Since my own first pregnancy in 1982 I have been an enthusiastic student of nutritional remedies and herbal medicine, growing , wild gathering and tincturing my own formulas. My first pregnancy stimulated in me a great interest in books on the topics of pregnancy, birth, health and parenting. At the time not many books had been written on the topic and the library in the small town I lived in had some very old books in the section for expecting parents. I read them all , books from the 1940's-50's-60's-70's up until "Spiritual Midwifery". I wondered how an event/process/human experience that must have been the same for 100,000 years could change so much. in 40 years. Of course I knew birth stayed the same, that the books each reflected a changing culture and view of woman. Thus began my fascination with the external pressures of culture and belief on the physiology of birth. I birthed my babies with midwives and immersed myself in being the best mother that I knew how to be. I did in home day care, In 1992 I opened and owned a health food store until 1996. I provided research and supportive information to consumers to address a variety of health concerns.
In 1996 I began an apprenticeship with xyz CPM and attended approximately 100 pre-natals , 15 births and post-partum exams in three years. At the same time I completed all but the suturing module of Heart and Hands beginning midwifery course. In 1999 I stopped my apprenticeship and began to work as a birth assistant and a birth and post-partum doula. Concurrently (1996 to 2000) I attended and completed the four year program at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing. This program gave me extensive skills in diagnostic, counseling and hands on comforting/healing touch. In addition history taking, family systems, psychology, professional ethics and presentation are core concepts covered in this training. I had a part time Healing practice until 2007 when I returned to Midwifery school.
As a doula from 1999 until 2010 I provided 10's of 1000’s of hours of Childbirth preparation, labor planning and support, lactation support and newborn care instruction to 100’s of families. My area of expertise as a post-partum doula was development of maternal instinct and healing maternal and infant trauma for families recovering from medicated and surgical birth. In addition; in collaboration with a MSW I created and ran a program to address Post Partum Depression. As a birth doula I supported VBAC 's unmedicated twin and singleton labors with a very low section rate >5%. and a very low epidural rate >3%.
While completing NCM, I attended 50 out of hospital births as primary under supervision. I became licensed in the state of New Jersey in 2010 and I worked with my former preceptors (for approximately 10 births to date) abc CNM and ghu CPM and as a supervisor and mentor to pdq , now a CPM.
I spent 6 weeks in Africa in the winter of 2010 as senior staff midwife at a rural maternity clinic Uganda, Africa. In this capacity I taught, supervised and created learning materials for a group of 50 local mostly illiterate midwives. Twenty seven births for which I was responsible happened during my time there including twins, breaches, pre-mature and post date births. Additionally supervision of pre-natal and post-partum exams as well as pediatric complaints, general illnesses and injury diagnosis, treatment and referral of both men and woman of all ages were within my responsibilities.
I incorporated my business in April of 2010 and partnered with mmm CNM in August of 2010, in our practice (as of 3/21/11) we have had four births (2 primips , 1 vbac, 1 multip) and are currently booked out to August 2011 with two births a month.
Since 2007 I have submitted five articles on a variety of topics to “Midwifery Today " every article submitted has been published.
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