Ridge Meadows Midwifery Practice serves women of New Westminster, the Tri Cities, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge and Mission. Jean Cooper established the practice in January 1998, with Sylvia Clark. They were among the first registered midwives in B.C. The Midwives in this practice embrace and support the concepts of continuity of care and informed choice. We work with women who wish to give birth at Royal Columbian hospital, Ridge Meadows Hospital, or at home. The practice does approximately 200 - 240 births per year. Although our group includes six midwives, we work in partnerships of two midwives per client. Therefore, each woman in our care has only two primary midwives and will have the opportunity to become familiar with her midwives throughout her pregnancy. Our practice does approximately 30% homebirths. Our main office is in Maple Ridge. Our practice is very involved in midwifery education and four midwives are Clinical Preceptors with the UBC Faculty of Family Practice. Sylvia Fedyk and Denise Olson work with women from Mission and Maple Ridge. Sylvia Fedyk is the mother of six. She trained at Seattle Midwifery school and worked in Samoa as well as in the Vancouver area. She has been on the Board of the Midwives Association of BC, and is presently chair of the Midwifery Department of Fraser Region, North. She sits on the Perinatal Planning Committee, and the Obstetrics department. She also has a bachelors' degree in English. Denise Olson is the mother of three, including twin girls. She worked at the Vancouver Women's Health Collective as a lay health worker for ten years and has been involved in medical student teaching for over twenty-five years. She graduated from the B. C. School of Midwifery in 1991, and completed her training in Jamaica. She opened a midwifery clinic on the Sunshine Coast before moving to Maple Ridge three years ago. Catherine Holland and Joanna Norman work with women from Tri Cities and New Westminster. Catherine Holland was a former clinical nurse educator at Royal Columbian hospital. She trained as a Registered Nurse and as a midwife in the UK and has experience working with pregnant teens. She is past chair of the Midwifery department of Fraser Health, North and is presently chair of the Board of the College of Midwives of B.C. She is also the midwifery representative to the B. C. Reproductive Care Program Steering Committee. Joanna Norman is mother of three. She is a graduate of the Bachelor of Midwifery Program at UBC and previously worked as a doula and pregnancy outreach worker with Healthiest Babies Possible. More recently, Joanna has served on the board of the MABC and she has been invited to represent midwifery at several collaborative health care events, including the 2005 In-BC Primary Health Care Conference, Vancouver. Jennesse Oakhurst and Susan Van Os work with women from Pitt Meadows, Tri Cities & New Westminster. Jennesse Oakhurst is the mother of three. She trained in Ontario and in Texas. She has worked in Ontario and Quebec, in Texas and, since 1994, in the Fraser Valley. She has been on the Board of the Midwives Association and presently sits on the Maternal Child Committee of Ridge Meadows hospital. She has been an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant since 1989 and has a bachelors' degree in Political Science. While working in Ontario she also worked with a program for pregnant teens and immigrants. Susan Van Os is the mother of four and a graduate of the first class of Bachelor of Midwifery students at UBC. She has worked as a doula and childbirth educator in the lower mainland since 1992. She was a member of the Midwifery Task Force, working towards regulation of midwifery in B.C. from 1989 until 1999.