My name is Aleksandra Evanguelidi. I'm a licensed midwife. I've been practicing about six and a half years. I originally got into midwifery through reading a book, The Red Tent; and while I was reading it, at each birth in the book, I found myself sobbing, and just felt this urge, or this pain, and want. And shortly after that, I found myself at a hot spring -- Eden Hot Springs -- which is an ancient birthing ground for Apache women who used to come give birth in the waters. And while I was there, the water spoke to me: it told me it wanted women to come give birth there again, which -- I didn't know what I was going to do with that piece of information, but I realized it was another step in the process of me becoming a midwife.
Shortly after that journey, my girlfriend called me and said, "I'm going to take a doula training," and I was like, "So am I!" I knew that it would be a way for me to get into the birth room to see if it was really something that I wanted to do. And I took the training and it was as if a world opened up to me.
A midwife is a trained medical professional who attends women and families during their prenatal period, takes care of all their medical care. They also attend the birth process and care for them-the mother and the newborn-for the six weeks following pregnancy. I happen to be a licensed midwife, but there are also certified nurse midwives and direct-entry lay midwives.
I love being a midwife. It so feeds me to witness women go through the greatest transition in their lives -- which doesn't happen in a moment; it happens during their whole pregnancy period. And to be with her in a way that supports her and her being the biggest she can be, and the most empowered she can be, when issues come up, when her fears come up, and being with her in such a way that I can reflect to her the power that she contains inside of her. And then being in the presence of a woman who's claiming that power of a woman for herself during the greatest transition point in her life -- the time where she's giving birth to her own child. It's so phenomenal to witness her collect her strength and birth her baby into the world. To witness her afterwards, to see her after as a fully self-realized, self-empowered woman, is one of the greatest gifts and perhaps the most fulfilling things I've ever experienced in my life -- and I get to do it all the time.
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