Midwifery is my "retirement" job--the one I would do even if I were not paid to do it. I was a certified doula for several years before I became a midwife and even carried a pager for the last four years. When I figured out that I was spending all my free time with pregnant women, I decided it was really my calling.

I chose to become a Certified Nurse-Midwife so that I could care for women who are not appropriate for out-of-hospital birth, and so I could admit my own transfers from out-of-hospital. I went to the three-year program at Yale, and went into private practice right out of school at the ripe old age of 50.

In the nine years I have been a midwife, I have built a thriving practice and a free-standing licensed and nationally accredited birth center. For now, I have closed my home birth practice because the birth center keeps me busy!  We have a fantastic facility where we have wonderful births--some underwater in our large jacuzzi. You can see the birth center, our staff of six independent midwives and support staff, and a page for each baby (complete with short videos, mostly made right after the birth) on our website, columbiabirthcenter.com. There is also a link to Kennewick General Hospital which has a "Baby Browser" showing the babies whose births we attend there.

In the short run, my goal is to help the women I attend (both in the hospital and out) to have the best birth possible. In the long run, I hope to help reclaim birth from the medical community for the women who birth babies.
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HTTP://WWW.COLUMBIABIRTHCENTER.COM