BACE: Boston Association for Childbirth Education

A Letter from the Executive Director

Dear BACE-NMC Members and Friends,

The Boston Association for Childbirth Education and the Nursing Mothers’ Council are happy to share with you the exciting work that our organization has undertaken. As a little non-profit with a wonderful mission, worthwhile vision, sincere commitment, and growing involvement, we invite you to join us! Come be a part of a change in the paradigm of how childbearing women and their families are reached, supported, encouraged, and taught to welcome their babies.

I have been a BACE-NMC member since 1993 and in 2009 was appointed by the Board of Directors as its first Executive Eirector. The Board charged me with working towards the following goals: to help bring childbirth and breastfeeding education and support back into our communities; to grow our programs in ways that welcome women from all cultural and linguistic backgrounds; to help identify resources and create opportunities that reduce the barriers to access in perinatal health; and to inform women of affordable and available support services that our communities offer.

It is my belief that we will accomplish our goals first and foremost by welcoming you as our colleague, our friend, and as a committed advocate for mothers and families. By offering ongoing affordable training in perinatal health education to those who want to help the women and families in their own communities, we will broaden our reach and the impact of our vision. When we enable educators and counselors to develop successful ways of reaching women in their own neighborhoods, we will be where we want and need to be--in the community. Often we hear from mothers that their childbirth education was not engaging, was biased, and did not prepare them for the full experience of giving birth and welcoming their baby. Moreover, it did not address their fears in ways that allowed them to enter this important experience in their lives with full confidence and understanding. It is our goal to become the place perinatal health educators can go to get updated, refocused, and re-energized to teach dynamic, accurate, comprehensive, and meaningful classes. It is our sincere hope that a growing number of expectant women will have access to childbirth educators and Nursing Mothers’ Counselors trained by BACE-NMC, so that they will receive the quality education, support and guidance that all women and their families deserve.

If you share our goals, we welcome you with open arms to join BACE-NMC. Become involved in our programs. Focus your energy and help us to improve the many services women and families need during the joyful, but frequently overwhelming, perinatal period. Become an active member of an organization that is committed to helping women and their families in their own communities, in their own languages, all across our region.

With enthusiasm and commitment,

Lorenza Holt
Executive Director
BACE-NMC

Lorenza Holt,MPH, BCCE, CD(DONA) has been a birth advocate in the Boston area for over 20 years. She was the founder and director of the Cambridge Doula Program at the Cambridge Birth Center. While obtaining her MPH at Boston University, with a concentration in maternal and child health, she focused her research and work on innovative ways of recognizing and addressing maternal depression, especially during routine pediatric visits. From 2006 to 2009, Lorenza went to Boston Medical Center to manage the Birth Sisters Program. Lorenza's passion for normal birth has led her to support hundreds of pregnant and laboring women. She has also trained and supervised dozens of women as community doulas to support women from their own communities. Lorenza became a BACE Certified Childbirth Educator (BCCE) in 1993 and she enjoys teaching childbirth education classes to women in ways that encourage and stimulate them to embrace the powerful, beautiful, and magical experiences of birth, breastfeeding, and parenting.

Like so many others, Lorenza is dismayed by hospital labor and delivery practices and how they impact birth and breastfeeding in the United States. She is concerned about the increasing number of women being prematurely induced, the growing rates of cesarean sections, the lack of VBAC options and the limited out-of-hospital birthing options. What concerns her most of all is the fear she sees in so many women when they consider the possibility of birthing their babies without medications. In 2009, the BACE-NMC board of directors appointed Lorenza as the first Executive Director. She is committed to the organization’s vision and mission and her goal is that BACE provide a local example of how maternity care can be transformed in ways that are beneficial to women and babies, rather than health care institutions.

Besides being the Executive Director of BACE-NMC, Lorenza is also on the board of directors of the Massachusetts Association for Community Health Workers (MACHW) and the Healthy Mothers Health Babies Coalition of Massachusetts. She is the mother of two children.

BACE Mission & Vision

History of BACE

Board of Directors

Administrative Teams

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