Meet Miri Levi, Midwifery Director at Mayo Clinic

People.  They are what makes your obstetrical journey the Mayo Clinic experience!  It starts with meeting them at the check-in desk when you arrive.  You will encounter many in the exam rooms during prenatal appointments, whether they are nurses, physicians, or learners.  They are responsible for helping you see and hear your baby grow during your imaging appointments.  No matter the member of the care team, you can guarantee that through your pregnancy journey you will be in the hands of caring experts who are here to live up to Mayo Clinic’s primary value: the needs of the patient come first!  We know how important relationships are and want to provide you with the ability to get to know your care team members!  In these posts we will spotlight members of your care team who will answer questions, both serious and otherwise. 

In this post, we showcase Miri Levi, one of our Certified Nurse Midwives.  We were so fortunate that Miri joined the team in July 2020.  Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs) are advanced practice nurse practitioners who specialize in caring for women throughout their pregnancy, during the prenatal, labor/delivery, and post-partum periods.  As a midwife, Miri provides compassionate care for low-risk obstetrical patients. 

Why did you choose this profession?  

I chose midwifery as a profession because I loved the long-standing history that midwives have in supporting childbearing people through labor and birth.  Midwifery has evolved tremendously over the years to become a well-respected, highly valued career that is based on being with women through the exciting and vulnerable periods in their life.  Midwives are the experts in vaginal birth, and I am honored to be able to help individuals through this difficult and miraculous time. 

What makes you smile when you leave work?  

What makes me smile when I leave work is knowing that I was able to connect with a patient and make their life just a little bit better that day.  My goal every time I enter a patient’s room is to seek to fulfill their needs in the most honest, and supportive way possible.  If I am able to help my patient build trust with me as a care provider and Mayo Clinic as an institution, then I know I did something right for that patient today. 

What has been one of your greatest accomplishments? 

A greatest accomplishment has been the expansion of midwifery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester and across the Mayo Clinic Health System.  We have been growing midwifery in our established practices and building new midwifery teams at Mayo Clinic sites over the past few years.  This approach helps us be able to offer midwifery care to a wider range of patients through our integrated team care model. I hope we can reach a point when any Mayo Clinic childbearing person throughout the Midwest can access a midwife if they want one at their home site. 

What makes care at Mayo OB different? 

What makes care at Mayo OB different is our new team care model that we implemented in Rochester last year.  When a patient comes in for their first prenatal visit, the provider that they see will be assigned as their primary OB provider.  Each of our providers is part of a small multidisciplinary group of clinicians, nurses, and desk operations specialists who will care for the patient throughout their pregnancy.  This updated process allows us to get to know our patients and their families better during their childbirth journey by increasing our continuity with our patients.  Each team even has a fun bird name to help identify the individuals that make up that team!  When you schedule your first appointment with us, you'll find out if you will be on the Owl, Loon, Sparrow, Bluebird, Penguin, or Flamingo team!

A book I would recommend is: 

A book I would recommend to all birthing families is The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin.  This is a great technique filled book that is oriented toward the people supporting the person that is in labor.  The author is a birth doula and provides a lot of wonderful examples of what can be helpful in managing discomfort during labor.  This book has informative pictures and can even be a good reference for the family when the patient is actually in labor! 

 One of my favorite things about Mayo Clinic OB is:   

Our volunteer doula program.  This is a joint effort between the volunteer department and the family birth center to provide free doula support to our patients giving birth in Rochester.  This program focuses on equitable access to birth doulas for any patient that would like one and it provides an opportunity for community members to serve our patients during this incredible time in their life! 

When you have some free time, what do you recommend watching?  

One of my favorite TV shows is really and truly Call the Midwife!  I love this show and am always so impressed at the accuracy of the medical care.  The stories of the women in each episode are so touching that I usually end up crying every time I watch it. 

Learn more about Midwifery at Mayo Clinic.