We are inviting members to attend our board meetings from 7:30pm-8:00pm on the first Thursday of every month. Each meeting provides the opportunity for member comments, concerns, feedback, and input. We welcome your input and feeback! To join: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/720309693 . You can also dial in using your phone:

United States: +1 (872) 240-3212     Access Code: 720-309-693

Chair

Crystal Ogle LM, CPM

My name is Crystal Ogle and I am excited to be your Chair of the Washington Alliance for Responsible Midwifery. I have been a WARM professional member since 2014 and have a unique home birth practice on Whidbey Island. I love teaching, learning from and supporting student midwives. For years I worked as faculty and staff at the Midwives College of Utah. A midwife of color myself, I support social justice and am a health disparity activist. I support the Rainier Valley Community Clinic, where I sat on it’s Board, the South Seattle Women’s Health Foundation, for many years. I share my life with my husband, three kids (one who is off on her own) and two dogs. We love to hike and explore our region, including it’s many beaches. My family loves to travel, especially taking road trips, we love board games and we value family tradition, hosting festive family gatherings frequently.

President

Carol Gautschi LM, CPM

Carol Gautschi CPM LM has served as a Classical Homebirth Midwife since 1978. She’s an international speaker and gentle birth advocate, currently serving as chair of Birth Matters (a homebirth awareness and advocacy collective) and president and founding member of W.A.R.M. (Washington Alliance for Responsible Midwifery). She teaches and practices Classical Midwifery, a philosophy which incorporates empirical, traditional ways of preparing women for birth. She acknowledges and respects the spirit, soul and body of mamababies during the profound process of pregnancy and birth. Holism at its best! Other passions she promotes and advocates is preserving the significance of the microbiome and the goals for the autonomy of Midwifery and Organic Homebirth.

Her website is: http://gentlebirths.net

Carol is the mother of seven blessings and grand to twelve, She has been married to Paul Gautschi of backtoedenfilm.com fame, since 1974. She lives and works as a midwife and mentor on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula, Washington State.

Secretary

Sarah Simmons LM, CPM 

Sarah Simmons LM is a 2012 graduate of the Midwives College of Utah. I live and have a busy solo practice in rural Okanogan county after several years of practice in the Tacoma area. 

I am approaching my 25th wedding anniversary and am the mother of 6 children ranging in age from 11-27. I recently had the privilege of catching my second grand baby (I also caught the first). In my free time I enjoy visiting with family and reading for knowledge and research as well as pleasure. I also enjoy many traditional arts such as gardening, canning and sewing. This year I have returned to fully homeschooling with my 2 youngest.  I am passionate about informed consent and preserving scope and autonomy in midwifery practice.  I look forward to serving the midwives in Washington state. 

 

Treasurer

Janelle Weishaar LM, CPM

Bio coming soon!

Board Member

Marie Wakefield ND, LM

Midwifery has truly been a calling in my life. I feel blessed to love what I do for “work”, although it is really about serving families during a very special time in their lives. I attended Bastyr University and graduated with degrees in Naturopathic Medicine and Midwifery.  My practice began in 2007, after I had taken some time off after graduation to have my children (both were born at home in my bath tub). Since I had two young kids at home, I chose to focus on midwifery.  I have wonderful family support and now a business partner and am so happy to be on this journey. My practice is Natural Beginnings Midwifery Care and we serve clients in Pierce county and surrounding areas. 

Board Member

Katlyn Carter LM, CPM

 A little bit about myself…. I live in Poulsbo, WA with my husband and our four boys on a small hobby farm. I graduated from Midwives College of Utah last fall and became licensed here in Washington around the same time. I am currently working with a small number of clients at Tranquil Healing Center in Belfair. I am passionate about advocating for women’s rights choices and furthering the midwifery profession in this state. I would love to continue to be a part of WARM and offer my time and perspective as a recently graduated midwife. I love WARM’s philosophy and openness and wish to share it with other new midwives!

Board Member

Elaine Arnold LM, CPM

My name is Elaine Arnold and I am honored to serve on the WARM board alongside some wonderful women and midwives. .  I am looking forward to continuing to serve on the WARM board as we support midwives in our state. I graduated from MCU in 2016 and my practice, Aviv Midwifery Care, is based in Enumclaw, Washington.  I am married to my high school prom date and we have 5 children and 12 grandchildren.  I homeschooled for 23 years and attended births as a doula for many years before returning to school myself to become a midwife. I especially love serving the women of our community, but also enjoy meeting midwives in other countries as we learn from one another.  Outside of birthwork, I enjoy hiking, camping, kayaking, cooking, and tending my garden and chickens.

 

Board Member

Leslie Gesner LM, CPM

I am one of the original founding members of WARM and have been in practice as a midwife for 31 years. My introduction to midwifery began in the traditional sense with my own homebirths (3) followed by apprenticeship and an internship in El Paso Tx with a busy birth center. I became licensed in Washington State in 1999 by submitting my midwifery portfolio, and became a CPM in 2000. Being a lifelong learner I jumped at the opportunity of a formal education graduating from a MEAC accredited school in 2017 with a Bachelors of Science in Midwifery. My big loves are my honey of 37 years, our kids, grands and fur babies, projects, gardening, travel and the creative.

Board Member

Brandy Stuart LM, CPM

 I was born and raised in Bremerton, Washington where I currently raise my 5 children. I am a typical Pacific North West person – I love saltwater, evergreen trees, rain, mountains, and soaking up the occasional ray of Washington sunshine. Most of my time is spent being a midwife, being a mom, cooking delicious food, organizing things, hiking, gardening, creating art, and connecting with nature. I became a doula in 2002 after training with Seattle Midwifery School. Pregnancy, birth, babies, and breastfeeding continued to be a special passion of mine, so in 2012 I decided to make my passion a full time career, and started attending births as a doula. In 2015 I began my journey in Midwifery. I am now a graduate of Midwives of Utah, and am a Licensed Midwife, and Certified Professional Midwife, attending clinic and births with Gig Harbor Midwifery. We attend home birth and birth center birth at The Birthing Inn located in Tacoma. I believe that childbearing is a physical, emotional, and spiritual experience, and my goal is to provide comprehensive, holistic care that addresses each of these aspects. Every birthing person deserves to have someone there to guide and assist them in making educated choices about their pregnancy, and remind them that they can trust in the strength of their body during this time.  

Board Member

Shannon Mitchell LM, CPM

Shannon Mitchell, CPM, LM is a married mother of four and a grandmother of five. She has worked in birth fields and advocacy for over 22 years, focusing on the right to autonomy in pregnancy and birth, VBAC, and informed decision making. This led her to midwifery in the state of Washington in 2016, and her current role as a WARM Board member. 

Board Member
Eudine Stevens LM, CPM

My name is Eudine Stevens, I am looking forward to continuing serving on the WARM board this next year. I served as Treasurer 2016-2019, prior to that I was a WARM board member from 2013-2016, serving both as a student member followed by LM. I have a small home practice based out of Yakima, WA. 

I am a mother of 4 children, one currently lives at home. My husband and I like working on our house, fixing it up. I enjoying vegetable gardening, sewing (especially quilts), Toastmasters, traveling with my family, and teaching. I enjoy teaching the integration of advanced massage therapy skills into midwifery and seeing immediate results.

Board Member
Skaidre Brown LM, CPM

I live in the beautiful Skagit Valley in Mount Vernon, Washington on 4 1/2 acres with my husband and 3 children. My parents also live with us in a daylight basement apartment in our house. We have chickens, apple trees, cherry trees, raspberries, and blueberry bushes. Since being in school I haven’t had much time for the acreage. Now that I am done with school I dream of being a bit of a homesteader and hope to expand with a midwife/medicinal herb garden and goats! Since having my second child, I have been passionate about natural childbirth. I became a Bradley Method childbirth educator and birth doula in 2002. I’ve taught childbirth classes and attended births as a doula for 7 years when I decided to go to Midwives College of Utah to become a direct entry midwife. I was homeschooling my 3 children at the time and the rigors of school were too much for me, so I took a break. I took a break from childbirth altogether for about 2 years. I then began teaching my own childbirth class and attending births as a midwife assistant. As my children grew and became more independent I realized that I still had the passion and dream to become a midwife. In August of 2016 I started to pursue that dream once again. With the support of my husband and my children I began taking classes again and have since finished school and became licensed in WA in September 2020 and opened my practice, providing all services in the client’s home, in October 2020. It has been no small feat to accomplish all of this. In my last small stretch of school the world was hit with the SARS-CoV-19 virus pandemic. This pandemic not only affected my schooling, but also that of my children. It also has changed the shape of healthcare and homebirth. In some areas, more people have been afraid to go to the hospital where sick people go and homebirth boomed. For community birth providers, the Department of Health in each state has made new requirements for PPE and protocols to stop the spread. I believe the stress has impacted maternal and fetal outcomes, but we won’t have definitive answers to that for years to come. Despite all of the challenges caused by the pandemic, I am done with school and was able to get my license and open my practice. I hope to serve my community by giving the safe alternative of homebirth to as many people as possible!