Gayle Riedmann, CNM

Graduated from University of California-San Francisco/University of California-San Diego Intercampus Graduate Studies with a Masters degree in 1986. She practiced initially at University of California San Diego, and then moved to Chicago in 1987.  She began the first full-scope Nurse-Midwifery practice at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, until 1993.  After working for a few years at Rush, she founded a private midwifery practice in Oak Park.  Gayle has been the owner of West Suburban Midwife Associates since it opened its doors in 2000, and WSMA is still one of the few CNM-owned midwifery practices in the state.

Gayle initiated West Suburban Hospital’s Alternative Birth Center and Waterbirth programs, and West Suburban’s Childbirth Education series.

She has published several professional articles, notably ”Cesarean Section Rates in Low Risk Patients Managed by Nurse-Midwives and Obstetricians” in the  Journal of Nurse-Midwifery; and “Recommendations for the Management of Low-Risk Obstetric Patients” in the International  Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics.

Gayle has also written several chapters for Nursing textbooks.  She most recently has written two chapters for the Global Library of Women’s Medicine: Education for Childbirth and Preparation for Parenthood.

Gayle is on the Board of Directors of Health and Medicine Policy Research Group and Chair of the Illinois Birth Center Task Force. Acting on her great passion for out-of hospital birth, she worked for over a decade to pass SB 264 a legislative bill to establish freestanding birth centers in Illinois. The legislation was signed into law as Public Act 95-0445 in 2007, and now is in process for Rules. Illinois Freestanding Birthcenters.

Gayle was appointed by governor Pat Quinn in 2009 to the Board of Nursing for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to represent Advanced Practice Nurses/ Certified Nurse-Midwives for the State of Illinois.

Gayle loves to hike, scuba-dive and travel.  She has 3 children, all delivered by nurse-midwives.