The Acadia School of Midwifery was born out of the need for a different kind of Midwifery Education.
Acadia Midwifery School is a response
to what we heard, seen, and lived as women, mothers, perinatal psychological trauma therapists, doctors, doulas, community members, and midwives.
All over the world, families are left with limited or unsafe options for care. They must navigate systems where providers often lack the time, training, or awareness to offer respectful care; where patient-centered care remains the exception rather than the norm, and where women leave their births feeling dismissed, silenced, violated, and traumatized: not because of medical emergencies, but because of how they were treated.
We also seen how difficult it is for aspiring birth workers to access high-quality midwifery education, meaningful clinical placements, and mentorships that truly prepare them to serve women and their families. We see how much knowledge and skill has been lost, how many students feel unprepared even after certification, and how entire communities are left without trusted midwives to support them.
Acadia is a school where students are respected, challenged, and supported from beginning to end and where graduated midwives are trained to manage complex clinical situations, while safeguarding the dignity, autonomy, and emotional well-being of those they serve.
Meet our Faculty
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Clinician Educator | University of California, San Francisco
Pediatrician | San Francisco General Hospital
Dr. Heather Briscoe, MD is a clinician educator based at San Francisco General Hospital in the Department of Pediatrics. Her work centers on addressing the racially disparate composition of children in foster care, with a particular focus on the San Francisco area. She served on a sub-committee for the Mandated Reporting to Community Supporting Task Force, a group dedicated to transforming the mandated reporting system—especially where concerns of neglect stem from unmet basic needs rather than intentional harm.
Dr. Briscoe is also deeply engaged in improving care for newborns exposed to substances in utero and supporting their families. She has contributed to the development and implementation of Plans of Safe Care, cultivated strong working relationships with local Child Protective Services (CPS), and worked to slow down decision-making processes to reduce systemic bias and promote better understanding. She has spoken nationally about bringing anti-racism into child welfare systems and is part of Team Lily, an innovative multidisciplinary team that cares for pregnant individuals who struggle to engage in routine prenatal care.
Through these efforts, Dr. Briscoe has helped refine institutional policies around urine toxicology, narrowing its use to a few specific clinical indications. She has also played a key role in supporting parents with substance use disorders to enter residential treatment while maintaining custody of their newborns—when appropriate—thereby fostering both healing and family preservation.
Education and Training:
• 12/2019 – Respectful Care of Pregnant and Birthing People (Train the Trainer), National Birth Equity Collaborative
• 08/2018 – Teaching Scholars Program, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
• 2017 – Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training, University of California
• 06/2010 – General Pediatrics Residency, UCSF
• 12/2005 – Doctor of Medicine, UCSF
https://pediatrics.ucsf.edu/people/heather-briscoe#Education
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Midwife and Health Sociologist
Doctoral Candidate in Sociology – Université de Montréal
Marie-Josée Lewis is a midwife and health sociologist whose work bridges clinical practice, public health, and social research. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Sociology at the Université de Montréal under the supervision of Dr. Anne Calvès. Her doctoral research focuses on sexual and reproductive rights in Burkina Faso.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the Université du Québec à Montréal, a Master’s degree in Health Sociology from the Université de Montréal, and doctoral coursework in Health Sociology from Université Laval, where she received scholarships from both the Canadian and Québec governments. She also earned a Bachelor’s degree in Midwifery Practice from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and has been a licensed member of the Ordre des sages-femmes du Québec since 2012.
Marie-Josée Lewis has held several strategic and advisory roles in public health and international cooperation. She served as Strategic Advisor at the Québec Ministry of Health and Social Services, and as Midwifery Consultant for the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada and Oxfam Québec within the Power to Choose project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She is also the Research Director for the Respect project in Haiti and Benin, coordinated by Médecins du Monde Canada.
She has worked as a consultant with the Canadian Association of Midwives, Insuco International, and the United Nations in Haiti. Her academic and professional publications include peer-reviewed articles, policy reports for international organizations, and government documents for the Province of Québec.
Marie-Josée Lewis currently serves on the Board of Directors of Santé Monde (Canada) and works as a Public Health Affairs Consultant with Catapulte Communication.
Her areas of expertise include maternal and child health, sexual and reproductive health, intergenerational knowledge transmission, health-care organization, clinical mentorship, geriatric and palliative care, and health ethics.
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Bloemraad-de Boer, BSc, CPM, LM – Midwife, Writer, and Educator in Integrative Maternal Health
Jacky Bloemraad-de Boer is a Licensed Midwife (LM) and Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) with over two decades of experience in maternal health. Her academic and clinical background integrates direct-entry midwifery with Traditional Chinese Medicine, nutritional sciences, herbalism, and doula care—reflecting a transdisciplinary approach to women’s health.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Sciences from King’s College London and completed a bridging program that allowed her to transition from her NARM certification (Certified Professional Midwife, CPM) to recognition and licensure within the Dutch higher education system (HBO) through the Midwifery Academy Amsterdam. She also holds diplomas in Western Medicine, Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, and Materia Medica from Shenzhou Open University of TCM in Amsterdam and multiple certifications in lactation support, herbal medicine, and doula training.
Jacky founded Midwife Café, a global education platform where she mentors birth professionals in integrative midwifery, physiological birth, and evidence-informed herbal and nutritional care. She teaches internationally and has practiced midwifery in both South Africa and the Netherlands.
In addition to her teaching and clinical work, Jacky is the author of three widely used manuals in maternal health:
• Holistic Pregnancy Manual
• Holistic Childbirth Manual
• Holistic Postpartum Manual
These publications reflect her commitment to evidence-informed, whole-person care and have become valuable resources for practitioners seeking to offer comprehensive, respectful, and culturally relevant support during the perinatal period.
Jacky brings a cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural lens to maternal health education, grounding her work in both modern clinical standards and time-honoured midwifery knowledge
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Natacha is a Registered Midwife based in Montreal, Quebec. She earned her Bachelor of Midwifery from the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières in 2012 and later completed a Master’s degree in Clinical Ethics at the University of Montreal.
She began her career in a birthing center setting, where she practiced for six years while pursuing her graduate studies in ethics. Seeking to broaden her clinical scope and deepen her understanding of diverse models of care, she subsequently worked in Nunavik and Alberta, serving remote and Indigenous communities for over a year.
In 2020, Natacha joined the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) as a Clinical Ethics Consultant, where she developed extensive expertise across multiple hospital sectors, including neurology, rehabilitation, obstetrics and neonatology, and organ donation. This role strengthened her capacity to integrate ethical reasoning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and patient-centered care within complex clinical environments.
Since 2022, Natacha has been practicing as a lead midwife in a multidisciplinary team at La Maison Bleue, a social perinatal organization dedicated to supporting families in vulnerable contexts within the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Montreal. Her current work bridges clinical midwifery, ethics consultation, and social medicine, reflecting a commitment to equity, compassionate care, and the advancement of ethical practice in perinatal health.
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After many years of apprenticeship with SB Midwifery, during which she assisted at hundreds of births, she attended the National Midwifery Institute and became a licensed midwife in March 2011. She has worked with SB Midwifery since 1996, became a partner in 2011, and assumed ownership in 2021. In January 2020, she transitioned out of clinical care to serve full-time as the Director of SB Midwifery.
She is also the founder, president, and CEO of the Santa Barbara Birth Center.
She cherishes the connections she forms with new clients during intake as they explore midwifery care for their birth journey.
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Dr. Molly Fitzpatrick, PhD – Social Anthropologist, Global Reproductive Health Scholar
Dr. Molly Fitzpatrick is a social anthropologist whose research and teaching focus on midwifery, childbirth, and parenting across diverse cultural and healthcare contexts. With over a decade of experience in higher education, she brings expertise in social anthropology, global health, and cultural humility to her academic work and faculty roles.
Her ethnographic research spans Indonesia, South Africa, India, and the Netherlands, offering a comparative lens on reproductive justice, gender, caregiving, and the politics of maternity care. Her doctoral dissertation, which explored the politics of midwifery in Indonesia, was awarded Best Dissertation by the Philosophical Faculty at the University of Zurich.
Dr. Fitzpatrick currently serves as a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Zurich and holds an appointment as a guest researcher at the University of Amsterdam. Her academic contributions support critical, interdisciplinary approaches to understanding birth and reproductive care across global contexts—an essential perspective in midwifery education and maternal health research.
Meet the Director
Creating a midwifery school has been a lifelong dream of mine - to offer a place dedicated to safe birth, safe midwifery practice, and the training of confident, compassionate practitioners. With the founding of Acadia School of Midwifery, I am weaving together decades of experience in education, clinical practice, and international collaboration to shape a program that reflects both rigor and heart.
I am a midwife, educator, and therapist, deeply committed to integrating the wisdom of birth traditions from around the world with contemporary, evidence-based medicine. Over the past twenty years, I have had the privilege of teaching midwifery and women’s health to thousands of people. My work has taken me into urban hospitals, rural clinics, remote communities, and online spaces, always with the same goal: to place midwifery practices as a cornerstone of maternal and newborn health.
My academic background includes a Master’s in Education for Health Professionals from Johns Hopkins University, an Advanced Degree in Tropical Medicine, a Certificate in Global Health and Human Rights from the University of Geneva, and a four-year degree in Midwifery Practice, as well as an undergraduate degree in Psychology. I have taught as faculty at the University of British Columbia, for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and as a clinician-researcher at the University of New Mexico, focusing on perinatal trauma and postpartum mental health.
Acadia School of Midwifery is the realization of many years in the making: a school built to uphold the highest standards of evidence-based, trauma-informed, woman-centred care, while nurturing the next generation of midwives who will carry this work forward with skill, dignity, and wisdom.
Education Pillars