Internationally acclaimed author, photojournalist, visionary and activist, Suzanne Arms has been the acknowledged leader of the natural birthing movement and midwifery advocate in the United States for over 25 years. Her second book "Immaculate Deception": A New Look at Women and Childbirth stirred a national social change movement and became a New York Times "Best Book of the Year" in 1975, when her daughter Molly was four years old.

Suzanne has been a guest on three national network talk shows, was interviewed by Barbara Walters, and chosen to debate a leading spokesperson for the American College of Ob/Gyn. She has given dozens of keynote speeches on three continents, including the 25th annual March of Dimes conference, whose theme was perinatal issues. Creator, producer, writer and director of the documentary series Birthing the FutureŽ. Her passion and lifetime work is to transform the way we think about, and care for, mothers and babies, and create positive, cost-effective models for our nation's prospective parents.

Suzanne has a BA (with honors in Literature and minor in anthropology) from the University of Rochester. She began her adult work as a nursery school and day-care teacher in the San Francisco Bay area.

It was the traumatic birth of her own daughter in 1970 that ignited her passionate advocacy and commitment to transform both attitudes and practices with regard to childbearing. Now author of seven books on the subject, Suzanne and her photographs are frequently featured in journals and books on birth, mothering, babies and parenting.

Suzanne founded the country's second out-of-hospital birth center and the first resource center for pregnancy, birth and early parenting. She researched, developed and taught the first course ever on the evolution of childbirth practices around the world. In 1977 she was appointed to the State Birth Practices Committee by the Governor of California and was a founding member of the Plane Tree Model Hospitals project in San Francisco. She has previously produced a 30-minute educational video, Five Women, Five Births: A Film About Choices, which is still the favorite of many birth educators. In 1995 she received from Lamaze International, the largest childbirth education organization in the world, the prestigious 25th annual Marjorie Carmel award for her outstanding life's work.

Her first book, A Season To Be Born, was a product of Suzanne's inability during pregnancy to find any books that spoke to a pregnant woman's emotions and concerns. She kept a diary throughout her pregnancy and her baby's father kept a photographic diary of her, and that became her first published book, A Season To Be Born.

Immaculate Deception was named a "Best Book of the Year" by the New York Times and sold over 250,000 copies in its 1975 hard and paper edition and mass market pocket paperback. Suzanne is also the author of To Love And Let Go and Adoption: A Handful Of Hope., both books about the painful choice of adoption. She also wrote Bestfeeding and Seasons of Change.

In 1977 Suzanne made her debut as a video filmmaker with a half hour black and white documentary called Five Women, Five Births, a film about choices. Many childbirth educators continue to use this film in their classes, as it takes the uninitiated gently into the feelings and reality of labor and deliver.

Suzanne continues to be concerned about how much the procedures and specific drugs and other interventions differ from one decade to the next, yet how nothing has significantly changed in birth. As an international spokesperson and observor of trends around the world, she finds that women in virtually every part of the globe continue to be denied the full information they need to make informed and conscious choices for themselves and their babies.

Suzanne's interests cover a broad range of social issues, but her focus continues to remain on childbirth, mothering and early child development because of its profound and direct relationship to other crucial social issues of our time. She is a leading proponent of the growing position that what happens to us at the beginning of life (in the womb, during birth and the year following birth), and as birthing women, directly affects our emotional, physical and spiritual well being throughout the rest of our lives. And, on a larger scale it relates directly to the level of anxiety, violence and addiction in this society.

In 1998 Suzanne assisted John Travis, MD to conceive and birth an organization to integrate ancient wisdom and modern evidence-based knowledge about childrearing and the education of children. They believed it was time to put forth an integrated vision that embodies the principles of body, mind, emotions, and spirit. It is called The Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children, www.atlc.org. The goals of aTLC goals are to help parents, families and communities rear and educate healthy, happy and creative children who participate fully in thriving, cooperative and non-violent communities. To learn more about APPPAH, another significant non-profit organization focused on birthing, visit their website at www.birthpsychology.com).

Suzanne started a small business for social change called Birthing the FutureŽ in 1998. It's first work was the creation of the television-quality inspirational video, Giving Birth: Challenges & Choices. This video features 4 obstetricians, including Christiane Northrup (author of Women's Bodies: Women's Wisdom), a labor doula, an obstetric nurse, a nurse-midwife, a cesarean mother, and a young woman speaking about their experiences and the issues involved today in giving birth. It includes extraordinary live footage of a home birth with a professional couple in the 30s and a second birth in water. This video is now considered by many to be the first educational film on birth ever produced, and has been seen by hundreds of thousands of people world wide. Read what many professionals and parents have said about this extraordinary half-hour video.

Suzanne Arms received the coveted Lamaze International "Lifetime Achievement Award" for her outstanding contributions on behalf of mothers, babies and families. Today Suzanne lives and works in the town of Bayfield, Colorado, on the Western slope of the Rocky Mountains in the Four Corners region that is considered by many Native Americans to be the center of the continent.

In august, 2004, Suzanne created the non-profit 501c3 organization in order to focus on the vital importance of mothers and babies during the primal period, from pre-conception to the first birthday. This unusual organization is intended to draw together men as well as women who are passionate about birthing, bonding and breastfeeding, who want to empower women and foster happy nurturing mothers and happy healthy babies. BTF, a membership organization, is creating inspired projects across North America and internationally.

Suzanne today spends her time researching and reflecting upon ancient teachings and current knowledge in birthing. She is an involved member of the board of aTLC, and teaches, consults, writes, photographs and produces films about the birth and the nature of the feminine.  

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