Penny Simkin was a childbirth educator and maternal advocate who has been described as the “mother of the doula movement,” writes Penelope Green for The New York Times.

Simkin, who promoted a profession that focuses on comfort to women giving birth and on postpartum care, has died at age 85.

Ms. Simkin pioneered the methods that helped women have a better experience during and after birth.

The doula movement was embraced several decades ago by alternative birth professionals. It refers to someone who supports mothers during labor. 

Ms. Simkin helped popularize the doula role and worked as a doula herself.

She was the founder of Doulas of North America, now called DONA International.

Penny Simkin grew up in Yarmouth, Maine, and studied English literature at Swarthmore College, where she met medical student Peter Simkin. 

They married in 1958..

She went on to become a physical therapist and shadowed physical therapists in England who were using physical therapy in childbirth.  That sparked her interest in maternal care.

“Birth never changes,” Ms. Simkin told The Chicago Tribune in 2008. “But the way we manage it, and the way we think of it, has.”

Read more about how Penny Simkin influenced the approach to childbirth in The New York Times.