Hello From Cynthia
I came to midwifery in 2009, following the home births of my own children. For those first years, I was traditionally trained through an apprenticeship model while gaining academic knowledge through independant study. As I attended more births, I found that I had an intuitive understanding of the rhythm, tempo, dynamics and modulations of the labor process. Like a well composed work of music, I could feel the energy move and shift in the birth space, and I knew this was where I was supposed to be.
I began practicing independently in 2013, serving as midwife for a small client load while homeschooling my young children and running an urban mini-farm. I attended a three month internship in the Phillippines in 2014 where I had the chance to immerse myself in a busy birth center practice while learning more about my place in the world. After returning to the states, I worked 5 years for a busy group practice with a heavy client load. I have now come full circle, back to my small, client focused, home-based single midwife practice which embraces the roots of traditional community midwifery.
My Philosophy
I believe that the process of pregnancy and giving birth is a birth of two persons. Mothers go through a powerful spiritual and emotional growth process even as the cells and tissues knit together to create the tiny human within. I believe that the culmination of this process is in the birth itself, wherein both a mother and a baby become new creatures. Then there is a transformation to motherhood with the healing of the body, mind and spirit, a "falling apart" period of rawness with a rebuilding of the Mother and the Family as all grow together. Every story is a little bit different. The physical, emotional, and spiritual experiences of birth cannot be separated.
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As a midwife, my role is to make space for this growth process, to be a guide that empowers, and - as much as I can - to be a protector of normal birth. I respect the intelligence and intuition of mothers and practice informed consent and shared decision making so that they can be empowered to make choices about their own health care for themselves and their babies. I also respect the science and the tools that we have available to us and have grown in wisdom to know when monitoring and interventions are needed. I have come to realize that my role is not to promise a home birth but to provide Midwifery care.
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My philosophy of practice encompasses the Midwives Model of Care originally outlined by the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA). This model of care is based on the philosophy that pregnancy and birth are normal life events.
The Midwives Model of Care includes these four tenets:
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• Monitoring they physical, psychological, and social well-being of the mother throughout the childbearing cycle
• Providing the mother with individualized education, counseling, and prenatal care, continuous hands-on assistance during labor, delivery, and postpartum
• Minimizing technological interventions
• Identifying and referring clients who require obstetrical attention