UR Midwifery Group

12/29/2025

https://www.motherearthwellness.co/pregnancy-sisterhood

A great opportunity! Starting January 2026

A 5-week celebration of emergent Motherhood through movement practices, creative exploration, connection and ceremony. Registration open for January 2026 Sisterhood.

11/12/2025

Beloved Birth 50 by 50 is a bold, shared goal to rally the political will, resources, and public support for midwives to grow midwifery care infrastructure that all families deserve. Take a look at this initiative and if you believe the US needs more midwives, sign the pledge and spread word! Tell your politicians, public health folks, friends, family, physicians, and community organizations why midwifery matters to you.

Join the movement to transform U.S. birth care: Beloved Birth 50 by 50 is a bold vision to ensure that by 2050, 50% of babies are born under midwifery-led, community-rooted care. Led by Birth Center Equity, this initiative centers equity, justice, and beloved community.

11/12/2025

We were lucky enough to be able to attend the 14th Annual Dr. Bernard Guyer Lecture in Public Health today where Leseliey Welch, MPH, MBA was the keynote speaker (CEO and Co-Founder of Birth Center Equity and Birth Detroit). She is quite the amazing human who is working to promote midwifery led care in all communities (and, in particular BIPOC communities, who face significantly worse maternal and neonatal outcomes).

Shout out to Leseliey Welch of Birth Detroit for her incredible piece published in Ms. Magazine titled How We Can Turn Away From Medicalized Birth Culture and Reset the U.S. Birth Care System. ✒️ ❤️

Here is just one beautiful snippet of what she's written:
"In the face of crumbling systems, Grace Lee Boggs told us that 'now is the time to grow our souls.' Now is also the time to grow our courage. We have decades of maternal health research, public health strategy history, midwifery wisdom and a not-to-do list from a failed system to draw upon."
Could not have been more beautifully put. We encourage you all to read the full piece here:
https://msmagazine.com/2025/10/24/birth-midwife-hospital-black-women-maternal-health/

11/03/2025

11/03/2025

If you are newly pregnant, please call us at 585-275-7892 to sign up for Centering! It is a very well researched model of prenatal care that has high satisfaction rates and improved outcomes for pregnancy and birth. We are thrilled to finally be bringing this back from a long hiatus due to COVID. If you are looking for intimate involvement in your own care, value increased prenatal, birth and postpartum education and want to meet others who are also experiencing pregnancy, Centering is for you!

10/12/2025

Happy Midwifery Week!
Love, your midwives

Thanks to Skyforge Media for our updated group photo!

08/28/2025

Celebrating our beloved Pam!
As many of you know, Pam officially retired this month. We know Pam touched many lives over her long career as a midwife. We would like to invite anyone (patients, nurses, doulas, providers) who have memories or special moments with Pam to please share them here: https://forms.gle/T9YxYVDWbWzwFDtSA

In addition, we know she would love to see any pictures you have of her, of your birth, or of the babies she helped "catch"! If you would rather, you can also e-mail them or attach a document to molly_sherwood@urmc.rochester.edu. They can be funny, heartfelt, short or long - just as long as they come from your heart. We will compile and share all of them with Pam in a celebration of her career on September 6th.

07/03/2025

Exciting news — CenteringPregnancy is back! We are now offering GROUP prenatal care!!

Learn more here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODgrG3C88OM&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD

05/14/2025

A resource for anyone in need. Postpartum anxiety and depression are real and life affecting. Please reach out if you are struggling.

📣 New Online Support Group: Join us for Postpartum Rage Support for Moms and Birthing People!

Led by trained peer facilitators, our Postpartum Rage group is here to support moms and birthing people from 2 weeks-2 years postpartum experiencing episodes of intense anger and agitation. Postpartum Rage can look like a sudden explosion of anger, feeling overwhelmed or drowning, and/or being on edge or irritable to the point that these emotions impact your daily life. Postpartum rage is more common than we think and can produce feelings of isolation, guilt, and shame. We want you to know that you are not alone, and no diagnosis is needed to attend.

If you are beyond 2 years postpartum, check out our Support for Parents of One to Four Year Old Children group. The topic of anger and rage is often discussed in that space as well.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS GROUP IS FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE. We allow the first 16 group members to join. Thank you for understanding!

View the schedule and register at bit.ly/FindSupportGroup

04/19/2025

Our Midwife of the Week is Beth Cooper, CNM, EdD, FACNM. Beth joined the faculty of the Department of OB/GYN at the University of Rochester in 1975 as the first nurse-midwife to practice in upstate New York. She introduced midwifery to Strong Memorial Hospital, taught students, and cared for teens in the Rochester Adolescent Maternity Program (RAMP).

In 1992, she initiated the UR Midwifery Group and was key in the development of the UR School of Nursing Nurse-Midwifery educational program, in which she taught from 1994 until the program closed in 2002. During retirement, Beth plans to enjoy gardening, reading, traveling, and spending time with her family at their cottage on Keuka Lake. Members can read more about Beth in the Weekly CEO Update.