Risa Klein
Risa Klein is a CNM and OB/GYN NP, and currently the Director of Midwifery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She began her journey into childbirth after she gave birth to her daughter in 1989, switching from broadcast production to birth production. She became a Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth Educator, doula, and breastfeeding consultant, and then received certification in Gayle Peterson’s Prenatal Birth Counseling and Hypnosis program. She attended Midwifery Today conferences in the early 1990s, met midwife extraordinaire Valerie El Halta, and became her apprentice. After flying between NYC and Michigan over a four-year period while being mentored by Valerie, she attended Columbia University School of Nursing and received her BS in Nursing and MS in Midwifery. Risa began her midwifery path as a homebirth midwife for 10 years, with backup collaboration and consultation with the late Andrew Garber, MD. She then shifted to a offering women a home-like birth in her solo practice, with hospital privileges in six hospitals between New Jersey and New York City, including in an in-hospital birthing center setting. She is a proud grandmother of her grandson Noa!