Meet The Team

I learned about home birth from the book Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin, and the documentary The Business of Being Born. When I was expecting my first child and became a midwifery client I would bring full pages of questions for my providers. Through their answers and the many books I devoured I grew ever more curious. Eventually I asked them "why don't other people care so much about this?" and my two sweet midwives shared a look and admitted that they thought I was destined to become a midwife as well. 

Throughout my classroom and clinical education I have held to the belief that low-intervention birth is critically important. I believe that respectfully-attended birth needs guardians and advocates. No matter how many births I attend I still feel so privileged to be present and bear witness to the strength of birthing people.

I became a midwife, both to serve families one at a time, but also in order to gain the wisdom necessary that I might one day be able to help shape policy on this topic. I'm proud to be a member of the Oregon Midwifery Council, where I serve as the Communications Coordinator.

I have two sons, both born with midwives. I live in Aloha where my husband and I have two cats, two dogs, and a flock of ducks. Life with two active boys is busy, but when we have down as a family we love swimming and playing board games together.

After earning my B.A. from the University of Vermont, I discovered a dusty copy of Spiritual Midwifery (by Ina May Gaskin) on the shelves of the bookstore where I was working, and decided that midwifery was my career path. In 1996 I became a certified doula, and have attended hundreds of births since then. A few years later I became an Internationally Certified Childbirth Educator (ICCE) through ICEA. I attended Birthingway College of Midwifery and graduated with a Certificate of Midwifery, and in 2008 I became certified by NARM (the North American Registry of Midwives) as a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM). 

I currently teach childbirth education, breastfeeding and infant care classes through Legacy Medical Center, where I have taught since 2003. In 2015 I co-authored and published Homebirth Cesarean: Stories and Support for Families and Healthcare Providers.
I am the mother of 3 inspiring sons who were born at home with CPMs. In my spare time I enjoy tending the plants and animals on my small farm in Ridgefield, Washington.

I'm Lauren Hake

I'm Laurie Perron Mednick

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, and transformative 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.