My Journey

Melinda Knatterud, TM 

 The path that brought me to midwifery started during my first pregnancy and birth experience. I planned a hospital birth with nurse-midwives and was able to give birth without intervention, an experience that opened my eyes to the incredible birth process. After two more unmedicated hospital births, I was ready to have a homebirth with my fourth pregnancy. I sought out a local midwife, Jeanne Bazille, and had a beautiful home water birth and knew that home birth is what I wanted to do for life. During one of my postpartum visits, I asked Jeanne what I should do to become a midwife. She recommended training and attending births as a doula. I completed doula training in 2017 and spent the next year attending births in that capacity until I gave birth to my fifth child in 2018. Although I planned a home birth, I chose to transfer to the hospital for an epidural due to lack of progress and significant pain in my back that was different from my other labors. My daughter ended up being born with a face presentation (her nose was born first!), which explained why my labor felt so different. After recovering from her birth, I attended a few births as a doula before enrolling in midwifery school in 2020 and starting my apprenticeship in January 2021. I graduated in 2023 with an Associate of Science in Midwifery from the National College of Midwifery, and am in the process of becoming certified. During my schooling, I also participated in a Breech Birth Training program with Breech Without Borders, and I have developed a passion for vaginal breech birth. The best part about working with families is helping women discover how powerful they really are and helping families feel empowered to take responsibility for their birth choices.