Maura Winkler, CNM, IBCLC

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Maura Winkler is a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM), Registered Nurse (RN), Certified Doula (CD), Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), and mother of three. She brings her expertise to Mama Natural as well as Fika Midwifery in Buffalo, NY.

Maura Winkler moved to Chicago to pursue a medical degree but quickly discovered that the medical model of care of women did not match her personal values and philosophies. She left medical school and immediately began her path to becoming a certified nurse midwife (CNM) at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Maura believes strongly in the midwifery model of care–namely that women and their health care team are shared decision makers. She is a strong proponent of informed decision-making and consent and views women as experts in their own bodies. While midwives in the United States are primarily known as providers of care during pregnancy and childbirth, women of all life stages can benefit from the care of a midwife.

Throughout her work as a birth and postpartum doula for six years as owner of Chicago Birth & Baby, Maura supported women & families through all types of labor & birth experiences in both hospital and out of hospital settings. Maura’s training as a student midwife at West Suburban’s Alternative Birth Center just outside of Chicago in Oak Park, Illinois solidified her interest in low intervention birth in the hospital setting. She collaborated in writing the Mama Natural Week-by-Week Guide to Pregnancy as well as the Mama Natural Birth Course. She has supported hundreds of breastfeeding women as a board certified lactation consultant (IBCLC) and Breastfeeding USA Counselor. Maura founded Fika Midwifery in 2017.

Articles reviewed by Maura Winkler, CNM, IBCLC