Why I do this

I stand before you as a guide through the landscape of pregnancy to the powerful birth of your child. I am inclined toward authenticity and nature. I grew up playing in the woods where I learned to respect and love Mother Nature. When it comes to birth, I trust Her.

Despite my trust in nature and desire for a natural birth, as a young first time mom, I got what my culture offered me; an interventive technological birth. I was induced before going into labor. My body, which never was ready for the process in the first place, did not spontaneously give birth to my baby. He was extracted by forceps. This seemed, at the time, like a punishment for my not agreeing to have the “time is up” cesarean delivery my doctor suggested. When my son was born his first act of life was to lift his hand and place it over his head. I did not know exactly what had happened to me and my son from our birth but I knew I wanted something different, and more natural, for my daughter.

Once I knew I was pregnant I began searching for a better way. I asked women I knew who seemed happy, “how was your birth experience?” a few of them told me that their birth was fabulous. I decided to listen to these women. I wanted what they had. I wanted the confidence in my body and in the process of birth.

I found the midwife practice they were going to for their fabulous birth experiences. I went there too. I also took up prenatal yoga because it called to me. My second birth had far less intervention. I felt during that un-medicated childbirth that a whole new me was born. I found myself open to a new relationship to my world.

I was more raw and present with my every experience.

I began to realize the demoralizing impact that my medically interventive first birth had on me. I began to wake up to whom I wanted to be and how to go about being that person. For the first time in my life I felt my own feminine power. That power excited and intimidated me.

With my third child I chose to unplug even more. I decided to give birth outside of the hospital. When my husband said, “If you don’t give birth with a physician I am not going to be at the birth of our child.” After study and prayer I was more clear than ever, “ok, don’t be there. I know that my birth experiences create a deep impression on me. I know what works for me and I know what causes harm.” After seeing my resolve he agreed. I found my midwife. She was real and practical and made me no promises other than her commitment to me and confidence in birth.

With my home birth I think I burst out of the conservative obedient paradigm which had formed around me as a younger person. I woke up aspects of myself which made me a more confident woman who trusted her own instincts. I became a birth doula to support women to realize their feminine power during birth as I had. I was limited in how I could help a woman experience her own dignity and the divinity due to the constraints of  the hospital birth setting.

I decided to become a home birth midwife where the birth setting could support the spiritual transformation undisturbed birth is capable of. There was a lot of soul searching and restructuring of my life in order to accommodate being a midwife.

Through my births, fifteen years as a birth doula and a lot of inner and outer study, I  have evolved into a unique midwife who strives to hand the power of birth back to the family at every opportunity. 

I have guided women through hundreds of births. I have come to trust women and the process of physiologic birth. I have come to trust physiology more than the techniques to manage pregnancy and birth. I know emergency birth care and still, I trust women's instincts more than I trust the techniques of caring for them.

If you are expecting a baby and these words speak to you. If you are ready to trust the process of giving life: I have prepared myself for you.

I am here to guide you through your pregnancy and birth.

I know it to be a gateway to self-actualization.