Whitney A. Pinger, CNM MSN FACNM

Whitney Pinger CNM MSN FACNM has been training and serving as a midwife for nearly 50 years. She is the Founder of WISDOM Midwifery and The WISDOM Pilot Project for Normal Birth and Cesarean Prevention (2007-present). She is also the Founder and past Director of GW Midwifery (2010-2020) and she continues to serve GW as an Associate Clinical Professor. She has always advocated for and offered vaginal breech birth and while at GW, Whitney served as part of a collaborative care team to establish the GW Breech Initiative. She is currently an instructor with Breech Without Borders.

A California native, Whitney graduated from UC Berkeley in 1983 and completed her midwifery training at Yale University in 1986. Whitney has practiced in the Washington DC area for the past 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. 

Whitney is 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. She is most known for her development of The Midwifery Pearls: Evidence for Clinical Practice, a unique presentation of the evidence-based strategies utilized by midwives to promote physiologic birth and The Pinger Patterns of Labor, an innovative and collaborative labor management strategy.

Whitney is committed to, and passionate about, the education of the next generation of midwives, nurses, physicians, and students of all backgrounds. Her WISDOM Model of Collaborative Care advocates for evidence-based, midwifery-led, innovative care and collaborative practice to promote optimal outcomes and expand access to physiologic, uninterrupted, empowered birth.

In addition to teaching breech birth, Whitney continues to practice clinically in both Washington DC and California, speaks regularly, provides consulting and counseling services, and leads rituals and celebrations.