This I believe
I
believe in nature's unrelenting drive to create new life. We are awash
in nature's abundance. As humans, we're just "along for the ride."
Women grow and birth babies--lots and lots of babies if we aren't
crafty enough to brush aside this abundance with various birth control
methods. We grow and birth healthy babies almost in spite of
ourselves.
"Improving upon Nature" has never been humankind's
strong suit. I believe that my role as a midwife is to support nature
and stay out of her way, and then to support women (and their
families) as they are swept along in the process. As a woman, I
recognize that pregnancy, birth and the transition to motherhood
(whether for the first time or the fourth) is not easy, physically or
emotionally. I hope to help as much to birth a new mother (and family)
as to assist in the birth of a new baby.
Bio
My
first Bachelor of Science was in General Studies with a concentration
in Arts & Letters plus a Dance Certificate through Portland
State
University in the late 1980's. My midwifery training and education was
completed through apprenticeship and at Birthingway College of
Midwifery, culminating in my second BS (in Midwifery) and the Certified
Professional Midwife (CPM) credential.
I
was baby crazy in my late teens, biding my time until it seemed
appropriate to have a baby of my own. Instead, I read and discovered
midwifery. My desire to be a midwife was rooted in my own desire to
give birth, but now touches every other area of my life. Our bodies,
plants, the compost pile, the hens in the yard, dinner, the moon,
community........they all relate to developmental biology, to
birth, to children becoming parents and parents being drawn back to
childhood by their children.
I am the mother of three daughters,
two of whom were born at home. The differences I felt between my
hospital birth and my homebirths were monumental (and I had a fine
hospital birth.) Home is where I made the babies and where I would
raise them. Labor, while NEVER easy, is easier in your own space. Today
I spend my time sewing, tending the hens, driving kids around,
building a cabin, and caring for pregnant ladies and their
families. |
This I believe
I
believe that women are beautifully built
to birth babies. I
believe that birth is a natural bodily function. I support
this
bodily function by being equipped as possible to do anything and as
prepared as possible to do nothing. (A
secret you may already know: it's usually harder to do nothing than it
is to do something.)
I also believe in laughing a lot, in being
joyful in your body, in doing things that bring pleasure and health and
open-heartedness. Joyful living and well-being prepare a body
and soul for
getting pregnant, giving birth naturally, and being able to tend a wee
child without going completely insane. I also believe in building and
maintaining a sturdy set of coping skills for all that!
Bio
I read Ina May Gaskin's Spiritual
Midwifery in my youth. I loved their DIY approach,
combined as it was with deep
honesty, intellectual clarity, and a very loving spirituality. My
course was set.
But first – my own babies! I
went “back to the land” in the Sierra Nevada mountains where I birthed
two beautiful daughters and communed daily with nature: the soil,
trees, stars, the snow, sun, creeks & lakes. We savored dear
friends, organic food, and lots of lively music. When it seemed my
girls had
eaten quite enough dirt, we moved home to Portland.
Years of
schooling and training and many a birth later, I am a Certified
Professional Midwife (CPM), nationally credentialed by the
North American Registry of Midwives (NARM).
I received
my Bachelors of Science in Midwifery (BSM) from Birthingway College of
Midwifery. My training saw me attending births in various
capacities and settings: at home, in a birth center, and in
hospitals.
Since writing my research paper on high-tone pelvic floor
disorder, I have been inspired to study and practice different
techniques that facilitate awareness and self-possession of our womanly
anatomy: womb, yoni, pelvis, gut. We each hold our own unique mix of
physical tension and laxity, emotions, history, muscle and energetic
memory, even unspoken cultural pressures in this area. For true health
and comfort in our body, we need to release, reclaim, tone, balance,
and then settle peacefully into our center, into this precious core
terrain.
I
also maintain a movement practice and teach dance
classes, workshops, and series. To learn more about this work,
visit the Momentum: Conscious Movement website: www.EcstaticDancers.com.
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This I believe
I
believe that women hold deep within themselves a wealth of instinctive
knowledge about their own bodies and the babies that they grow and
birth.
As a passionate advocate for women’s ability to birth
without intervention and fear, I believe in fostering an environment
which allows women to have safe, spontaneous, transformative, and
natural birth experiences.
I believe that midwives are truly
the guardians of birth, and strive to honor the natural unfolding of
the birthing process while also using time-honored hands-on skills and
technology judiciously, with respect to the safety and well-being of
both mother and baby.
Bio
I
earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy with a minor in African
Studies from the University of Vermont in 1995. After discovering and
devouring a dusty copy of Spiritual
Midwifery (by Ina May Gaskin) on the shelves of the
bookstore where I was working, I decided that becoming a midwife was my
career path.
In
1996 I became a certified doula, and have attended hundreds of births
since then. After moving to Portland in 2000, I became an
Internationally Certified Childbirth Educator (ICCE) through ICEA. I
attended Birthingway College of Midwifery and graduated with a
Certificate of Midwifery, and became certified by NARM (the North
American Registry of Midwives) as a Certified Professional Midwife
(CPM). I will receive my Bachelor of Science degree
in
Midwifery (BSM) in early 2009.
I apprenticed at a birth center
in Portland, attending over fifty five home and birth center births, as
well as providing doula care for additional clients. I currently teach
childbirth education and infant care classes through Legacy Emanuel
Hospital, where I have taught since 2003, and am currently working
toward becoming a Lactation Consultant (IBCLC).
I am the
mother of two sweet and inspiring sons who were born at home with CPMs.
In my spare time I enjoy playing in the dirt with my boys, furniture
building and refinishing, hiking in the Cascades, and taking random
road trips.
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