Margreet Wibbelink is a Midwife Specialist, and a passionate South African born of Dutch parents. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Midwifery from the Artevelde Hogeschool in Gent, Belgium in 2002, and furthered her studies with a BCur Honours in Advanced Midwifery and Neonatal Nursing Science (2012) and a Master’s Research degree in Midwifery (2014), both from the Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Margreet is currently completing her PhD at the same university where she has also assisted as a student mentor for advanced midwife students. Her PhD looks at strategies to scale-up clinical midwifery practices in South Africa. She has published two articles and presented at various conferences, both nationally and internationally.

Margreet’s first work experience as a new midwife was in the Netherlands, which is known for its strong midwifery-led model of care. After relocating to South Africa, she gained experience in both the public and private sector and became acutely aware of the many midwifery dynamics and challenges in South Africa. This moved her to start a specialised midwifery clinic in 2009 – the Healthy Mom and Baby Clinic (HMBC) in Jeffreys Bay – which is a non-profit organisation committed to delivering professional private care to the most vulnerable and underprivileged women (www.hmbc.co.za).

Margreet firmly believes that the clinic is a blueprint that can be replicated in other communities and is an answer to addressing maternal and neonatal morbidities and mortality. HMBC has served as a training centre for international students and several South African nurses and. While directing the clinic, Margreet also worked as an independent midwife, becoming well known as ‘The Surfing Midwife’. She has become an advocate for a better birthing culture in South Africa.

Through engaging with the founder and director of the Sister Lilian Centre, widely known as Sister Lilian, and its Sensitive Midwifery initiatives, she was identified as a worthy leadership successor for the company. Having undergone an extensive mentoring period with Sister Lilian, Margreet assumes the position of General Manager of the Sister Lilian Centre and Editor of Sensitive Midwifery Magazine in January 2019. This enables Margreet to continue working for all pregnant women, babies and families on a far greater scale, and to be a voice for and champion of the midwifery profession as a whole, on a national and international platform.