After disasters, reproductive healthcare falls by the wayside. Yet babies continue to be born. When all infrastructure falls apart, when the hospitals and all their technological equipment are destroyed, midwives come in handy. They can help women give birth with or without electricity, running water, equipment - even shelter is optional. When babies are ready, they come.

Birthing is the most profound initiation to spirituality a woman can have.

I love to receive babies into this world, so crawling around on my knees in the birth room is my best place, and most often you can still find me there.

Pregnant women who are at risk for suffering complications and even death are in the prime of their lives. The most affected populations are minorities, Native Americans, immigrants, and women living in poverty and who speak little or no English.

In a nutshell, I am a mom, a grandma, and a midwife.

Childbirth being one's most significant life passage, those close to us when we open to birth a baby will never be forgotten.

I learned that a healthy society is made up of loving, trusting individuals, and that these individuals in turn protect their environment, become stewards of our land, air and water, and they make peace, rather than war.