Mary Kroeger

Mary Kroeger, CNM, MPH, was a nurse midwife from 1980 to 2004. Mary held a Masters degree in Public Health and wrote regularly for Midwifery Today, most recently contributing Maiden Midwives, a series of interviews with aspiring midwives. Mary died on December 15 after more than a year battling cancer.

Mary lived and worked long-term overseas in Somalia, Belize, Swaziland, Kazakhstan, and Indonesia. She was a specialist in safe motherhood, child survival, family planning, lactation management, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT). Mary consulted widely for UNICEF, World Bank, USAID and private funders in Belize, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, China, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Swaziland, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, Turkmenistan and Jordan. Her international work found her frequently counter-parted with Ministry of Health program planners, educators and policy makers, and in this role she tried to bridge the gap between developing country realities and western norms and standards that are brought in under the “development model.”

For two decades, Mary also remained clinically active and practiced midwifery in all settings: home, birth center and hospital delivery in and outside of the USA. Her first book, “Impact of Birthing Practices on Breastfeeding: Protecting the Mother and Baby Continuum” released in July 2003, reflects her philosophy of keeping mother and baby together at all times.

Uterine Massage: A New Profession?

For centuries, the Maya of Central America have treated women’s reproductive ailments with a combination of uterine massage and realignment techniques, herbal preparations and prayer. Dr. Rosita Arvigo has begun to bring this technique to North America in the hopes that more women can benefit from these techniques. Read more…. Uterine Massage: A New Profession?

Skip to content