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How do you help women feel empowered during pregnancy and labor?
To me, true midwifery care during pregnancy is about providing information and encouraging questions, and then supporting a woman’s right to make her own decisions. I do everything I can to help women have a birth experience they will remember in a positive way. I’m very calm and quiet in labor, because I am only there to guide the baby out safely; the couple really does all the work. I feel incredibly lucky to be part of one of the most amazing and most defining times in a woman's (and her partner’s) life.

How do you guide women through the labor and birth process?
During labor, I sit with my patients and encourage their choices for pain relief, whether natural or medicated.  We encourage each couple without judgment to experience the birth of their baby in the way that suits them. Women are also given the freedom to deliver their babies in the positions they are most at ease in: Hands and knees; standing, on the birth stool, or on their backs. 

What is your approach to well-woman care?
In my care, I am passionate about educating women to help them cultivate respect for their physical and emotional health. If a patient is making poor nutritional choices or has unhealthy social habits, I work to help her change that behavior. I particularly enjoy working with teens and women in their early 20s. 

How did you decide to become a midwife?
I became a midwife after witnessing my first midwife-guided birth in nursing school. The midwife had such a different perspective on labor and delivery, and I was hooked. After seeing so many low-risk women treated as though their pregnancy represented a disaster sure to come to them, I felt compelled to do something to help change the labor and delivery environment.  

I wanted to care for the patients who were often considered to be the “difficult ones” who wanted to buck the system by moving during labor and not being monitored continuously. These women knew what normal birth should look like and wanted that experience.  I wanted to be a part of that! When I was pregnant with my first child, I entered midwifery school, and I’ve never looked back.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
In my spare time, I love cycling, camping and being with my family.  I will do almost anything that keeps me active...except for running!