My journey to Midwifery was completely unplanned and unexpected as some of the best things in life are. Prior to becoming a Midwife I was a stay at home Mom to my two oldest children and loving it. I was involved in La Leche League as a Leader and enjoyed working with breastfeeding women and their families on a volunteer basis. The turning point for me came after the birth of my second child Alannah. My first child had been born by C-Section, and when I became pregnant for the second time I wanted to plan a VBAC. During my pregnancy I was so blessed to have a doula, my dear friend Jocelyn to support and care for me. She met with me countless times throughout my pregnancy and we discussed everything we could in anticipation of my VBAC.   Through our priceless , enriching, and to be honest "life transforming" time spent with one another, I was given the wisdom and peace to trust that my body knew how to give birth and that I could do it! I immersed myself in labor support and natural childbirth books and started to find myself fascinated by everything to do with childbirth. When the day of our daughter's birth finally arrived, Jocelyn came as soon as we needed her.  Having her AND my husband there supporting me was wonderful. In the midst of intensity, prayer, harmony, rhthym, relaxation, music, massage, and laughter; I was beyond grateful for the loving support that amplified this beautiful experience! From the beginning of the labor to the end our doula never left our side. After that experienced I truly discovered that  having support and encouragement during a woman's labor is key to a healthy and happy birth!

After our daughter's  birth, I felt a fire had been lit inside of me. I had experienced labor and birth delivery and wanted to learn more! The idea of becoming a , doula, was born I wanted to actually I needed to help women the way I had been helped during my labour and birth.

As I have searched my heart for what has inspired me to be here today, I have found that my personal birth experiences have  impacted my life in a tremendous way (as I'm sure it would for most women).

Almost immediately I began to research and plan on becoming a Doula. When my daughter was nine months old I travelled with my family to take the Douglas College Doula course, it was amazing and completely reaffirmed my desire to become a Doula. Shortly after I began attending births, those first births were challenging, beautiful, and inspiring. However they also brought about feelings on my part of confusion, anger and a conviction that women deserved unbiased information from their caregivers. In these early births it struck me how little input the women had into their care, even if they entered their births well educated, with birth "wishes" etc. these ideals often went by the wayside as their caregivers were unsupported. How could I help women achieve the kind of births they wanted if their care providers (who had the power) were not supportive? Then it hit me, I could become a MIDWIFE! Once the idea was born I absolutely knew it was what I was meant to do. I had no idea what being a Midwife entailed but it didn't matter I just knew I had to do it. Within a few short months I had applied and been accepted to Midwifery school in New Zealand, my family and I were off on one of the biggest adventures of our lives! We left Prince George in the Winter of 1999 and returned in 2004, I had completed Midwifery school and was ready to serve the women in my community to the best of my ability.