About Carol

Carol Leonard, a "foremother of the modern midwifery movement," is a New Hampshire certified midwife who has been practicing for the last three decades. She is co-founder of the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA), which represents all midwives in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and served one term as its president. Her work to improve maternity care in Moscow, Russia, was featured on 20/20 and was written into the Congressional Record. She is currently building a four-hundred-acre farm in Ellsworth, Maine, named Bad Beaver Farm.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

· First midwife certified to practice legally in NH in 1982.

* She has delivered approximately 1,200 babies safely in their own homes.

· Received the Bronze Medal for Bravery from the Australian government in 1984.

· Appeared on the Today Show with Jane Pauley in 1985.

· Elected President of the Midwives Alliance of North America (the professional organization for midwives in the US, Canada and Mexico) in Wheeling, WV in 1986.

· First American to deliver a Soviet/Russian baby in a Moscow rodom (maternity hospital). This was filmed and featured on 20/20 with Barbara Walters in 1991.

· Leonard’s unpublished manuscript of Lady’s Hands, Lion’s Heart was installed in the Margaret Sanger Archives at Smith College in 1999.

· As a lobbyist for the New Hampshire Midwives Ass’n, Leonard won a heated legislative battle mandating insurance coverage for home births in NH in 2007.

· 10/2008, Leonard’s self-published memoir Lady’s Hands, Lion’s Heart, A Midwife’s Saga was awarded the Mothers Naturally award of excellence for Outstanding Book, 2008 in the Traverse City Opera House, Michigan.

Carol is available for book signings and her power point presentation:

one midwife’s saga

Carol Leonard, BS, NH Certified Midwife, Author of

Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart: A Midwife's Saga,

Bad Beaver Publishing, 2008.

This Power Point Presentation presents a brief herstory of the social context that led up to the emergence of the new “modern” midwife, then a spirited, personal account from the first midwife practicing in New Hampshire, created by those brave homebirth families of the 1970’s. This talk showcases Carol’s all time favorite midwifery photos that briefly address the legal/legislative issues faced by the “lay” midwife, the obstacles placed by the medical community to homebirth practitioners, and how the midwives began to organize, nationally, to share experiences, support one another, and to learn from each other. There will be a Q&A session immediately following. (1.5 hours, CEUs available)

For further information on arranging for this presentation, go to:

Bad Beaver Publishing

585 Hopkinton Road

Hopkinton, NH 03229

603.224.4596