As a young teen, I was invited to be present for my brother’s birth. Patrick’s arrival was – in one word – awesome. I was fascinated with the process, impressed with my mother, and so proud of my little baby brother. His birth awakened within me a deep love for children and the processes by which they arrive and thrive. Throughout my teenage years I was a second mama to my siblings, neighborhood babysitter, and stayed up late reading my mother’s pregnancy and parenting magazines.

In a fit of restless bookstore wandering in the days before a college semester in Namibia, I stumbled on a copy of Ina May Gaskin’s Spiritual Midwifery. By the time I climbed on the plane, I was daydreaming about giving birth even a little bit like the women on The Farm. And also, there was another twinkling idea – I thought that I might like to be a midwife.

I earned my Bachelor of Science in Nursing and International Service from Valparaiso University in 1999 and then worked in a variety of hospital units as a vascular and float pool nurse. My birth and midwifery plans went underground during this time. My husband Dave and I moved to Madison early in our marriage – in 2001. We concentrated on getting settled into life together, had fun traveling, and opened our home to three homeless cats.

In my daily work with ill adults I was constantly shown that women are strong in the face of difficult processes – especially so when they have knowledge, support, and encouragement. Wanting to work more exclusively with women I returned to school and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a women’s health nurse practitioner in 2006. It was during my last hours of clinical work for this degree that I met Ingrid Andersson and Madison’s amazing network of home birthing families – and was handed the tools to start digging up those long buried ideas and loves. While I believe that formal education is very important, I also feel that experiential learning and mentoring relationships are equally so. Ingrid’s mentorship and the experiences I had as an assistant in her practice have been so very influential and helpful in my work as a nurse, midwife, and a human.

I graduated from the Frontier School of Midwifery & Family Nursing and realized that twinkling daydream to become a midwife – which I now recognize as a calling - in September of 2009.