HOME BIRTH IN THE HOSPITAL - Integrating Natural Childbirth with Modern Medicine

Stacey Marie Kerr, MD

Stacey Marie Kerr, MD: Author's Bio

Author's Bio

Stacey Marie Kerr, MD, is a family physician and the author of a recently published book: Homebirth in the Hospital - Integrating Natural Childbirth with Modern Medicine. Dr. Kerr has provided family-centered childbirth experiences for her patients for over fifteen years, and knowing these babies since they were just a heartbeat inside their mother has been the greatest joy of her professional life.

During the 1970s and early `80s, Dr. Kerr lived on The Farm, an intentional spiritual community in Summertown, Tennessee, that was known for its midwifery skills. While there, she collected statistics for Ina May Gaskin's groundbreaking book, Spiritual Midwifery, which revealed that women at The Farm had a remarkably low rate of Cesarean or other technical intervention and a high rate of healthy babies. Watching these skilled midwives, as well as an older country doctor who provided a style of personal care rarely seen in these days of large clinics and HMOs, Dr. Kerr became inspired to become a physician.

Stacey Marie Kerr, MD Dr. Kerr has two children, both natural childbirths. Her first was born at a birthing center in central Missouri and the second was born at home on The Farm in Summertown Tennessee. In addition to her two grown daughters she now has a grown grandson and a growing granddaughter.That's a lot of growth!

Dr. Kerr graduated from the University of Missouri, Columbia, in 1971 with a BS and a credential in elementary and special education. She taught on The Farm and worked with emotionally disturbed adolescents at Fulton State Hospital in Fulton, Missouri, in the 1970s and early `80s.

Stacey Marie Kerr, MD In 1989, at the age of 39, Dr. Kerr graduated with an MD from the University of California, Davis, Medical School. She completed her residency and earned her Board Certification in Family Medicine in 1992, probably the first grandmother to graduate from the Santa Rosa UCSF residency program.

Dr. Kerr writes about current issues in medical practice and has published extensively in medical journals, including JAMA, California Family Physician, and Sonoma Medicine. She writes a monthly health column for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. She has been active in outreach to the medically under-served through her private practice, providing free medical care to patients who have no insurance coverage, and providing medical information at minimal cost through her Web site (www.the-doctors-inn.com). She has served in leadership roles in medical societies, including two years as State Chair of the Public Outreach Committee for the California Academy of Family Physicians, and two years as chair of the credentialing committee at her local hospital, a position that allowed her to credential midwives for hospital staff privileges. Dr. Kerr's passion outside of medicine and writing is her cobalt blue Harley-Davidson motorcycle. She currently lives in Santa Rosa, California.

Please feel free to contact me

Stacey Marie Kerr, MD

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Latest Reviews

If you’re pregnant or planning to be, read this book! Dr. Kerr’s wise embrace of nature and technology demonstrates that the best births have the right mix of midwifery and medicine.
--Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein, creators of the film The Business of Being Born

Dr. Stacey Kerr's wonderful book of birth stories shows how the midwifery model of care can be provided within a hospital setting. I hope that Homebirth in the Hospital reaches a wide audience of parents-to-be and physicians, as it's just what the midwife ordered! It should be required reading for all obstetric and family practice residents.
--Ina May Gaskin

A must read for the expectant parents who want a natural birth but also want to have the security of a safe and happy delivery. Dr. Kerr is an impassioned advocate of patient empowerment in the birthing process. She has always practiced what she so eloquently believes. Congratulations to Dr. Kerr for writing this very timely and much needed book on natural childbirth in a hospital setting.
--Bob G. Field, M.D., F.A.C.O.G.

"Homebirth in the Hospital is a wonderful breath of fresh air! Dr. Kerr's balanced approach to childbirth is inspiring and very helpful. I highly recommend this book."
--Christiane Northrup, MD, author of Mother-Daughter Wisdom (Bantam, 2005), The Wisdom of Menopause (Bantam, revised and Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom (Bantam, revised 2006)

Homebirth in the Hospital is an outstanding book and a must read for all expectant parents as well as the providers who care for them. We are in an era where women are fearful of trusting their bodies to birth normally and...
--Phyllis Klaus, MFT, LCSW Perinatal therapist, reseacher, co-author of The Doula Book, Bonding, Your Amazing newborn, When Survivors Give Birth

A much-needed book showing that women can have real choices in hospital childbirth, and that the key ingredient in their ability to give birth as they wish is the ideology, the wisdom, and the heart of the practitioner...
--Robbie Davis-Floyd PhD, author, Birth as an American Rite of Passage