My Philosophy
I believe and trust in birth. I believe in women and find their strength amazing - every time. And I believe that every family has the right to be well cared for, respected, and honored during the birth of their child, whether it is your first or your sixth. Babies have the right to be treated gently and respectfully, in every birth. You can NEVER do this birth over again. Pick your birth team carefully ~ having a team with you that will support and treat this rite of passage as the sacred event that it is will help build the positive memories that you will hold forever.
About Me
When I was a child, my mother would wake me in the middle of the night when one of our cats was in labor. I remember being entranced with the whole process, sitting silently with that mama as she birthed her babies. I’m sure this was what planted the seed for me - a self-professed birth junkie. At 11, I was first exposed to home birth through some family friends, another seed planted. "I want to be a midwife when I grow up".
Since then, my journey has progressed through many avenues. I attended Desert Institute of the Healing Arts for Massage Therapy and began to steer my practice toward helping women. When I became pregnant with my daughter Jasmine in 1996, I read all that I could about pregnancy and birth, as many women do. I chose to have a homebirth with a midwife. From that life changing, profound experience, my passion for gentle birth was born and I began devoting my life to helping to create peaceful birth experience for mamas, babies, and new families.
When I went back to doing massage after my baby moon, I dedicated my practice to women in the childbearing year after training with Claire Marie Miller/Nurturing The Mother and Theresa Kirkpatrick Ramsey/Baby’s First Massage. Soon, many of my clients began to ask me to attend their births. I trained as a birth doula through DONA in 1998 and just could not get enough of watching the miracle of life as these babies emerged. Through the years, I have trained as a Birthing From Within mentor with Pam England, yoga instructor specializing in the prenatal and postpartum yoga, Heart and Hands Midwifery Intensives, lactation trainings, positioning workshops, and reflexology. In 2003, I returned to Arizona to complete my BA in Women and Sexuality from Prescott College, which included women, gender and sexuality studies; counseling and communication; midwifery studies; and social activism (specifically for midwifery and birth). This only fueled my passion for peaceful birth. Over the past 11 years, I have assisted several home birth midwives and have attended close to 350 births in various capacities.
I am currently practicing as a doula in the Greater South Bay and Santa Cruz, and mentoring Birthing From Within classes at Harmony Birth & Family in Campbell. I have worked with and assisted several homebirth midwives in the South Bay/Santa Cruz . I hold the titles of General Board Member and Membership Chair for BABI, an organization that I helped found (along with many other wonderful women!) in 2003.
I am continuing my study of midwifery and recently passed the NARM exam in February 2012. I expect to be fully licensed in CA by April 2012.
I look forward to working with your family and helping you to create a peaceful birth experience.
Love,
Rowen
