About Me
I am a long-time birth junkie who began advocacy work for evidence-based maternity care in 2004 as a co-founder of Birth Matters Lynchburg. Pregnant with my second child, I began learning more and more about how often labor can be positively affected by the right support team, and how interventions can lead to a cascade of undesirable events. I hired my own doula and sought midwifery care, all while working hard to get information on good birth practices accessible to expectant moms in the Lynchburg area.
I wore my baby on trips to Charlottesville while we merged with other groups across the state in order to form a strong, cohesive body that could reach individual communities in Virginia. We strive for access to birth professionals with passion for evidence-based care, and meetings designed to bring together families, birthing women, and local resources. Our desire, my desire, is that women all over learn how to become their own advocates for maternity care.
While helping coordinate the merge of these groups into what is now called Birth Matters Virginia, I had the privilege of meeting and befriending many doulas and midwives, which made me even more excited about being an active part birth advocacy. Finally, I could resist the call no longer and enrolled in doula training through the Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association in 2006. Since then, I’ve attended dozens of births and been absolutely blessed by what I’ve witnessed, and I’ve added an additional child to my own clan.
Every birth is totally unique. I am often surprised by the inner reserves a woman can find when she is given the right support and encouragement. I get to watch the miracle, not only of birth, but of a woman coming into her own right as a mother.
I believe in a woman’s right to have evidence-based information so she can make decisions that are right for her and her baby. I also believe that my kind of birth and your kind of birth might be quite different, and I respect those differences. I marvel at them, really.
I hope to encourage birthing women and offer a resource for accurate information, not only for my clients, and not only for women who want a “natural” birth (last I checked, we hadn’t yet accomplished an artificial birth), but for anyone looking for help and direction in a confusing childbirth climate.
You can learn more about my services and Central Virginia pregnancy resources on my website. Thank you for visiting!
