MONTEVALLO—The University of Montevallo will host a presentation, Best Practice: Closing the Gap – the JJ Way®, Saturday, Feb. 23, at 1 p.m., in the Montevallo Room of Anna Irvin Dining Hall on the UM campus. The event is sponsored by the Montevallo chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME), UM’s social work program and Department of Communication in partnership with the Alabama Birth Coalition and BirthWell Partners. The event is free to faculty, staff and students of the University of Montevallo or UAB with valid ID; friends of the university will pay $5.
Jennie Joseph, a licensed and certified professional midwife, will present a brief film and lead a discussion addressing poor perinatal outcomes of African American pregnant women and babies and how to create more equitable access to maternity care for women and families in under-resourced communities.
Joseph, a native of the U.K., received her midwifery education from Barnet School of Nursing and Midwifery in affiliation with Edgware General Hospital in London. She moved to the United States in 1989 and became Florida’s first foreign-trained midwife under the Midwifery Practice Act, reopened in 1994. She has developed an innovative maternal child healthcare system in central Florida, and, as executive director of The Birth Place, a free-standing birthing facility in Winter Garden, Fla., Joseph sees women from all walks of life who are expecting healthy babies and who choose a natural birth.
Joseph opened her own Florida licensed school, Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery, in January 2010. She is the former chair for the Florida State Council of Licensed Midwifery and continues to serve as a member. A longstanding member of the Orange County Healthy Start Coalition and an advocate for the plight of newborns and infants, Joseph developed the “Save Our Babies” initiative as well as The JJ Way® Maternal Child Health care system, recognized nationally as an effective program and an emerging “best practice.”