Mary Anne Richardson is the primary midwife with Tender Beginnings Birth Services LLC.
Rebecca Hightower doesn’t currently practice midwifery, but she assists with the “Stick ’em up IV Therapy” course.
Mary Anne Richardson, CPM-TN, EMT, RN
In August 1994, Mary Anne Richardson made a career change and pursued midwifery. Since then, she has been assisting couples with births in Central Tennessee. During that time, she has trained and worked in hospital settings and in the homes of clients.
She has experienced management of breech births, twins, shoulder dystocias, VBACs, and hemorrhage. She has dealt with placenta previa, placenta abruption, retained placenta, cord wraps, and velamentous insertion of the cord.
As a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) in 1997, she founded Tender Beginnings and was the sole midwife for much of that time.
In pursuit of her passion to improve the reputation of midwives, Mary Anne has served two terms as the President of the Tennessee Midwives Association (TMA) as well as other positions on the TMA board, and still serves the TMA as a legislative liaison. As a legislative liaison, she worked tirelessly, along with other midwives, to legalize CPM/Home birth midwifery in the state of Tennessee by successfully lobbying for three different bills through the state Legislature.
She has served two terms on the Council of Certified Professional Midwives, a division of the Department of Health state of Tennessee, as Vice-Chairperson and Chairperson. Currently, she serves as the consultant to the Council of Certified Professional Midwives, reviewing complaints to the Council. Mary Anne served on the board of the North America Registry of Midwives (NARM) and was the Director of Accountability for this organization for approximately 5 years.
While caring for families as a midwife and monitrice, she maintains three TN State licenses, and she is currently active in providing education to other midwives and students to improve midwifery care for mothers and babies across the country.
She has presented courses to students in local universities and colleges about midwifery. She was honored to serve as the Keynote presenter at an “Empower Your Birth Conference.” She and Becca Hightower together have developed and presented courses for midwifery students and midwives, some of which have been accredited by MEAC (Midwifery Education and Accreditation Council). Their most current MEAC-accredited classes are Midwives and Pharmacology, and “Stick ’em up IV Therapy”. She was a presenter at the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA), an international midwifery conference.
Mary Anne has also been an Instructor and preceptor at the College of Traditional Midwifery. Some of the other institutions that Mary Anne has been a registered preceptor for are: Mercy in Action College of Midwifery, Midwives College of Utah, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, and, of course, NARM.
Education
- Tennessee Birth Place: Basic Midwifery
- Tennessee Birth Place: Recognition and Management of Emergencies and Complications of Pregnancy
- International School of Midwifery, Victoria Jubilee Hospital, Jamaica: Hands-on training dealing with complications
- Columbia State Community College: Emergency Medical Technician Intravenous Therapy
- Columbia State Community College: Nursing Program, 2006, obtained an associate’s degree
- Middle Tennessee State University: two years in the nursing program,
- Doulas of North America: Doula Training
- S.T.A.B.L.E. program completed in 2009, 2013, 2017, and 2019.
- Neonatal Pulmonary Resuscitation
Certifications
- Certified Professional Midwife (CPM)
- Adult CPR
Licenses
- EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) Originally an EMT-IV
- CPM-TN Tennessee State-Issued Certification
- RN (Registered Nurse), Tennessee State-issued license
Rebecca Hightower, CPM-TN, RN
During her OB rotation in nursing school, Becca became fascinated with the miracle of childbirth. To the surprise of her teachers and classmates, upon graduation, she took a job on a vascular floor as a registered nurse. After a couple of years in adult nursing, Becca had an opportunity to work in a level II NICU caring for premature babies. She was able to attend many high-risk births with the NICU birthing team. This was a huge catalyst in rekindling her interest in not only the birthing process but with the laboring woman as well.
May of 2010, she was able to begin pursuing her dream of becoming a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) with Tender Beginnings. Since then, she has also had the privilege of having two of her own water births, experiencing firsthand the joy of having a babies at home.
After years of hard work, Becca obtained her Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) certification in June or 2017. Becca has her own midwifery practice aside from Tender Beginnings.
She and Mary Anne Richardson together have developed and presented courses for midwifery students and midwives, some of which have been accredited by MEAC (Midwifery Education and Accreditation Council). Their most current MEAC-accredited classes are Midwives and Pharmacology, and “Stick ’em up IV Therapy”. Her experience with the difficult veins on the vascular floor, as well as working with the tiny veins of premies, makes her the perfect person to teach IV therapy.
Education
- Certified Professional Midwife (CPM)
- Mercy School of Nursing in Charlotte, NC, RN program
- Adult CPR
- Neonatal Pulmonary Resuscitation
- Certificate of Bible- Torchbearer Bible School in Holsby Brunn, Sweden