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	Brattleboro Birth and Doula Services

Christine Kierstead, CD (DONA)
Birth and Postpartum doula

Christine Kierstead is a birth and postpartum doula and mother of two young children. After her own birth experiences, the second one being with a doula, she learned that when women are informed and made to feel respected and safe that they can have empowering and life enriching births. The presence of a loving and experienced woman at her birth made such an impact that she knew she wanted to do the same for other women. Christine trained with the first group of volunteer doulas at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital has since received her DONA birth doula certification. For the past five years, she has been assisting women and their families through the hospital's volunteer doula program and her own practice as a labor and birth doula. Christine's team approach, whether at a birthing center or at a homebirth, helps everyone involved to have a healthier and happier experience.

Lucinda McGovern
Birth and Postpartum doula

Lucinda McGovern has been an ALACE-certified childbirth educator for ten years and teaches group and individual classes. She is also certified by ALACE as a labor assistant and has provided labor and postpartum doula support in the area for about eight years. She works as a birth assistant at homebirths in practices in Massachusetts and Vermont, and is working towards taking the certified professional midwife exam.

In the past, Lucinda has been a family daycare provider, homeschooled her three children and certified as a teacher. She currently also provides emergency and respite foster care.

annique

Annique Sampson
Birth and Postpartum Doula

Annique Sampson, CPM, holds an Associates of Science degree in Midwifery and is nationally certified by the North American Registry of Midwives. She has had the great honor and pleasure of attending over 130 births since 2003. Her midwifery training included homebirths in New England, water birth in free-standing birth centers in New Mexico and Florida, and a special volunteer opportunity serving low-income women in an out-of-hospital birth clinic in the Philippines. She has also volunteered as a labor support doula in several hospitals around the country. She is strong advocate of evidence-based care and informed choice, providing information and support for couples as they navigate through the labyrinth of choices in today’s maternity care. Annique believes birth is not only a physical event, but an emotional, mental and spiritual rites of passage. She is passionate about helping women and couples heal fears around the birthing process, and supports them in discovering and strengthening their inner resources. Annique is a Childbirth Educator in the Birthing From Within philosophy as well as an avid birth photographer. She lives on a small homestead in Putney, VT with her husband Thomas.

Julie Bingham
Postpartum Doula

I have lived in Brattleboro for about ten years. The birth of my first son lead me to the path of wanting to be involved with pregnancy and birth and the postpartum time for women and their families. Each of my children's births has given me a new experience from a cesarean with my first to a VBAC at a birth center with my second child and another cesarean with my third, along with nursing to tandem nursing. I believe having the care and support during this very special time for women and their families is important and helps pave the road to a healthy happy beginning.

Anji Church, CPM, NHCM, LM

Birth and Postpartum Doula

Anji is a mother of 4 sons who were born in 4 and a half years. She was 23 years old when her 4th son was born. Her husband of 26 years and Anji home educated their sons. She also has a granddaughter. Besides being a birth and postpartum doula, Anji Church is an out of hospital midwife who can serve women in their homes or at the Monadnock Birth Center in Swanzey New Hampshire where she has usage privileges (for midwifery services, contact Anji directly at midwifeanji@yahoo.com or 603-318-8251). She completed 3 years of midwifery education before beginning a 2 year apprenticeship at “The Birth Cottage of Milford”. During this apprenticeship she was able to achieve more than the required amount and level of skills experience required to be permitted to sit for the 8 hour written examination given by the NARM as a part of the national certification, and also was able to sit for the local skills examination with the New Hampshire Midwifery Council. She is licensed in the States of New Hampshire and Vermont to practice Midwifery by those states certifying agencies. She is certified nationally through NARM (North American Registry of Midwives), carries medical malpractice insurance through The New Hampshire Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association, and is a member locally of the New Hampshire Midwives Association (NHMA) of which she is the secretary and nationally the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA).

Mom of twins(L), doula Natalie (R)

Natalie Baker Merrill
Birth Doula

Natalie is currently working towards her Birth Doula Certification through DONA International and has attended over 50 hours of training within the last year. She has supported several births at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, working with both midwives and obstetricians, and hopes to complete her certification within the coming months.

Natalie believes that, "To be (a doula) is to hold the sacred space for a woman in a way that communicates a feeling of total trust in her process. It is to witness, to be a protector of her process and her space, to nourish and to honor the unspeakable power of her birth as it unfolds..." (Linda Wilson, Birthing From Within Mentor)