Goshen Birth Center Blog

Funny to think that I never imagined that I would ever be in the medical profession, but my mom influenced my direction by persistently persuading me toward being a “midwife”.  At that time, I knew little of what that word even meant. Since taking my mom’s advice (mothers, never downplay your wisdom and influence on your children) , it has been a journey of realizing truly how well this role fits my adventurous personality because literally there is no day that is the same.   Having a strong desire to serve, I had the opportunity to teach prenatal education classes to women who were low income or in crisis pregnancies prior to my midwifery career. It was during this time, it became very clear to me how influential education and support had on a woman’s experiences and outcomes for pregnancy and birth. I witnessed first-hand the difference between women who invested time to take prenatal education and those who didn’t: in how they labored, how they made choices, and even how they c

“Once a cesarean, always a cesarean.”  That often-heard adage does not reflect the reality of birth today.  While it can seem astoundingly easy to end up with a cesarean surgery for the birth of a baby (roughly 1 in 3 babies in the United States are born this way), finding a provider to support a TOLAC (trial of labor after cesarean) and VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) can seem astoundingly hard, depending on the part of the country you live in.                  There’s always things out of our control that contribute to cesarean section being the choice way to have a safe birth for mom and baby: a baby coming breech, a pregnancy of twins where the first baby is coming breech, baby’s heart rate in labor becoming abnormal, placenta over the cervix, mother having certain active infections, some medical conditions of mother or baby.  Despite all this, the World Health Organization says the number of women birthing by cesarean should be closer to 10-15%.  I am happy to be part of a