I grew up here in Columbus, Ohio. As a young adult browsing the public library shelves, a book with a pretty cover caught my eye so I took it home. That book happened to be Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin. With each page I turned I became more enthralled as I soaked up the beauty and the power of birth…I was forever changed!
A few years later, a DONA doula training course was offered locally. I jumped at the chance, and ended up with a certificate. I began serving women birthing in hospitals in Columbus, doing what I could to help them to feel informed, comforted, and supported. The next year, over the summer of 2004, I had the precious and wonderful opportunity to travel to The Farm and train with the midwives there, including Ina May! I received a certificate for completing their Midwife’s Assistant course. It was amazing to learn from the folks I had read so much about in Spiritual Midwifery.
Now the real learning began…I was pregnant! Through my own prenatal care with the CHOICE midwives, I learned so much, especially about what it’s like to be on the receiving end of midwifery care. In November 2004, my first son was born at home. It was great! I loved my experience and chose to have my other two children safely and naturally at home in 2008 and 2010.
In 2006, our little family moved to Athens, Ohio to escape city life. It wasn’t long before I started meeting the local home birth midwives and attending birth as a midwife’s assistant. I attended some Amish births and a wide variety of ‘English’ births all around Southeastern Ohio. It was exciting, amazing, and eye opening. I learned a lot!
In 2009, I began to work with Delphine Silvermoon, CNM as an assistant and apprentice in her Athens-based practice. I had the opportunity to follow many women through their prenatal care, births, and postpartum. I learned a lot about continuity of care and how that relates to catching problems before they are problems. At this time, I also began formally working through the Certified Professional Midwife credentialing process. While on maternity leave after my second baby’s birth, I completed the Heart and Hands Beginning and Intermediate courses with world-renowned midwife, Elizabeth Davis. After the birth of my third baby, I returned to work in Athens as a doula and monitrice for women choosing hospital birth, as well as an assistant/apprentice to local midwives, helping them with their home birth practices. In late 2015, I began an apprenticeship at CHOICE. I was thrilled to return to my roots in Columbus, and to be working in a busy practice with midwives I love and respect. I am hoping to complete my apprenticeship and achieve Certified Professional Midwife status by early 2018.
In the meantime, I keep busy homeschooling my three kids, working on our 91 acre farm in Athens County, exploring the woods, learning the fiddle, chasing cows, and of course, going to births!