By Anabelle Howze and Sarah Morgan Johnson
Joselyn Bacon, CNM, NP (BSN 1971), has delivered more than 2,000 babies as a certified nurse-midwife and helped provide access to quality health care for countless families in the Mississippi Delta and foothills of Kentucky who otherwise might have gone without.
As an undergraduate at UAB, Bacon fell in love with and chose in her last semester to focus on obstetrics. This semester would set her on a life-long career path, stirring a passion for quality care for mothers and babies that she still has, even in retirement.
Following graduation, Bacon worked in the urology surgical unit at UAB Hospital. After that first year she returned to school, this time in Mississippi, and earned her master’s in maternal and child health nursing. Bacon went on to teach maternity nursing at the University of Alabama in Huntsville before returning to Mississippi to study nurse-midwifery and earn her certification as a nurse-midwife.
Working with mothers and infants and witnessing deliveries left a lasting impact on Bacon. The populations she saw faced so many health care and access issues. Serving these patients shaped Bacon’s own philosophy of care. She was known for her commitment to her patients and for being a strong advocate of prenatal care.
“Seeing so many deliveries and watching how nurses played such a pivotal role in helping mothers made a big difference when I chose what part of nursing I wanted to be in. As a nurse-midwife I wouldn’t leave mothers while they were in labor, and my patients appreciated that,” Bacon said.
To pave the way for the next generation of certified nurse-midwives, Bacon has chosen to leave a bequest to the School of Nursing to establish the Joselyn Bacon Endowed Scholarship in Nursing. A bequest, a deferred form of giving through a donor’s estate, made the most sense for Bacon as it allowed her to designate future support to the School of Nursing without parting with needed assets today.
After a recent visit with the first graduated cohort of the UABSON Nurse-Midwifery Pathway, Bacon was inspired to redirect her scholarship impact. When her bequest is received, it will create an endowed scholarship to support students of the newly re-established Master of Science in Nursing Nurse-Midwifery Pathway to help fill the growing need for nurse-midwives in Alabama.
“I think having people become nurse-midwives is special because there’s so few of us, and we’re needed, especially in Alabama and the Southeast. If it means helping a few students go to school and become nurse-midwives, that is meaningful,” Bacon said.
As an undergraduate nursing student at UAB, Bacon was able to pay for school due to her parents' financial sacrifices. She hopes her scholarship can pay forward the generosity her parents showed her and her brother.
“No one ever said anything to me about applying for a scholarship. That was one of the main reasons I did the endowment. I know what I went through and what my parents went through, and I didn’t want other people to go through that if I could help,” Bacon said.
Bacon’s hope for the nurse-midwifery students who receive her scholarship is that they will always prioritize the patient above all else, especially in today’s digital age.
“The patient always comes first. And you have to address their physical needs as well as their mental health needs. You have to ask a lot of questions to get there. That personal touch is so important,” Bacon said.
