Bethany Hays, MD, FACOG is a board certified obstetrician-gynecologist who practiced obstetrics for 29 years. Trained as a perinatologist, she delivered her last baby in 2001, when she decided to put all her energy into “midwifing” the creation of True North, a holistic health center in Falmouth, Maine. Dr. Hays practiced and was the Medical Director of True North until its doors closed to patient care in 2016, after 14 years of changing healthcare in America. Using “Circle Process” described by Christina Baldwin and modified by those working at True North, the Circle created an integrative practice combining physicians and various other healing modalities. Dr. Hays has been teaching for IFM since 2000, and is a current board member. She has been affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine, University of Vermont Medical School, University of New England, Dartmouth Medical School, and Tufts Medical School. Teaching has always been a part of her work.
“In a way,” Dr. Hays says, “I learned everything I needed to know in the birthing room. If you stay with women during labor, like midwives do, you learn the wisdom of the body to solve problems, you learn to take things in small aliquots (one contraction at a time), you learn not to anticipate but to be prepared for everything. You learn about the division of labor between men and women and why we are so different and why both are needed in a creative endeavor. You learn to stay in the present and expect miracles and magic.” She has been described as “earth-mother,” “fire-brand,” “innovator,” “trailblazer,” “trouble-maker” and a number of other less gracious monikers.