Anita Rojas, CPM, LDEM (Founder) Email
I grew up in the Mountains of Mexico until the age of 17. I remember my great-grandmothers who were the midwives in the nearby village. I hold precious memories of Great-Grandmother Toribia. She would ride by horse to the births, carrying burlap sacks with orderly bundles of herbs, and tincture bottles….miss the Yerba Anis smells she burned for the herbal hot baths she gave the women after birth.
Later in life, the spark of the Midwife within me was awakened by the Spirit of my own Homebirth. It was then I began studying and attending homebirths in 1985, and obtained a Midwifery License from the State Of
With the love and support of other midwives and a lot of volunteer’s precious time, our fully Licensed Sacred Waters Birthing Center is born in 2005 here in
My intent and dedication is to provide individualized care in a holistic approach, in a safe, calm place such as at home, or in a home-like setting for mothers, babies and their families.
Why Lay Midwifery? Since the beginning of time there are midwives, and more and more women again, are seeking natural birth. Women and their families, who believe birth is normal, a Beautiful Sacred Intimate Experience. These women and their families are committed to health and growing healthy babies.
In the absence of fear, and a peaceful surrounding, innately she knows she can birth just fine. Accompanied by an experienced midwife who will quietly monitor the baby as well as care for the mother, as little or as much as the individual woman needs require.
Dim lights, hot tub, soft voices, and minimal intervention, surrounded by loved ones are exactly what some of these families are looking for. Some women believe birthing their own babies, is their own birth right, and a necessity for their emotional well being, as well a necessary intricate part of once personal evolution.
I cannot imagine anything more Real, Beautiful, Powerful and Magical than a woman birthing un-interrupted in her own splendor. This is why I am here.
Erin knew that she wanted to be a midwife since she was a teenager and was inspired by a doula training course. In March of 2009, she graduated from Maternidad La Luz, a midwifery school and busy birth center on the U.S./Mexico border in El Paso, Texas. She has found midwifery to be her greatest journey yet. "I believe that family is the nucleus of community, and that the health of our children's world is dependent on the health of our individual families. My wish is for all children and families is to have joyful, safe, and holy beginnings. I believe absolutely that birth is a normal and simple life event, yet an ineffably profound experience to which every one is entitled in its purest state. My goal is to provide families with the safest, most positive and satisfying birth experience possible."
Rebecca Parker, CNM, FNP, CNP
Rebecca has loved attending women, babies and families at home and in the water for over 20 years. She is still awed by the beauty of birth and the inherent power in women. She started as an RN working independently and with doctors in Indiana, Illinois, and Calif. While in Calif. she was a co owner and a practitioner with a group of 200 who operated a 50-acre health spa. Training with herbs, mud & mineral baths, yoga, polarity therapy, cranial sacral work , extensive intuitive skills training, nutrition and the raising of 3 darling girls enveloped her time, She returned to school to attend the historic Frontier School of Midwifery’s program in Kentucky to obtain the most holistic training she could find. She received her Master’s degree from Case Western University, and certification through the American College of Nurse Midwives. This means she is able to function independently, and has prescriptive privileges. Since she loved working with families so much she again returned to school and obtained her Family Nurse Practitioner’s license from the Univ. of Portland. One wonderful advantage of this is that the babies don’t have to be transferred at 2 or 6 weeks after they’re born. And the whole family can be seen for medical care! Going further she pursued certified training as a nutritional practitioner. That training optimizes health and balance for the entire family. She has both training and experience with Weston A Price principles and raw foods to maximize nutrition. Some 600 births down the line, she still loves attending women and families and providing primary care. “I honor the sacredness and intimacy of birth as a life changing event and feel privileged to be a part of an intimate team. Encouraging and supporting women to do the work of labor- I celebrate with women when they discover how amazingly strong they are”.
Rebecca continues to work with the babies through childhood, sees teenagers through the raging hormone years, moms through menopause, men through life changes, and all adults into the golden years of healthy aging. Her passion for holistic health practices has resulted in a biomedical approach to autistic children and individuals on the ASD spectrum as a DAN! provider- utilizing vitamins, minerals, amino acids and detoxification as part of a treatment plan-, use of bio-identical hormones for women, extensive nutritional and life skills counseling and healthy aging counseling.
Erin Lusk, CPM
Erin was born and raised on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. In 2005, she graduated from Prescott College with a B.A. in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in agroecology and marine science, and has since resided largely in the southwestern U.S. She has been involved in sustainable agriculture for the past 7 years, working worldwide in her farming endeavors as well as operating several small farms of her own. Through the years, she has crewed on various sailing vessels and covered over 10,000 miles of ocean.
Student Midwives
My desire to follow the path of midwifery was sparked by my own homebirth with Anita in 1997. Since that time I have attended births of friends and been a doula for other women. I have had two years of thorough education through
I am supported by my wonderful partner Jacob, my stellar son Anahkin and my loving parents Jean and Russell.
My view of myself as woman and mother has been intrinsically shaped by the experience of my own homebirth. Bringing with it the desire to further explore the relationship between the medical model of care and its impact on women’s health; physiologically, physically and spiritually. I believe in birth to be a healthy, natural and yet profoundly sacred experience; one that differs for every woman and every family, but one which also taps into the connectedness of us all. A mother/baby centered birth experience sets precedence for a lifetime of choices and trust in oneself. At a time when much is changing in a woman’s body, mind and spirit, a midwife is an ally who holds space for the unique experience of birth which is a reflection of the intelligent, holy and intrinsic bond of mother and child. I look forward to this time that has been gifted to me. To advocate. To support. To serve.
Carla Niermann, SMW
Carla was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and grew up speaking German and English. She graduated in 2004 from Rhodes University, on the eastern coast of South Africa, with an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental History, Philosophy, and French. She moved to Scotland in 2005 for postgraduate studies in Environmental Policy at the University of St Andrews. She worked as a college lecturer and later a newspaper sub-editor, all the while nurturing a wish to redirect her life's path toward midwifery. Carla trained as a doula and childbirth educator in
South Africa and has been so humbled by the timeless wisdom of mamas and their babies.
She moved to southern Maine in 2008 and began full-time studies at Birthwise Midwifery School. She has been exposed to a variety of styles of midwifery care, including nurse-midwifery in a busy urban hospital setting, naturopathic midwifery in a small family practice, and traditional home-birth midwifery in rural Maine. She has been humbled by the timeless wisdom of mamas and babies.
Carla was trained by Marie Mongan in the original HypnoBirthing method, and is a certified HypnoBirthing Practitioner. She has attended a MotherMassage workshop with Elaine Stillerman in NYC; Elizabeth Davis' Heart and Hands Midwifery Intensives in San Rafael, CA; a Birth Into Being training with Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova (director of Birth As We Know It) in Cape Town, South Africa; and a workshop on “Primal Health and Birth” with Michel Odent in Portland, ME. She is certified in Neonatal Resuscitation and has attended midwifery conferences in South Africa and the United States.
Her learning journey has brought her to Oregon, where she is delighted to serve as a midwifery apprentice to Anita Rojas at Sacred Waters Community Birthing Center. Carla is completing the requirements for the credential of Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) and hopes to take the NARM exam in August 2011.
Her wish is for mothers and their partners to feel supported during the childbearing year and beyond, and to be offered midwifery care that is warm, respectful, skilled, and non-judgmental.