Whitney A. Pinger, CNM MSN FACNM

Whitney Pinger CNM MSN FACNM is one of BWB's Training Specialists and our Director of Collaborative Practice. She has been training and serving as a midwife for almost 50 years, most of them as a champion of physiologic, uninterrupted birth in academic medical centers. She is the Founder of WISDOM Midwifery, The WISDOM Pilot Project for Normal Birth and Cesarean Prevention (2007-present), and The WISDOM Model of Collaborative Care.

A California native, Whitney graduated from UC Berkeley in 1983 and completed her midwifery training at Yale University in 1986. Whitney practiced in the Washington DC area for over 35 years, where she established several private and academic practices, as well as directed the Prenatal and Pediatrics Programs at The Washington Free Clinic. She has served on the faculty at Yale University, Georgetown University, Medstar Washington Hospital Center, and The George Washington University.

Her practice, WISDOM Midwifery, is rooted in The Midwifery Pearls, the evidence-based strategies that optimize physiologic birth, and The Pinger Patterns of Labor, her innovative labor management paradigm that promotes communication and collaboration. Whitney is an considered an expert in primary cesarean prevention, evidence-based maternity care, natural childbirth, optimal nourishment, movement, and lifestyle during pregnancy, vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC), vaginal breech delivery, health disparities, and collaborative practice. Her WISDOM Model of Collaborative Care promotes low rates of cesarean delivery and expands access to uninterrupted physiologic birth in hospital settings using evidence-based strategies. Her practices have been nationally recognized for their excellent outcomes and their client satisfaction.

Vaginal breech birth has always been a part of Whitney's clinical practice, and while an Associate Clinical Professor at the George Washington University she was part of a team that initiated the GW Breech Initiative to both provide and teach vaginal breech birth. In this collaborative model of care, midwives and doctors are seen as equal partners with different skill sets and are willing partners to support the physiologic breech process. She is deeply committed to "Midwifing the Breech" by educating her physician, midwife, neonatal, and nursing colleagues about the scientific evidence, as well as the art and heart, of physiologic breech birth.

In addition to teaching breech birth with us, Whitney continues to practice clinically, speak regularly, provide consulting and counseling services, and lead rituals and celebrations. She is married with four children and 3 grandchildren, all born into her hands.