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Voluntary Faculty

Voluntary faculty are typically clinicians or others who are employed outside of the School but make significant contributions to department programs at the medical center or at affiliate institutions.

Voluntary rank details

Michelle Telfer, DNP, MPH, CNM

Clinical Instructor
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About

Titles

Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Clinical Faculty and Lecturer, Nurse-Midwifery and Women's Health Specialty, Obstetric Specialties & Midwifery

Biography

Dr. Telfer has been providing full-scope (well woman care/gyn, family planning, prenatal care, labor & birth and postpartum care) for nearly two decades in New York City and the greater New Haven area. She came to midwifery after working in global public health in The Gambia, West Africa where she experienced the importance of access to safe midwifery care in low-resource settings. She is passionate about partnering with women and their families to help them achieve their best health, pregnancy, and birth experiences. All women deserve compassionate, culturally sensitive, and skilled care throughout their lives. She is privileged to be a part of the Yale Midwifery group that strives to provide this care.

Areas of research and interest include reducing unnecessary primary cesarean sections though promoting physiologic birth and avoiding early labor admissions. She is working with colleagues in the school of medicine and nursing at Yale and at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda to support advanced midwifery education, clinical excellence and the midwifery model of care to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes. She is an Assistant Professor in the midwifery and women's health specialty at the Yale School of Nursing and is faculty in the Yale School of Medicine.

When not working, she enjoys hiking and exploring Connecticut with her husband and two children.

Last Updated on December 22, 2024.

Departments & Organizations

Education & Training

DNP
Frontier Nursing University (2017)
MSN
Columbia University, Midwifery (2002)
BSN
Columbia University, School of Nursing (2001)
MPH
Tulane University School of Public Health, Global Reproductive Health (1999)
BA
UC Berkeley, Philosophy (1992)

Research

Overview

Medical Research Interests

Cesarean Section; Global Health; Labor, Obstetric; Maternal Mortality; Midwifery; Quality Improvement

Public Health Interests

Health Equity, Disparities, Social Determinants and Justice; Perinatal/Prenatal Health; Reproduction

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Michelle Telfer's published research.

Publications

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2019

2003

Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

Activities

  • activity

    Makerere University/Yale University (MUYU) Collaboration

Honors

  • honor

    Fellow of the American College of Nurse Midwives

  • honor

    Nightingale Award for Excellence in Nursing

  • honor

    Outstanding Preceptor Award

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