Urban Midwife

10/07/2026

I'm trying to be better at posting monthly, haha.
September brought 5 precious new lives...one held out until October or we would have had 6!
Of the 5 I attended, one was breech and 3 were sucessful VBAC births!
4 girls and 2 boys were welcomed by excited families and older siblings. It was a great month!

10/04/2026

Shave it, dont shave it, bedazzle it, i so not care 😄

09/19/2026

Some births push us. I dont particularly believe in coincidences but I do believe in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our pastor is preaching theough 2Timothy and during yesterday's birth I recalled chapter 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. I jave read these words every day over the last 2 weeks.

Yesterday, I was attending a 2nd time mom, second baby with me 10 years apart. Her labor was slow moving and we were in a rural area with no immediate higher level care available. WHICH IS WHY I TRAIN.

At one point we discussed a cervixal exam to assess progress as it was a bit unusual for a second time mom to move slowly but it had been a while and we knew this baby was a bit mal positioned.

She agreed and I assessed 8cm! AND....1,2,3,4,5 .... perfect little toes, but they were much higher up than id like and the whole position felt a bit off to me.

I called a local assist who had a sonogram machine but not breech experience and assessed yep.... theres two little feet right there. We had some conversations about risks, about transport, about cesarean,about our rural location and travel time and lack of access to good hospital providers.

I went to the bathroom, got on my knees and prayed for wisdom,for guidance, for discernment, to allay fear. I prayed protection over this baby and strength for her mother and asked the Lord to infuse me with peace & replace fear with wisdom in knowing what is the right call because ultimately, I am responsible for the outcome.

Mother indicated her desire to stay. We labored a bit longer and decided to assess for any change in position, descent or signs that things were progressing as expected. Prior to my exam I prayed silently again for wisdom. Help me Lord to make the right decisions.

On exam, her bag of waters released 😳and immediately her whole little b***y filled her mothers pelvis and within 20 minutes, she was born. 10 little toes first. A perfect little peanut at 6 and I whispered a prayer of Thanksgiving over her.

THIS is why I am passionate about breech training for ALL providers, whether you ever intend to purposefully attend breech deliveries or not, the mothers and babies in our care DESERVE a provider who has the tools to manage a surprise, in a possibly remote setting where maybe timely transport isnt possible or a birth that id happening to fast to switch gears.

That's 5 breech bums so far this year🩷 is am grateful for my training and my faith.

09/19/2026

Yesterday's Labor Day brought a precious 9 chonker baby boy to the arms of his mama.

When attending a first time mother in her labor she often has to work through what is the reality she is in as compared to what she thought labor would be, because no one can truly prepare you for what labor is like before youve actually done it. She will dig deep, she will find that place where her power is stored and unleash it.

When a mother experiences labor with her first baby and ultimately has a cesarean birth then decides to go for a VBAC its a whole other beast to conquer.

She KNOWS what to *expect* but she fights a different battle. She fights the bubbling up up of feelings of previous defeat. She battles feelings of brokenness and she fights the lies she was told and that she likely told herself and that she believes. She leans into her husband as he whispers prayers of strength over her. She soaks in the Holy Spirit.

What she has to find in those deep places, is redemption. She has to learn again to BELIEVE in what what she can do. She has to believe she is able.

And there is just something about the sound of her grief of what was AND the victory of what is when we decide on a cervical exam and i say *well, I'll fill a tub for 9cm* and she pours it all out and you can literally SEE her transform into her power, her design and the role she was created for. Then the JOY as restoration is complete when i push a chubly little body through her legs and she brings her baby, with her own hands to her chest.

Not a dry eye in the house, i tell ya. Not a dry eye.

09/19/2026

Been a long week. Four sweet babes tucked in safely with their mamas. ❤️ One sweet sister made three. Three little boys joined the brothers brigaide.

This job can be alot. I did get to work with a sweet friend Sabrina Sherrod Elliott when one of her clients lived 1.5 hours from her but close to me.. & got to see my fellow Mother of the Bride and dear friend Kasie Conger when SHE drove real fast to assist ME. 😄its fun to see friends you talk to often but never get to actually SEE. I got to see my now GRADUATED student Victoria Busch teach some skills to my new student Cadence Busch who also happens to be her niece and watch a full circle moment.

I drove Real fast & cussed midnight road construction a couple of times and spent a long night with a precious mom who we struggled to get her pain under control in the immediate postpartum , all is well now.

But it just puts so much into perspective, How odd our work can be at times. We are fiercely independent creatures but we need each other daily and in different capacities. Its not uncommon to get an unexpected call in the deep hours of night from a panicked sister midwife yelling into the phone *GET IN THE CAR NOW! * and say a quick prayer of thanks when she DOES 😄 and when all is well. Our sisterhood is what we depend on when a complication arises that we need counsel on or an ear to vent because alot of people *deliver babies* but being a homebirth midwife is just something different all together. It takes a strong constitution to do this work year after year.

So, i took a long bath. Forced myself to deny the coke and poptart quick sugar energy and eat my scrambled eggs, cheese and fruit this morning made me and im working on big plate of roasted veggies in olive oil & rotisserie chicken and.....electrolytes...all the electrolytes. 😄 After being at a birth all night and checking on mamas and babies all day and being privvy to women processing the good, the surprising and the hard of her birth stories while she cuddles her babe in her own bed.

Im tired. Im honored at the servants work and im humbled by every birth im invited into. Im truly blessed to watch the Lords divine creation unfold before my eyes time and time again. Good night.

09/19/2026

Kahilokalani. Her name means Bashful One of Heaven but i argue that she was not bashful at all. 😃 A precious sister joins her brothers in another powerful VBAC at home.

But her birth reminds me how difficult it is for some people to sit in the quiet. That in the calm of the quiet is where the greatest work of labor is often done. I can feel when someone is not used to just being in the quiet. They itch to move, to check a phone, to empty the trash, to change the towels, to DO... anything .... because the quiet spaces of life are so few and far between that it feels like they are foreigners in a strange and wild land and they are uncomfortable in a culture they do not know.

But its these moments where the woman reaches into her depths and dispels her fears,its where she faces her past and who she thought she was or who she was told she was and she faces down those old beliefs to BECOME something strong and all together different.

This is where community midwifery shines. This quiet space is one we know intimately and well. We know that usually, there is no doing that needs done. That the only work is quiet protection of the mothers laboring space . How to quietly do things when tbey are needed that do not disturb the work. How to slide a mirror into a tub to see, how to quietly come in to listen to the precious heartbeat of the babe also working to come earthside. To have entire conversations with each other without ever uttering a word.

When i stand from kneeling as the head emerges , how i look at Victoria and she knows i need that leg moved up because this is going to be a tight fit, how i utter one word ... "turn" and she knows to help me flip the mother to a different position so i can better resolve that shoulder & how in the release and the moment where i say *let us work on her* the mother remains calm and focused, the encouraging breath is given and life comes into the babys eyes as she takes her first breath and cries.

The wisdom of focus and calm is the grandmother saying, "Yall were so calm i didnt even realize there was an issue until it was over " and i say " Thats because the complications are my job. She doesnt need me to give birth, she needs me to keep it safe" and panic has no place in this space.

Then later grandmother says to me.. with stars in her eyes.. i just dont see how you can do this and then just go back to the rest of your regular day" and i smile because so few people recognize this is part of our life but i tell her that we are not tourists in this land but the guides that live here and so for us, we are privileged to be able to integrate the every day into the miracle.

Welcome to the world Bashful One of Heaven.

09/19/2026

Im a terrible social media manager. 😃 i ama midwife haha . Ill be copying over some posts ive made on my personal page.

09/13/2026

12/19/2025

When the birth plan IS how you practice.

Birth #1 last night, first time mom who had one internal exam on her request when she was feeling discouraged and then birthed an OP baby (iykyk) in a pool in her kitchen without me ever touching her perineum or her baby. She was undisturbed. We even left for about 1.5 hours at her request to allow her the privacy she requested.

On our way home at 02:30 am and about 3 miles from my exit to home I was called by another first time mom whose labor had begun and seemed to be progressing quickly. Quick U-Turn & We arrived about 40 minutes later and she... undisturbed, no internal exam to *confirm* what her body was telling her , birthed her baby on her bathroom floor 20 minutes after our arrival.

Now, not every birth is always this smooth, sometimes I pull out every skill I know... but when it is.... its just really something special to know she was free to sink fully into her birth without ever having to fight or advocate for herself & her wishes and isnt that just how it should be?

Welcome to the world Baby Otto & Baby Rebecca ❤️