Birth Center Owner, Mary Lawlor, CPM, LM, NHCM, MA

Mary has worked as a homebirth midwife for 26 years, serving the women and families of southern Vermont and New Hampshire and western Massachusetts. "I love my work and feel privileged to be able to keep you company during your pregnancies and births and as you welcome your babies into the world and into your families. As the owner of the new Monadnock Birth Center, I am very excited to offer you the Birth Center as another option for your birth!"

Mary studied midwifery at The Maternity Center in El Paso, Texas in 1980-81, a free-standing birth center operated by midwives and a training center and school for midwives.  She has been in practice in southern Vermont since October, 1981.  Her daughter was born at home in Putney in 1976, and she was privileged to be the midwife for her grandson’s birth, also at her home in Putney, in April, 2005.

Mary holds the national credential of Certified Professional Midwife (CPM), and is licensed in both Vermont and New Hampshire.  She earned a master’s degree in Counseling from Lesley University in Boston in 1989. She been active in the licensing of midwives in both Vermont and New Hampshire, as well as in the successful effort in both states to ensure that women wanting VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) at home will have access to Licensed Midwives for that choice.  She serves as a Midwife Advisor to the Office of Professional Regulation in the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office.

Protecting and preserving access to midwives and out-of-hospital birth requires constant vigilance and work on both the state and the national level.  In addition to her work in Vermont and New Hampshire, Mary is the president of the National Association of Certified Professional Midwives (NACPM).  NACPM is a professional association for midwives that works to support midwives in individual states and to ensure that CPMs are represented in the development of public maternal health policy on the national level.  NACPM is part of the national effort to grow the profession of midwifery and to increase access to midwives, and to ensure the success of the ultimate goal:  the availability of a midwife for every mother.

Meet our other midwives, ANJI CHURCH and ANNIQUE SAMPSON and our birth assistant and childbirth educator, LUCINDA McGOVERN.