A bit about me

I started shadowing midwives as they cared prenatally for pregnant women when I was 14 years old. I remember carrying a fascination for the body, it's functions, and movement since a very young age. I would read anatomy books and draw what I saw on the pages in my sketchbook as a young teen on my bedroom floor.  My vision at that age to one day study medicine and become an OB/GYN. In undergrad, I studied Medical Anthropology at an all women's liberal arts college in Massachusetts. It was there that I was exposed to the politics, history, and sociology of women's healthcare and realized therein that medicine did not align with my appreciation for normal-physiological birth. 

I attended my first birth when I was 18 under the mentorship of a midwife in Guatemala. This birth laid the foundation for my understanding of what birth requires and showed me the value of traditional midwifery. It set within me the realization that birth is simple, natural, and instinctual. It usually requires very little other than reverence for the unfolding of the journey. 

I have a Masters in Public Health from the University of Alberta, which offered me a perspective on how healthcare as a system functions and how health programs are developed, implemented, and reviewed. I completed my capstone project on Kangaroo Mother Care in an under resourced public hospital in the Dominican Republic. I would sneak off and support women in L&D as a doula in between conducting research. Supporting women in birth was by far where my heart was.    

I have completed numerous doula and childbirth educator trainings and workshops. However, I have learned by far the most from the families that invite me to support them in pregnancy, birth, and early postpartum, as well a from my community of colleagues. 

In my next life stage once my young children are older, I believe I may seek education to become a midwife in the States where I am from and practice as an independent midwife. But until then, I am so grateful to support my community as a doula. 

At the root of my practice is the belief that woman/birthing people have the capacity to know what is best for their experience. I see the people I support as the authority over their journey and I am here to support their vision. I encourage the people I support to journey through the inner work that is necessary to unravel the myths and fears they may carry around birth and open up their heart and mind to the possibilities that are ahead. 

My three young children are my life’s  purpose, my greatest gifts, and my most influential teachers. I hold immense respect for each birth I journeyed and the teachings I received. I had my first son at home with a certified midwife and my life changed forever. I identified a power within myself that I could have never imagined. I welcomed my second son via cesarean birth, which introduced life's shadow sides and birthed me into a mother lion full of unapologetic conviction for how she wished to journey this life.  I freebirthed my third baby, a daughter, and that brought me home to myself affirming what I held as truth. I am presently pregnant with my fourth and finding my way into relationships of support that feel nourishing, caring, and respectful as I anticipate my freebirth this Spring. 

I hold space for the pregnancy experience, for the birth journey, for people navigating early postpartum, and for support people who desire skills and knowledge to witness and hold space for physiological birth.