Happy BirthDay, Hannah Evangeline

Twenty-seven years ago, at 119 Iroquois Street in Battle Creek, Michigan, in the chilly, snowy, wee hours of Sunday, December 8th, 1991, Hannah Evangeline Woodard–now Simmons–burst into the world. This is the story of her birth, as told in my book, A Midwife in Amish Country. Three months after our autumn wedding, Brent quit his job[…]

To a Wild and Woolly Life! Michigan Part Six

“Don’t pick that up!” “Put that down!” “No, that really IS too heavy for you!” These were the exclamations that filled my ears in the last weeks of my pregnancy as we hurried and scurried to prepare to move as my due date loomed closer and closer! Jesse or Mom would say something akin to[…]

Susie’s 71 Hour Labor

Another of my clients tells her story! And, friends, what a story it is.I’ve never seen anything quite like this woman’s heart and strength and endurance. That’s all I’m going to say. Susie will tell you the rest herself. Episode 6: My 71 hour labor with Susie Eldredge   Kim Woodard Osterholzer, Colorado Springs Homebirth Midwife[…]

When You Pass Through the Fire, Foot-First Breech, Michigan Part Three

To tell our birth stories… To tell our birth stories is the attempt to capture in words among the most profound, most powerful of our life experiences… Experiences simultaneously painful… gorgeous… raw… terrifying… triumphant… naked… transformative…. To tell our birth story is to tell of the time we got caught out in the wildest, darkest, most brutal[…]

Stephanie!

Here’s another of my client’s interviews with Serena! I’m just loving these! Just click on the box below to listen. Episode 5: Managing Labor Pains with Stephanie Rosenbaum Kim Woodard Osterholzer, Colorado Springs Homebirth Midwife and Author Books by Kim: Homebirth: Safe & Sacred Homebirth: Commonly Asked Questions A Midwife in Amish Country: Celebrating God’s[…]

Amye!

Friends, I thought you might enjoy another of Serena Salvato’s podcasts, this time with one of my clients, Amye Olivero, sharing her moving story! Click here to listen in! The Push Guide, by Serena Salvato. And be sure to visit and subscribe to Serena’s website, The Push Guide to hear her other interviews and to read an account[…]

The Many Faces of Home Birth

A young woman passionate about homebirth, Shantel Silbernagel, contacted me nine months ago to tell me about a project she was working on and to ask if I could provide a bit of help. Her desire was to present the world with a book of stories about birthing at home. A collection of stories that[…]

When Scary Can Still Be Peaceful and Oh, So Beautiful

So, here I am in Michigan, enjoying my children and my grandchildren and the opportunity to help Hannah, my midwife daughter, with a handful of her clients. Among those I’ve had the pleasure to meet is Sabrina, a mother of two boys, one very newly born. As we sat and talked and admired the baby,[…]

Joy One and Joy Two

Anne Miller first called me in the wintertime of 2011. I assumed initially she was Amish, as a vast expanse of my clients were named Miller. That year alone I’d serve eight Miller famlies, with a remarkable many sharing first names. This made the midnight calls interesting, you may be sure. “You’re calling about Maggie? Um…[…]