I support the idea that women are intelligent, that when educated and given full informed consent they have the right to make the choices that are best for them and their baby.
Lynn's Story
Lynn’s midwifery education and training began in 1975 when she entered into a three-year working apprenticeship with a doctor in a busy southern California practice. During this time the practice had 80-90 births a month in homes, hospitals and birth centers. This experience allowed her participate in a wide variety births, expanding her understanding of normal deliveries including twins, breech births and vaginal births after cesarean (VBACs).
In 1978 she moved to Northern Idaho where she established a thriving home birth practice. It was there that she fully realized the importance of and need for more midwives. With this realization came the knowledge that aspiring midwives needed an opportunity acquire the necessary skills to become competent and independent practitioners.
Thus the idea to open a high-volume freestanding birth center began to take root. She took this dream to El Paso, Texas where her skills and experience could provide the community with safe, affordable maternity care. At the same time she could train midwifery students, providing quality education and hands-on clinical skills. These students could then return to their own communities and serve women with increased skills and a better understanding of the art and science of midwifery.
This dream became a reality in 1985 when Lynn opened Casa de Nacimiento. The birth center quickly gained popularity and soon Lynn was managing 60-70 births a month as well as teaching and supervising students who began to come from around the globe to train in this unique environment. Sadly by July 2011 the economy had taken a heavy toll and it was no longer feasible to continue. After 25 years, Lynn closed the doors of Casa where by that time over 13,000 mothers had given birth and over 800 new midwives had been trained.
Lynn has written a midwifery curriculum that was approved by the state of Texas and qualified her students to sit for their licensing examinations. She has served on various midwifery boards, is a consultant for international midwifery programs as well as individual midwives and regularly serves as an expert in midwifery-related legal cases. She is a contributing author of Birth Centres: A Social Model for Maternity Care with "A Lesson in Naivety: Casa de Nacimiento". Lynn has been featured in the following articles:
Today, Lynn stays busy by writing and teaching continuing education for midwives and a practicing homebirth midwife. She attends births for women who need her skills and talent for special circumstance deliveries as well as those who simply want her skill levels for their normal births. When she is not traveling, her time is spent with family, gardening and pets. She is the mother of 6 children, 14 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.