Gail with one of "her kids."
Gail began her career by teaching pain control to pregnant women. Then became birth coach, childbirth educator, doula, montrice, midwife, and finally Certified Professional Midwife.
One question that seems to come up in most initial interviews with Gail is, "How did you end up being a midwife?"
The answer is somewhat lengthy, and not only illustrates the rather long path that some take to midwifery but also illustrates the depth and breadth of Gail's past training and experience.
Gail is Canadian. Early in her career she was a businesswoman. She and her husband started a franchised chain of thirteen self-help centers across Canada, Washington and Oregon. In addition to helping clients with problems like weight, smoking, and self-esteem, the centers also helped people control pain using relaxation and visual imagery.
One of Gail's pain clients (also pregnant at the time) asked Gail if the technique could be used to control discomfort during labor. Gail responded that it could, and thus began her long journey into midwifery. The pregnant client had an easy birth, and since she was a hairdresser, the word about this new technique soon spread. At first, Gail had few opportunities to use this technique, since many who heard of it were not yet pregnancy. But business grew and clients began to ask if Gail would attend their birth to help them using the technique. And so, Gail became, in essence, a doula, or labor support coach.
In this role, Gail soon discovered why clients had asked her to attend births. Suggestions made by medical personnel were often negative and counterproductive to the relaxed state that her clients desired to achieve. To counteract these negative suggestions, Gail took courses in obstetrics. While she learned more about the medical aspect of birth, she also concentrated on alternative choices, options and procedures that were available (but often not mentioned) to her moms. That is, at this point she was, in essence, acting as a montrice or labor support coach and advisor.
As time passed, Gail discovered, that it was not just the medical personnel that were implanting negative suggestions in her clients minds. She discovered that most childbirth classes often implanted negative suggestions as well, and that they did not teach her moms about options, choices, and alternatives that could provide them with a better birthing experience.
Hence, Gail developed "her own" childbirth classes. She taught her moms about the mechanics of birth, the spiritual aspects of birth, and the mental aspects of birth -- within the context of routine medical practice, and of the alternatives that were available from a select group of accommodating physicians. That is, Gail became a childbirth instructor. After some time, she became certified by the International Childbirth Educators Association (ICEA).
Often to get the birth of their choice, Gail's moms had to be assertive with physicians and hospitals. Hence, assertiveness training became another tool in a quest for a "better birth." Gail took training in assertiveness, improving self-esteem, and similar skills. This lead Gail into an additional career as a volunteer women's peer counselor. Gail has taught workshops on assertiveness, self-esteem, time management, organizational skills, public speaking, starting a business, and, of course, many aspects of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, parenting, and getting along in marriage.
Over a sixteen year period, Gail became increasingly dissatisfied with the way that the medical model of birth was developing. She felt that the only way many of her moms could obtain the birth of their choice was to birth at home or in a midwifery birth center. Thus began her career as a midwife in Texas. After attending hospital births for sixteen years, Gail began a formal course of study and a midwifery apprenticeship in early 1988. In mid 1989, after Gail completed required course work and 100 births under supervision, she began her own private midwifery practice. Her birth experience is chronicled here, but to date she has attended over 700 births.
Not content to "just meet requirements" to be come a midwife in Texas, Gail has gone on to obtain the highest midwifery certification currently available in the North America. She became a Certified Professional Midwife1 in 1995. She has gone on and taken additional training and is a NARM Qualified Evaluator, that is she is qualified to administer skills examinations to prospective candidates applying to NARM to become Certified Professional Midwives. In addition she is recognized by the Texas Department of Health as qualified to supervise training of apprentice midwives in Texas. A summary of her training can be found here.
Gail is a member of the national midwifery organization, The Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA). She is a member of the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM). She is a past board member and life member of the State midwifery organization, The Association of Texas Midwives (ATM). She is current President (and a past president as well) of the local midwifery organization, The North Texas Association of Midwives (NTM). She has been a member of the Midwives Association of British Columbia, Canada (MABC). A summary of her memberships can be found here.
Gail has worked as a volunteer women's peer counselor at the Women's Center in Rockville, Maryland and The Women's Center in Fort Worth Texas. She is a volunteer for the March of Dimes and speaks concerning prenatal care and infant health. She scripted the March of Dimes "Well Baby and You" series for television, got the twelve, half-hour, series put on local Cable TV, and moderated each of the shows. As a volunteer and in her practice, she teaches breast self-examination. The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) includes Gail's midwifery practice in their obstetrical rotation for fourth year nursing students. This extensive and varied background has molded Gail's current philosophy regarding birth.
(1) Certified by the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM).