Work alongside me

An ideal partner midwife would be invested full-time in the homebirth midwife life. It could be part-time hours, but she is "in" when it comes to prioritizing to be a homebirth midwife. This means that she knows she'll have times when she is the primary midwife on-call for days and need to be available 24/7. We'd both take times of being on-call more and then times of being off for long periods. Most months we'd be just splitting births, alternating, or making a schedule of preferred days...whichever works. We'd make sure each other gets out of town regularly and enjoys life. We'd book a birth schedule that fits our lives and priorities, knowing that the goal is to be able to serve birthing women and not have gaps in midwife availability. 

Over the past 4 years of solo practice I've had both CNM mentees and CPM apprentices, and for a long stretch, just had my sister-birtherworker Mary as my trained birth assistant. Since Mary's retirement, I've had a schedule of birth assistants, with the CNM that mentored under me the last year being the most committed. 

I believe the best thing for birthing women is to know anyone who would be at her birth. Therefore, I am actively seeking an available person to become my next apprentice and birth assistant. The CPM apprentice fits the model well because she understands she is focusing on learning the craft and needing to be available for prenatal days and births. The CNM apprentice benefits greatly from learning the wisdom of holistic midwifery practice, but needs to demonstrate the value she brings to my practice and the clients in her request for mentorship. The PRN birth assistant fills the gap of needs when I am needing an assistant and don't have available anyone who has been apprenticing and already knows the client.