They did It!!

12:57pm today I received a heavenly text..our application was accepted, our license was granted!

Babymoon Inn is now officially the first free standing birth centre to open in Arizona that is owned and operated by independent midwives. There have been and are other birth centres of course, but they were/are attached to hospitals and run by CNM's.

This is the first time that women here in Arizona have the option to birth outside their home, yet away from the hospital. Birth centres have been identified in the literature, time and time again, as being as safe a place to birth as the hospital. More so, given the chances of having a natural birth are dramatically reduced the moment you set foot in a hospital.


Shell Walker, L.M. and Julia Hall have forged a way through the Arizona Health Department, that will enable not only mothers to birth where they choose, but also setting a precedent that will help other midwives set up there own birth centres. This is important in a city 6M large and roughly 80miles across.


I am so honoured to part of this project. WOW! what an experience.

I have the privilege of working with Shell, her former student, now partner Mani Canaday, L.M.!!! (Yay Mani!) and their business partner and pillar of strength and support Julia Hall.

Julia is an absolutely amazing woman, who serves mothers on such a deep level. Julia makes things better, taking everything to the next level, never having to be asked.

If it isn't bringing in muffins, fruit and her special lemon/lime water on clinic days, it is staying up all night with the autoclave, making sure it can pass the test!

She has done so much for this process, has been there through all the good and bad times and triumphed over all adversity. She is an inspiration and this means so much to her. It is a blessing to be in her presence.


Mani. Mani is a special soul. Kind and gentle. Always understanding and impartial. My voice of unjudging reason. Always has an ear for me when i need it, a hug and a kiss. Always a laugh and the ability to communicate with me without the use of words. I can not say enough of about Mani and I so look forward to working with her over the next years.

Where do I even begin with Shell. The universe brought me here, it connected me to her years ago and even though I traveled far, I never lost touch. Shell was constant. "I'll be here if you come". I doubt she thought I ever would, but then a year ago I showed up, having pretty much no knowledge, other than the confidence within me that this is what I am meant to do.

When I first caught wind that she was opening a birth centre I was trapped in Gangtok, Sikkim, India. I was losing my mind, depressed. I went to a cafe and there was a message from Shell, letting me know her plans. She was in Phoenix and was opening a birth centre. What was I waiting for. It's not like I was lost, I knew what I wanted, but I was delaying it. I immediately found a spot on a helicopter that was flying people out of Gangtok (the roads had been shut down due to protesters...i WAS trapped!). I got on a helicopter, took a train 50 hours and switched my plane ticket.

Even from there it took me a year to get here, but I made it.

I am looking forward to the next years with excitement and eagerness.


Congrats Babymoon Inn on your Birthday!

xoxo

mind bending and evolving

so considering changing the name of this blog.

this is my chosen procrastination right now.

I have begun my program at Birthwise Midwifery School in Maine. I am headed up to Maine, gaining reprieve from the heat, in less than a week and I have a lot more studying and assignments that I need to complete. Suppose I am almost on top of the assignments, aside from a wee paper .. that I have to do, find someone to recount a birth experience pre-1959.

I'm thinking i should change the title of this blog to "The Adventures of a (struggling) Student Midwife"?

I'm not really struggling, but being thrown into this whole school thing again is a rapid jolt to my reality.


Thank you, thank you that I have been blessed with this apprenticeship for the last year and that I actually learned and retained some important information in the process. I feel a bit ahead of the game in that regards, but trying to actually read all that I have to, while maintaining by duties as a student apprentice, especially to a midwife trying to open a birth centre! oh my the balancing I am trying to do.

Not to mention the fact I've had to move and am somewhat displaced, but I finally have almost all my belongings with me at the same time for the first time in 3 years! WOW. Really! and it all fits into this tiny room of mine. Not bad.

You should see the piles of books that surrounds me.

But I love it. I love that I have a client that calls me, that we have clients that befriend on on facebook and that are genuinely happy to see me.

I love being asked if I will be at their birth! Nothing would stop me...well, nothing aside from school now, sigh got to accept that one.

So, yes. That is what I am going to do.


Changing the title..maybe it will be the misadventures....