I have been continuously involved with childbirth since the birth of my first child in 1970.

My 1^st childbirth was traumatic: I was unprepared, unsupported, left alone and separated from my baby; an experience that set me on my course of birth work.

The births of my own children, the many births I have been privileged to attend, along with the greatest of teachers, have taught me the miracle of birth and the power of women.

Trusting in our own capacity to birth and creating the support we need, we are enabled to give birth naturally.

I began attending births in the Woodstock, NY area in 1972, while working with a family practice doctor, initiated into this work through home birth and after decades of practice and the birth of two of my three children at home, I continue to believe that home birth is the safest place for most women to birth.

I attended hundreds of home births before attending nursing school (1978) and years later midwifery school (1987). From the early childbirth reform movement I learned from the work of Raven Lang, Gail Peterson, Suzanne Arms, Ina May Gaskin (and the other FARM midwives), as well as the various childbirth methods (Dick Read, Lamaze, Bradley, Bing, LeBoyer). I have studied and practiced yoga and pranayama (specifically the use of the breath). I studied massage and am a certified Kripalu bodyworker. I am a certified hynotherapist and studied NLP (the study of language and it’s effects on the nervous system) and developed a relaxation/visualization experience in a CD called “Journeying Through Pregnancy & Birth” that thousands of women have found helpful to deep relaxation & developing new neuro pathways. Click here to download.

I worked with homebirth doctors in Chicago for 2 years in a very busy practice (70 home births a month) and in a high risk medical center x 2 yrs as an Ob/Gyn nurse. I have also worked in free standing birth centers and community hospitals. The majority of the births I have attended have been out of hospital.

I founded and directed a free standing women’s health and birth center in Antigua, Guatemala for nine years that provided 24/7 care to women from diverse populations including women that the local traditional midwives brought to us. I started a non-profit organization Midwives for Midwives & developed a training program that trained over 350 indigenous midwives and worked side by side with traditional & indigenous midwives for a decade learning from them.