Kori Pienovi, CNM

I am a Portland native who has recently moved back home after several years away. My interest in midwifery began through my undergraduate degree in Anthropology. In most of the world, midwives are attending the vast majority of the births. I was so lucky to have Dr. James McKenna as my professor, who is the leading researcher in co-sleeping with infants, and a huge supporter of midwifery. I am a certified nurse midwife who was trained and educated at Columbia University in New York City. While in school, I worked as a nurse at Roosevelt Hosptial’s Birth Center for two years. I worked with private practices CNMs who had been midwives for 15+ years. I learned so much from them about respecting newborns and gentle transition and just being present with women in labor.

After Texas, I moved to Southern California and worked as a midwife in a busy hospital based practice for just over a year. I worked to provide individualized, sensitive, intervention-free care in the hospital. I also provided a lot of well-woman gynecology and family planning care to women across the lifespan with a great group of midwives. After a year of working in the hospital, and with my brother and sister-in-law having a baby on the way, I decided to move home to Oregon in December 2008. I sought an out-of-hospital midwifery practice and was drawn to Alma.

My heart lies in out-of-hospital birth. I am passionate about birth and I have a deep trust in pregnancy and birth and a trust in women and babies. I believe that my role as a midwife is a companion, and sometimes guide, on the journey to birth and becoming parents. Each mom, family and baby are unique and complex, and I provide individualized care for each new pregnancy. I strive to provide holistic care for women and families, and love the access to many forms of health and healing here in Portland. I truly love birth and witnessing women’s processes in labor. I feel that some of the most important aspects in my role as a midwife are support for the mom and family and their choices, and protecting and respecting the newborn.

I love to travel, and have had a great time travelling and practicing midwifery. I had the opportunity to practice midwifery in Bali, Indonesia at a birth center called Yayasan Bumi Sehat. There I attended births of Balinese women, where babies were water-birthed into tubs filled with tropical flowers and midwives singing songs to them to greet them into this life. I have also travelled to Haiti with a program called Midwives for Haiti, where I taught midwifery students and was able to attend births in a hospital setting, bringing some gentle midwifery practices to a very basic and dismal hospital setting. I assisted many women to upright positions to help with the births of their babies and cooled them fanning them with papers and cool wash cloths as they labored. I have also travelled in Mexico, South America, India, and Europe. I love learning about the birth cultures of different places I visit and talking to women about their birth experiences.

I have a large extended family and community in Oregon and am so happy to be home and spending time with them. I come from a long line of Italian farmers and produce people in Portland and love going to farmers markets and finding new, amazing restaurants in Portland to enjoy with friends. I also enjoy pottery and reading great books and being outside whenever I can.

Learn more about our Midwives

photo on this page: Pasha.