We Are Pleased to Announce the
2010 Birth Matters Virginia Award Recipients -----
Jessica Jordan, CNM and Dr Christine Isaacs
Congratulations!
Sunday November 7th, 2010 1PM -5PM
1800 Lakeside Ave.
Richmond, VA 23228
Join us in celebrating our award recipients, listen to Dr Stacey Marie Kerr speak, participate in our silent auction full of excellent items & services. Come to enjoy the Gardens (free pass to gardens with purchase of event ticket!), fabulous food, as well as giving your support to Birth Matters Virginia
We would like to acknowledge our other nominees who are recognized and greatly appreciated by their communities for the excellent work and services that they provide. Birth Matters Virginia supports your efforts and continued commitment to evidence-based care practices.
Thank You
* Diane Sampson, Education Director at UVA Medical Center, Charlottesville
* Jennifer Kyzer, Facilitator Birth Talk, Richmond
* Shirley Dodson-McAdoo, Executive Director Family Maternity Center of the Northern Neck
* Margie Rickell, CNM, Richmond
* Jean-Gilles Tchabo, MD, Arlington
Jessica Jordan, CNM, Richmond/Kilmarnock
Jessica has had a long history of working with women as an educator, nurse, midwife and advocate. She has spent most of her years in Richmond where she attended births in the hospital and working towards expanding birth options for women as the facilitator for a pilot program birth center in Emporia, VA. She has been a main force in recent years behind the Virginia Chapter of the American College of Nurse-Midwives, legislative efforts in Virginia to "free" midwives (both CPMs and CNMs), and the establishment of birth centers under the Virginia Pilot Program for Obstetrical Care in Medically Underserved Areas. She has worked tirelessly to keep midwifery alive and expanding in Virginia at great personal cost. She has taken every possible opportunity to meet with legislators and policy makers to educate them about the needs of women and newborns and the barriers that CNMs face in order to practice. As a member of the OB task force formed in 2004 she was apart of the development and passing of HB 2656. She initiated Centering Pregnancy group prenatal care in two outreach locations in the Northern Neck in 2007. She was involved in the program development and design of the Family Maternity Center and now holds the title of clinical director. Jessica was paramount in establishing collaborative protocols with physicians and receiving OB pilot project approval from the Board of Health. Because of her leadership and dedication, the Birth Center became accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Birth Centers in May 2010, and the center opened its doors June 1, 2010. Through, the Family Maternity Center Northern Neck, she has worked to restore prenatal and delivery services to the area which had lost delivery services in 2004 causing all women to travel 85 miles to the nearest hospital. She is credited with reducing fears surrounding birth, promoting an optimal birth experience, reducing premature births and promoting healthy mothers and healthy babies. I can't think of anyone else who has been more of an encouragement to me to "stay the course" for midwifery than Jessica Jordan.
Christine Isaacs, MD Richmond
Christine is an OB/Gyn MD is on the faculty at VCU Medical Center in the OB/Gyn Residency Program. She left private practice after the birth of her first baby to return to the public sector so she could be involved in the education of residents and to be able to offer a voice to those women who were not only wanting quality care but perhaps a more natural way of birth..
Her presence on the staff has done so much to help facilitate physiological childbirth at VCU. She encourages the residents to flow with birth in what ever position the mom might be comfortable, she supported and helped to facilitate Robbie Davis Floyd's lecture to the residents after the Birth Matters VA event last year and also the one for this year. Christine is the liaison doctor for the CNM's and is totally supportive of what they do at VCU. On a personal level, she chose to have a home birth with her second baby despite intense resistance from the powers that be at VCU. One of the most important actions she has created and pioneered is an incredible family centered Cesarean Section. One mother's experience follows: "The lights were dimmed. A CD mix my husband and I had made to welcome my daughter into the world which included songs as varied as Ani DiFranco, Neil Diamond and A Tribe Called Quest blared out of the CD player. My husband and my midwife were present for nearly everything. And most importantly, when my daughter was taken out of my uterus, she was handed directly to ME. And I was already breast feeding before Christine finished sewing me up. I had an amazing and spiritual experience in that OR." Birth clearly matters to her, not only in providing excellent medical care but making sure that the mother, the baby and the entire family has an experience that they feel empowered by. It takes quite a bit of work to push the edges of all involved and make the changes happen.
