10/16/2025
There are 17 years, a few more earned grey hairs, and a whole new midwife between these two photos.
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Had a sweet visit with Melissa and Michelle over at today.
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Melissa was one of the first midwives I ever saw catch a baby. A true mother’s midwife. Heart of a lion, hands of a lady, and eyes of a hawk. I saw in her the midwife I wanted to grow into someday. The one that sits on her hands, who calmly asks a baby to breathe, the kind who makes mamas know to their bones they were made for this. Not because of anything she could or couldn’t do for them, but simply because this was an innate truth within themselves.
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We’ve seen our share of trials alongside one another for years. We’ve disagreed, stomped our feet, and still always come back to a shared vision- midwifery that is safe, respectful, and legacy building. Carrying the torch from those before us gracefully and without fuss. Always choosing to do the right thing even if it’s the hard thing.
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It’s such a gift to ‘go home’ and remember where you came from. Melissa, Marianne, Amanda, and Casey were the first women to drag me into midwifery- truly raising me up all those years in the heart of the swamp. They’re all still saved in my phone with ‘Labor of Love’ as their last names, the birth center in Lakeland where we all worked. Even as the years have passed, practices shifted, and we all continued on- it is something I’ve never been able to bring myself to change. My own little nod to the women who believed in me, who believed deeply in community midwifery, and who mothered me in so many parts of my own journey of life.
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Labor of Love is fittingly Celebrate Birth these days and continues just up the road. Just like me, the families of Polk and Highlands counties are just so lucky to be and have been loved by these midwives❤️
