Meet the Midwife
Opening this practice has been an amazing journey. The love and support of all of these amazing women, family and friends has been more than moving for me. I do believe now more than ever I was put on this earth to be a midwife. This is where I was meant to be and my purpose in life.
Empowering women is just the beginning of what I believe is an important role of midwives. It is our role to educate and let them make an informed decision over their care. It is their body and their right to accept or decline any medical interventions. It is your body, you can do it!!
Meeting and visiting with patients has come full circle from preconception to delivering the first, second, third or fourth baby to visiting with my patients for annual exams and watching their families grow year by year.
In 1992, I was a new RN at Covenant Hospital in Urbana, IL on Labor and Delivery. I met and worked with a Certified Nurse Midwife who was amazing and the patients loved her. She became a role model for me and inspired me to continue my education.
I received my Master of Science in Nursing in Midwifery in 2004 from the University of Illinois at Chicago. I moved to the Bloomington-Normal area to begin my career in Midwifery.
At that time, hospitals allowed women to labor in the water – but during the important transition time of labor women had to exit the tub – a time when they needed it the most. During my work as a graduate student, I did extensive research on water birth. I presented waterbirth as an option and waterbirth research to the local hospital. I was instrumental helping to bring the first water birth to Bloomington-Normal. I assisted the first mom who had a wonderful water birth in 2006 in Normal, IL.
I am very supportive of Vaginal Birth after Cesarean Deliveries(VBAC) and have been as speaker at International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) chapter meetings.
On a personal note, my life is filled with family. Family is very important to me, I have 3 sons and 1 daughter and one dog and one cat. On my time off, I love reading, listening to music, attending concerts and watching movies. I love spending time with friends and family and sipping on a glass of red wine.