The Midwife Podcast

What a captivating conversation with Barbara Belcore about midwifery in Illinois. Barbara is the president of the Illinois chapter of CPMs and a licensed midwife in the state of Wisconsin. She shares about the complex political atmosphere surrounding home birth in Illinois. Take a moment to like the Illinois Friends of Midwives facebook page and help homebirth become legal in illinois again! https://www.facebook.com/IllinoisFriendsOfMidwives/

Wendy Clemens shares stories practicing as a traditional midwife in British Columbia. She engages us with an exciting account of her own birth in Mexico and her introduction to midwifery. There were many beautiful moments and stories in this episode.

Carrie Neerland is a CNM and currently attends births at The University of Minnesota Medical Center. During the episode we speak about physiologic birth. Then we go on to explore Carrie's PhD, Maternal Confidence for Physiologic Birth. Near the end of the episode we explore how twin cities midwives have come together to create better home birth to hospital transfers. Since recording the episode spring of 2018, Carrie Neerland has completed her PhD. Congrats Carrie!

Sarah Stetina, CNM Sarah is the first CNM on our podcast and currently works at AMITA Health OMG Women's Healthcare in Hinsdale, IL. We loved hearing about hospital birth through Sarah’s eyes. We also dive into conversations about word choices in birth and sensitive care for women who experienced sexual abuse. Mentioned in this episode: Feminist Midwife blog: http://www.feministmidwife.com/ Penny Simpkin's When Survivors Give Birth Workshop: https://www.pennysimkin.com/sponsoring-a-lecture-or-workshop/ ACNM Issue Brief on Gender Terminology: http://www.midwife.org/ACNM/files/ACNMLibraryData/UPLOADFILENAME/000000000313/Issue-Brief-Use-of-Culturally-Appropriate-Terminology-for-Gender-Diverse-Populations-FEB-2018.pdf

Wabanewquy, Dorene Day, is a traditional Anishinaabe midwife who captivated us with visions of reawakened traditional birthing practices. As we listened to her stories we cried, laughed, and dreamed better births for generations to come.