Birth. Life. Death. I am being reborn into a new life where I will likely take my last breath, my body becoming one with the bones of Mother Earth, the deep, rich, ochre red rocks of the southwest.
Navajo Country has called to me for more than a decade now. The red earth cries out to my soul. Midwifery, too, has whispered softly, beaconing to me, for the past 10, 20, almost 30 years now. It is time. Time for me to listen. And answer.
I am ready. I am ready to rebirth, to start anew, cradled in the warm womb of these ancient red rock formations.
I am a nurse. I nurture. I comfort. I heal.
I am a doula. I hold the space. I mother the mother.
I am in a state of metamorphosis. Transforming from crawling on my belly to spreading my wings, shining, glistening as a midwife. Into my hands life will come forth.
My journey began in 1984 when I entered John Bastyr College (aka Bastyr University), the first accredited Naturopathic college in this country, born in the mecca of alternative medicine, Seattle. I knew then as I know now that good medicine starts at conception. I focused my studies at Bastyr on prenatal and infant nutrition studying under such renowned personages as Penny Simkin, the mother of the modern doula and natural childbirth educator.
Upon graduation, I began working with local midwives assisting at births. My own two daughters were born at home with the assistance of midwives in 1989 and 1993. For the next 15 years, I mothered and learned from these little people in my care. I lived out traditional, aboriginal, mothering wisdom, applied home remedies and homeopathy, and became a teacher to my children.
In 2004, I returned to school bringing with me all those years of hands-on experience, intuition and alternative medical knowledge. I began my growth as a nurse, doula, childbirth educator. I am at the end of that journey, finishing my nursing degree on March 21, 2012 and am ready to start this new adventure taking all that I have learned over the past 50 years and shaping it and molding it into the caregiver I believe I was intended to become - a Midwife.
In this journal of sorts you will read about my road of becoming a Certified Nurse Midwife, learning about traditional Navajo practices, serving where there is a great need. I am excited, nervous, scared. I will be leaving my adult children behind as I depart from the Evergreen state, the great Northwest, that I have called my home for the past 29 years. I have made many trips to Red Rock country where my soul resides and am ready now to embrace all of me and all of what the peoples and the land have to teach me.
The Plan:
Complete my nurse training in March, take my national exams shortly thereafter, and relocate to the western border of New Mexico, the eastern edge of Navajo country. I am applying for Government Service positions through Indian Health Services at facilities sprinkled throughout the huge northern expanse of Arizona and New Mexico. During my first year establishing residency in New Mexico, from the Summer of 2012 through the Summer of 2013, I hope to complete all the requirements needed to sit for the International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) exam.
After one year of residency, the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque awaits me. New Mexico has a long history of midwifery according to the UNM Nurse-Midwifery website:
There is a very long history of midwifery in New Mexico beginning in the Spanish Colonial times with the use of traditional Hispanic Midwives (parteras). The first U.S. university-affiliated Nurse-Midwifery education program was the Catholic Maternity Institute (CMI) in Santa Fe. Under the leadership of the CMI midwives, the American College of Nurse-Midwives was incorporated in New Mexico in 1955. Midwifery has been a part of New Mexican cultural heritage for many generations.
Additionally, there is much support on the state level to fund nurse-midwifery education fully:
We are one of only a few totally state supported programs in the US. Because we are a state institution, tuition for a UNM nurse-midwifery education is one of the most reasonable in the country. Many nurse-midwifery students are also eligible for the Federal nursing loan program, which pays a monthly educational stipend. Other financial aid opportunities include the New Mexico Health Service Corps and the US Public Health Service Corps, both of which have loan for service programs.
And, so, I will be applying for one of these loan-for-service programs whereby after my training I will return to the reservation to practice.
You will find included in my posts links to resources that have helped me map my course. These are intended as a road map so you can follow me along the way or if this is a journey you too would like to travel one day.
http://www.ihs.gov/Jobs/index.cfm?module=ViewPostListing&option=SearcherPostListing
http://webs.wichita.edu/?u=CHP_NURS&p=/HumanLactationOnline/index/
http://nursing.unm.edu/programs/Masters-in-Nursing/nurse-midwifery.html
http://www.ihs.gov/
That is the plan . . . follow along as conception takes place and this baby grows . . .
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