Midwifery Week Spotlights: Amanda & Elyse

UF Health Jacksonville and UF Health North celebrate Midwifery week October 1-7. This national observance was created by the American College of Nurse-Midwives to celebrate and recognize midwives and midwife-led care. This year’s theme is Midwives Strengthening Communities. Our midwives are committed to equitable, ethical, accessible, and quality healthcare for all. In this work, midwives must all come together. The midwifery model of care fosters compassionate collaborations and personalizes care based on each person’s life experiences and expertise. Join us as we celebrate and recognize our certified nurse midwives all week long.

Today’s spotlights feature Amanda Atchoo and Elyse Beaubrun.

Amanda Atchoo

Amanda Atchoo was born and raised in her hometown of Livonia, Michigan, located two miles west of Detroit. She attended the University of Detroit Mercy for her undergraduate degree and then attended Wayne State University, where she obtained a doctorate in nurse practice degree specializing in midwifery.

Amanda currently serves as the chapter president of the Northeast Florida Midwives, a local organization bringing midwives together to create a solid community to help advocate for other women. She is also a co-author of an upcoming publication scheduled to be released in the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Journal. Her favorite part of her career is helping women throughout their prenatal care and ultimately getting to help deliver their babies.

Outside of her professional career, Amanda enjoys traveling and being active. She is a part of Moms on the Run group, a community of women supporting and encouraging other women to be active and healthy. She has run several half marathons and 5Ks to support various causes. Amanda is a mother to three beautiful children and has been married to her loving husband and high school sweetheart for 12 years.

Elyse Beaubrun

Elyse Beaubrun, FPN, CNM, is a family nurse practitioner and certified nurse midwife at UF Health North. After graduating from high school in 1998, the upstate New York native went straight into nursing. Her first nursing experiences were in England and Cairo, Egypt, where she volunteered for different organizations.

Elyse then moved to Jacksonville and joined the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation. She traveled to Haiti, participated in several medical mission trips, and eventually asked to be on staff at a rural hospital. Elyse credits the Haitian OBGYN at St. Boniface Hospital for her introduction to obstetrics and women’s health care. She provided care to pregnant women through mobile prenatal clinics and vaccinations. She also started a program to screen and treat HIV/AIDS in pregnant women, and a cervical cancer screening and treatment program.

Five years later, Elyse moved back to Jacksonville and worked in labor and delivery while completing her BSN and MSN. She graduated as a board-certified family practitioner in 2008 and worked at an OBGYN clinic and in primary care for 10 years. She became a certified nurse midwife in 2020.

“As a midwife, being involved in a woman’s birth experience is a privilege. Women are superheroes, and being able to accompany them through some of life’s journey is a gift,” she said.

When she’s not caring for patients, Elyse enjoys going to the beach and exploring coastal towns with her husband and two daughters.