The Birth Experience

During your pregnancy I encourage you to envision your ideal birth. I will work with you to accommodate these desires.

To have an extra pair of caring hands, a second midwife or an apprentice midwife will also attend your birth. During labor we will urge you to walk around your home and change positions. This increases your comfort and advances your labor. You will not be hooked to machines or confined to bed, as is common during hospital labors. I believe that the excessive use of high-tech medical equipment shifts the focus from the laboring mother to machines. Over emphasis on technology mystifies birth for many couples, and has not been shown to increase safety for healthy, low-risk mothers and babies. Your comfort will not prevent us from closely monitoring the vital signs of you and your baby to ensure that everything is progressing safely.

We will stay with you throughout active labor, offering encouragement, massage and guidance. To boost their energy, most women prefer water, juice and snacks to the traditional hospital fare of ice chips and IVs. Many women find that a shower or warm bath are the most comfortable places to labor. I have helped women give birth lying on their side, semi-sitting, squatting, standing, seated on a birthing stool, supported on their hands and knees and underwater. You will choose whatever birth position works for you.

Once your baby is born, we will immediately place him or her on your chest for you to cuddle and nurse. Newborn examinations are done beside you in your bed. Afterwards, we will clean up, assist with nursing and ensure that mother and baby are stable and adjusting well. This is usually completed within several hours of the birth.

Because I serve only healthy, birth-educated women, I encounter few complications. Nonetheless, I am fully trained to evaluate labor and birth and to carry out emergency medical procedures as needed. I never delay necessary medical care. When I cannot treat an emergency at home, I immediately refer to one of our on-call consulting physicians. In those rare cases when a woman needs to be transferred to the hospital, I accompany her there as her personal liaison and birth assistant.

I have been a Registered Nurse since 1993 and a Certified Nurse Midwife since 1997. Since 1993, I have attended more than 700 births in hospitals, birth centers and homes. I have attended over 200 births as the primary midwife since 1997. More than 90% of my mothers labored, delivered and recovered in either the home or birth center without being transported to the hospital. Less than 2% of my clients required a caesarean section. As a mother, I gave birth to my first son, Micah, in 1999, and my second son, Nicholas, in 2003.