Today we’d like to introduce you to Janae Sherman.
Hi Janae, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story started with my own birth. I was born at home too fast for my mom to get to the hospital. After her experiencing an unmedicated delivery and recovery she wished she had done it that way with my brothers. So growing up I always planned on having my babies at home after hearing her share her very different experiences of her hospital medicated vs home-unmedicated births. I also had a great, great grandmother, Aunt Jodi as she was called, who was the midwife in the Bluff/Blanding Utah area when they were settling that part of the state, so I heard her history growing up and was familiar with what a midwife was. I originally going down the path to be a paramedic and was taking classes to fulfill those requirements.
One day I had a very strong feeling that I needed to peruse becoming a Midwife instead so I called a local midwife, and she gave me some direction on what to do. I took all the classes offered at our local college that had to do with anything medical, nutrition, or early childhood development. I had my first baby at my home with her attending, and a year later started my apprenticeship with her. I did a lot of self-study, attended conferences, and workshops to learn all I could. I worked with her for about 5 years completing my required 100 births, and having 2 more babies with her as my Midwife, and then continued on assisting her as I started slowly growing my own practice. In 2020 I decided to get my CPM credential with North American Registry of Midwives (NARM), and License with the state of Utah. I have been on my own for 16 years and have been on over 400 deliveries.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The life of a midwife isn’t a typical Monday-Friday, weekends and holidays off schedule. Going into this life you have to realize you might miss family vacations, the first days of kids’ school, holiday celebrations, etc. because you’re at a delivery. It’s a calling that carries big responsibility in the life of mom and baby and that can sometimes be overwhelming. Making sure you are staying up to date on skills, education, and training. People won’t always like you, or your views on how birth can go.
There are tough deliveries sometimes that don’t go as planned and that can be a hard thing to navigate with parents.
Dealing with some of the laws regulating what midwives are not allowed to do can limit parents’ choice if they are having a breech or twin delivery, which could result in the mothering having a surgical procedure that may have been avoided if allowed to be cared for by licensed midwives who take specific training to learn skills required for these kinds of deliveries.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I am a Licensed Direct Entry Midwife (LDEM) and a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM through NARM. I provide home birth services to the southern Utah area. I specialize in natural delivery. I only take clients who are low-risk and don’t have preexisting health conditions that could make a home delivery unsafe. I offer free consultations where moms can come interview me and ask any questions they have to see if we would be a good fit together. I do complete, personal, prenatal care, labor and delivery support, and postpartum care through 6 weeks.
This includes doing regular prenatal visits, having all the standard lab tests and ultrasound options available to my clients that an OB would offer, and at least 3 postpartum visits with mom and baby. I focus on the importance of good nutrition and exercise in pregnancy to help prevent issues as the pregnancy progresses. I try and educate clients throughout the pregnancy so they know the pros and cons of different options so they can make an informed choice on the care they choose to have.
I love to offer the partners of the women delivering the ability to be as involved as they feel comfortable with. This might mean just being there to support through positive words and a physical presence, or it might mean they catch the baby as it’s being born.
Most important though is that the women can feel how powerful they are and that their body was made to be able to deliver their baby. To give them the confidence that they can do it. To help educate them on what to expect and not to fear it. To let them know that they have support and help from me to get them through this transformative beautiful experience.
The safety of mom and baby is my #1 priority. I am trained in NRP, the same course the hospital staff is trained in, and bring equipment needed to help babies after birth if necessary. I monitor babies in labor to make sure they are doing well throughout the process and are trained to know/hear when things are not normal so we can make adjustments if needed.
I have a very low transfer rate, 4-5%, and a 2% c-section rate (compared to a national c-section rate of 32%) of moms who have needed to be transferred to hospital care. The majority of transfers are non-emergency transfers where most often a first-time mom’s body is just worn out from a very long labor and needs some rest or assistance with medications.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Everything we do in life has risks. Sometimes the outcomes are not in our control no matter what we do or where we are. This is true at birth. However, I think that our system of getting babies here has become too medicalized and we have lost the ability to just support moms in this process. Our Maternal mortality rate is one of the highest in the industrialized countries, so something is not working. It is the mothers and families who are being impacted by this.
The countries that have the lowest rates are using Midwife-led care, and keeping interventions to a minimum. I am willing to support mothers who want to do out-of-hospital births (take that risk as some people would say) because, for the majority of women, it is actually less of a risk for them. We always have the understanding that in life, some things just happen and it is out of our control, but I do everything I can to keep the risk as small as possible and to ensure a good outcome for my clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: trusthomebirth.com
Image Credits
Tia Stout tiastoutphoto.com and Deb Ouzts Ashley Elsmore trueknotphoto.com
