Growth, Evolution, and Care: Division of Midwifery Celebrates 40 Years and Beyond with New Endowed Fund

In the almost 40 years that the Baystate Health Division of Midwifery has been in existence, midwifery clinical practice and education have expanded. Baystate houses the only midwifery education program in Massachusetts and one of the few programs in the United States that often brings midwives and physicians together in their educational activities to replicate the realities of clinical practice. As such, the Division of Midwifery plays an important role in our region in providing access to care, a team-based approach and meeting health care workforce needs.

Midwives work in collaboration with physicians at Baystate Health, seeing patients who are lower risk for health problems in both obstetrics and gynecology, adding more providers to the front lines to care for patients.

“There’s enough work for everybody,” laughed Susan DeJoy, former director of the Division of Midwifery at Baystate Medical Center. “We’re very well integrated into the institution, working alongside our colleagues in obstetrics and gynecology to ensure patients see the practitioner that best fits their needs.”

Celebrating the History and the Future

To celebrate this work and help to ensure that the Division continues to grow and evolve, Susan, Barbara, and Chris’ family have created The DeJoy-Nuger-Graves Endowment for the Division of Midwifery. This fund will support the needs of the Division at the discretion of its leadership, creating opportunity to bolster its educational, clinical, and research work.

For Autumn Versace, CNM, director of the Division of Midwifery, this fund will make a critical difference.

“It’s groundbreaking for us to have a fund to support midwives, and to be able to decide how to allocate that funding to support the efforts of our programs,” said Versace. “This fund gives us the freedom to pursue initiatives we may not have been able to and helps us provide even better care in Greater Springfield.”

That care continues to evolve. In fact, the Division of Midwifery will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2025, and over those four decades, the program has grown immensely. Today, it has four entities: Baystate Midwifery and Women’s Health, the full scope practice that began in 1985; Midwifery Triage, where midwives are the first line provider in the Women’s Evaluation and Treatment Unit; Midwifery OB Team, where midwives teach and supervise medical students and residents on their Labor and Delivery rotations ; and Baystate Midwifery Education Program, which began in 1991 and educates six midwifery students per year.

“Midwifery is a cornerstone of the care we provide for our community in obstetrics and gynecology. The Division of Midwifery at Baystate is fundamental in our efforts to improve quality and safety,” said Dr. Heather Sankey, Burkman Endowed Chair of Obstetrics & Gynecology. “We have partnered together to educate and train physicians, medical students and midwifery students to prepare them to work together as a collaborative team that will optimize care.”

The growth continues to support high quality care.

“It’s a big Division with a lot going on,” shared Susan. “We knew we wanted to create something that continued this important work and help supply the region with a talented workforce.”

Ensuring the Legacy Continues

Susan shared that she, Barbara, and Chris’ family had been thinking about creating a fund since Chris’ passing in 2015 as a special tribute in her memory. After running into a Baystate Health Foundation team member at a community event and having some time to focus on what this type of fund may look like, Susan knew the time to move forward had come.

“We wanted to connect to talk about what this fund would do and ensure it was something that would be helpful to the Division of Midwifery leadership,” said Susan. “I’m so proud that I’ve been able to take care of women in my community for this long, and I want midwifery care to continue to meet the health care needs of our communities.”

And, that’s exactly what Susan, Barbara, and Chris’ family have done.

The DeJoy-Nuger-Graves Endowment for the Division of Midwifery will support the many facets of the Division, from clinical practice to education, to ensuring that the future of midwifery at Baystate Health remains strong. While all three would be too humble to accept it, it also celebrates the efforts of Susan, Chris, and Barbara in the creation and evolution of this program.

“My wife was a remarkable teacher and she was completely in her element delivering babies,” shared Chris’ husband, Steve. “I think she’d be really proud of this fund. For her, to encourage others and help them grow is a great gift.”

Chris’ children, Rachel and Jon, agree.

“She truly wanted women to have good outcomes and she always believed in being part of the solution, not the problem,” shared Rachel. “She saw healthcare disparities and wanted to solve them. There weren’t enough providers and midwives are such a valuable solution to ensure that women have access to the care they need and deserve.”

Both Rachel and Jon shared that she was an incredible Mom, and they both acknowledged that she was not only dedicated to her family, but also to her patients.

“Her North Star philosophy was that people need to be informed and educated. She knew that giving knowledge to people was so important for positive patient outcomes,” said Jon. “It was a calling for her, not just a job. We could see, even as kids, that she was moved by the work.”

The Next 40 Years

As the Division of Midwifery prepares to celebrate its 40 anniversary, it’s clear that the work done in the past forty years has created an incredible foundation for the next four decades.

“We have been able to do so much good in the community through providing good care and good outcomes,” shared Susan. “We’ve developed a full scope midwifery practice, grew our educational program and two clinical areas, and, most importantly, have put together a great team of midwives.”

Under Autumn’s leadership, the future for the program—and the community—is bright.

“We need good team-based care because it’s what our community needs and what they deserve,” shared Autumn. “This fund will help us grow, evolve, and be ready to take on new opportunities.”