Meghan Sperry was a college student without a career direction when she welcomed her first child. A midwife provided her care, but what she delivered was more than just a beautiful baby girl for Sperry; she delivered hope. “She said I’m still young and I was strong. I could go to college. I could do whatever I wanted.”
Suddenly, Sperry had a life direction. “My goal was to be like her,” Sperry says.
She enrolled in Norwich University on an academic scholarship, earning a bachelor’s in nursing and graduating with honors. She began working as a registered nurse in primarily birthing units – first at Fletcher Allen Health Care for four years, then also at Central Vermont Medical Center for a year and finally at Gifford Medical Center for the last two years.
At the same time, she enrolled in midwifery school.
She studied online through the University of Cincinnati, earning her master’s degree in nurse midwifery, again graduating with honors and completing her clinical rotations locally at Gifford in Randolph and Bethel and at Maitri Health Center for Women in South Burlington.
Now Sperry has taken on a new role at Gifford: certified nurse midwife, and is hoping to help other young women with their care.
“I wanted to work at Gifford,” says Sperry of the Randolph hospital known for its midwifery program (the hospital now as six midwives) and low intervention births. “I’m excited. It’s been really good. I’m honored to work with Gifford’s midwives.”
Certified by the American Midwifery Certification Board and a member of the American College of Nurse Midwives, Sperry is interested in helping women with their gynecological needs, particularly teens and young women, as well as providing prenatal care.
“I believe in empowering women in feeling they can accomplish their birth. I believe in supporting women. I want to inform women of their choices,” she says, noting that she then strives to follow what women tell her they want for care. Her job, she says, is to listen and – taking directly from the term “midwife” – to be “with women.”
A Braintree resident, Sperry now has two children, Grace, 9, and Connor, 4. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, photography, drawing, painting, running and exercise.