Andrea Brett, RM

After the birth of my son, Sebastian, in 1992, I became inspired to pursue a midwifery career. Prior to my midwifery education I served on the board of the Midwifery Task Force, a consumer based group working to legalize midwifery. In 1996, I began a three-year direct entry midwifery program at the Seattle Midwifery School, which I completed in 1999. My training included clinical internships in San Francisco, St. Lucia and Vancouver, in both home and hospital settings. I opened my midwifery practice at The Midwifery Group clinic in January of 2000 and have since become a clinical instructor for the UBC midwifery program. In June 2004 I gave birth to my daughter and second child, Avery.

I have thoroughly enjoyed caring for our many diverse clients and their families in a community-based practice. When I think back over my years of providing midwifery care I am continually delighted by how unique each woman, each family, each labour, each birth, and each precious newborn baby is. I feel that my role as a midwife is to provide education, information and guidance. One of the things I cherish most about midwifery is the satisfaction of establishing a relationship with my clients based on trust and seeing the woman and her partner as the primary decision makers in their care. I look forward to assisting you and your partner through the incredible journey toward parenthood.

Julia Allen, RM

As a teenager, I began to realize there was something different about me when I noticed that while my friends were interested in the birth control chapters of our health textbooks, I was more interested in the chapters about pregnancy and childbirth. Over time, the call of midwifery got stronger and by my twenties, I had developed a habit of reading midwifery textbooks. I was passionate about examples of women taking charge of their own health, and loved the ways I saw midwives empowering women to find and listen to their own internal authority. The trouble was, I didn't think midwives existed anymore, particularly not in the quiet prairie city of Winnipeg that was my home. Midwifery seemed simultaneously foreign and ancient, and it didn't even occur to me that a midwife was something that I could be.

Eventually, I was asked to think about my calling versus my career, and in that moment all my years of reading finally made sense. I knew instantly that I was going to be a midwife. Sure enough, I soon met a woman who was studying to be a midwife, and she introduced me to the vibrant world of midwifery in Manitoba in the late 1990s. I was midway through a degree to become a family therapist at the time, so I did the only obvious thing and dropped out of school and became a doula.

I attended my first birth in 1999. It was long, hard, wild, and wonderful, and I was hooked! I went back to school and earned an Honours Degree in Women's Studies at the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my thesis on women's experiences of obstetrical care, winning the Gold Medal in my program. I worked actively as a doula and Birthing From Within childbirth educator through the cooperative I founded with three other doulas, called Birth Roots Doula Collective. I also worked as a sexual health educator and birth control counsellor at two community health clinics in Winnipeg.

After spending four years immersed in the emotional, political, and sociological aspects of women's health, I decided it was time to take the final leap into the clinical realm, so I moved to Vancouver to formally study midwifery at UBC. In the course of my studies, I attended hundreds of births in Vancouver, New Westminster, Salt Spring Island, San Luis Potosi (Mexico), and in my hometown of Winnipeg. I earned my Bachelor of Midwifery degree from UBC in 2006, and was thrilled to start off my career by catching a classmate's first baby a few weeks after classes ended.

My practice as a midwife is centered on the same beliefs that brought me to this work in the beginning: that the woman and her family are central participants in the care and decision-making; that pregnancy and childbirth are some of the female body's normal and healthy expressions; and that midwifery care should be available to all women regardless of sexual orientation, age, race, class, or ability. I feel honoured to practice this ancient art of birthing babies, mothers and families.

Courtney Broten, RM

I came to midwifery gently. My first experiences with birth started with the animals on my farm in Eastern Ontario. In watching them give birth, I developed a deep sense of respect for the natural processes of labour and birth, and the innate ability of any creature to do so with power and dignity. It was on a ranch in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains that I was first able to practice my skill as a midwife... on goats and sheep. In 2002 I moved to Northern Ontario to complete a degree in Midwifery at Laurentian University. In 2003 I completed an internship at the Northern New Mexico Women's Health and Birth Center in Taos, New Mexico. It was my experiences at this birth center that have inspired my political passion for midwifery. I worked alongside midwives, nurses, and obstetricians, who excelled at collaboration and innovation in how they delivered their services. Out-of-hospital birth with midwives was the most popular option in the community.

When I returned to Canada, I completed an Interdisciplinary Training Programme specific to northern, rural, and remote communities. I then went to Winnipeg to train under the Chief of Obstetrics for Women's Hospital - a major referral hospital for Manitoba, Western Ontario, and Nunavut. I co-facilitated postpartum adjustment support groups, and conducted focus groups on the support for group prenatal care. In 2005, I presented at the Canadian Association of Midwives annual conference in Halifax. My presentation focused on using group prenatal care to deliver holistic midwifery services to aboriginal and rural communities.

In 2006, I settled on the West Coast and have been working with midwives and families in the Fraser Valley and Vancouver.

Sarah Swartz, RM

My path to midwifery began many years ago when I was invited to attend a midwifery appointment of a friend. We heard the baby's heartbeat right away and though she took it in stride, I was moved to tears! I am very privileged to have a career where I am able to bear witness to many of those moments in other people's lives, as well as help women become further empowered through care and knowledge.

Prior to becoming a midwife, I completed my first degree with specialization in life sciences and was later involved in research at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, working with moms and new babies and studying aspects of pregnancy and early infant development. I obtained my midwifery degree from UBC, where my training took me to both rural and urban communities around British Columbia, as well as in international settings.

Originally from Ontario, I grew up in the big city of Toronto, as well as in the country just south of Ottawa. Midwifery and the beautiful landscape brought me to BC. Though I am a country girl at heart, I am happy and excited to be a part of the wonderful and unique city of Vancouver. I enjoy exploring and playing outside any chance that I am given!

Candace Plohman, RM

As a child growing up in rural Manitoba, I always possessed a strong interest in pregnancy and birth (mostly as it related to cats!). As I got older, I first believed that my intention was to pursue medicine and enter into the field of obstetrics. While attending the University of Winnipeg where I completed a 4-year Bachelor of Sciences degree in Biology and French Studies, I began volunteering as a support person in the Women’s Day Surgery ward at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. This is where I was first exposed to my interest in and the importance of support and non-judgmental care for women in a health care setting. My passion for woman and choice-centered care then continued to grow when I became an unplanned pregnancy and birth control counselor at the Winnipeg Women’s Health Clinic. This is also where I met a midwife for the first time, and decided to indefinitely change my career goals!

I completed the UBC Midwifery program in 2007 and have since practiced as a midwife in Campbell River and Vancouver. During my studies at UBC I was fortunate to have worked with midwives, obstetricians and nurses in communities in Kamloops, Victoria and Vancouver, in addition to a 2-month term in rural Zambia, in southern Africa, where I lived and worked with local midwives.

I am excited and honoured to be working with your families in the Vancouver area!