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Stephanie Sherman, CPM
| Growing up in California, everyone I knew was born in the hospital. As I got older and my friends began having babies, their babies were born in hospitals too. I was in my early twenties when I learned about midwifery, and in the course of reading and devouring everything I could find about birth I learned that there were midwives serving women out of the hospital. This was a light-bulb moment for me, and it suddenly felt very obvious that this is what I was meant to be doing! At the time, I had gotten my degree in Political Science and was living in New York City, working in Holocaust reparations. |
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 email Stephanie
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I decided to begin my journey to midwifery by moving to Hawaii to meet other people practicing alternative medicine. I spent my time there living and working on a permaculture farm and wellness center, and getting reconnected with the earth after ten years of living in New York. I met naturopaths, acupuncturists, and midwives and participated in a study on the power of intention and prayer as a means of healing. When my time in Hawaii was over, I moved to Portland to attend Birthingway College of Midwifery. While attending school, I completed my training at Alma, attending births at home and in the birth center. I am grateful to have begun my journey here, and after completing all my training births and a year of being a Junior Midwife, I am excited to continue it as I move into the role of Alma's newest midwife!
I believe that birth is a natural process, and I trust in the ability of women to choose where, how, and with whom to give birth. I believe that women are powerful, intelligent, and the best decision-makers for their own bodies and their own babies. I also believe in practicing midwifery in an evidence-based way, and spend as much time as I can keeping up with new research so that I can continue to give families thorough information to make informed choices. Everyone is different, and has different needs around the childbearing year. In prenatal care, I hope to build relationships of mutual trust that will carry families through this intense life experience. As our relationship grows right along with the mama's belly, I strive to share my knowledge and ideas, and I truly believe that I learn more about life from every family I have the joy of working with.
As of this writing, I have just attended my hundredth birth. I love seeing babies emerge, new and slippery and so vital and full of life. I love to watch them open their eyes and look at their parents for the first time, turning towards the voices that are already so familiar to them. I love new parents exploring their babies and announcing the sex of the baby to us. I love being the first one to touch a new person, but am even more thrilled when a baby is "caught" by one of her parents. I have had the joy of attending first births, fifth births, long births, water births, bathroom births, and babies that are in such a hurry to be born that they don't mind arriving before the midwife does. I share a special joy and triumph in VBACs (vaginal births after Cesarean)!
I love Portland, and am so happy I have found this amazing community to be a part of. In my free time, I enjoy cooking, knitting, spending time with my partner and our dogs, and continuing my search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie.
Learn more about our Midwives
photo on this page: Pasha.
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