If you are in the Tri-Cities area (Richland, Kennewick, Pasco) and are looking for a good midwife, you should contact Shannon Bennett. She’s a CPM (Certified Professional Midwife) with over 160 births experience over the last 3 years and has been involved with births for the last 9 years. Shannon’s quiet eyes, calm voice, and gentle hands were what I clung to desperately for twenty something hours before my precious breech baby was born in my bedroom. She is married with 4 children and lives in a beautiful, well-kept house in West Richland. You can e-mail her at <slbennett@verizon.net>.I’m blogging this because none the midwives around here have their own web sites which made them invisible online. It was REALLY hard for me to find one when I was pregnant the first time … not to mention there are hardly any midwives around here anyway. Just three or four, I think.
EDITED TO ADD: She was also my midwife for my second baby and here she is with him, less than 24 hours old. I am really blessed to have her for my midwife. And she lives only 20 minutes away.
EDITED AGAIN TO ADD: She was my midwife for my third and fourth babies, too. She’s great. Pictures from Thane’s birth below.
She is great, isn’t she? Have yet to see her in action, but our philosophies certainly mesh well. :)
Kristina
We’re having trouble finding a home midwife around here because it’s illegal. The local midwife is a flaming Wiccan that collects nude art, and otherwise there is nobody that I know of.
There are a fair number of weird midwives out there who are into various “new age” things that might creep you out (I remember one) . . . but if they’re the only game in town, you might just have to go with them. There’s no guarantee that the staff of any given conventional hospital doesn’t also include its fair share of weirdos. (And obviously, there are limits to what you can put up with.) Although it does not make Mommy and Daddy very happy, chances are the baby won’t remember any of the nude art :)
We moved in the middle of each of my four pregnancies. In a nutshell, the easiest way for me to find a good midwife was to call a local church and ask if there was a homeschool mom at the church who would be willing to answer some questions. Then I’d ask HER if there was a h/s mom who was a homebirther who’d answer some questions. Then, I’d call HER and get the nitty-gritty details of the local midwives, the local laws, and the reputations.
I live in the tri-cities and I just found out I live in the same neighborhood as Shannon (my midwife, Kristin, told me when she came to my house for a prenatal visit). I had never heard of her so I googled her and found this post! You’re right that they can be hard to find, especially if you’re new to an area. know that I found Kristin and Lorri because they have an easy to find and informative website. Anyway, thanks for posting, and I’ve enjoyed browsing your blog!