Mirra Nerenberg, CPM

I was raised back east, spending most of my years living right outside of Philadelphia. For college I moved to Asheville, NC where I fell in love with both the mountains and my husband. We then made our way out to the west coast, settling in Portland in 2004, ready for a new adventure and community.

Thinking back on my journey to becoming a midwife, I always knew I wanted to work in women’s health but truly believed that meant being a midwife at some point in my life. I was raised to believe birth was a beautiful and natural process because that’s what my mother always told me. My birth was the first step in guiding my journey as I was born into my grandfather’s hands at the Baltimore Birth Center with my whole family in attendance, including my siblings. When I was little, I just thought everyone was born out of the hospital! As an adult I knew this was far from the truth which only nudged me on to find my path in becoming a midwife. After making my way back to Portland after living in Asia for six months and being around strong, beautiful women at ease with motherhood, I knew it was time to start my midwifery education.

I started attending births as a labor doula just so I could be around laboring mamas and birth. At the same time, I was lucky to come upon Alma and volunteer in the office and start work as a postpartum doula for a while. As my work progressed at Alma, I became the front desk lady, among other titles, and was able to surround myself with the wonderful women and midwives of Alma. Since my start with Alma in 2006, I have completed my midwifery apprenticeship and graduated from Birthingway College of Midwifery with a Bachelor of Science in Midwifery. Currently, I work as a Junior Midwife along with working behind the scenes as the billing assistant.

As of April 2010, I can add happy mama to my title as well.  After attending over eighty births of other strong beautiful women, I gave birth to a sweet baby girl, Neshamah, in the early hours of the morning.  Labor was intense, long and hard but ended joyously with me on my hands and knees in my bedroom accompanied by my loving husband and midwives/friends.  Experiencing labor myself has only solidified my passion for birth and midwifery, wanting even more to be with women as they empower themselves through this intense and beautiful journey.

Before Neshamah I would have said when I’m not at Alma, I prefer being outside, either biking around town or throwing my kayak in Willamette. Although now it takes a lot more planning to do either!  When the weather is nice, planting edibles, re-doing our yard, or planning the next garden bed is also high on the list of favorites as well as spending time with my husband, beautiful baby girl, and border collie. When I’m not on call I take the opportunity to get away on bike trips (my last one was biking up Mt. Constitution in the San Juan Islands!), hiking and camping adventures or going back east to visit my family.

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photo on this page: Pasha.