Barbara S. J. ("Stevie") Balch

176 Cox Brook Road, Northfield, Vermont 05663
Home Office: 802-485-8019
Email: diyhorse@maltedmedia.com

Barbara Steven ("Stevie") Balch is a midwife/writer/researcher specializing in client advocacy and health care access. Current in-hospital projects at Central Vermont Medical Center include research and policy development on breastfeeding support, education, and follow-up; low birth-weight prevention with emphasis on teen pregnancy; complementary therapies; and local barriers to care.

Stevie has long experience with the workings and failings of rural health care systems as Supervisor of the volunteer Northfield Ambulance Service, community midwife, and Head Nurse at the nationally-recognized Mayo Nursing Home in Northfield, Vermont. The work at Mayo led to the 1992 presentation of a model for the replacement of lost language at the First World Congress on Medicine and the Arts in New York City. Stevie's medical interests cross species to include equines; she has also published articles on equine health and medicine, and has a passionate interest in preserving the threatened Hungarian Kisber-Felver and Gidran sport-horse breeds.

She owns and trains horses at Argentum Fugit Farm in Northfield. Also a lifelong outdoorswoman and environmental advocate, Stevie prepared the 1997 complete editorial revision of the Green Mountain Club Long Trail End-to-End Guide. She herself has hiked the Long Trail end-to-end.

Selected Past and Present Activities

• Partner, The Transitive Empire, 1993-
• Owner, Argentum Fugit Farm, 1991-
• Co-Chair, Patient Satisfaction Committee, Central Vermont Medical Center, 1997-
• Co-Chair, Employee Evaluation Committee, Central Vermont Medical Center, 1996-
• Independent Midwife, Womancare Home Midwifery Service, 1985-1992
• Head Nurse, Mayo Memorial Nursing Home, 1988-90
• Board Member, HUD Community Development Block Grant and Survey Project, 1987-88
• Supervisor, Northfield Ambulance, 1984-88
• Group Facilitator, Parents Anonymous, 1986-87
• Member, Vermont Midwives' Alliance Public Health Liaison Committee

Selected Publications/Presentations

• "A New Model for Employee Evaluation", Central Vermont Medical Center, 1998
• Editor/Designer, End-to-Ender's Guide, Green Mountain Club, Vermont, 1998
• Columnist, Paint Horse Journal, 1998
• Co-author of "Composing a New Language", MedArt International World Congress on Arts and Medicine, New York City, 1992. Published in Southern Medical Journal.
• Lecturer on Emergency Childbirth, University of Vermont, 1988

Related Licenses and Awards

• Service Excellence, Central Vermont Medical Center, 1995
• Comolli Scholarship, 1996
• CQI, Central Vermont Medical Center, 1997
• Registered Nurse
• American Heart Association nenonatal resuscitation provider
• American Heart Association BCLS Instructor
• American Heart Association ACLS Provider

Updated January 25, 1999

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