Willow River Midwifery

10/12/2025

Angela Rose,
So much gratitude for weaving your thread of strength, love and compassion. So many lives touched and hearts opened through your grace. A reminder to us all that it matters not the hours, days, weeks, months or years of presence, it is that you came earth side and are loved and gave love your entire lifetime💜💙💙💜

10/10/2025

A beautiful fall day expressed in beautiful bounty.

10/10/2025

Test

Test

10/05/2025

Long desired rain and a super harvest moon sounds like a beautiful recipe for a fresh baby💜

10/05/2025

The power and beautiful simplicity of breath. Response, informing and being held with love.

A sweet early morning call, most of the night in our own beds, a rare gift for midwives. We had known when we cozied into our beds that evening that this first time family was entering labor.

The call informed us that these waves of womb embraces are powerful and brilliant in their length. The drive was some distance so prepared a quick quart of nourishment tea, while shifting clothes.

My car was slightly under the weather when I entered and tried to rally it for the long drive. A midwives dilemma to figure out what amazing neighbor would like to be awoken at 5 am to help. A bit of quick internet research and the car dilemma was solved and my dear neighbors sleep was not disturbed:)

Distance driving is a balance of supporting and loving this family while you journey and figuring out if this is a morning to deepen your understanding of something you are called too through a podcast or listen to a wonderful book. Music has not returned to my life yet ,since Jazmon’s transition to my ancestor, and I honor this pause for right now.

I get a bit of an update as some of our circle of support arrives at this families home. Just as I slip into the driveway, the wombs waters release and new sensations emerge. Entering the home, labor is unfolding in the water, a beautiful dance of ‘call and response’ from uterine hugs, baby surging downward and breath. Outside the tub are this person's beloveds, (their partner and also this person's own mama). There is a circle of love held, hands clasped, gentle words occasionally whispered and eyes softly gazing. What is perfect for this labor and this dyad, is breathing the baby down, letting the uterus and baby work in tandem while breath is used to navigate the waves of labor and birth.

Soon there are smiles across the room as baby begins to show their hair floating in the water and after a few more uterine embraces there is a baby swimming in the water for beloveds to pick-up and embrace with love.

As this delightful new life is being lifted out of the water by their parents, we get a glimpse of something unique and that lets us know there will be a shift in our immediate postpartum plans. Baby lets us know they have beautifully transitioned to this outer womb we call earth. Pink in color, moving and a beautiful l***y voice expressing. There is also a uniqueness that will greatly benefit from modern day medicine to support this baby’s fuller potential.

We quickly respond to the immediate need to protect what we have noticed for baby, while gently informing this brand new expanded family of baby’s vitality and showing them how baby is thriving along with what would be helpful for baby in this immediate postpartum time.

With parents' consent we notify EMS that their help would be appreciated. We cozy in this family, skin to skin with baby, and support them in relishing these minutes of meeting their beautiful baby. Inhaling their baby’s scent, discovering all the wonder and beauty of their sweet little one. We responded to this family's questions of what would happen in the short term and long terms. We answer what we could and helped them to understand that further assessment and evaluation will give them so much more information about next steps. Also sharing information we know about what we are seeing, supporting them in preparing for a number of people responding with EMS and lots of initial activity when we arrive at the hospital.

Midwife Emily traveled along in the ambulance to care for mama and baby while enroute to the hospital and the rest of the team gathered gear and restored the home to a welcoming nest, then we traveled to join everyone in the hospital.

The reception at the hospital was so supportive of this family's wishes and desires surrounding care for their baby. Mama was not admitted, however given a bed in the same room and we provided the immediate postpartum care in the hospital for the first several hours. The specialist in the hospital informed the parents more fully of what was visualized and that a slow transport to a larger children's hospital would be the most helpful for baby. At this larger hospital a team of specialists could support baby with assessment, evaluation and surgery. Slow transports means that there is not an emergency and there is time to carefully prepare a wonderful team to accompany baby to this larger hospital.

We stayed with the family through their baby’s transport; explored deeply, care for this family in the next few weeks; co-created a list of helpful things to bring to this larger hospital; helped them dress and oh so gently supported these fresh, brand new parents, enter an experience they had not imagined . We all embraced and held each other in love and compassion.

These amazing parents love their baby fiercely and are informing themselves each step of the way, asking wonderful questions and taking time to consider what is right for their family and their baby. Baby is amazing and held with so much love in a wide circle of family and community.

There was so much to unpack and reflect upon in the time since this experience. So much gratitude for each and every person who creates Willow River Midwifery. We all bring unique gifts and strengths along with open loving hearts and compassion. Gratitude for our collective practice passion for learning, we long to build our knowledge and understanding and most often our deepest learning and expansion of wisdom comes from the very families we serve. Gratitude for our commitment to practice and repeat skills that are rarely used so that we can respond from cellular memory when that rare moment when that skill set is needed. Gratitude for the advanced modern medicine can bring to support healing and possibilities for little ones entering the world when there is an expressed need for this care. Gratitude for the mentors in my own lineage of learning, whether during my years as a NICU/ICU nurse, my beloved apprentice midwife mentor; the elder midwives and colleagues I have had the privilege of learning from here in the state or abroad.

We are honored to have been invited to support this beautiful family. 💜💙💙💜

09/22/2025

More autumn blooms🌺 one more September baby to arrive

09/22/2025

Autumn in bloom

09/22/2025

First Day of Autumn, how are you celebrating?

08/18/2025

Late summer refresh

07/22/2025

That moring when you were working in the garden, before the hot heat of the day set its boundries for your activity, and receive a call to let you know labor has begun and a second call 20 min later to please come now

Clothing shifted quickly; swiftly navigating the drive; partner greets you in the yard (universal sign to hustle); enter the home at the end of one contraction; everyone responds there has been no pushing; glimpse under the dress with the next surge to find a head already born to their brow; baby to parents arms; delightful birth companion, Anna and wonderful promising midwife, Gloria arrive and nest, care for and nourish this newly expanded family; home for a lunch with European timing and marvelously joy seeded into one’s heart💜

How has your day been unfolding? Xoxoxo

07/17/2025

Everyone holds space. We love cat doula’s!!!

A very special request to support a family with an incredible quest.

We met this family and listened to their past journey months before we were invited to serve them. Multiple surgical births had been the only experience they had known. Years had gone by, life circumstances had shifted, layers of understanding had been unpacked, the voice in inner wisdom, belief and knowing had grown strong.

During their decision making, barrier, upon barrier, upon barrier had been laid at their feet from the outer systems they had accessed previously and needed access now to navigate some other special circumstances. Their resilience and fortitude were astounding.

When the needs from the outer systems were both finally met and again a barrier was placed, they felt able and ready to enter care well along in their pregnancy.

Choices for special circumstances care are something we think deeply about, asking all involved to come into this choice with eyes wide open. Have you ever been in a medical circumstance and been given a lengthy document to read and sign while someone remains waiting for you to sign this document, which is supposed to equate informed consent. Does the pressure of someone waiting, the length of the document or the language used add to a pressure you feel to just sign this and be done with it and hope for the best? We try very hard to create a more authentic approach to special care circumstances. One that creates common understanding and invites families to write their own informed choice agreement. To research the benefits and risks of their choices and to relay this understanding in their own written words. This is a living and informative document, meaning that it is a shared document, moving back and forth between the expectant couple and midwives. If there are benefits and risks not explored, we can have deeper conversations to offer fuller informed choices and understanding. This process continues until we all, collectively, feel we have reached common aligned understanding.

The strength and belief in their vision for how this little one would enter the world was so alive during their care. It was the understanding that so much had shifted in their lives; that the pillars of nutrition, movement, support, balanced lifestyle and spiritual foundation were all in place solid. Expressed were desires for us to be present during labor and for them to labor mostly alone during that time. This was a quest of redemption, reclaiming, empowerment and stretching into unknown capacities; one they rightfully wanted to claim as their own.

The morning call arrives, to inform us that the journey had begun in the overnight hours. A few hours later an invitation to join them. It is the longest drive for me, quite a distance away. Midwife Emily and apprentice Gloria keep me updated and care lovingly for this family as I journey to join them. I enter the home quietly and am met with equal silence. I begin to navigate to various spaces in the home and cannot find or hear anyone. I look into the bedroom and see no one, I begin to walk down the hall when intuition calls me back to the bedroom, as I enter, I see a curtain and behind the curtain is the bathroom, where I find the parents and our beloved team, all in perfect silence. Everyone in their laboring space simultaneously held belief and were aware of any rare indicators that would inform us all that a shift of location might be helpful. The way everyone was sitting and so attentive let me know baby must almost be here. And just like that, two more surges and baby slips into their parents arms. They gave birth in a way that is so common to others who have birthed many times, so fully instinctual, moving and responding to their body and baby all at once.

The joy for this family covers hearts and flows into the air. .

We spend the next few hours nourishing, supporting and nesting this family. Exploring our own amazement and wonder for the special birth and family we had been invited to attend and the new lessons this held for us all.

07/17/2025

When homes are filled with family, waiting, patience, service, food and love.

We were called to serve a family welcoming there very first baby. It’s so special to walk along side someone as they discover an entire new way of being in the world. The learning, opening, expanding and integrating is so humbling to witness.

The fun, really made up , ‘guess date’, comes and goes. Waters open during the pre-dawn light and the waiting continues. The day unfolds with excitement and the ordinary. Beloved family members arrive from afar to support and love this family through their journey and beyond. Everyone settles in for a night of rest and some random belly embraces begin. Some hours of awakeness, to ease into this new rhythm.

As the next day arrives we connect to explore desires for catching up on rest. The family strongly desires an enhancement of these sensations that are now slipping away. We explore how the two individuals within one body have a synergistic relationship in ways we can barely begin to understand and that the pause in the belly embraces is likely part of the way for this labor. We also explored honoring this dyad's way of knowing what was the path for them, that we trusted the wisdom only they had.

‘There inner knowing’ said lets gently encourage an enhancement of the belly embraces. A breast pump, or loving hands applied, are helpful tools and the surges found growing strength and rhythm again. Support from our team arrived as part of our support circle was supporting another family welcoming their first baby. It was a full and festive day.

As late afternoon arrived, surges began to again slow and this beautiful dyad slipped into another night's rest. Dawn arrived and the returning surges were building. The full circle of support arrived and holding space, witnessing, preparing, assuring, supporting unfolded. This family of three, each with a vital role labored with growing sensations and wonderment. Soon to be grandparents, slipping in and out of their space, to encourage, wipe brows, press hips and assure. In and out of the birth pool, lunges, sidelying releases, belly lifts, hands and knees, sitting on the toilet backwards, continual nourishment, hydration, dimly lit spaces, fan’s, cool wash cloths, all allies in support of this journey.

During this loving and thoughtful families journey, meals were prepared for everyone present in the home. This was a reversal of our usual roles, we are usually the ones preparing food for the laboring family:) This is never anything we expect, we are great at bringing our own food, snacks and hydration and it was such a gift to have warm nourishing food during our stay.

The birth song arrives, the beautiful vibrational toning, that both calls everyone to come close and announces that the sacred is oh so near. Swimming into the world, this cherished little one is picked up by their parents and embraced for the first time. There are a few moments of supporting baby in releasing lung fluids, parents fully involved, talking to baby, holding and stroking baby and welcoming baby fully in. Baby assures us all they are now thriving and so in awe of this new world they have entered.

We cherish this family and the journey they invited us to walk alongside. We love intergenerational birth and bonding, when it's a beautiful fit for the family.