by Brianna Honea
Maureen Darcey, CNM, Executive Director of Women’s Birth & Wellness Center, won the American Association of Birth Centers’ 2016 Professional Award at the Birth Institute in Pittsburg, PA on Sept. 24th. Kitty Ernst, CNM, the honorable 90-year old midwifery pioneer, presented the award and celebrated Maureen’s life-long passion as a midwife and mentor.
Maureen believes birth is a unique and personal event in the life of a woman, which intimately involves family members and close friends. She is patient-focused and believes women of all socioeconomic backgrounds should receive high-touch, low-tech, time-intensive care. She instills the birth center philosophy in her staff who are committed to advocate and support the rights of healthy women and their families to receive care in a safe and nurturing environment with low interventions at minimal cost. Maureen’s vision of having a community-based Birth Center with a board of directors will ensure this model of care is available to women long after she retires.
In 1981 Maureen began offering prenatal, delivery, postnatal and gynecological and family planning services in a non-profit alternative birth center at Chatham Family Birth Center (CFBC) in Siler City. She became the director of Nurse-Midwifery Services for this site in 1987. When political and insurance industry issues forced CFBC to close in December 1991, she worked to re-establish midwifery service in a stable environment. Maureen’s relationship with the maternal-child physicians of the UNC Family Practice Center allowed the nurse-midwives to have hospital privileges at UNC Women’s Hospital and thus paved the way for the state’s second free standing birth center. The center first opened in 1996 under the auspices of Piedmont Health Services and then in 2003 the practice was organized under a new name: Women’s Birth and Wellness Center (WBWC). In 2016, WBWC celebrated its 20th year of operation and welcomed the 6,000th baby.
As a champion of Birth Centers as an alternative to hospital based nurse-midwifery care, Maureen has promoted and helped to firmly establish the birth center model of care by working nationally with the American Association of Birth Centers (AABC). Maureen helps teach the AABC How to Start a Birth Center workshops and consults with people around the US who are trying to open birth centers. She also contributes to the education and growth of birth centers by writing and reviewing articles for the AABC workshop manual to keep the content up to date with evidence based research. Maureen continues to contribute to the evolution and success of Women’s Birth and Wellness Center by networking and collaborating with midwives, area physicians and UNC Hospitals.
Maureen served actively in the leadership of the North Carolina Chapter of the American College of Nurse Midwives and served as chapter chair from 1995-1999 and head of the legislative committee from 1999 – 2002. Maureen has lead several lobby days in NC and has attended almost every national lobby day and legislative conference representing North Carolina’s and midwifery’s interests. Maureen also served on the Perinatal Health Committee of the North Carolina Fatality task force.
Maureen considers mentoring students and the profession of midwifery as a part of her calling. She annually participates in the mini-business institute organized for nurse-midwifery students at East Carolina University. She relentlessly supports nurse-midwives throughout their careers and hosts an annual midwifery retreat for seasoned midwifery leaders. Maureen has been involved politically to promote midwives and legislation to open laws for both CNMs and CPMs to practice autonomously in NC. If there is an issue affecting women’s health, she is involved by writing letters to legislators and making calls and visits.
Currently Maureen is paying it forward by helping mentor and support the WNC Birth Center in Asheville and will attend their ribbon-cutting ceremony on October 26th.
The WBWC Board of Directors, current and former staff of WBWC, and all the families and babies who have been touched by this amazing woman and midwife, are proud to acknowledge this outstanding award.
