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Our Midwives
Debi Lesnick, CNM

During my junior year at Barnard College in 1969 my husband and I went to live and study in Florence, Italy.  I was pregnant and asked a woman whose children we were tutoring to recommend a doctor.  Her reply baffled me.  She insisted I go see her midwife!  Before making this appointment we went to tour the maternity unit at the University Hospital.  I was horrified by what I saw.  There was a huge ward with women alone and frightened and screaming…so off to the midwife I went.  I found the attention, warmth, and knowledge that I was hoping to find in a health care provider.  I had a wonderful pregnancy and birth experience (I ended up being my own midwife since my labor went so quickly, but that’s a different story).  I later found out that the reason I had to see a midwife was that it was required by law that a midwife signs all birth certificates!  

 

In any event, I began to think about becoming a midwife during that year in Italy.  Upon our return to the U.S. in 1970, I compared obstetrical notes with friends who had their babies here, and found that I had far and away a happier time having my baby with a midwife than most of them experienced in the traditional hospital setting with a mostly absent physician.  My friends seemed uninformed and without choices concerning what was going on during their births.  I also learned that there were a few midwifery programs in this country.

 

Continuing to follow my husband on his academic circuit, I studied at Oberlin, and finished my degree in Anthropology at the University of Rochester.  Subsequently I also studied physics at Brown University, as well as Dante in the medieval Italian, and chemistry at Hiram College.  We moved often, including back to Italy for a few extended periods.  My second child was also born in Florence.  By the time we were settled at the University of Alabama, my children were in school and I began a nursing program with the long range plan of attending midwifery school.  During this time my third child was born.  I worked as a labor and delivery nurse and childbirth educator (and always aspiring midwife) for ten years.  Finally, a midwifery program opened at the University of Alabama in Birmingham where we were living and I graduated in the first class of 1993.

 

Since 1993 (more than twenty years after deciding that my calling was to be “with women”) I have been working as a certified nurse-midwife, happily catching babies at Northshore University Health System and Rush North Shore Medical Center, first with Humana Health Plans and later with Women’s Medical Group, and since 1999 at Northshore University Health System and St. Francis Hospital in association with Dr. Saleh and his colleagues.  I have been on the University of Illinois adjunct faculty since the mid-nineties, and also provide care for patients and teach Northwestern medical students and residents in the obstetric clinic at Northshore University Health System.

 

My two “Italian” children are grown.  My son Tommaso is married and has a Master of Fine Arts in printmaking and lithography.  He works as a graphic designer.  My daughter Jane is still working on her PhD at Johns Hopkins University studying the Humanities: French, English and Art.  It seems that they both were influenced by their early years in the birthplace of the Renaissance.  My youngest daughter Claire has recently graduated from Oberlin College with a Philosophy degree.  We share our home with three cats.

 

Barbara Zimmerman Minnich, CNM

When I went to nursing school, I had every intention of becoming an ER nurse. My first job as an RN had me working the Med/Surg floor to obtain a year’s worth of experience before transferring to the ER. It didn’t take long before I knew that Med/Surg was not for me. A few months in, a chance encounter in the elevator with the Director of Nursing opened my eyes to the area of Obstetrics. They had an opening, and she asked if I would be interested. Because I would have done anything to escape Med/Surg, I said yes. I knew right away that this was the place for me. Becoming an ER nurse was but a memory.

 

One evening, our charge nurse gave us all a copy of Ina May Gaskin’s Spiritual Midwifery. The seed was planted. It took almost 14 years, but the time was finally right to go back to school. 

 

In my 16+ years of working as a Certified Nurse-Midwife, I have worked in a variety of settings, with women from every walk of life. One constant remained- every birth has been a unique and exciting experience, something which I will never tire being a part of.

 

Long ago, I committed myself to providing safe, individualized women’s health care; first as a Registered Nurse and now as a Certified Nurse-Midwife. My philosophy is simple- partner with each woman to assist/support her in achieving her health care goals- whether they be a supported, family centered birth, or a smooth transition through menopause. 


In my spare time, I enjoy running, reading, baking, and spending time with my family.

Sarah Bartulis, CNM

 I graduated from college with a degree in Chemistry and took a job as a researcher in the Biotech industry in San Francisco. At the age of 22, I hardly knew what I had gotten myself in to, but a career path lay out before me and I followed it with mixed feelings. I enjoyed some aspects of lab work and using my hands, but my scientific inclinations needed a more personal direction.

 

When my husband, Jason, and I decided to have a baby, I found myself pregnant without a clue. I started out with a lovely OB/gyn, but soon enrolled in a Berkeley YMCA prenatal yoga class led by an awesome doula who opened my eyes to midwives, birth without fear or pain medication and Ina May. To my more conservative Orange County roots, I added San Fran hippie flower power! I loved it all, and soon found myself switching to the care of wonderful hospital midwives, whom I birthed my son, Max, with nine years ago and then and there decided I had found my life’s work: the perfect fusion for my science mind and people’s heart.

 

The journey to becoming a midwife has been tremendously rewarding and grueling. I began by volunteering as a doula with Chicago volunteer doulas and from there completed my BSN at UIC in 2012. For the next three years I worked as a Labor and Delivery nurse at Norwegian community hospital, followed by nursing with Gentle Birth Care in home birth. During this time, I concurrently pursued my MSN in midwifery at UIC, where I continued to deliver babies in the home and hospital. While at UIC, I also completed an internship in Sweden with midwives who showed me the art of how to integrate my home birth skills in a hospital setting. Providing care to women within a universal health care system in a country where midwives perform 90% of the deliveries was a truly amazing and informative experience for me.

 

Blending home and hospital birth experience has provided me with the knowledge to take care of women with a low interventionist, hands on approach. My birth midwives were patient and kind, gave me space and time to labor, and helped me to believe in my body and it’s capability. I seek to honor my first midwives as I care for women and their families, and look forward to serving and getting to know women in the Northshore practice!

 

Outside of work, I love to garden, cook and eat with my wonderful husband and crazy son: both of whom were an endless support and entertainment to me as I pursued my dream to become a midwife.

Gaye Koconis, CNM

When I was newly pregnant with my first daughter, Jordan, I found myself locked out of my apartment.  While I sat in the hallway waiting for someone to bring me a key, my neighbor and I talked about pregnancy, and she told me about the Bradley method of childbirth, a philosophy she had used during her labor.  Later, after I was back in my apartment, she brought me the Bradley book, and I began reading it.

 

Strongly influenced by Bradley, I chose to approach my pregnancy and birth more naturally, and sought out midwife care.  After an uneventful, normal pregnancy, my daughter Jordan, 10 days beyond her due date, began slowing down her movement.  An ultrasound indicated she had a decreased level of amniotic fluid and my midwife recommended induction.  I found myself with many interventions I had wanted to avoid, like continuous monitoring, IV’s, and Pitocin, but I still strongly believed my body was able to naturally birth a baby.  Aside from the pitocin, I was able to have a non-medicated birth.  While not exactly as I had planned, it was a very empowering experience.

 

At the time of Jordan’s birth, I was a high school English teacher.  My original life plan was to teach for a few years and go to law school.  I began to question that path after Jordan’s birth, but I had no medical background and changing to such a different path seemed impossible.

 

My second child, Conor, was born in 1993.  Conor was two weeks late, but I was able to avoid pitocin and its associated interventions, for a “natural induction”, and he was born without continuous monitoring, IV’s or medications.  It was a great way to have a baby!  When Conor was born, I was no longer teaching, but working as a paralegal for an attorney.  Soon after he was born I asked myself “if something catastrophic happened in the world, would we need another lawyer or a midwife?”.  I decided to become a midwife.

 

After completing my BSN at Loyola in 1996, I worked as a labor and delivery nurse for 6 years until I completed my MS at UIC and become a Certified Nurse Midwife in 2002.  I had two other children while in graduate school – Mikayla (only 8 days late and spontaneous labor!) in 1999; and Aidan (another “natural induction” at 42 weeks) in 2001.


Since 2001, I’ve worked as a midwife with the primarily Hispanic women of Pilsen at Alivio Medical Center, and with a private practice in Hinsdale.  I have been with NorthShore Obstetrics and Gynecology since 2005, very much enjoying my work with women who know about and choose midwifery care, in a neighborhood I am familiar with and live in.  My goal as a nurse midwife is to always remember how special birth is, to treat each woman and her family with the individuality they deserve, and to respect each birth as the unique experience it is.

Carrie Hansen, CNM

I first learned about midwives while in the Peace Corps in Ecuador.  A friend had decided to have a baby while in Ecuador and decided to deliver with an Australian midwife.  My friend described the midwifery philosophy of birth and the support of women in labor.  I decided to look into midwifery and when I returned to the States, I read everything I could about it.  It complemented my desire to work in a medically-oriented profession, my dedication to women and their empowerment, and  my confidence in natural healing.  I received my undergraduate degree in nursing  from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 in midwifery.

The first baby I ever caught was a beautiful baby girl born in a birth center in Pennsylvania.  The mother was a 40 year old university professor who was so strong, so confident and so positive that she never let me, as a new provider, ever doubt that things would go well.  I was so lucky to be with her for my first experience and I will always be thankful to her.  After the baby was born, I remember driving home at the crack of dawn thinking, “wow a baby was born!  Doesn’t anyone else realize what just happened?  A BABY WAS JUST BORN!!!”

 

It has been 18 years since that time and in those years,  I have delivered  babies in their homes, in small hospitals, in big hospitals, in bath tubs and on the floor.  I have cared for women from many different backgrounds and participated in many different labors.  I am continually amazed and impressed by the birth process and the strength women have to birth their babies.  


I am married to Sam and I have 2 sons, Nicholas and Alexander.  They are an experienced midwife-family and are quite familiar with what my life passion and work entails.  They are supportive and fascinated by what I do.  

Sarah Sumagin, CNM

I am a graduate of Emory University Nurse Midwifery Program. I am an RN, a doula, a childbirth educator, and now a CNM. But there was a time in my life where I didn’t know most of those things existed.

  

 I was a graduate student doing research in neuroscience when I had my first child. I was pregnant at the same time as a friend of mine, and she was with a group of midwives. “Midwives? Really?” She didn’t seem “all natural” to me, but she was from England. “My mom had midwives, she liked it okay.” This was my first introduction to the concept of midwives. Another friend swore by her doula. “What’s a doula?!” 

  

 Less than a year after that conversation, I watched as a 13yr old girl delivered her baby with a hospital based midwife, and I was amazed with the education this new mother had been given, and the respect she was accorded, and I was reminded how critical those things are, for every woman. 

  

 I dropped out of graduate school and went to nursing school knowing I wanted to become a midwife, and along the way, worked as a doula and a childbirth educator, because I needed to be connected to birth as often as possible. Nine years, and so much learning later, I welcomed my fourth child, at home, with his siblings cheering us on.

  

 I love helping women to learn about their bodies, their babies, and their options. I truly believe in informed choice and respectful, individualized care for each woman and family.

  

 I am delighted to join Gentle Birth Care, and to be able to provide other women the opportunity to birth their children in the comfort of their own homes.

   

 In my free time I like to garden, cook, walk in beautiful places, and spend time with my husband and four crazy kids.

Our Practice

 

NorthShore Associates was established over 50 years ago as a solo practice. We have evolved over the last 25 years to a group of ten doctors and midwives who provide comprehensive women's health care to the greater Chicago and suburban area.

 

The group has expertise and experience in all aspects of obstetrics and gynecology, We can co-manage your pregnancy along with the obstetricians, depending on your unique situation.

THE PRACTICE

Practice Announcements:

 

Outbreak of Group Strep B in the Chicagoland Area. Schedule a quick test during your next prenatal appointment.

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Pertussis (whooping cough) has been occurring more frequently in newborns. Get the TDAP vaccine before you go into labor. Even if you have been vaccinated before, the P part of the vaccine will help protect your baby before their shots during their 2 month pediatric appointment.

 

 

 

Any of your questions will be answered during your initial consultation and at any of your appointments. Our phone lines are open 24 hours, 7 days a week, but we will tell you what is or is not something to be concerned about and what are normal changes during your pregnancy, labor, or at various life stages.

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