Our Midwives

At the Midwifery Group at Swedish, we believe that a strong and trusting relationship between you and your healthcare provider is essential to achieving your healthcare goals. As a result, you’ll find that each of our certified nurse midwives (CNMs) are not only highly skilled and experienced medical practitioners, but also attentive listeners, knowledgeable counselors and compassionate caregivers. This unique combination of qualities allows you to not only feel confident about the quality of care you are receiving, but also comfortable and at ease discussing questions and concerns that may arise during various stages of life.

All of our CNMs are registered nurses (RNs) with master’s degrees in midwifery. Backed by more than 30 years of combined experience and expertise, our CNMs are all certified by The American College of Nurse Midwives and licensed by the state of Colorado.

Jennifer Whalen, CNM, ND

Specializing in labor, delivery and postpartum care for five years, Jennifer brings a broad base of nursing experience and expertise to her practice as a certified nurse midwife. She holds degrees in both nursing and exercise physiology, as well as a doctorate in nursing and a Master’s Degree in Nurse Midwifery from the University of Colorado. Jennifer is married with two sons and enjoys just about any outdoor activity, especially skiing!

Mary Wilterdink, CNM, ND

Mary has 14 years experience in nurse midwifery. Prior to joining this practice, Mary was at St. Joseph Hospital in Denver where, as lead midwife, she helped establish the new OB Triage unit in which nurse midwives evaluated 6,000+ patients a year. From 2000 to 2007 Mary was an integral part of Mountain View Nurse Midwives at North Suburban Hospital providing full scope midwifery care. Previous to this Mary was a midwife in a hospital-based practice in the Centura Health system in Denver.

During her career Mary has worked closely with women of all ages and during all phases of life and has delivered over 1,000 babies. Before making the career change to midwife, Mary was also a medical technologist and a labor/delivery nurse. Mary’s educational background reflects her professional growth and includes a Masters Degree in Nurse Midwifery, a Masters of Liberal Arts, an Associates of Arts in Nursing and a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology.

Nancy Acheff, CNM

Nancy is excited to be a part of the Midwifery Group at Swedish and is looking forward to caring for you and your family. She graduated from the University of Colorado, Health Science Center in 2000 as a CNM (Certified Nurse Midwife). During this time she has had a variety of experience in women’s health, birthing, newborn and lactation. One of the most rewarding experiences was at a free standing birth center in the Philippines and at Mountain Midwifery Center. She worked at Kaiser in their Perinatal Home Care department where she developed her lactation knowledge and earned her IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant). Nancy is married with three grown children all of which were delivered by Certified Nurse Midwives. This is of course what inspired her to become a CNM. It is her pleasure to be a part of your journey.