Meet the Midwives

Birth & Women's Health Center
2595 N. Wyatt Dr.
Tucson, AZ 85712
Phone: 520-795-9912
Fax: 520-795-9934

Meet the Midwives

Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs) are registered nurses with advanced education, training, and national certification in maternity and women's health care. CNMs care independently for healthy women and consult with physicians if there is a problem that puts them at risk. In addition, they work with other nurses, pediatricians, and physician specialists when needed, and can make referrals to social workers and other professionals.

Bonnie “Sky” Forbis, APRN, CNM, MSN, Yale University School of Nursing, 2004. Sky is a native “desert rat” and began her studies at University of Arizona. Before becoming a midwife she assisted women as a childbirth educator and labor support doula for 7 years. Prior to moving back to Tucson she was working as a midwife in Chicago caring for underserved/uninsured women. She is glad to be back in Tucson - “The hotter, the better!”she says; and looks forward to raising her teenaged daughter here.
Photo coming soon!

Fran Wertman, CNM, MN, IBCLC, Memorial University, 1986; Stonybrook University, 2003. Fran has been working with new and changing families for 24 years, the last 9 as a perinatal clinical nurse specialist. She is a certified lactation consultant. Fran has taught diploma and baccalaureate level nursing students and has also taught emergency birth to EMTs. She joined the Birth Center as a CNM in 2004.

Tara Murphy, CNM, MSN, Stonybrook University, 2001; Downstate University 2004. Tara's introduction to midwifery was in 1994 as an intern at Casa de Nacimiento Birth Center. After graduating as an RN, she worked as a labor and delivery nurse on a high-risk L&D unit at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. She joined the Birth Center as a midwife in 2004.

Susan (Sam) Cook, CNM, MSN, Case Western Reserve University, 1996. Sam has been a practicing CNM for 9 years. Here at the Birth Center, she heads up our GYN program, providing annual exams, cancer screening and other important women's health services. "At each visit, I endeavor to listen carefully with all of my heart to what each woman is saying, literally and figuratively, as I try to figure out what she needs physically and emotionally."

Jill Groves, CNM, MSN, Johns Hopkins University, 1996; University of New Mexico, 2004. Jill was exposed to midwifery as a teenager, and knew it was her calling. Originally from California, she worked at Maternidade la Luz in El Paso, and with hospitals in New Mexico, where she earned her certification. Her favorite parts of the job "are the births, of course!" Her great-grandmother was a midwife in Bonita, Arizona. She joined the Birth Center as a Certified-Nurse Midwife in 2006.

Jena Parson, CNM, MSN, Oregon Health and Science University, 2006.Prior to becoming a nurse midwife, Jena worked as a public arts administrator and a wild land firefighter. She worked for nearly a decade as a labor and delivery nurse before becoming a certified nurse midwife and joining the Birth and Women's Health Center in 2007.