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Women's Health Care Studies Programs
Meet our Team

Barbara Reale, MSN, CNM

Barbara Reale, MSN, CNM, became a midwife after a first degree in social and political theory, and some life experience in political activism. She was drawn to PENN’s midwifery program because of its public policy focus and homebirth clinical opportunities, and graduated from PENN in 1988. After practicing for close to ten years in a birth and women’s health center, she directed an adolescent reproductive health center, and then joined faculty at PENN to help create the joint program in midwifery and women’s health. Barbara teaches half-time, practices in an all women’s private practice, catches babies at a community hospital, and continues to remain active in politics. She served as Secretary of the Central NJ Maternal Child Health Consortium, Chair of the NJ ACNM Legislative Committee, and member of the NJ Board of Medical Examiner’s Nurse-Midwifery Liaison Committee, where she was very involved in creating midwifery regulations that embraced nurse- and non-nurse midwives. In 1997, Barbara received the ACNM Regional Award for Excellence for her political activities.

While at PENN, Barbara has been involved on 2 international projects. In 2004, she attended the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) First Americas Regional Conference in Trinidad. The conference brought together midwives with different educational and ethnic backgrounds, to share information and learn about safe motherhood initiatives. Many midwives from underserved areas of the Americans learned life-saving skills, in efforts to reduce maternal mortality in their countries. Educators networked and created plans for exchange of faculty, students, and ideas. The conference was a huge success, and the Second Americas Regional Conference will occur in Buenos Aires in 2007, with more involvement of the PENN midwifery faculty.

In 2006, along with faculty member Janet Lewis and the International Organization for Women and Development, Barbara traveled to Niger, to study the state of women’s health, midwifery and obstetric fistula, in this sub-Saharan African country. Her work in the future is likely to involve the development of a women’s health project in Niger, in collaboration with the School of Nursing’s Global Health Programs.

Barbara is Course Director for the Intrapartum, Postpartum and Newborn Course, and assists with the final midwifery clinical integration course, and the antepartum course. She blends practice with teaching, and remains enthusiastic about her commitment to improve the world through improving the lives of women.

Barbara lives in Hopewell, NJ with her husband and three children. Their lives are full of friends, family and activities in the great outdoors.