Meet Your Natural Birth Practitioner!
Who am I and how did I start?
Hello to all! I am your Birthkeeper/ Natural Birth Practitioner!
I am mom to 5 children and wife to my High School sweetheart.
Apart from birthwork, I enjoy many outdoor activities such as horseback riding, camping & waterskiiing and just spending a beautiful day at the beach with the family.
Yes yes all of this is good to know but how did you get into this line of work?
My love for maternity and my fascination for birth started when I was about 10 years old. Being the eldest in a family of 4 children, I remember sitting with my mom to watch "A Birth Story" on TLC. From that point on, I knew this was what I wanted to do.
From there I went on to pursuing Obstetrics & Gynaecology, followed by Midwifery. Unfortunately to my dismay, I discovered that Midwifery is not today what it used to be and was also disappointed to learn that the care you can provide to women is limited to what the governing body considers low risk.
After much reflection, I started off in 2017 as a Birth Doula with Childbirth International which was a great start but once again left me unsatisfied with the limited care I could also give to the women I served.
I finally found H.E.R.B.A.L which was a golden opportunity for me to follow their program, Training as a Natural Birth Practitioner/ Holistic Birthkeeper and get certified as Peer lactation councillor, Placenta Specialist and in Holistic Fertility.
I am currently pursuing my studies studying to also become a doctor in Traditional Chinese Medicine! I feel you (my clients) will greatly benefit from this additional care and I find it quite fascinating to be honest !
My Perspective & Point of View
Life always has a way of opening your eyes to certain aspects that you would not have had your eyes opened to, had you not had that life experience. Having children of my own and going through a few hospital births, has given me that first hand experience, allowing me to understand and open my eyes to certain flaws of the system. I have nothing against the medical perspective, however, the understanding I have today is that modern medicine is just one tool that can be used among others, without nullifying the effectiveness of other methods but certainly as a last resort once all else fails. I believe it is important to bring the understanding that not everything needs, nor should be treated as a medical emergency and one of these things is birth.
Before anyone gets angry with what I have stated, let's review the fact that Women have been birthing for thousands of years and that even before the medical system was established!
Therefore, I believe it is important for the women of today to regain the confidence in their bodies they once had, to feel heard, understood and respected in their choices to birth their children in a way that feels right to them by the people attending, and supported by the people around them no matter how they choose to birth.
My Goal
My goal as a Natural Birth Practitioner is to help mom and her partner prepare mentally, physically and spiritually, so that she maintains good health during her pregnancy and is in the right mindset for the challenging endeavor that is childbirth.
During pregnancy, we speak much about the woman's role and what she has to do in order to bring baby into the world and often times, fathers are left out of the loop not knowing what to do or how to be a good support partner during labor. Not only is my goal to work with both mom and dad to bridge that gap, but to also actively include and educate fathers on their partner's pregnancy, labor and delivery so they know exactly what to do, what to expect and how to become great support partners.
A woman who has the support of her partner and is well prepared mentally, physically and spiritually makes a world of difference as opposed to a woman who has been made afraid of the process by misinformation, past trauma's and is accompanied by a partner who is stressed and unprepared.
I wish to build with my clients a warm, serene and stress free environment where reigns a climate of honesty, confidence, serenity, respect of personal choices, calm and understanding which will contribute to facilitating and making the arrival of baby more enjoyable for everyone involved.
