Plum Midwifery

Midwives

Well into my midwifery career, I was amazed to discover that both my great grandmothers were midwives in Northern Ontario and in Quebec where my family roots originate.

I have been a midwife since 1987 when I completed a clinical internship in the USA, Holland and Germany. I have attended births in the home setting, in tertiary and rural hospitals.

I worked for several years as a midwife in Vancouver prior to moving to Vancouver Island in 1998. I completed a Master's degree in Midwifery and am currently practicing midwifery and working part time with the College of Midwives of BC as Quality Assurance and Clinical Practice Policy Director.

I have had the pleasure of providing midwifery care to women and families in the Comox Valley since 1998 where I live with my husband. We 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 from London School of Hygiene and tropical medicine.

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.

 

My passion for supporting the health of mothers and babies developed through my previous work and volunteering experience in Canada and overseas. I completed my formal midwifery training through UBC’s midwifery program. During my studies I developed a solid grounding in evidence-based practice, home birth, water birth, and birth in the hospital. For the past two years, I have enjoyed working in a busy practice in the lower mainland, serving families in Vancouver and in the Port Moody area.

In my work as a midwife, I feel deeply privileged to be witness to the amazing process of pregnancy, birth and the development of diverse families. I have a passion for promoting woman-centered, holistic care, while empowering women through informed decision-making. My special areas of interest have included supporting women who are striving to achieve a vaginal birth after caesarean, and improving access to midwifery care for a greater diversity of women and their families. In my life outside of work, I enjoy growing vegetables in my garden, hiking in the woods, playing the piano, and travelling.

I have long wanted to live and practice midwifery in a more rural area, and am excited for the opportunity to work with the midwives and families at Plum Midwifery.

 

I was born into the hands of midwives in Penzance, England and have been interested in midwifery ever since. After apprenticing at a birthing center in El Paso, Texas, I worked as a second birth attendant in Kingston, Ontario before deciding to pursue my Bachelor in Health Sciences in Midwifery at Ryerson University. After graduation, I moved to Abbotsford, BC and practiced with the Valley Midwifery Group before relocating to Vancouver Island to spend more time with my daughter and run around in the forests.

I live in Cumberland now and am delighted to return to midwifery after taking a break and living all over this beautiful province as a tree planting cook. I am very much looking forward to meeting all of the wonderful families coming to Plum Midwives.

 

 

All three of my children were born at home with midwives in attendance. These experiences affirmed my belief that midwifery care is an integral part of a healthy maternity care system. My commitment to supporting midwifery in my community lead me to volunteer my time with Plum Midwifery in 2009 and to begin working in the office part-time in 2010. In the past, I have worked in a variety of administration positions from a small home business to the Canadian government. I also spent 3 years operating a website advocating for midwifery care and selling birth supplies & homebirth kits.

My husband and I moved to the Comox Valley from Vancouver in 2008 to start our family business and raise our children. When I am not chasing them, I try to knit.

As a mother of two beautiful girls, both born with midwives, I am pleased to be working in an environment that celebrates women and childbirth. My background is in interior design, but I also owned and administrated a small restaurant and catering company with my husband. Always up for a new challenge, in addition to my degree in History in Art and Cultural Anthropology, I recently completed a business administration certificate and am thrilled to have work that combines my love of organizing, helping people and holding babies; what could be better than that!

For the past 11 years, my family and I have called the Comox Valley home and I enjoy everything soccer, running, traveling, cooking and spending time with family and friends. 

Home Birth Second Attendants

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.