I have been meaning to update for a while. 2015 was a year of adjustment for me living and practicing in Utah. My mother passed away last summer, making it difficult for me to attend to women in my care in the way I am used to doing. It is funny how the Universe seems to know when to back off with a client load and when to start ringing my phone again.
In 2015, I worked a great deal with Chris Miller’s practice (Arrivals Birth Services)- attending 20-30 births with her since last spring. Chris has delivered in the neighborhood of 4000 babies and I’ve been fortunate to work along side her and learn some of her ways. I delivered a small handful of my own clients’ babies from Layton to downtown Salt Lake in 2015.
2016 ushers in a new, busier phase to my own practice, taking my first round of repeat Utah clients (In Vermont I had been delivering siblings to babies I had once caught for a few years so I’ve been eagerly waiting for that trickle affect here in Utah). I am also working clinic once or twice a week at BirthWise in Layton while one of the founding midwives takes leave for her own pregnancy. I am just beginning to rotate into taking birth call for them and am super excited. Licensed midwives Heather Johnston, RN, CPM, LDEM and her sister, Janelle Peterson, CPM, LDEM have amassed an impressive practice that I am fortunate to get to be a part of. Because two midwives in the practice are named “Heather”, I will be referred to by my last name as “Whitley” to make it easier for BirthWise clients to differentiate.
I’ve been teaching per diem and at conferences for the Community School of Midwifery and the Midwives College of Utah. Here is a photo of my latest teaching day involving palpation and fetal heart tone auscultation with a fetoscope.
Teaching Provo Orem Midwife Students
I’ve got a couple BYU babies due now and later in 2016. It’s fun to think I am one of the BYU student home birth midwives.
I love the families I am privileged to serve and can’t wait to see who else rings my phone this year!