Home Birth Midwifery Service Her'story
1979, Margery McSweeney (Rumbarger) a L & D nurse
at the 'Med,' (the Regional Medical Center) strived to make giving birth more meaningful for the women in her care; seeking to make labor and birth more personal for them, their partners, and their babies.
'Breaking the rules,' Margery began to help hospital patients to give birth "when the time came," instead of waiting for the Dr to arrive! She encouraged women to go ahead and gently push, rather than panting or closing their legs. Many a hospital-born baby was "caught" in this loving way by this nurse-turned-midwife, instead of "being delivered" by the doctors.
Seeing how much more positive, lovely &
far less "medicalized" these births went,
and despite being reprimanded, written-up
and even suspended; this strong, determined
woman joined forces w/ traditional midwife,
Lois VanTol, and together they were
"with woman" by attending home births,
"catching babies" ... and thus was the birth of
the Home Birth Midwifery Service !
Time passed... and things, as they always do,
changed... Lois went on to become a doctor,
while "Margie" (as she's known to her family
and friends) continued her path as a Midwife,
Reiki Master & Healing Touch Practitioner.
As the Senior Midwife & Partner of HBMS,
Margie has worked with various partners and
trained several apprentices: Martha McBride, Martina Benson & Kim Mosny, to name a few.
For two decades, Margie was actively involved with midwifery organizations (at local, state & national levels) and was instrumental in the early days of the TN Midwives Association, helping to establish a verifyable certification process
for TN Direct Entry Midwives to accomplish
a level of credibility. In 1997, she pursued the NARM CPM before TN legislators enacted the TN Midwifery Practice Act
(T.C.A. 63-29-101), requiring it.
After 20 years of service to the Memphis
home birthing community as its 'most beloved midwife,' Margie left Memphis in
1999, moving to Boulder, CO to pursue new
endeavors. Kim asked her first apprentice,
Amy Stewart-Banbury, to join the practice.
During this transition, former junior partner,
Martina Benson, re-joined the practice as
co-partner with Kim Mosny and the two
CPM's continued the HBMS tradition.
continued above...