Stacey Marie Kerr

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Stacey Marie Kerr, MD, is a family physician who has provided family-centered childbirth experiences for her patients for more than fifteen years. During the 1970s and early ’ 80s, Dr. Kerr lived on The Farm, an intentional spiritual community in Summertown, Tennessee, known for its midwifery skills. She collected statistics for Ina May Gaskin’ s groundbreaking book, Spiritual Midwifery, which revealed that women at The Farm had a remarkably low rate of Cesarean or other technical intervention and a high rate of healthy babies. Dr. Kerr graduated from the University of Missouri, Columbia, in 1971 with a BS and a credential in elementary and special education. She taught on The Farm and worked with emotionally disturbed adolescents at Fulton State Hospital in Fulton, Missouri, in the 1970s and early ’ 80s. In 1989, at the age of 39, Dr. Kerr graduated with an MD from the University of California, Davis, Medical School. She completed her residency and earned her Board Certification in Family Medicine in 1992, probably the first grandmother to graduate from the Santa Rosa UCSF residency program. Dr. Kerr has two children, both natural childbirths. Her first was born at a birthing center in central Missouri and the second was born at home on The Farm. Dr. Kerr writes about current issues in medical practice and has been published extensively in medical journals, including JAMA, California Family Physician, and Sonoma Medicine. She writes a monthly health column for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. She has served in leadership roles in medical societies, including two years as state chair of the Public Outreach Committee for the California Academy of Family Physicians, and two years as chair of the credentialing committee at her local hospital, a position that allowed her to credential midwives for hospital staff privileges. She lives in Santa Rosa, California.