Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Whitley.
Hi Heather, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I spent my 20s in a corporate career in the financial industry. During my first pregnancy in the care of an Obstetrician, I picked up a book called Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way, based on the practices of 1950s OB who was a proponent of natural childbirth. It was a bit of exposure to what is happening in American hospitals during childbirth.
I began asking questions of my physician such as “How many episiotomies does this hospital do during delivery?” When her answer was “95%. Some vaginas are meant to stretch and some are not.” I grew terrified of being cut unnecessarily and opted to become a consumer of childbirth services and shop around facilities and providers.
Late in pregnancy, I switched hospitals and found a small group of hospital midwives I loved. I went on to have a very large baby. No cutting, no tearing. But shortly after my triumphant natural birth, my husband and I experienced some drama and trauma regarding my placenta extraction and pediatrician care with the baby. Yet everything was charted as “normal and spontaneous”. That was not what we experienced. I believe we experienced a lack of informed consent regarding proper provider information and dialog regarding what was happening. It was incredibly stressful as first-time young parents.
Two years later pregnant with my second, I located a homebirth midwife who competently provided the standard diagnostics and pregnancy care I was used to, but in a very intimate setting where we became well acquainted. This was the first of four incredible home births. The experience was so potently transformative to me as a woman, I became an advocate of natural childbirth and home birth, eventually leading me to return to school at age 30, switch careers, to serve women the way I had been tended to by midwives.
I have been licensed, credentialed, and practicing in two states from Vermont to Utah, working in home birth and birth centers and now providing exclusively home birth to clients in the Salt Lake and Park City region. I handle around 30 women annually. My mission is to provide women with education and informed consent to a degree they are not receiving with other providers, and hopefully, walk with them on a journey of transformation in their pregnancies and births.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Dropping a stable corporate career in Vermont I disliked to return to earn a second college degree was good on my soul but difficult on family finances. My husband at the time was very supportive but the pressure of five years in school, on one income where we had been used to two, took its toll on our marriage.
I was on scholarship/fellowship where I attended tuition-free in exchange for consulting to the Midwives College of Utah board of directors and building financial models, but the removal of my income in those years was incredibly taxing on a marriage. We split around the time I finished school and began to practice. I’m sure the periods where I was gone on long overnight or multi-day births were also a factor with the family obligations he carried in that time.
When we divorced, I brought my five children across the country to Utah, raising them alone, homeschooling, while working for peanuts as a staff midwife until my own practice gained a foothold. I am now among the most successful midwives in the region. My kids and I are super proud of the business I have built and I am proud of them for supporting me and helping in the raising of each other so it could happen.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Sego Lily Midwifery?
I am a licensed, credentialed midwife offering pregnancy care, home birth, and postnatal support in the Salt Lake City and Park City greater area. I am a boutique midwife providing evidence-based care anchored in informed consent.
Clients have access to all routine diagnostics typically provided by mainstream providers such as blood work, medical-grade imaging read by radiologists as well as bedside ultrasound imaging, with a much higher degree of personalized service than hospital-based providers. We consult with maternal-fetal-medicine (high-risk OBs) when necessary and make sure all of our clients remain in a low-risk category throughout the course of care with us.
The research and evidence of the safety of out-of-hospital birth are well documented in medical journals. I love giving this experience to couples who have gone the hospital route and seek something different this time, and for a fraction of the cost of low-intervention hospital birth.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Sailing with my parents on the Great Lakes and summers in Bass Rocks/Good Harbor Beach in Rockport, MA.
Pricing:
- Around $5000 for complete care
- Around $6000+ for all home visits
- Some insurance does reimburse.
Contact Info:
- Email: segolilymidwife@gmail.com
- Website: www.segolilymidwife.com
- Instagram: @segolilymidwife
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/sego.lily.midwife
Image Credits
Madeline Beeton
