Susan has been a Regional Coordinator and Faculty of FOCEP since 1995. She has been teaching childbirth education classes since 1992, when she was certified through FOCEP. In 1995 Susan received a childbirth education certification through ICEA, and attended a Lamaze Childbirth Educator Training in 2005. Susan is also a DONA certified birth doula (inactive), was a member of DONA International's certification committee, and facilitated DONA approved birth doula workshops from 1994 - 2010.
Formerly the Program Director of the Childbirth Education Association of Jacksonville, Susan trained, certified and supervised perinatal educators and volunteer doulas who taught and provided labor support around the Northeast Florida area. Although Susan has worn many hats over the years, her passion has always been, and remains, teaching.
Susan also served on several maternal child/health advisory boards and on the Board of Directors of DONA International (formerly Doulas of North America) from 2001 - 2011; as Treasurer from 2001 - 2007, President Elect from 2007-2009, and President from 2009-2011. For several years she has been the Financial Officer for the International Mother/Baby Childbirth Organization.
She has a BA in Health Care Administration, completed all course work for a Master's in Cultural Anthropology, and has taken several graduate courses in Accounting and Financial Management.
Originally from Connecticut, Jacksonville Florida has been home since 1987. Susan has four grown children and thirteen grandchildren, 4 great-grandchildren, three cats, and two dogs.
Take the first step towards being prepared for your birth or to becoming a certified childbirth educator.
What students are saying:
Excellent course.
Your strength, compassion and creative drive to learn is empowering and furthermore, contagious.
I have a better understanding of the art of birthing and a firm foundation on which to build.
Exceeded my expectation!
I loved my training! I looked forward to every Friday, and I’m sad that it is over. Susan was very informative and great at answering our questions. Excited to go on from here!
Fabulous! I would absolutely recommend this course.
There are no words to explain how much I have learned or how much I will always value what I have learned.
I really enjoyed the course. Even in having a background to labor & delivery it has encouraged me to speak up for myself & other laboring women.
Extremely knowledgeable and unbiased. Listened to all sides of the topic and encouraged questions and class participation.
I have a new respect for women and their bodies' abilities. I now know that I have a choice in the decisions that are made during my birth
I can't begin to tell u how helpful classes were for us. We felt very prepared and ready when it was time...thank you again for helping us. We've used everything we learned in class and I'm so glad we took the classes. You're a great teacher and we enjoyed you very much.
A FOCEP training participant's testimony
I've said it before, but it's worth repeating...Thank You for ALL you've done. For every challenge that presented itself since August 19th, you matched it with generosity & kindness and I am very appreciative.
This class was not only training, but a source of healing for me. Through the selected DVDs and books, I have found answers to questions that have plagued me since becoming a mother. In class and during my readings, I have silently cried and mourned the losses I've encountered in my childbirth experiences, but more substantial than that - I have been validated!!
That morning ... as we watched "Guerrilla Midwife", I was crying & feeling so vulnerable at having my inner-most thoughts & fears being voiced & explained by the narrator - then I got the call that there was a potential problem at home. ....This raw, protective instinct for my daughters that I've always suppressed with cool calmness was coming to the surface. In my vulnerability, I couldn't override it that time and I didn't know quite how to handle it. I spent the rest of the day & the trip home processing it and we all had a long, honest talk when I walked in the door.
Since that day, my relationship with my daughters has changed (for better), I'm viewing myself differently and even the plans I had for this certification has transitioned into something deeper. I am not the same woman who started this class back in August. God is showing me that I can not help heal or care for the women/families I will meet on this new journey until I've achieved it for myself/my family (I can't give away what I don't have) and that He has used this class to start that process.
I appreciate you and your heart for women - it's what has allowed God to show His love, purpose & concern for me. I hope I have not offended you with that statement, but that is the highest compliment I can give and anything less would not be fitting for all I've received over the last two months.