How my background in public health and case management changes how I support you

Somewhere in the middle of labor, a provider lays out two options and asks what you'd like to do. You look at your partner. Your partner looks at you. And then you both look at me, because you know I'll help you think it through.

Knowing how to talk with you about a decision comes from two things I did for years before I ever supported a birth: case management and public health.

Case management taught me to pay attention to a room, not just a conversation. For years, my job was helping people navigate systems that weren't built for them. That meant helping them figure out what they were feeling and what they needed, by asking questions that led them to their own answer, rather than handing them one.

In the hospital room, that skill just changes contexts. It’s noticing when you and your support person are both waiting for the other to speak first, and gently opening the door. It’s seeing the wrinkle in your brow when a provider mentions something clinical, and asking them to explain it again. It's catching a shift in your tone when you say something in passing, and staying there instead of moving on.

My background in public health means I can go deeper than saying something is “evidence-based.” I can help you understand what a study shows, what it doesn’t, where the uncertainty is, and how it applies to your situation.

I also believe in different ways of “knowing” - whether that’s indigenous practices that you want to honor, or trusting an intuition about your body and the knowledge you already carry.

I’ve learned to read a hospital room and translate what I’m seeing and hearing. Hospital births have their own language and rhythms - providers often speak in shorthand, and things can move faster than you expect. Picking up on spoken and unspoken cues means I can translate what’s happening as it unfolds, and talk through what it might mean. It also means giving you the room to think through your options, ask the questions that matter to you, and stay present in decisions instead of riding them out.

I don’t make decisions for you, I make sure you’re making them with clarity. When it matters, you'll have someone next to you who's paying close attention and ready to help you think, translate, or just take a beat.