The MINT Prjct

GUEST EPISODE with Midwife, Christy Cannon

• The MINT Prjct • Season 1 • Episode 33

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Meet Christy Cannon, a certified nurse and midwife who not only delivers babies but also dreams of bridging the gap between home births and hospital births. As a mama to five children herself, Christy has an intimate understanding of the highs and lows of parenthood and birth!  In today's episode we'll learn about her journey from being an aspiring nurse influenced by her large family, to realizing her true calling during a home birth, and then charting her own course in the world of midwifery. 

Christy also shares her experiences of prenatal care, supporting parents through language barriers, and even the emotionally taxing experience of helping a woman surrender her baby safely.  Hear about the differences between a doctor and a midwife, and the emphasis on trusting the body and the process in midwifery. Whether you’re considering a career in midwifery, expecting a baby, or simply fascinated by the world of childbirth, this episode is super insightful!

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Speaker 1:

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Speaker 2:

All right, welcome back to the Mint Project podcast. I am really excited for today's episode because we have a really special guest on with us today my sister-in-law, christy Cannon. Christy is a certified nurse, midwife and women's health nurse practitioner in California and a very busy mom of five. I am super proud of her and all the work and dedication that she's put into becoming a certified nurse midwife over the past few years. She is super smart and she's the kindest, most loving person, which are really important qualities to have as a midwife. She just makes you feel so supported and she has your back and you're just taking care of and, I believe, just in the best hands with Christy. So I wish that I lived closer to her so she could deliver my babies. That would have been so wonderful, but we are so excited to hear from you, christy, and welcome.

Speaker 4:

Thank you. It's great to be here. Thank you for having me, yeah.

Speaker 2:

All right. So we wanted to just hear all about you. So let's just start at the beginning. What were you doing before you decided to become a midwife?

Speaker 4:

So I always wanted to be a nurse. I even dressed up as a baby nurse for Halloween in kindergarten, so it's just like always been part of me to care for babies and to care for people. I'm one of 13 children, so I had nine younger siblings to take care of and I really think that is why I ended up doing what I ended up doing. So I was always a little mother and then when I was thinking about going to college it was just obvious that I was going to go to nursing school. It just was always a part of me. So I went to University of Utah, got my degree at my RN and I worked in the NICU for over 20 years helping moms and babies, and I just loved my job as a NICU nurse. It's a really special place. And then I always kind of had a drive to get a master's. I just didn't know kind of what direction I was going to take it. But when my youngest James was in preschool, I did some research and I was thinking about what direction to go. And during that same kind of time period I had an amazing experience attending a home birth of a dear friend of mine. She asked me to come be her doula and it was kind of just this life-altering, amazing experience to witness a home birth from beginning to end. I think I was with her about 16 hours and watching the midwives do their work. I just felt the call. I just was watching them, thinking that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take my career this direction and bring all my NICU nurse experience with me, and I was so comfortable in that environment and I just literally felt like I could ask them to step aside and deliver the baby. I just was like this is what I meant to do. And, sure enough, by that fall I was at Georgetown. I researched programs that I loved the Georgetown track because it was a dual track and I could get my women's health nurse practitioner and certified nurse midwife at the same time, which not all programs do, that it's sometimes either one or the other, and I liked the idea of having more options. As a nurse practitioner, I definitely wanted to deliver babies and be a midwife, but I like full scope nurse practitioner along with it, so I could take care of women throughout the lifespan if I wanted to ever change directions. So I graduated in 2021.

Speaker 4:

It took about a year to pass boards and find a job. I'm almost at my one year mark of my first midwife job, which is out in Lancaster, california. I'm a hospitalist, I'm full scope, I do clinic and call. I do 24 hour shifts, I deliver a lot of babies. It's an amazing place to work, especially for a first job, because I feel like I can go anywhere after this. We see everything really high risk population midwifery in general at least nurse midwifery in a hospital Usually is more for the normal full term deliveries, but at Lancaster, yes, there are those and there are a lot of risk factors. There's a lot of health issues. So we end up taking care of higher risk patients Much of the time, which is great because I've learned a lot and it's still within our scope. We have a physician always to back us up if we need. If our patient needs a C-section, we do assist on those. I think I've assisted on about 40 C-sections so far and I'm almost at 200 births.

Speaker 1:

So I'm getting a lot of experience out there in one year.

Speaker 4:

We pack it in, but I love it. I love being able to care for women and be that warm, caring provider, especially for women who don't have a partner. They might be really young, they might be going through a lot in their life and I can meet them where they are and that's what I love about my job right now is just to be able to show up and love them through their labor and delivery, and it's really rewarding.

Speaker 2:

Do you meet with your patients during their pregnancy, or do you just have the labor and delivery?

Speaker 4:

Some of them. So I work for Team Health but I deliver through Antelope Valley Hospital and they have a clinic so the midwives rotate through the clinic and do pre-natal care. So if it's one of our patients, we have the established relationship, which is really nice. We also take all the walk-ins and there is a lot of women that walk in with no pre-natal care or they might become a permanent clinic because they want to deliver at our hospital. The midwives take those patients. So I would say probably about a third of my patients that I take care of are our own Antelope Valley patients that I know and about two thirds are not. So yeah, it's great. We get a big mix and a big range of a lot of situations and a lot of learning. It's great.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's so cool. You have had a lot of experience just in this past year, because I remember I saw you in November and we were talking about your first few weeks on the job and it was just so cool to hear what you had already witnessed and assisted on, and just to hear your passion of how you were able to really care for these women. It was just so cool. So, yeah, thanks for sharing that.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, absolutely, and I think that's why I can get through the 24 hour shifts, sometimes with no sleep, you know, delivering at 2, 4am, because I love it, I'm passionate about it, and I get to go deliver a baby, so it's like it's really worth, you know, and they treat us well, they feed us, we have a bed, we have a call room, just like a physician, so they make it easy for us to do these long shifts, because when we don't have a patient or we're not doing a delivery, we can go rest. So it's not usually constant, but it's pretty busy, like I can do up to seven deliveries in a shift it's a lot and manage triage and labors, but then some shifts I only do one or two, so it just depends on what walks in, who walks in, what's on the board, and sometimes lately it's been very busy. So we walk into a lot of patients, but I always think of it as I'm getting so much experience and I'm able to help a lot of women.

Speaker 1:

With that said, it sounds like you have. Okay. You have a crazy busy schedule. You're doing 24 hour shifts, sometimes seven babies at a time. You went back to school recently and you also have five of your own children on top of that. Talk to us a little bit about how you manage that. How you manage, you know, taking care of your kids at home with that crazy busy schedule.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so that's a really good question. I think I'm still figuring it out, but I will say so. When I was a NICU nurse raising my kids for the past 18 years, I just worked really part time, so I was home most of the time during all of that. When I went back to school in 2018, there was a huge change for all of us. My little guy was two and a half, my twins were 14. So now they're like seven and almost 18.

Speaker 4:

And I found a program it was an online program that I could do from home. So, georgetown, I went out to DC a few times, but mostly it was on my laptop in a live class, which was really, really cool. I highly recommend for any mama, you know, who wants to go back to a master's. I got my kids out the door to school and I opened my laptop when I was in school, so there was no commute. I could study while they were in school.

Speaker 4:

That was kind of my idea of how I could do it as a mom, and my kids always come first, family first. I always told my professors all of that, but I was able to do most of it when they were in school and then if I had exams or whatever, I would just pull all nighters or go to the library for a couple of days and really knock it out. But most of the time I was able to be with my kids when they were home, which was cool. Working's a little different, obviously, with long shifts, but the nice thing about 24 hour shifts is I have a long commute.

Speaker 4:

It's like an hour and a half, that's so long which is not great, but I only go out about twice a week. It's not every day. So I work like this. For example, this week I work Saturday morning, Sunday morning, and then I don't go back till Thursday morning to Friday morning, so it's like twice a week. In there I do 24 hour shifts and then I'm home and when I'm gone I have to give credit to my husband. He's amazing. He's been supportive through this whole thing. When I first told him I wanted to go back to school, he was like, okay, let's do this. And knowing he would have to do a lot at home and help me and support me, and he has been amazing.

Speaker 4:

So, first and foremost, my husband holds up house. He's incredible. When I'm not here, he steps in. He's very hands on best dad in the world. He's awesome. So that's huge. And then we have a nanny that comes in three days a week in the afternoon, so we use her when I'm working, Otherwise it's me. If I'm home, it's me with my kids. When I'm gone and Quinn's working because he's a banker, we have Chrissy come in and she's awesome. She's part of the family. She's been with us now, I think, eight years and she just does whatever needs to be done. So she's amazing. So I feel like having a village of people to come in and help me with. What I can't do because I'm not here at the time is how I get through. And then, when I'm here, it's like quality time with my kids. You know, I have to be really organized. I have to be a wall counter. We have everything laid out. We have a pretty tight schedule but we manage it and you know, it flows pretty well most of the time.

Speaker 4:

So that's kind of how I do it is with people stepping in and helping, and my kids also have been great, I have to say, like we kind of looked at it as mom's going back to school you're going back to school Is it started in September of 2018? So the idea was we would do homework together and I like the idea of being, of showing my kids that we can be lifelong learners. Adults can continue their education in many ways and also follow your passion. I was this calling I felt to midwifery was so strong. I couldn't deny it. I was like this is what I'm supposed to be doing and I sat down.

Speaker 4:

I remember sitting my kids down with Quinn, my husband, and just saying this is what I feel like I need to be doing. I'm your mom first and I'm going to be pursuing this calling that I feel really strongly about and they were awesome about it. They're like we can do homework together. Many nights we all got our stuff out, we all did our homework and I think that affected them. I think watching me put effort into something that I felt strongly about and was passionate about, my girls. They're growing up and the 15 year old the other day just said mom, I think it's so cool that you're a midwife and you're helping women and I hope to be able to do something like that, so I think it trickles down right, but I always wanted to make sure they knew they came first, and I think they do. Yeah, that's great.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, I think it's so cool. I don't know if you guys have noticed this too, but it's like we've had a lot of really strong, healthy, busy moms on the podcast and there's always these like themes. We ask some of the same questions and there's always the theme of like it takes a village. You know it's like having a support system, like a lot of the things all of you really amazing moms talk about is like having a village, following your passion, taking care of yourself. You know, it's like it's really cool to hear those themes, because women can then take that and utilize it in their own journey as well.

Speaker 4:

Absolutely, and I'm glad you said that, because I'm a big believer in self care too. Yeah, working in self care whenever we can, even though we're busy and we do a lot. It's like you know, my yoga is important to me. When I have a morning off, I go do a yoga class or a hike in nature or something that feels me, and then it allows me to keep going and do this rigorous schedule right and sleep. Sleep is huge, especially because I miss nights of sleep, so I really prioritize that. Like the day after I work, I go to bed early with my kids. You know tonight's an early night. Let's slow down For sure.

Speaker 3:

So you said. You said you're missing nights a lot, obviously like, but yeah you work in the hospital. You work at home births as well as there, one that you do more than the other, one that you like better than the other.

Speaker 4:

So I actually don't do home births. So, interestingly, nurse midwives mostly work in a hospital setting. There's lots of different levels of midwifery and different types. So certified practical midwives and lame midwives and licensed midwives are the ones that do home births. My license covers everything I can. If someone asked me to go home for I certainly can it's difficult to explain, but it's usually separate. If you're a nurse midwife, you mostly work in a hospital setting, Not always Like if I wanted to open my own birth center, I can do that.

Speaker 3:

My license covers whatever I want to do that.

Speaker 4:

For me. I was a NICU nurse for a long time. I'm comfortable in a hospital setting. The one of the reasons I went back to school was to bring the two worlds together. My dream is to work in a hospital setting in a very natural environment, and I'm working on that. The exciting thing is that like feels like a home setting. Yes, so I'm working on getting closer to home.

Speaker 4:

I'm things are progressing at my local hospital, which is really exciting because it's down the street for me and they don't use midwives. But I'm the prenatal educator at Los Ruegles Hospital right now. I've been doing that for about a year and a half and working toward bridging to a midwife. Institutional change is really big. It takes a lot of steps and we're well into the process. I'm meeting with the CEO next week and we're gonna be getting these going. So I'm gonna be putting in my notice of Lancaster soon to go part-time there and work on the close hospital. So the vision we have there is to take one of the labor delivery rooms and make it into a lower intervention natural birth suite in a hospital.

Speaker 4:

So, to me. That's like my vision, that's like my perfect job Is I'm in a hospital setting or the operating room is close by in case they need to see section. The doctors there, the rest of the hair was the team can show up in a hurry, and that's my comfort level right now. Maybe in a few years, down the road, I'll feel confident and comfortable to open my own birth center and be able to do those lovely home births and birth center births, cause I do think with the right candidate it's amazing, right, low risk pregnancy, all of that. I love that and that's what got me started on this path as a home birth. But right now I just do hospital birth and then I work in a clinic. So I do prenatal care in clinic and then take call at the hospital, so we do shift work. So that's what I do right now, but someday I may do all of it. I'm not sure, but I'm getting experience. I kind of want like five years experience before I go into a home or a birth center.

Speaker 4:

Just to really be able to handle a lot on my own. I'm amazed at midwives that do that. I think it's awesome For me right now. Hospital setting is comfortable yeah.

Speaker 3:

Well, I love what you said about wanting to kind of bring the two worlds together, and I've actually noticed through some of the podcasts we've had and then digging after that that's becoming more common and I remember when I was pregnant saying, man, I wish there was a way to do both. I wish there was a way to like have this patient led experience and be in the water if I want to, or, more of a birth center, still have an emergency team right there in case. So I hope that that's becoming more common.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I think it is. There's more and more nurse midwives being utilized in a hospital setting and that means bringing in more natural options and doulas and all of that. My vision for a Los Robles is once I get in there, I would love to, like you know, have an option for a birthing tub, have a doula program going. They're talking about doing postpartum luxury suites with doulas 24 hours.

Speaker 4:

So we're on that path of creating that in my community and I know in other places that's already happening, which is super exciting. It's an exciting time to be a midwife because of that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah. So tell me what is the difference? Like the side by side comparisons if you're trying to choose between a doctor and midwife. What are the differences of delivering with one person's data?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, question. So you know, in our culture, unfortunately, a lot of people look at birth as like a medical procedure, right? So I think midwifery philosophy tries to take that a different direction and remind people that it's normal. It's normal and wonderful to give birth and it's not a medical procedure. It's like the most amazing things we can do and our bodies are actually designed to do this Inately. Our body knows how to birth, the baby knows how to be born. So I think that is kind of the difference I see, really generally speaking. Of course you have your physicians who are more naturally minded and listen to their patients and do the kind of you know honor their birth plan. I think the philosophy in general is to trust the body and trust the process. When you have a midwife, you know we essentially do the same things. Where I work, the OB and the midwife essentially does the same thing. It's just a different philosophy and a different perspective. I think we also respect midwives, also respect when intervention is needed.

Speaker 4:

So, that's similar. Again, it's just the approach. I think we're a little bit more mindful of trying a lot of options, natural options, before maybe the medical intervention right, but knowing that that's in our tool bag if we need that. The births that I've seen with a midwife and the births I've seen with the physician, midwives in general will be more patient, take more time with their patient, with the woman, to try different positions and different things before maybe jumping to a medical intervention. But again, it's a process. If we need that, we are all for it and I also am a believer in midwifery should be whatever the woman wants for her birth.

Speaker 1:

So, I tell my patients.

Speaker 4:

We honor what you want. If you want an unmedicated natural birth, we will support you 100%. If you find that you're not coping well and an epidural is for you, we support that. I have many patients who have epidurals. I have many patients who do have those medical interventions based on need for safety of mom, safety of baby. So what I like to say is there's many paths to get to the goal of a healthy baby. So, whatever you want, I want to support that. And then if they defer to me and ask my opinion and things, I definitely love to see people who want to take that more natural approach. But if I have women who are like I want a midwife and I want an epidural and I'm like, okay, let's do this. So to me it's about midwife actually means with woman. To me that means I'm with you. Whatever you want to do, I will be with you 100%.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome. I didn't know that.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, it's a beautiful philosophy and it actually is. The other difference I'll say is that physicians come through the medical line, right, and the medical line tends to be more let's fix a problem and then nurse. Midwifery comes through the nursing line, which is all about prevention and health promotion. So if you think about it that way, instead of fixing a problem and later labor, let's prevent the problem in the first place by doing certain things.

Speaker 4:

I'm not sure if you're familiar with spinning babies. It's just really cool organization that talks about where is baby and what position can we put mom in to get baby in a good place so that we prevent need for intervention. That's kind of what midwifery is about. Let's start from the beginning and do things along the way to promote good position of baby, preventing the need for intervention later. Now. Does that always work? No, sometimes we need intervention and that's okay. But I feel like if from the beginning we have a mindset of a natural path, we're more likely to take that natural path instead of this fixing the problem when it arises. Does that make sense? Yeah?

Speaker 2:

that's how I come to look at it. Yeah, I love that differentiation.

Speaker 4:

But a lot of our job is the same. We manage labor very similarly, we look for the same red flags, we basically deliver the baby in the same way. So our job is really similar. It's the approach that's different.

Speaker 1:

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Speaker 2:

And so cool. So I want to hear I want to hear about your first catch. You kind of told us about this last year when we were all together, but it's such a special story and I just love hearing you talk about the experiences that you have, because it really just shows, like, what's really available for women, what they can experience if they want, and then just from the provider's point of view is really cool.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, oh sure, I'd love to talk about that. So when I was a student I worked super hard for every birth. Like it was really hard to get my births and we had to have a minimum number. And I barely got that minimum because it was COVID and a lot of places didn't have students and I had to travel far and wide to get my experience, to get my births in, to be able to graduate, and that's always done with a preceptor, another big wife, you know, and I, even though I did those births myself, I had someone right next to me kind of coaching me along. And that's just how we learn right, kind of hand-over-hand learning. And then when I started at Lancaster, same thing.

Speaker 4:

We had a shift with the midwife and then the doctors we kind of were proctoring us. So I had my shift with the midwife. It was only 12 hours. They don't do a lot of training, they kind of expect you to jump in with both feet and that all went well. We did one birth together and it was fine. I had done a birth in a long time. So we kind of did that together. I didn't really feel like it was my own.

Speaker 4:

And then very next shift I was working with this lovely physician who I just really admire. He'd been there a long time, he has his own practice out there, he's a very kind man and I was like, great, I have this awesome doctor to you know, show me the way right. And we'd been there a few hours, hadn't had a birth yet, and then everything hit it once, which often happens where there's a lot going on and we kind of have to divide and conquer, and he got pulled into an emergency. And which happens? That's what the doctors there for they do the C-sections, they do the history, they do the emergencies and then midwives take care of other quote unquote normal. So that happened and then, sure enough, they called me and said we need you in room 120 for a delivery. I thought, oh, my goodness, there's no one else. It's me, this is it. This is going to be my first birth. I got a little bit nervous and I remember stopping outside the door and just saying a quick little prayer like please help me, god remember everything.

Speaker 4:

I'm supposed to do. I'm on my own, this is my moment. I walk in and I get ready. And it's this lovely couple. I take care of her in triage. She kind of had a relationship. She wasn't our OAB patient, but she was someone that I'd seen a few times during her labor and admitted her a few hours before she was having an unmedicated natural birth. It's a fourth baby. Really, really lucky for me. I had an awesome situation to walk into for my first birth. I get all ready and I get my gown and gloves and standing there and the contractions come and wave. Sometimes we wait for a few minutes in between, even though babies are ready to be born any minute, because we work with the body and the contractions.

Speaker 4:

I had a moment where it was in between a contraction and time just stood still. I just felt this flood of emotion and I actually had a tear running down my face. I just had so much gratitude to be able to be standing there in that room in that moment. I was managing the room. There wasn't another midwife, there wasn't a doctor. It was me.

Speaker 4:

I thought about everything it took to get there, everything, all the sacrifice, everything my husband did to support me to get there, to be able to be standing there in that moment, being able to deliver this beautiful baby girl I got really emotional, makes me emotional right now. I just had this moment of this is my moment and I get to be here. There was so much gratitude and I was grateful that, instead of feeling nervous or scared, I was feeling confident and grateful. I delivered this baby girl, beautiful baby doll. She came out. The whole room was like oh, my goodness, so amazing, she's beautiful. Everything was perfect. I just got to have this most amazing first birth experience, that everything went perfectly. There was a lot of love in the room, a lot of love in the room. I'll never forget that moment of gratitude being able to have the honor of standing there delivering this baby.

Speaker 1:

It was really special. Yeah, seeing all your work come to fruition, that's amazing.

Speaker 4:

And also not only that, but just the connection I had with the mom. She was unmedicated, so there's something that happens between the midwife and the woman, especially when there's not pain medicine on board. We love guys and I was able to just say I'm here for you, we can do this, you can do this, it's going to be okay, and there's something about being in that role of supporting that woman who is giving birth. There's a connection there that's really special, yeah, so that happens to you.

Speaker 1:

All of it came together.

Speaker 4:

It was beautiful yeah.

Speaker 1:

So cool.

Speaker 3:

Well.

Speaker 1:

I feel like we've heard a lot about what you love about being a midwife, but I can imagine that it's also challenging, emotionally and physically. What are some of the harder parts about being a midwife, or what's challenging? Anything you've seen, maybe, or that challenges you in this position?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, that's a great question and one that's not talked about as much, so I appreciate you bringing it up. Yeah, I would say one of the harder parts is watching women and what they go through in not so ideal circumstances. So in my year at Lancaster, I've helped a woman safe surrender her baby, which is when she gives up rights to be the mom and yet still goes through the birth Right Uh-huh. That was really highly emotional for both of us and I actually just loved this woman. I got to know her. We had a lot of great conversations throughout the labor and I really respected her choice. In the end it was actually really a selfless choice for her and that was really difficult one of the more difficult deliveries because of the situation and the baby. They found a really nice family for the baby and everything turned out well, but it was really amazing to watch this woman go through that, and so I think emotional situations are one of the harder parts about being a midwife, but also really beautiful, because you get to meet them where they are and honor what they've decided to do with their life. So there was that, and then another really hard but awesome experience was when I delivered my first baby with Down syndrome and that was really special to me because I have a daughter with Down syndrome. Mary and I actually had been looking forward to that day and it was unexpected, which was really cool and hard, because I know from a personal perspective of 18 years that it's wonderful to raise a child with Down syndrome. It's also full of challenge. So I guess the hard part for me was making sure I presented the news to the parents in a way that was congratulatory to them that we were celebrating their baby and I think that was really cool and a way that was congratulatory to them that we were celebrating their baby and also letting them know that, although it will be full of joy, there will be some challenge. So I guess the difficulty was finding that balance and being able to show up for people in a real way and also very loving and supportive. And that was the opportunity gave me a lot of opportunity to express my personal feelings and also really support them.

Speaker 4:

So she didn't know she was having a baby with Down syndrome and the cool part for me was as soon as I my hands touched that baby, I knew something and we knew this baby had Down syndrome. It was really special. And then when I placed the baby on the mama, it was confirmed because I could see. But even before I could see the baby, I knew, my hands knew, and Normally I don't get to interact with the baby very much because I'm there for the mom and another baby nurse is taking care of the baby. But what ended up happening was there was a complication which meant the physician came and took over for the mom and I got to be the baby's Nurse. So I got to hold this baby for 10, 15 minutes while they were Helping the mom. And that was really special for me, emotional, and it gave me a moment to gather my thoughts, to be able to think. If I was in her shoes, what would I want to hear? Yeah, and.

Speaker 4:

I was able to pull up a chair and Talk to her about her baby having Down syndrome and how special it is and how much support there is for her and All the amazing things and there will be challenge. So anyway, that was really a special experience as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, what a blessing to have you there in that situation. I mean I'm getting emotional just thinking about it, but I mean to have someone who not only sounds like as amazingly caring as you but also has been through a similar Situation and can give the hope and a little bit of comfort to like it's going to be okay. You know that's yeah that is amazing.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, and getting back to your question about one of the harder things Along with this story, there was a language barrier, which is one of the harder things. Wow, when you work with the populate. There's a lot of different languages going on and we use a system called Marty and we translate and everything. But it's a little bit harder, right, but in this particular circumstance, with the baby with Down syndrome At the end of all of it, I was amazed that the language barrier didn't matter.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, what came through was the emotion and the facial expressions and the feelings, and I ended up going back to her room like four or five times just holding the baby and loving on her. She really could tell that she was giving something, given something very special, and it didn't really matter that she spoke Spanish and I spoke English. It was just, it was yeah wild. It was really cool to keep realize that even through the hard barriers in my job, those can be broken down with real humanity and love.

Speaker 3:

Well, so cool that you've gotten to like not only live out your own personal experiences or relive them through other moms, but just that you're so passionate about what you do and we've actually been speaking to a lot of people lately who just are Passionate about the job that they have, and that's not always the case. What do you, what do you suggest or what advice would you give someone who Is hearing this and thinking who maybe I should be a midwife or wants to use a midwife in their next birth? That's a good question.

Speaker 4:

First of all, I would say About the career path find something that you love. Like you're saying, I feel really lucky that I love my job so much and I loved my NICU nurse job. I I feel lucky that I found paths that bring me a lot of joy and purpose. And, and whenever people ask me younger people or whatever, thinking about college or career paths, I say find something you're interested in, passionate about, because that is always gonna bring you joy. Right, if it's Similar to my path, I would say go for it. I always ask.

Speaker 4:

A lot of people ask me should I go down, you know, to become a nurse or midwife? Yes, yes, it's amazing and Especially if you have that passion within you, right, I think that it it takes a certain type in a way, if you will, because it is a very intimate job, right, but I'm really comfortable with with that part and, yeah, I would recommend this job to anyone. I think it's really special, very rewarding. I Get to do what I love, I get to work with women and their babies and, in a way, for me it's healing, because I have five kids but I always want to tend.

Speaker 4:

I grew up in a really big family and yeah, when and I had an interesting path to having our children.

Speaker 4:

It didn't come easy and for me, knowing that James was my last was really hard and I grieve that, and I wanted more.

Speaker 4:

But I was older by then and I couldn't have more and Going into midwifery it was about the same time.

Speaker 4:

I was healing for me because I thought, if I can't have more babies, if I can't grow another baby in my belly, I can help someone else have an amazing experience and that is really Healing for me and it helped me close the chapter of my childbearing years with a lot of Love and a lot of peace and a lot of hope and Purpose and helping other women be able to experience what I got to experience and and it it instead of like maybe you know, wanting to have more, it kind of made me realize how grateful I am to have my own five and that was that was for me and in my life.

Speaker 4:

And now I get to help other women enjoy their pregnancy and birth and because it's all a miracle, every birth I do I get to witness a miracle and I Hope that I can instill in my patients that perspective, because it is such a beautiful thing to become a mother and I will say one of my favorite parts about this job is not only watching the birth of a baby, but watching the birth of parents and Watching people transition to not having a baby to then having their own child in their arms that they got to create with their partner, and it's just, it's a miracle. So that's one reason I love my job and I would recommend it to anyone who felt that call.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So then, if there are moms who are now looking for a McWifer, feel inspired to at least look into what that would be like for them. Where do they start?

Speaker 4:

Great question. Midwifery is covered by insurance, just like a provider.

Speaker 1:

I were a provider, so I do get this question a lot I expect someone.

Speaker 4:

So I meet a lot of pregnant people Through my second job down the street as a prenatal educator and I talk about being a midwife and you know this was kind of. The plan is to put myself out in the community as a midwife and then bridge to a midwife. So this is what's been happening over the past couple of years and Many women are confused, they about my role. So some will come up to me after the class or call me later and say will you be my midwife? I see this doctor but I'm on a midwife in the room and they confuse it with a doula role.

Speaker 4:

So I get to then explain so Insurance is covered, one provider you either have a physician or a midwife and that's so. I am, you know, credentialed and privileged and Hooked in with all the insurances, just like the physicians. And then the doula role is more like a labor coach and they're not a medical person, right? So ideally, if you have a midwife doing managing the labor and doing the birth, then you have a doula who can support the woman through that labor. That's an awesome team. So I kind of explain I find myself explaining that role a lot and I think some people you know back to your question don't really understand what a midwife is and a nurse midwife. We have six years of education in nursing and we act as the provider. So I would say, look up who's connected in your insurance.

Speaker 4:

Unfortunately, in where I live in California, midwifery is still Rising. Not all hospitals use midwives, but that's trending in a favorable direction, with my community hospital being an example. We're getting more hospitals to hire midwives and utilize midwives. Before this position was created that I'm working toward, the only midwife in Thousand Oaks owned a birth center and she's amazing. If you want that, I I love that idea, but there wasn't an option for a hospital birth. So that's changing and I think the trend nationwide is is midwifery is going to be More available to all women. Yeah, so I would say, start you know with your insurance and see what they cover and what options they have in their community. And if they're a candidate, if they're low risk and they're a candidate for a home Birth or a birth center with a midwife, that's amazing, that's a great option there. And then several hospitals are also utilizing nurse midwives so they can start with kind of what's Available in their area and what might be covered through their insurance, or that's what I would recommend first.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much and I'm really excited for you. It sounds like you've worked so hard to create this position in this new hospital because you want to bring your services To an area that doesn't have anything like that, which will give women so much more hope and so many more options which is great and you've just worked so hard at this, so good luck with it. And yeah, it sounds like it's all coming together.

Speaker 4:

Thank you. I am really excited to not only not have a commute but to work with the women in my community. I think that'll be really yeah awesome to like run into people at the grocery store and you know where I live be able to work with those women, because I don't have that now. I drive far as a whole different yeah Area, so I am excited to be able to work with women in my community, definitely, yeah. Thank you so much for having me letting me share my passion and About midwife free and about women's health. Yeah, I really was.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thanks so much. Yes, Thank you. You're welcome. Hey Mitt, mamas and trainers, if you enjoyed our information, you will love our programs and resources. We have a pregnancy fitness program, postpartum program, along with guides on movement modifications and nutrition, all designed to help you safely and effectively stay active through pregnancy and return to exercise postpartum. You can even bundle our programs and save so that your whole journey is covered. You can find all of these resources at the mid project comm.