Bellymama Midwifery is a private midwifery practice offering pre-pregnancy counseling, complete prenatal care, childbirth education (including bellydance for birthing), blessingways, and bellymasks, home and birth center birth, postpartum and newborn care, and breastfeeding support. Prenatal visits are long as I provide personalized attention and address all of your questions and concerns, as well as provide education. When you are in labor I come to your home or meet you at a birth center, and provide one-on-one continuous support and monitoring up until several hours after the birth. You and your baby are never separated, and personal time and space is given for the new family to bond. I offer free initial consultations and accept most insurance and Medicaid. Payment plans are also available for self-pay clients.

I began attending births in 1995 as a labor coach while I attended my first midwifery program, a three month intensive with Elizabeth Davis in San Francisco. I was gifted with witnessing my first birth on my 21st birthday. In 1999, I graduated with honors from midwifery school at Miami-Dade Community College. As part of my training, I had the opportunity to attend births in Jamaica, Haiti, and Honduras. After obtaining my midwifery license, I decided to go on to nursing school and graduated, again with honors, in 2001. I hold two licenses, one as a midwife and one as a nurse. As a registered nurse, I specialize in neonatal intensive care, working with sick and premature newborns. This experience has added to my midwifery skills in that it has given me more expertise with the babies. I am also a level II Reiki practitioner, a useful tool for both moms and babies.

The philosophy of Bellymama Midwifery is "your baby, your birth, your way." It is my goal to empower you to discover your body's ability to give birth in its own way and its own time and to the trust the process and yourself. I see pregnancy and birth as inherently normal, natural processes and seek to support these processes with as little intervention as possible. The midwifery model of care is characterized by respectful treatment, personal attention, education, confidence in women’s bodies, continuity of care, and appropriate monitoring. Midwives know that feelings, hopes, fears, physical and practical needs, and spiritual, cultural or religious beliefs can all affect your pregnancy and birth. We address all of these needs so you can give birth naturally, safely, and confidently.

I find birth to be one of the most awe-inspiring and profoundly spiritual experiences that we have as humans. I consider it an honor and blessing to be present with women during this incredible right of passage, and it is my dream to help more and more women discover the infinite source of strength and power that they have as the bearers of new life. Birth is a tremendous opportunity for growth and empowerment, and I have seen women, time and time again, discover this for themselves. This is what makes midwifery such a joy and a blessing.

The cost for care from the beginning of pregnancy up until six weeks after the birth is $3900. This fee includes all prenatal exams, childbirth classes, one prenatal visit in the home at 36 weeks of pregnancy, monitoring of active labor and assistance at birth until at least two hours postpartum, three postpartum visits in the home, filing of the birth certificate, and 2 postpartum visits in the office. This fee does not include lab work, or birth supplies. If you have insurance, I will gladly bill your insurance company. However, you will be responsible for any co-pays, co-insurance, deductibles, or other fees which your insurance does not cover. If you have Medicaid all services, including lab work, are covered. If you are self-pay, my fee is flexible and a payment schedule can be set up. All fees must be paid by 36 weks of pregnancy.