Heritage School of Midwifery was birthed from the hearts of many people and midwives who saw a need for southwest Florida to have a midwifery school to train highly skilled Licensed Midwives of excellence. Kristin Schuchmann, HSM’s Founder and Executive Director, saw this need as she trained to be a Florida Licensed Midwife. Kristin founded an international distance education school without walls
for birth professionals in 2003. It has trained doulas, childbirth educators, and lactation consultants for over a decade. In 2007, a midwifery course was added to bring midwifery training into the homes of underserved populations. Dozens of birth professionals have been trained and continue to practice in the United States and many other countries around the globe because of the unique form of education. When Kristin moved to Florida in 2007, she discovered that Florida has some special requirements for midwives to have the ability to practice, including 3 years of in-classroom training. She traveled many hours to complete the required classroom time to become a FL Licensed Midwife. Kristin’s school met the needs of students who required a distance education program, but another option was needed for the future midwives of Florida. A dream to have a brick and mortar midwifery school in southwest Florida was born. Heritage School of Midwifery shares Kristin’s passion for improving maternity outcomes all over the world and it is starting with bringing midwifery training to our own ‘neighborhood’ in southwest Florida. The first class of the Heritage School of Midwifery began in September of 2017. Graduates of HSM are eligible to become Florida Licensed Midwives and Certified Professional Midwives after completing all the requirements and testing with the North American Registry of Midwives. Its extensive network of families and birth professionals are a great support for HSM and all future students and midwives that will improve maternity care in Florida.
