My Approach

Chloe, the midwife from Integrative Midwifery, tenderly bathing a baby in a cozy bathtub.

Integrative

True health and healing is a craft. Integrative medicine is the concept of bringing together and arranging whatever modality works to generate health and wholeness. This can include allopathic medicine, herbal remedies, homeopathy, flower essences, body work, yoga, exercise, nutrition, talk therapy, meditation, a deep and meaningful conversation with a friend, or even laughter. An integrative approach is not about the right or wrong way to be healthy, or applying a two-dimensional formula to a multidimensional concept. It is about weaving together the elements needed to establish a place of wholeness, wellness, and peace within yourself.

A heartwarming moment captured, as a mother holds her adorable baby for the first time, radiating pure love and joy.

Identity

The person who knows what to do at your birth is you. You are the highest authority over yourself. My experience as a midwife has led me to want to facilitate your birth for you and your family. This facilitation is not about directing or instructing, but listening and honing into the way you work. My approach is to create a trusting relationship with you in the prenatal period so that you feel seen, heard, and understood by me. This way, when I arrive at your birth, I lay out the safety net with my birth equipment, expertise, and presence so that you can feel free to follow your instincts and allow birth to happen. I am in my 15th year of study as a student of herbal medicine. I have completed three levels of herbal education training with the wise and wonderful Karen Rose of Sacred Vibes Apothecary in Ditmas Park starting in 2009, and have been on a continuous educational voyage with plant medicine ever since. Her expertise focuses on healing plants from Western Europe and North America. Chloe has also trained in level 1 homeopathy and flower essences with Julia Graves.

A heartwarming moment captured: New parents from Integrative Midwifery in New York share a postpartum cuddle with their adorable baby.

Individualized

I believe that tailoring care to what you feel is best for you and your family is the way to both create meaningful and empowering experiences of birth along with achieving good outcomes. My work is to provide you with the strong, reliable evidence based information then listen to what you want to do with that evidence. Planning your birth and managing care together outside of a hospital setting allows for more breadth in the individualization of care. You and your family will have the space to consider recommendations.

A parent has a unique birth in her bathroom, cherishing the special birth experience at Integrative Midwifery in New York.

Intuition & Instinct

It is my belief that intuition and instinct are dimensions of our intellectual abilities that give us access to information about ourselves. This information cannot often be summed up by language, math, or science. Instead, it is the inner knowing amassed from both our conscious and unconscious awareness. Intuition is innate knowledge and instinct is a primal reflex. I believe that intuition is a craft, or a science that is too complex to map out in a formula. If people are well-supported in their understanding of themselves, their connection to their inner knowledge will strengthen their intuition and instincts. Though medical decision-making is multifactorial, often including much more than a natural inclination. My practice focuses on empowering clients to make the decisions that are right for them from internalizing the best available evidence and honoring their instincts

A heartwarming scene from a postpartum homebirth: a group of people sitting on a bed, basking in the happiness of new beginnings.

Inclusivity

My work as a healthcare professional is a stand for putting anti-oppression and anti-racist principles and practices into effect in my community. My practice is a space in which all individuals can celebrate themselves and their identity as they define it. From here we bring together an empowering journey to parenthood. An approach to healthcare that actively deconstructs the rubric of white supremacy, racism, sexism, and homophobia benefits the whole community. It is my mission, as a midwife, to make homebirth accessible to those who are candidates. Broadening access to homebirth by reasonably reducing economic barriers is an act of inclusivity. As is the pursuit of an agenda that is anti-racist, queer and trans-competent, and social and reproductive justice-oriented. I would love to promise that I can care for marginalized communities in a way that eliminates every element of structural racism, sexism, queerphobia, and transphobia. However, to make such a promise would be to misunderstand how these pervasive elements of our culture operate within me as an individual. What I can promise is a dedication to investigating how I have internalized these elements, and focused deconstruction of them. Doing so is an act of personal and social liberation that contributes to the decolonization of both my mind and our medicine.

Empower Your Birth Story