Maureen Darcey, CNM
Director of Midwifery Services

Maureen was born in Buffalo, New York and received her diploma in Nursing from Buffalo General Hospital in 1973. She practiced for seven years in rural community hospitals in West Virginia, Kentucky and Maine before attending Midwifery School in Brooklyn in 1979. After moving to North Carolina, she worked at the Chatham Family Birth Center doing hospital and home births, at the Chatham County Health Department, and in a private physician practice in Sanford. She is pleased to be offering midwifery care and the option of a freestanding birth center in the Triangle area.

Brianna Honea, MBA
Business Director

Brianna relocated to the area to join our center as the Business Director in 2005.  She attended East Carolina University where she earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and Master’s Degree of Business Administration.   Brianna has over 9 years experience in non-profit medical management; most recently working as the Director of Development at the Clinic for Special Children in New Bern.  There she assisted families and children affected by developmental disabilities. 

Brianna continues to pursue her interest in therapeutic arts and healing.   She teaches yoga and has volunteered with an art therapy program for youth.   She is an active board member for a non-profit clinic in New Bern, Focus Therapy Services and services on the American Association of Birth Centers Foundation Board.  In her spare time she enjoys running, yoga, reading and spending time with her family and friends.  One of her favorite past times is traveling. She is eagerly awaiting her next adventure.

Sarah Akers, CNM

Sarah is a second-generation midwife who grew up in an Army family living in Germany, Washington, D.C. and Kentucky.  She has traveled widely through the US and Europe. She was invited to attend her aunt’s birth at a birth center in Oklahoma at age 10. She was amazed watching her aunt and uncle deliver their beautiful son.  She attended undergraduate school at the University of Cincinnati graduating with a BSN and becoming an RN in 2002. Even though she knew she would be a midwife, she began her nursing career as a Surgical Intensive Care Unit nurse. There she worked on providing life support to the critically ill.  Next, she was a Labor and Delivery nurse at a large medical center in Cincinnati where she became familiar with all sorts of complications of pregnancy, labor and delivery. Sarah spent two summers as the camp nurse at an Easter Seals camp which provided camping experiences to physically and mentally challenged people and respite care to their families. This population taught her about the beautiful spirit living in physically challenged minds and bodies.  Sarah completed her Master’s at the University of New Mexico’s Nurse Midwifery Program in May of  2007 and came to join the WBWC team in July.

Allison Koch, CNM

Allison Koch received her Master's in midwifery in 2000. In 2001 she started her own practice in rural Canton, NY called Tree of Life Midwifery. Allison received the 2007 Agent of Change award by the St. Lawrence Chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW). This award is given to a woman whose work has brought about significant change in the community. She has been politically active for midwifery and strives to preserve the midwifery model of care. After practicing at Tree of Life Midwifery for 6 ½ years and delivering 300+ babies, the cost of solo practice led to her decision to make a change. Allison joined Women's Birth & Wellness Center in January of 2008.

She believes it matters how we are born into this world - how we are greeted and cared for as we take those first breaths. She believes it is a privilege to be "with woman"- to protect the space so that a woman can birth, in her own powerful way, whatever that means to her. Allison is married and has two grown children, Chris & Kate, a shepherd-collie mix named KC, and a 17 year old cat named Fudge. In her spare time she enjoys listening to music and singing.

Patty Brown, CNM

Patty joined WBWC as a clinic CNM and labor & delivery nurse.  She also be helps out with home visits.  

Patty brings with her 32 years of midwifery experience.  After five years as a labor & delivery nurse, she began her midwifery career in Saranac Lake, New York.  She remained in Saranac Lake for seven years before moving with her family to Cooperstown, NY.  There, she started a new midwifery service that included an in-hospital birth center.  She continued to practice midwifery with that service for twenty-five years.
Working in an out-of-hospital setting has long been a goal for Patty. Since her three children and her grandchild have been living in North Carolina for the past several years, Patty decided that working at WBWC would be the natural choice.  She followed her passion for providing women with more birth options, and at the same time is near her family.  At WBWC she now feels she can really participate in matching the fullest range of birth choices with a woman's needs.

As an avid runner, biker, and gardener, Patty has been relishing the comfortable NC climate.  She’s also enjoys spending time with her family, especillay, her 3-year-old grandchild, Gradyn. 

“I feel a strong sense of family among the staff and the powerful work to support families that you all do every day. I am so pleased to have joined the group!”   

Jewell Whitmer, CNM

Jewell was born and raised in Falls Church, VA. She felt a calling to midwifery as a teenager and has pursued that mission ever since. Jewell earned a BSN degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and a MSN from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to midwifery, her clinical background included neonatal intensive care and labor/delivery. Jewell has practiced midwifery in the home, birthing center, and hospital settings but her passion is for out-of-hospital birth. She also has particular interest in breastfeeding, newborn care, and complementary/alternative medicine.

Kate Layman, CNM

Kate was born and raised in Florida.  She comes from a long line of nurses, including another Nurse-Midwife and a Grandmother that graduated from Duke Nursing.  She attended undergrad at Florida State University and went on to experience various areas in medicine while traveling the country.  Her work at a birth center on the Tex-Mex border refocused her energy on Midwifery and out-of-hospital birth.  Kate then returned to Florida to pursue her Master's in Midwifery at the University of Florida.  She moved to the Chapel Hill area in June 2009 and is elated to have found WBWC and call North Carolina home.  When not caring for families and their beautiful babes, Kate can be found exploring the outdoors, looking for any reason to dance, staging laser light shows for her cat, and attempting to be more nurturing than a desert to her cactus collection.

Rachel VanBree, FNP/WHCNP

Women's Health Care Nurse Practitioner

Rachel enrolled into nursing school two months after meeting her first midwife in 1998. After a couple years as an RN in an intensive care unit she then worked as a Labor and Delivery nurse in both the hospital and Women's Birth and Wellness Center. It was here that she was able to embrace the power of natural births and witness the amazing capabilities of women in an unrestricted environment. After attending graduate school at UNC Chapel Hill in 2004, Rachel provided primary and obstetric care as a Nurse Practitioner at the Chatham County Health Department. She was then able to return to the Women's Birth and Wellness Center as their Family and Women's Health Nurse Practitioner in October 2008. She strongly believes in the philosophy of the birth center and looks forward to providing care for the women who share this belief of woman-centered care. Rachel lives in Chapel Hill with her husband and daughter Amelia who was born here in June by the guiding hands of our CNM's Jewel and Maureen.

Deborah Booth Adler, WHNP

Deborah grew up in Rocky Mount, NC and moved to Chapel Hill in 1989 to attend UNC.  After graduating she worked in psychology at Duke University and was inspired by a nurse practitioner coworker to pursue nursing as a career instead of research as she had planned.  After obtaining her Master's in nursing at Vanderbilt University, Deborah returned to the area and worked for four years as a nurse practitioner in a private OB-GYN practice in Durham.  Deborah then moved with her family to Sacramento, California where she worked both labor and delivery at an inner-city hospital and at a private OB-GYN office.  Another move took her to east Tennessee where she was on the faculty of East Tennessee State University.  She worked as both a nursing instructor and as a provider at a nurse practitioner run clinic which provided care to underserved populations.  Her daughter was born in 2004.  Deborah, her husband and daughter were excited to return to Chapel Hill in 2006 and her son was born in 2007 right here at the birthing center.  After working from home as an online nursing instructor and also being a full time mom, Deborah is thrilled to be part of the WBWC staff and looks forward to providing compassionate care to women throughout the lifespan.

Nancy Albrecht, RN, BSN, MA

Nancy started as the clinic nurse in April 2006. She was born and raised in the Midwest but has made North Carolina home for almost 20 years. Nursing is her fourth and final career, after stints as a counselor, daycare provider, and childbirth educator. She also was involved with La Leche League as a member and leader for 15 years. Mothering is still her most important role, however; her four daughters continue to amuse and amaze her daily.

After almost 10 years in a private OB/GYN office, working at WBWC feels like coming home. Maureen delivered her youngest daughter, Johanna, 19 years ago! Nancy lives in Raleigh with her husband, four cats, and depending on the day of the week, one to three of the girls. She also enjoys gardening, reading, and emailing friends and family.

You may see Nancy assisting in the clinic any afternoon, but you are most likely to hear her voice on the phone. She is always available to answer your serious and silly questions.

Ellen Shrader, RN

Ellen graduated from Emory University School of Nursing in 1987 and has worked in the maternal-child health field for the past 25 years, including large inner-city hospitals, small clinics, a birth center in CT, and the Visiting Nurses Association. She started working at WBWC in 2003. Currently she is the WBWC home visit nurse and travels to see our birth center families all over NC. 

She is married to her wonderful husband, Ed, and has two daughters, Amelia, 22, who was born in a birth center in Atlanta and Chloe, 19, who was born at home.  Ellen became a grandmother in May of 2010. She loves to spend time with her parents, daughters and granddaughter who all live within 5 miles of her.

Ellen is an avid reader, vegetarian cook and Carolina basketball fan-Go Heels!  She loves being there when a new person enters the world.

Helen Earle, RN

Helen graduated from the school of nursing at the University of Hawaii and has over 30 years experience.    She previously worked at Babies By the Sea, a birth center in Key West, and has worked as a travel nurse.  Helen is also a certified childbirth educator and doula.  Helen loves to travel and has visited Hawaii, Europe, N. Africa, Nepal, SE Asia, India, and Panama.  She also travels to visit her daughter who lives in Spain as often as she can.  Helen works full time at Women's Birth & Wellness Center, but one day plans to retire and move to her favorite place, Panama.  Outside work, Helen is an avid swimmer, and loves dancing and gardening.  

Cheryl Mitchell Olds, RN

Cheryl graduated from the University of Wisconsin/Madison nursing school and has spent time working in most all aspects of maternal-child nursing in Madison, Seattle and Missoula, Montana. She moved with her family to Jena, Germany in 1997 and while there completed a distance midwifery program at the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing. She spent 2 years working at a Geburtshaus (birth center) in Germany before returning to the US in 2004.   She moved to Durham and has been working as an RN at WBWC since the summer of 2005.

When not working she loves to be outside playing (hiking, biking, tennis…) or working in the garden.  House projects and quilting projects also keep her busy, and out of trouble.  She has a husband, Tom, who isn’t always sure her house projects keep her out of trouble, and 2 redheaded daughters, Molly and Sara, who are heading off on their own adventures in life.

Kerry Wilgen, RN

Kerry earned her degree in nursing from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1999. She is also certified is prenatal and perinatal therapeutic massage. Kerry lives in Durham with her husband and four lovely children. She has been working as a labor and delivery nurse at Women's Birth & Wellness Center since 2002. Kerry provides sensitive support during labor so that women are able attain their birthing goals as much as possible.

Ellen Chetwynd, RN, BSN, IBCLC

Ellen was born in New Zealand and lived in both Indonesia and Korea before growing up just outside of Washington DC. She currently lives in Chatham County, in an old farmhouse that is constantly being reconstructed. She has two kids (one delivered with Maureen Darcey back in 1988!) who are grown and living on their own, which has given her time to work on her Master's in Maternal and Child Health at UNC (to be completed in May of 2011!). She has been a Lactation Consultant since 2000 and working with breastfeeding moms and babies for about 10 years before that. Ellen provides lactation services at the Women's Birth & Wellness Center two days a week.

Carey Jefferson, RN

Carey works as one of our labor & delivery nurses and came to us in 2010.  She in a native of Richmond, Virginia, and has worked as a labor and delivery nurse in small, medium and large hospitals.  Carey is very excited to now be working in a birth center. Carey earned her BS at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and then went on to earn her nursing degree at Western Carolina.

Carey loves working in the birth center and seeing moms and babies at postpartum home visits.  She currently lives in Carrboro with her husband, 9 year old daughter, and crazy dog, Jix.  Carey is currently enrolled in Midwifery school at East Carolina University.

Missy Swanson, RN

Missy earned a BA in literature from Boston University in 2003, and a BSN from Duke in 2006. She works as a Mother/Baby Nurse at WBWC & Alamance Regional. 

Missy had baby Elliot at WBWC in May 2008.  Outside of work, Missy enjoys art, reading, yoga, vegetarian cooking, travel & spending time with family.  Her future plans include midwifery school, more babies and traveling.

Emily Joubert, CNM

Emily comes to WBWC with a solid background in women’s health.  After earning a BS in Biology from Ohio University, she went on to study nursing at UNC Chapel Hill. She entered nursing school with the goal of becoming a midwife. After seeing a midwife caring for a laboring woman at a hospital, she knew immediately she wanted to be a midwife! She graduated first in her class at UNC and received the George Livas Award for the outstanding undergraduate nursing student. Working as a labor and delivery nurse at UNC’s Women’s Hospital, she first had the opportunity to work with WBWC midwives and patients. After a few months on the job, she decided it would be beneficial to have more nursing experience before studying midwifery. She also took time off to have her own babies, two active boys who are now 6 and 8. Ultimately, she spent 10 years at UNC, continuing to work as a nurse until she graduated from midwifery school in May of 2011.

Earning a Master’s of Science with a concentration in midwifery from East Carolina University, she also received the Outstanding Midwifery Student award. Her education included a wide spectrum of clinical experiences including: two rotations at WBWC, providing prenatal care for substance-abusing women at a university clinic; working in a community hospital that served a population with a high percentage of adolescent patients; and time spent caring for patients at a private doctor’s office. Throughout these experiences, she loved getting to know the women and their families throughout their pregnancies and was attracted to WBWC for the unique care it provides. She. 

Emily feels very strongly that out-of-hospital birth is a right healthy women should have access to. She's passionate about the need for high-quality, affordable health care for women, access to midwifery, and more options for out-of-hospital births. When she’s not busy catching babies, Emily enjoys spending time with her husband and sons; having outdoor adventures; and watching the boys’ sporting events. She also loves cooking and sharing meals with friends.

Nicole Splenda, RN, LMBT

Nicole has been an RN at the birth center since August 2008.  She moved from Massachusetts after obtaining a nursing degree from Massachusetts Bay community College in 2007.  Nicole started off her love of birth by becoming a doula in 1998. After attending her first homebirth she went to Maternidad La Luz in El Paso, TX and there she received her CPM.  Nicole attended numerous homebirths in CA and MA before deciding to go to nursing school. Nicole has also been a Massage therapist for the past 12 years she loves doing pregnancy/ postpartum massage, but deep tissue is her favorite!

Nicole has three beautiful children Caden, Ty and Noelle all born at home and an incredibly supportive husband, Jot. Nicole loves to spend time hanging out at her “new” old log cabin remodeling, and gardening.  She loves traveling, music, camping,  any reason to get to the beach, and looks forward to new adventures in the southeast.

Teresa Ray, Medical Assistant, Phlebotomist

Teresa has worked at Women's Birth & Wellness Center for over four years. She is the smiling face you will see in the lab whenever you need her. She is in charge of the laboratory services and assists the providers and the administrative staff. Teresa lives in Mebane with her husband and three beautiful children. If you see her outside of the clinic, it will most likely be in the stands watching one of her children playing sports!

Katie Anderson, CNA

Lab Assistant

After volunteering at the WBWC for seven months, Katie received her CNA certification in December 2010 and is very excited to be working in the lab! Katie graduated from UNC in 2008 with a degree in sociology and women's studies. Currently she's back at UNC taking the prerequisites needed to apply to medical school. Aside from studying and working, Katie enjoys searching for and making dresses with pockets and eating eggs from her two chickens, Violet and Iris.

Michelle Dingfelder

Front Desk Coordinator

Michelle Dingfelder grew up in Michigan in an exuberant Italian-American family. Michelle brings her warm personality to the Birth Center. Michelle is a graduate of Chapel Hill High School. She also studied drama at the NC School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. Michelle and her husband have been married 21 years. They have five children, four boys and a girl -- all born naturally (of course). Called to serve the marginalized, Michelle is involved in the ministry of Chapel Hill's Grace Church. She grew a church service program by crazy coupon clipping and starting a food pantry delivery service called Grace+Mart which is a she calls "Super Wal-mart for those in need". Michelle is also a vision screener for "Prevent Blindness NC." She comes with plenty of experience with non-profit organizations and, she worked as a schedule coordinator for "Right at Home," a home-care agency in Hillsborough. Michelle says the mission of WBWC is her heartbeat, and she especially enjoys working in women's health and wellness promotion. She has a newfound interest in natural remedies and healing, and is always happy to hold the babies while their mom's get their check-ups.

Layne Townsend

Administrative Assistant

Layne is a native of North Carolina and recently moved back to her home state from McDonough, Georgia. She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Layne currently lives in Raleigh and enjoys spending time with her friends, family and horse, Eli.

Sofia Marks

Bilingual Administrative Assistant

Sofia Marks began working at Women's Birth & Wellness Center as our Bilingual Administrative Assistant in February of 2010.  She is originally from Santa Barbara, California where she earned her Associate's Degree in psychology from Santa Barbara Community College. Prior to working at WBWC, Sofia worked as a Job Coach at another non-profit, Goodwill Industries of Southern Neveda.  Working at WBWC has been very inspiring for her.  Sofia plans to finish her degree in sociology in 2014.  

Being a mother of three daughters, her favorite part of working at WBWC is getting to hold new born babies.

Sarah Coonley

Boutique Sales Associate

Sarah Coonley was born in Florida but has moved many times since then!  She received her Bachelor's of Nursing degree in 2000 from the College of Mount St.Vincent in Riverdale, NY.  She and her husband moved to Durham in 2002 where she worked as a pediatric oncology RN until the birth of their daughter (at the birthing center!) in October 2006.  They also have a three year old daughter and a son who was born in October of 2008.  Sarah has long had a passion for cloth diapers and enjoys sharing her experiences with those new to the cloth diapering world.  

Being part of the boutique team is a great way for her to spread the word!

Rosalind Baglio

Boutique Manager

Joining the Birth & Wellness Center family as Boutique Manger, Rosalind is originally from Maryland, where she became a Maryland Thespian in 1994. One of her favorite memories with the Drama Club was performing in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival the first year American high schools were invited to do so. She enjoys singing, ice skating, and outdoor activities. Although, Rosalind has no children of her own, she has a lifelong love of babies. Previously working in retail as a manger and a visual merchandising supervisor, she hopes to bring her distinctive organizational skills and eye for detail to the atmosphere of the boutique. Currently pursuing a Business Administration degree, she would also like to embark upon a medical coding certification in the near future.

Holly Lindsay-Miller

Boutique Sales Associate

Originally from Kentucky, Holly Lindsay Miller moved to North Carolina after graduating from the University of Cincinnati with a B.A. in Sociology. Since moving to Durham with her husband, she has given birth to two daughters, both born at the Birth Center. Since their births, Holly has been pursuing certification as a postpartum doula. She finds helping women and families at the Boutique is another way she can surround herself with the many things she loves. When not working at the Boutique, Holly enjoys reading, hiking, concerts, mountain travel, and getting to see her children develop into the unique people they are.

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