Vera Berard
Registered Midwife

The power of birth and women's resilience always amazes me. Providing comprehensive maternity care to women and their families from early pregnancy, through labor and birth, early parenting until 6 weeks postpartum is a privilege that I have found tremendously rewarding. I completed my initial midwifery and nursing education in South Africa in 1981 and then immigrated to Canada with my husband. We have one daughter and our family also has a dog.

My work has been my passion and I consider myself privileged to be able to journey with women and their families when they welcome a new family member. As a board member of the MABC (1995-1998), I was actively involved with the creation of the first publicly funded midwifery services contract. Since that time I have remained involved in developing BC's midwifery profession and at the same time have provided midwifery services on the North Shore. My interests have been to find ways that empower women to create a community that helps them parent, and ways that improve midwives quality of work life. Centering is an approach that has shown promise (see www.centeringpregnancy.com).

In 2006 I implemented a modified 'Centering Pregnancy® into my practice, more information about midwifery group care is available by viewing the information slide show. Since that time a woman receiving care at Midwifery Care North Shore (MCNS) has had the option of undertaking individual and/or midwifery group care. My colleagues and I do our best to provide a personalized service and to facilitate social networking for those who would like to meet others women and family members going through a similar life-transition. In order to run a group there needs to be 5 interested women who are due within 4 - 6 weeks of each other. Midwifery Care North Shore is well supported by Lions Gate Hospital Maternity team and the other midwifery practices in the area. Most appointments take place in Quayside Village comfy space (for more information about Quayside Village see http://quaysidevillage.googlepages.com/home), Visits that take place at home are a birth planning home visit that happens between 35 and 38 weeks of pregnancy and postpartum home visits that happen the first week after birth. Kathy McGrenera is the practice's coordinator who arranges client appointments by phone and/or email.

Over the years many midwives have had an opportunity work with me and Kathy in Midwifery Care North Shore. The practice has been a teaching practice committed to midwifery education and the promotion of women-centered health care. Midwifery students help to preserve some aspects of the traditional apprenticeship learning model. They are closely supervised by practice midwives who are clinical instructors approved by the University of BC. While a client's right is respected to decline student involvement in any aspect of care either before or after meeting a student, clients are encouraged to participate in the vital process of preparing new practitioners to serve more of British Columbia's women. Clients benefit from the combination of experience enhanced by the freshness, energy and enthusiasm of students. Midwives continuing education is also boosted by students' recent academic exposure. There are now several midwives who have worked either as students or as conditional registrants in MCNS who are currently registered and providing midwifery services throughout the province.

Midwifery Care North Shore welcomes our newest team member Brangwynne Purcell Registered Midwife. We wish Adrienne Chow much happiness as she takes her maternity leave and thank her and Susie Schulz for providing services, while I completed my master's in midwifery from Thames Valley University, London, UK. We also thank all the women who participated in the group care evaluation that I undertook as part of my dissertation to discover women's experience of BC's first community midwifery-led group care. A brief summary of these findings of can be found on MCNS website www.midwiferycare.ca . Based on women's feedback we look forward to continuing to offer group care to women interested in this service and individual visits to those who prefer conventional midwifery services.

Adrienne Chow
Registered Midwife
(on maternity leave)

Thank you for your interest and for reading a little bit about me…

I first became interested in midwifery while traveling to Togo, West Africa and witnessing my first birth. During my 3 month stay, I discovered the value of women's work and women's shared responsibility for the health and wellness of the larger community. After my nursing training, I entered the Nurse-Midwifery program at the University of Michigan, which I completed in 2004 with a Master's of Science degree.

Since October 2006, I have been a Registered Midwife in BC serving women in Richmond, Vancouver, and North Vancouver. I completed training as a Centering Pregnancy Group facilitator in 2004. I have been working in Midwifery Care North Shore from October 2007 and my fascination and experience with group facilitation has increased. It has also been my privilege to attend many homebirths on the North Shore. Furthermore, I have enjoyed working with Lions Gate Hospital nurses and doctors when I've provided services to MCNS clients who have chosen to have their babies in hospital. It is my intention to remain practicing full-time in Midwifery Care North Shore when Vera has completed her dissertation and to further develop my association with Vera and Susie.

Continuous learning is a passion and my most recent interests include (1) how positive thinking, self-talk and guided imagery can influence a woman's birthing and breastfeeding experience, and (2) compassionate communication for building communities. An old African saying that has been popularized in the media is "It takes a village to raise a child". As I offer my gifts to you and your family, I believe that everyone has gifts to share as they build their families and their village.

I look forward to meeting with you and join you in creating and building your village

Brangwynne Purcell
Registered Midwife

Greetings! My name is Brangwynne Purcell (although you will often hear me referred to as Brynne). I was born in New York State on the shores of Lake Ontario and had the privilege & joy of being raised by a host of strong & resilient women, within a loving and very large extended family. It was here that my deep & genuine appreciation for the sacredness of 'family' was born.

Today I am honored to be a registered midwife. Having graduated from the UBC Midwifery Program I have had the fortune of being trained by a host of gifted midwives, nurses & doctors and have enjoyed a rich medley of experiences. In the summer of 2007 my family & I had the exceptional privilege of traveling to Uganda where I worked in a local hospital as a student midwife while my husband & children volunteered with a Children's Village, specifically working with orphaned youth. This profound experience further deepened my awe for the wealth of strength, resiliency & power that women possess and demonstrated in concrete ways that with warm, compassionate & skilled care birth can be transformative.

Before entering midwifery I earned a Bachelors degree in Fine Art & Creative Writing in 1991. For the decade that followed my husband & I (both visual artists) found ourselves working for a non-profit organization, in the inner-city of Camden, NJ, living alongside the children & parents we were aiming to serve. My work over those years was at times challenging yet deeply rewarding; it was within this context that I learned the true meanings of compassion, humility and grace. Having given birth to my three children during these years I also came to understand the significant strength & support that lies within community.

While my formal training has certainly been invaluable the wealth of my learning has been realized at home. My three children, Isa, Canaan & Finn have by far been my most gracious instructors on this path. My family & I live on Bowen Island and enjoy the abundant gifts that this small, yet diverse community brings.

I am excited to be 'rejoining' the MCNS practice after having worked within it in 2006-2007 (as part of my UBC education) and I look forward to welcoming new women and families as well as reconnecting with previous clients. I am also thrilled to be able to offer expectant families on Bowen some prenatal and postpartum visits on the island during their MCNS course of care. It will be a joy and privilege to continue serving the wonderful women, babies & families of the North Shore & beyond.