My Story

I was born in Florida and grew up as a middle child. When I was six years old, my mother gave birth to my little sister in a birthing center in Lakeland, Florida. I still remember sitting in my grandmother’s lap, watching in awe, not just of my mother, but of the midwives themselves. Their calmness, their steadiness, and the peace they brought into such a sacred and intense moment stayed with me in a way I did not fully understand at the time.

When I was eight, my family moved to northeast Alabama to be closer to my father’s side of the family. It was there that my passion for caring for others began to grow. I was drawn to nursing and to walking with people through different seasons of life.

I went on to nursing school and began my career in medical surgical nursing, eventually moving into the emergency room. It was in the ER that I met someone who would quietly change the course of my life. Her name was Rachel. She was working toward becoming a midwife through Frontier Nursing University, and she introduced me to a path I had not fully considered for myself.

At the time, becoming a midwife did not feel like a realistic option. Midwifery was not widely accepted where I lived in Alabama, and it felt distant and uncertain. But Rachel encouraged me to pursue it anyway, and I believe now that was part of God’s guidance in my life.

I eventually applied, was accepted, and transitioned my nursing work into mother baby and labor and delivery. I spent five years in OB, gaining experience in both high risk and low risk care. I learned not only the clinical side of birth, but also the importance of presence, timing, and trust in the process.

My clinical training took me into many different settings. I began in Nashville, Tennessee, working with a home birth practice while still building my required experience and hours. From there, I trained in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, where I worked alongside CPMs serving the Amish community. I saw true collaboration there, especially when hospital transfer was needed and care continued seamlessly.

In Columbia, Tennessee, I was exposed to high risk OB in a way that sharpened my skills and required me to be steady, alert, and responsive in urgent situations.

I then trained in Birmingham, Alabama, in a hospital based midwifery model that still reflected the kind of birth space I believe in, where midwifery and medicine can work together with respect. There I learned how powerful it can be to step back, trust physiology, and allow birth to unfold when it is safe to do so. I was only there for a short time before my student placement ended, and I suddenly had nowhere to go.

In what I can only describe as God’s provision, a midwife in Davenport, Florida reached out and accepted me as a student so I could complete my final births. This meant being away from my husband and children, but my family supported me fully. I stayed with my aunt and uncle in Florida and finished my clinical journey, catching my 40th baby just before graduation. I was deeply grateful, and also very ready to be home with my family.

I was offered a job at that same practice. After prayer and discussion with my family, we felt led to take the next step together.

Then COVID changed everything.

Just as we were preparing to move forward, I received an email saying the offer had been rescinded due to low census. At the same time, our home in Alabama was under contract, my husband had already secured work in Florida, and I had stepped away from my RN position. Everything was moving at once, and suddenly everything felt uncertain.

We chose to move forward in faith anyway, trusting that God had a plan even when we could not see it.

I came to Florida on a travel RN contract and worked for 14 weeks before transitioning into midwifery practice in St. Petersburg. I always knew I wanted to move out of the hospital setting, but like many new midwives, the path required patience, humility, and growth.

Eventually, I accepted a hospital based midwifery position, continuing to gain experience while holding onto the calling I felt toward out of hospital birth.

That opportunity eventually led me to Labor of Love Birth Center. In a full circle moment, I realized this was the same name as the birth center in Lakeland where my little sister was born all those years ago.

It felt like returning to where everything began.

At Labor of Love, I finally stepped back into the world of out of hospital birth. It was meaningful, grounding work, and the relationships built there were deeply special. But like many birth centers, financial instability eventually led to its closure. Saying goodbye was incredibly hard. It was more than a workplace. It was a community and a home.

That ending became a new beginning.

I realized it was time to step into something I had been moving toward for years, creating my own practice.

Living Waters Midwifery was born out of that season, out of years of training, transition, loss, growth, and faith. It is the culmination of every place I trained, every family I served, every mentor who shaped me, and every birth that changed me.

I am so grateful to now offer care in this way, and even more grateful for the families who will allow me to walk with them through pregnancy, birth, and beyond.

This is just the beginning of the story I get to keep writing with you.