Susan Lees, RM

I am a 3rd generation midwife born at home through the loving hands of my grandmother.

I did my own formal midwifery training in 1980 at a big academic hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa following my training as a general nurse. Thereafter I worked in the labour ward for 12 years, gaining invaluable experience in high risk obstetrics and low risk midwifery care. During this time I was the primary midwife at the 1st documented water birth in the country (1985), attended my 1st homebirth (1985), got married, and became the mother to my two daughters Rebecca (1986) and Ebony (1988).

I launched my own private homebirth practice in 1994, which is where I have spent the vast majority of career, deeply re-examining and questioning the areas of midwifery that have been usurped by the medical system, sifting through what parts of my training remained valuable to me and which information no longer served me or the mothers I attended.

More recently I have had the opportunity (through BWB) to re-educate myself in art of upright physiological breech birth and reskill myself in recognising and managing deviations in the mechanism thereof. This has given me the opportunity to offer VBB as an option to the women who previously have not been afforded access to safe breech birth. It is my deep desire to continue to provide this service and to pass the knowledge on to current and future maternity care providers.