Jill Wodnick, MA, LCCE, IMH-E®(II)
Founder of Speaking of Birth
devoted to improving respectful, equitable maternity care.

Jill focuses on the critical intersections of birth equity and health policy.

Jill Wodnick is a Lamaze childbirth educator and doula serving as the assistant  director of maternal policy & early relational health  at Montclair State University focusing on Medicaid benefit design for doula care, the midwifery model of care and birth center access.  She is a member of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid’s Person and Family Engagement Network which focuses on developing quality measures.

Ms. Wodnick is a certified Lamaze childbirth educator and HCO doula facilitator and has been practicing as a birth doula since 2001 and is an Infant Mental Health specialist. Her career has blended consumer education and public policy centered in high value, respectful and equitable maternity care. She was the expert doula for Pregnancy Magazine  and  for a  PBS project on motherhood  centering community health and public health services.  She was the community doula coordinator for Hudson Perinatal Consortium doing an innovative linkage with Early Head Start back in 2010 and other Title V initiatives. Currently,  Jill serves on Institute for Medicaid Innovation’s National Advisory Council on doula services and offers technical assistance to several community based organizations.  She has done curriculum  work for Every Mother Counts and federal  advocacy outreach with Lamaze International and a volunteer for legislation with the  March of Dimes and United States Breastfeeding Coalition.

Her website has several previous presentations for state entities on childbirth education as a under utilized lever for states improving maternity care; midwifery policy and regulations and the value of doula care.  Jill is also deeply involved in ecological and environmental stewardship and is finishing a project on ethnobotany, midwifery and maternal health--centering healthy soil and medicinal plants.  She is a mom of three and can be found hiking, saving seeds, composting and digging in the dirt when not speaking of birth. 

#SpeakingOfBirth

Jill has been invited to speak, testify and write about improving maternity care in multi-disciplinary programs including:

• The U.S. Surgeon General's Maternal Health panel

• The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women's Global Prenatal Initiative

• NJ Perinatal Quality Collaborative

• Lamaze International

• Ongoing expert for The Office of the First Lady’s NJ Maternal Health Summit

• NJ State Senate hearings on New Jersey maternal health

• NJ State Assembly hearings on maternal infant disparities

• Local and statewide programs for improving maternity care.

From 2005-2009, Jill was the Expert Doula for Pregnancy Magazine, Destination Maternity’s website and the PBS program "Parental Wisdom" and has published numerous articles for International Doula Magazine.

One of her most popular keynote speeches, "Breastfeeding as a Protective Factor in Infant Mental Health," was presented at Lamaze International, Grand Rounds at several New Jersey hospitals, Early Head Start Centers, and The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine.

Prior to maternity care, Jill taught persuasion, public speaking, communication, and creative drama at Montclair State University, Seton Hall Prep, Seton Hall University, the PA State System of Higher Education's Undergraduate Women's Leadership Institute, Kent Place's Girls Leadership Institute, and the NJ Governor's School of Public Issues. In addition to teaching speech & debate, Jill led an award-wnnling high school speech & debate team to national excellence.

Jill's undergraduate degree is a BSEd in Social Studies Education and her master's degree is in Public Communication.

Her perinatal trainings include:

• MotherWoman facilitator for community-based peer support in postpartum depression education

• Certified Prenatal Yoga Instructor

• CalmBirth trained prenatal mindfulness educator

• Lactation Counselor (Academy of Lactation Policy & Practice)

• Certified Childbirth Educator (Lamaze International)

• Community-Based Birth Doula and Birth Doula Trainer, Educator and Mentor

• Ethnobotany & medicinal herbs for the childbearing year apprenticeship

Why 'Speaking of Birth'?

Competitive public speaking, debate and drama influenced Jill’s formative early adulthood. From high school through college, her participation in the oratory arts birthed a passion for education, arts and community building. Speech and debate teams in college changed her trajectory and she remains grateful for the training and mentorship she received from her collegiate-level debate coaches, Dr. Kevin Dean and Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean. After leaving West Chester University, Jill began her first career as a high school/college public speaking teacher and debate coach. She led an award-winning high school speech & debate team to national excellence. .

Speech and debate mentors and students from these years not only decorate her heart but also gifted her with experience in curriculum design and differentiated teaching that she brings into her workshops to this day.