AMELIA DORAN

grew up on a small farm in rural Nova Scotia where I gained an appreciation for the importance of creating safe spaces to ensure a successful birth. As a child on the farm, one of my jobs was to help make the barn clean, warm and cozy for our birthing animals, and to ensure that those birthing near the lake were safe and could be easily reached. I was fortunate enough to grow up in an environment where human and animal birth was perceived as natural, celebratory and empowering.

While studying Anthropology in Montréal at Concordia University, I attended many births at hospitals and birthing centers as a doula and worked in a maternity care center for refugee women, many of whom had received little or no care throughout their pregnancy. After Montréal, I lived in the Yukon Territory, Alaska and NWT for several years working with families affected by alcohol and as a youth counsellor. In an effort to help remote women reclaim birth that was being increasingly transferred to major centers, I was able to partner with traditional birthing attendants and assist at a number of home births where families were present, active and supportive. My experiences in the North, where I was able to see firsthand how a community really is needed to raise a child allowed to me realize that I wanted to be part of this community, taking on the role of a midwife.

Since hitchiking from Québec to British Columbia three years ago, my studies in the Midwifery Education Program at UBC have been extremely diverse, rewarding and challenging. I have particularly enjoyed the opportunity to work with my fellow classmates who are a constant source of support, knowledge and inspiration. I have completed practicums with midwives and family doctors in Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Kootenays, and northern Vancouver Island and plan to practice rurally after graduation. I am truly excited about working and learning with the families, staff and students at Pomegranate Community Midwives and am honoured that I might be present during the birth of your child.