JoAnna Rorie, CNM, PhD, Receives Midwifery Award

JoAnna Rorie, CNM, PhD, clinical associate professor of obstetrics & gynecology, has been selected to receive the Dorothea Lang Pioneer Award, the most prestigious midwifery award by the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM). This award honors one exceptional CNM who has exhibited vision, leadership, and innovation, and made a lasting mark on the field of midwifery and midwifery educational programs and the integration of midwifery into the health care systems.

Rorie was also selected by the Boston Celtics to receive their Hero Among Us Award, which is presented to an individual who, through their unique commitment and humanitarian spirit, has made exceptional and lasting contributions to our community. She was given this award during the halftime show at a recent Boston Celtics game.

A tireless member of the midwifery service at Boston Medical Center, Rorie can be found on rounds, checking in on new mothers in the hours following birth, educating medical students and residents and traveling into the community on the Curbside Care for Moms and Babies mobile unit which provides comprehensive mother-infant dyadic care during the first six weeks of life.

Rorie has advocated and provided care to the most vulnerable members of the Boston community for more than 40 years working with the incarcerated at MCI-Framingham medium security prison where she was the first midwife to provide prenatal care to inmates. She provided full scope midwifery care to women in conflict with the law at a residential treatment program the Neil J. Houston House on the Dimock Community Health Center in Roxbury and worked for HealthCare Without Walls, providing care to the unhoused people of Boston.

Rorie started the first midwifery service at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in 1981 developing their policies and procedures while increasing staffing to care for women from community health centers delivering at BIDMC. She also initiated midwifery care at the Dimock Health Center, providing full scope care there for more than 20 years while directing their women’s health program. During her tenure, Dimock was chosen to be one of the first sites funded by the national Healthy Baby Healthy Child Program.

Rorie helped initiate and taught in the joint program for midwifery and public health at BU School of Public Health. During her tenure as faculty she advocated, supported and mentored young midwives of color – aware more than  30 years ago that this is key to improving health outcomes for black and brown members of our community.

Currently she serves as an advisor to the Neighborhood Birth Center, a stand-alone birth center set to open in 2024 in Roxbury. This birth center will center the experience of black and brown birthing people in a time of devastating increases in black maternal morbidity and mortality.