Plum Midwifery

Midwives

Joanne has been a midwife since 1987 following completion of a direct entry midwifery program. She completed a clinical internship in the USA, Holland and Germany and has since attended births in the home setting, in both tertiary and rural hospitals. Joanne has been a lactation consultant since 1995 and has worked for several years as a midwife in Vancouver prior to moving to Vancouver Island in 1998. She has recently completed a Master's degree in Midwifery.

Joanne is pleased to provide midwifery care to women and families choosing either a hospital or home birth.

Well into her midwifery career, Joanne realized that both her grandmothers were midwives in Northern Ontario and in Quebec. Perhaps this explains her passion for midwifery. Joanne lives in Comox with her husband, they have three     grown children all born at home with the care of midwives.

Work is Love Made Visible - Khalil Gilbran

My passions in life are women's health and community activism. Being a midwife is the fruition of a plan rooted in my childhood. As the eldest of five girls growing up I was privileged to see many babies come into my family. My mother had a midwife and my sister's homebirth left me with the impressions that birth was a wonderful, awe inspiring event in a family's life and that women are powerful.

My heart has been with the idea of working with expectant women and their families to facilitate an empowering, respectful and dignified experience in pregnancy, labour, birth and the immediate postpartum. I received a Bachelor of Health Sciences in Midwifery at Laurentian University. After completing this program I knew I had to come home to my       family, my mountains and the beauty of the west coast.

                                                      I was privileged to work with the amazing women at Pomegranate Community Midwives for the first few years of practice. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to help build a practice that offered such a diversity of services to women and their families. While at Pomegranate I volunteered at the Aboriginal Mother's Centre Society attempting to both learn what makes health care more accessible to pregnant aboriginal women of the downtown eastside as well as to bridge that gap with midwifery care. However, a more "small town" life beckoned me; fortunately I met Joanne and fell in love with the Comox Valley. I am thrilled to bring my experiences and my love for this profession to our new practice of Plum Midwifery.

A balance struck between realizing my passions in midwifery and my other interests (which now include: snowboarding, scuba diving, kayaking, my new husband, my new baby) is a good life.

I did my midwifery and nurse training at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington London,England-where Princess Diana had her children! I have now been a midwife for more than 20 years working in urban and rural hospitals and birth centres in the UK,and in Abbotsford and the Comox Valley in Canada. I have worked with Mother Theresa in Calcutta and spent 6 months cycling through Indonesia.

I am currently working on a Masters in Public Health. I love canoeing and cross country skiing,and really enjoy working with mothers and their families.

My Canadian husband teaches currently in the Arctic,and I have 3 boys aged 6,10 and 17 , 2 of whom were born at home.

I am inspired by the transformative powers of birth and enjoy walking with women and their families along their paths.

 

My initial midwifery training was completed in Cebu, Philippines where I first was introduced to the importance of safe obstetric health care for all women.

In 2000 I graduated with an Associate Midwifery degree from the National College of Midwifery in Taos, New Mexico and returned to Ontario to complete the International Midwifery Pre-Registration Progamme at Ryerson University in Toronto.         
Before my first years of practice in Ontario, I worked as a coordinator for the Canadian Aboriginal Prenatal Nutrition Program, specifically working with off-reserve First Nation’s women and their families.                                                                 

My first five years of practice were spent in Northern Ontario, working with a large First Nation’s population and eventually rural Southern Ontario, working with Amish and Mennonite families.

My passion for the north and working with First Nation’s women and their families led me to the Quebec arctic, where I have worked short term for the past few years, training Inuit midwives.                                                                     

I have been working as locum midwife in the Comox Valley for the past spring and summer and have since fallen in love with the community, which I now call home.

 

Having experienced midwifery care during my pregnancies and the birth of my two children, I am excited to be joining the great team at Plum as office administrator. I spent 3 years operating a website advocating for midwifery care and selling birth supplies & homebirth kits. I am one of those rare individuals who actually likes paperwork and I have a talent for organization. My administration skills have lead me to work in various settings from the home office of a disability insurance agent to the busy offices of an outdoor clothing manufacturer and of Environment Canada.

My husband and I moved to the Comox Valley from Vancouver in 2008 and we have really enjoyed getting to know our new home. Our children are 4.5 and 2 years old and when I am not chasing them, I try to knit.

Home Birth Second Attendant

Marion has been a registered nurse and midwife since 1985 following completion of training in South Africa. She has worked in remote outlying areas in South Africa as well as in major tertiary care maternity facilities including two designated "Baby Friendly" hospitals in the Cape where her interest in Kangaroo Care was kindled.

Marion also lived and worked in Hong Kong for a number of years before settling down in BC where she has resided since 1993 with her two children.

Marion has worked at St. Joseph's Hospital in Comox as an obstetrical nurse and also in the Comox Valley as a midwife. She is currently providing care as a second attendant for home births.