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I am a California Licensed midwife (towards the last part of my bio, you will see more on my rigorous training), a Birthing From Within certified mentor, a mother, a life long learner, a passionate advocate for families and a supporter of choices in childbirth.

I grew up on the North Shore of Hawaii in what I consider an environment that promotes a connection to nature, and a respect for natural processes. My great great grandmother was full blooded Hawaiian, her grand daughter, my grandmother was a fierce advocate for the way of life of the Hawaiians. It was her that taught me to respect myself, my inner voice and to respect the natural process of life and nature. As I grew up, and became a woman I lived with those values but it wasn't’t until I was a mother that I discovered how much they would guide my life.

I became a mother early on, at 16 and grew up quickly. I also quickly discovered how hard it is to be a single parent, but somehow I made it and graduated from the University with a teaching credential. Now what to do? Well, teach... and that is exactly what I did for 7 years. My heart was into my students, I loved the curriculum (I taught Spanish) but I was not comfortable with the system....

And then I fell in love, got married and became pregnant again (my youngest was 14 years old). This was my initiation into midwifery. Dissatisfied with conventional obstetrical care I sought other alternatives. I found an amazing group of midwives, a doula and a whole different perspective. Short to say that I was in heaven and I had found my path. After an amazing birth experience with my 2nd child, I knew what I wanted to do (within the 1st five minutes I had a plan in my head about how it was going to happen)

And it has happened, 7 years after the birth of my 2nd child and 5 years after my 3rd I became an official midwife the week my 1st son got married! Whew...read that sentence again it says a lot about the full circles in life we experience. I am now a grandmother of a little one born in October of 2009. Midwifery has been a journey that has taken me places that I had never expected to go. It brings me to sacred spaces daily and I am grateful for that and the families that I serve.

My journey into birth began in 2003. Now what was accomplished in that journey into getting my license? Well a lot...1st I had to be a mother, and I am still of course. I became a doula 1st just to make sure that I was on the right path, I became a Birthing From Within Mentor. I worked with a few midwives in the community to begin to learn more about the practice of home birth. A couple of years later, my dear husband took a sabbatical and we moved to Texas. I received the majority of my clinical training and my courses in a birth center in El Paso. For a whole year of my life, I ate, slept, breathed and lived birth. That year I did almost 1,000 prenatal and postpartum appointments, I saw hundreds of laboring women, got to catch a lot of babies and I also got to use my Spanish and was very happy for that. That experience was a whirlwind but gave me an opportunity to become a very skilled midwife. The clinical experience was rigorous but licensure in California takes quite a lot of academics as well and so much of my training involved sitting through classes and passing of exams required by the California Medical Board. It is not easy to become a LM in California.

Since becoming a midwife I feel blessed to have had a busy practice right from the beginning with lots of beautiful births and a very few manageable complications. My hearts work has been and will always been in home birth. I have attended about 200 more births since licensure with my own clients and as a second midwife for the other gifted midwives in the community.

So it has been a long journey into birth, a wonderful life and my midwifery practice keeps me busy. Midwifery is not just a career choice, it is a lifestyle.

To learn about various paths into midwifery and how much training it takes click here