Plum Midwifery

Midwives

Joanne Daviau RM, MA
Registered Midwife,  Sage Femme,
Lactation Consultant

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.

Amy Kelly RM,
Registered Midwife

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.

Emma Gledhill RM,
Registered Midwife

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.

Jessie Shannon RM,
Registered Midwife          

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.

Home Birth Second Attendants

Marion Erikson RN,
Registered Midwife

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.

Maneesha Madan, RMT
Massage Therapist

Maneesha Madan graduated from the West Coast College of Massage Therapy in 1996. Since then she has worked as a Registered Massage Therapist in clinic settings in Vancouver, on Denman Island and in the Comox Valley.

Maneesha has a special interest in women’s reproductive health, providing safe, gentle treatments during pregnancy and the postpartum period, as well as effective relief of menstrual and menopausal imbalances. Her passion for working with pregnant women and babies began while completing her massage therapy training, and inspired her to certify as a doula in 2000 and to study Midwifery at the University of British Columbia.

Maneesha believes strongly in the midwifery model of care, its philosophy of childbirth as a normal and healthy life event, and the opportunity it provides to support and empower women and their families. She has been privileged to attend dozens of amazing births during her training, including during a practical placement with Plum Midwifery.

 After completing three years of midwifery training at UBC, Maneesha has recently returned to her first love of massage. In addition to her massage therapy practice in Comox, she currently provides care as a second attendant with Plum Midwifery for home births.