About
I found my life’s calling during my first pregnancy.
I know God works in mysterious ways, but I didn’t realize the journey on which my pregnancy would take me. I took my training to be a doula and childbirth educator in October of 2006. By early 2007, I had begun my journey as a birth worker. I am blessed to be very busy from the start. My heart has always been to be “with woman” as she is doing her most empowering work.
My husband, Simon, and I took The Bradley Method classes as a pregnant parents-to-be in September 2005. Our teacher, Lara Miller, was also our doula. Lara was wonderful. She really ignited in us an even greater passion to know how our choices during pregnancy affected this new life. Most importantly we learned what we felt strongly about and what we didn’t.
My daughter was born in February 2006. The birth was beautiful. It was the most inspiring event of my life. After laboring and giving birth naturally, my senses and emotions soared. There was nothing I couldn’t accomplish. There is no describing the joy and wonder of your body doing what it was designed to do. I held and breastfed my gorgeous baby girl immediately.
With some encouragement from Lara and Simon I decided to get my childbirth education and doula training in September 2006. I have continued to read and study everything I can about pregnancy and childbirth. The more I read, the more I come to trust my body.
When I found out I was pregnant for the second time, my husband and I planned a home birth. I had my prenatal care with a wonderful Certified Professional Midwife (CPM). My son was born May 2008 safely at home. My labor was so quick that he came before the midwife got to our house. I caught him in the bathtub with just my husband and my sister in the room. The midwife arrived soon after to check both of us and do our postpartum care. We were both great!
The Sunday after Thanksgiving 2008 I found out I was pregnant for a third time! I got pregnant at only five months postpartum while breastfeeding a toddler and an infant. Wasn’t expecting that! Once again we planned and had an amazing home birth. In July 2009 I woke up with my first contraction. One hour and twenty-six minutes later I was holding another gorgeous baby girl! My midwife made it for my last two contractions. We all enjoyed a wonderful few hours postpartum visiting and enjoying our new baby girl before we all had a nap.
When we got pregnant with our fourth baby I decided I wanted to go even further by caring for myself during my pregnancy and birth. I did all of my own prenatal care and had two wonderful CPMs who looked over my records to insure that nothing was missed and answered any questions that I had. January 2012 I woke up with some low pelvic pain. We were in the mountains with our kids since I wasn’t due for a little over two weeks. After a quick cervical check I realized I may be about to have a baby! We borrowed my aunt’s car seat and got several towels just in case the baby came before we got home. We got home at 1:06pm and labor began very soon after. Our son was born at 3:18pm! My children, husband, mom. and sister were all there.
A mere nine months later I was once again expecting! Again I did my own care with two awesome CPMs overseeing my records and ensuring all looked well. This baby decided to make us wait until two weeks after the estimated arrival date. In July 2013, we were having a family dinner when I started having contractions. Not only did this baby take his time by being my longest gestation, he was also my second longest labor! Everyone had four hours to hang out and await the arrival. At 11:11pm on a full moon, our youngest son was born. We had a water camera in the tub and got a great bit of video when he ran right into the camera upon his arrival!
What awesome experiences I have been blessed with!