Mary Sommers CPM MPS Mary Sommers brings many years of experience and wisdom from assisting at more than 1000 deliveries during the past 26 years. She co-founded Chicago Community Midwives, a not-for-profit home birth service in the 1980’s. She has worked as a midwife, doula and lactation consultant for various practices in Chicago and at the Madison Birth Center. Mary has also directed several nurse-midwifery services and maternal-child health programs run out of community health centers. While serving as co-director at one of these, the program was given an award by the UNICEF' Safe Motherhood Initiative and cited it as a model for safety. Mary was a World Health Organization fellow in 1994, studying maternal health and breastfeeding programs in the Netherlands and Great Britain. She is member of the International Advisory Board for CASA, the first professional midwifery program in Mexico. She recently visited Embangweni, Malawi, where she is involved in a midwifery education project there. Mary is often invited to speak about midwifery at conferences around the world. She is the proud mother of five beautiful children, all born at home.

AnnMarie Rian Wanzeck CPM AnnMarie is a Certified Professional Midwife and has practiced midwifery since 2007. She completed her education at Birthwise Midwifery School in Bridgton, Maine, and while working with seasoned midwives in home and birth center practices in Maine, New Hampshire and South Florida. AnnMarie has a strong interest in herbal, homeopathic, and other modalities in health and healing. She left a private home and birth center practice in Maine to return to her Midwestern roots, and lives with her husband and daughter in Madison.

Kate Brethauer CNM, MSN, CLC Kate has a diverse background and knowledge base in labor and birth, women’s health, and out of hospital care. She believes in the power of women and their families, and enjoys helping women throughout the life cycle. Kate believes in the beauty and normalcy of birth as a natural and unique life event, and sees herself as a facilitator of this special event. For thirty years, Kate has worked with birthing women, first as a labor and delivery nurse in a Madison hospital where she was inspired by laboring women to become a midwife. After attending Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing, she spent two years learning from women in Nicaragua about natural childbirth and was able to attend births with women in both home, hospital and birth center settings. Kate established a homebirth practice in Madison in 1999 and partnered with Ingrid Andersson for five years helping to create the Community Nurse Midwives practice that is still in operation. After several years working with the Madison Public Health Dept, Kate found her dream job in Milwaukee and currently works in a full scope practice (including well woman care, prenatal care, birth and postpartum care) with low income Hispanic women in a hospital birth practice with seven other midwives. Kate feels blessed to work part-time at Madison Birth Center while continuing to attend up to ten births a month in Milwaukee! “I feel that bridging the worlds of out-of-hospital birth and in-hospital birth to be something I can help facilitate. It is so important to keep all options open to women, so that they can choose what is right for their families.”

Cathy Szudy CNM, MSN, IBCLC Cathy’s career has always been focused on maternal-child nursing. She has been an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) for many years. As one of the few nurses in Madison with an IBCLC, she was instrumental in starting the first hospital-based lactation program in Madison. Cathy is an original board member of the Mothers’ Milk Association of Wisconsin—a Madison based human milk depot for the Ohio Milk Bank. She continues to be very active in this volunteer organization. Cathy received her training as a nurse-midwife through Frontier School of Midwifery & Family Nursing and her Master’s degree in Nursing through the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio. Cathy is also an Advanced Practice Nurse Prescriber (APNP). She practiced as a CNM in a hospital based practice in downtown Milwaukee and has assisted with a home birth practice in Madison. Cathy is the mother of 6 adult children and grandmother to 10. One of her grandchildren was born at the Madison Birth Center, and many of the others have been born at home. Cathy is thrilled to be a part of the Madison Birth Center and feels honored to be a part of your pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience.