focused on improving consultation and referral relationships. She is now actively involved in national midwifery advocacy, serving on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Certified Professional Midwives (NACPM) and on the Division of Research of the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA).