Meet The Team
I believe that the childbearing year is uniquely impressionable and when pregnant families are treated with love, honor, and respect; the beginning of that new human’s life is capable of shifting the flow in that family in a most uplifting way. I believe that my role as a midwife indicates my commitment to walking this journey together with you and using my heart, my skills, my tools and my humble nature to hold space for you as you grow your family.
Born into a family of service, I found my way into birth work as a child and continued being summoned to provide counsel and support to the women in my community, innately recognizing the sacred nature of these times and experiences. I enrolled at Birthingway College of Midwifery in 1999 and worked part time in the vitamin/supplement department in natural food stores, finding my hunger to learn and expand my opportunity to share my education and inspiration only growing.
In 2006 I became a Certified Professional Midwife and joined a dear friend in Roots Midwifery practice for a year as new midwives while continuing to provide coverage when needed with the practice I’d apprenticed with. I then worked in service of families with Alma Midwifery until June of 2017, when I participated in starting a new homebirth practice in Portland, called Rose City Midwifery, and in 2018 became dual licensed in Washington. At the beginning of 2020 I was given the opportunity to reunite with a dear friend who I’d studied and practiced with during our years as student midwives, and am now honored to be practicing as a Nest Midwife.
I am the mother of 3 incredible young adult children whom I’m blessed to continue enjoying as they’ve been my greatest teachers. In my free time, I enjoy travel whenever possible, and keep active walking and hiking in our beautiful Pacific Northwest with my dog.
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 Melissa Gordon-Magnus
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.