My Story

My instincts about birth told me from the beginning that it is a sacred experience-- that it would be the door to the powerfully important and meaningful work that I would do in my life as a mother. When I began my training in birthwork in 2008 with a doula training led by Carrier Kenner and Penny Simkin, I couldn’t hear enough about the transformative and spiritual nature of giving birth, both for mother and baby. I started preparing for a blissful, orgasmic birth. Having grown up hearing how excruciating labor is, I wholeheartedly welcomed the revelation that birth could be an ecstatic experience. Months of reading and inner work culminated in the beautiful birth of my first child.


Following his birth, I knew that I wanted to support others in giving birth in an empowering, meaningful way. I studied with Whapio at The Matrona, first completing the Holistic Birth Doula training program in 2010 and then the Holistic Midwifery Immersion in 2011.


However, with the birth of my second child the tides turned. I suffered from birth trauma and ended up in circumstances where I lacked a lot of the support that me and my family needed to flourish. I spent the next years in the darkness that life transitions can bring, struggling to find myself. But through the challenging process I found inner strength I never knew I had, in a depth unmatched by any of my other life experiences. I’ve lived these experiences so that I know on a cellular level that the power of birth is found in the wholeness, integration of both the challenging and the joyful parts of our experiences.


Not all birth experiences go into the extremes, but we all bring our whole selves and a diverse set of experiences to our childbearing. Being able to integrate the trials and triumphs gives us the deep inner strength that it takes to parent in today’s demanding world where we often find our reality at odds with our values and ideals.


When I became pregnant with my third child, a little miracle baby who wasn’t willing to let the presence of an IUD in my womb stop her from joining my family, I found I still had more work to do to heal. There was a lot of fear to confront, but the presence of my midwife and the reassurance of my doula team helped me through what turned out of be another challenging birth. This time, however, my experience was very different in that I felt safe and empowered through the whole birth and postpartum process. It was a deep healing experience for me that rippled through my whole family.


With the continued wave of my daughter’s birth, a series of unforeseen events brought me back into birthwork. I attended the INNATE Traditions Postpartum Care course in 2017. It was a powerful experience that reawakened my calling into birthwork.


Looking back at my experiences over the past decade in the realms of birth and parenting, I began to reflect on how I can bring my talents and knowledge base into service of pregnant and postpartum parents. By talking to so many parents and birth professionals over the years, I’ve seen how much need there is for better postpartum support and an overall honoring of the rite of passage of childbearing. The message was clear: validation of inner experience and skilled postpartum support nurtures healthy birthing parents and resilient families. This is what I carry with me into my work with you.