“To be realistic is to expect your birth to be wonderful!”

– Naoli Vinaver, Mexican midwife and creator of documentary “Birth Day”

Jump to…
➛ Birth will change you to the core.
➛ A promise to my clients.
➛ My Experience as a Doula.
➛ Certifications.

I have been a doula and birth photographer since 2008, and also make birth art mandalas as a fine artist and paint pregnant bellies as a  henna artist.  I live in Denver with my husband Paul and six beautiful, amazing children.

In 2006 I gave birth to my first daughter Haven at Exempla Lutheran Hospital.  In 2008 I gave birth to my second daughter Lyric at Mountain Midwifery Birthing Center in Englewood.  Finally, in May of 2010 I gave birth to my third daughter Seren peacefully at home.

With Haven I became a mother.  It was the most intense, heart-wrenching, earth shattering kind of love I could imagine.  Lyric’s birth shaped me into the advocate and activist I am today and put me on the path to becoming a doula.  Her water birth at the birth center was so incredible that I realized I had to be a part of the birth world for the rest of my life!  I want every person to experience the same nurturing, supportive, empowering birth that I did that day.  This passion for birth led me to choose a home birth for our third daughter Seren.  It was the the most peaceful, blissful, perfect experience of my life!  Ushering her sweet spirit earthside inspired me to create The Mandala Journey, my birth artwork.

Watch and read their birth stories:
Haven’s Birth
Lyric’s Birth
Seren’s Birth

Birth will change you to the core

Birth will change your life, there’s no way around it!  It is the most intimate, personal experience a person and family can go through.  With that said, it can be a positive and empowering experience, a scary and lonely one, or anything in between.  I am passionate about providing good, evidence based information and support during pregnancy, birth and the immediate postpartum.

A promise to my clients

Although I have my own birth preferences, I will never push an agenda with you beyond providing you with materials to help you make an informed decision.  I will attend medicated and unmedicated births, vaginal or cesarean or VBAC, at the hospital, birthing center, or home.

It is my firm belief that birthing folks should have the right to make informed decisions about their care without being bullied by anyone.  It is not my birth, it’s yours and I want it to be as empowering and amazing as it can be as defined by you, not by me or anyone else.  I believe that YOU are the expert on yourself and have instinctual knowledge of your body and your baby.

Experience

Besides the personal experience of birthing my daughters I also have professional experience with:

• Hospital birth
• Birth center birth
• Home birth
• Water birth
• Successful VBAC
• Cesarean birth after cesarean
• Hypnosis for pain relief (both HypnoBabies and HypnoBirthing)
• Baby born in the caul (with the bag of waters still intact)
• True knot in the cord
• Using positions to turn malpositioned babies using techniques described in Spinning Babies and the Miles Circuit
• Using a rebozo (Mexican woven scarf) for comfort and encouraging optimal fetal positioning 
• Induction for medical reasons
• Cesarean
• Family centered cesarean
• OBs, Midwives (both CNMs and CPMs), and Family Practice doctors
• Medicated and unmedicated births
• Sibling Support
• Teen support
• Surrogacy
• Pain relief for back labor

certifications

• Certified Labor Doula (CLD with CAPPA)
• Completed the Mountain Midwifery Advanced Practice Doula Program and is a part of their on-call program
• Formerly a La Leche League Leader
• Attended the Colorado Midwives Association Conference with Gail Tully of Spinning Babies
• Attended an Applied Skills workshop with CAPPA
• Attended Neonatal Resuscitation Class twice with Karen Strange, CPM and certified in resuscitation (though it is not within my scope, it is handy to have)
• Attended the 2009 and 2010 CMA conferences featuring Gail Tully and Ina May Gaskin
• Spinning Babies World Confluence with emphasis on breech and balancing techniques
• Birthing From Within Mentor (working on certification)

If you are interested in scheduling an appointment to meet me and see if our personalities are a good match, please contact me.