Episode 07: Midwives Living and Practicing with a Disability
In this episode, we explore the profession of midwifery from the perspective of two registered midwives with unique perspectives and abilities. Episode 7: Midwives Living and Practicing with a Disability introduces us to Shannon Kaltenbruner and Chantel Gauthier-Vaillancourt and their journeys to midwifery and the practice of providing care to families and catching babies. Listen as Lolly de Jonge enquires about the unique challenges, joys and delights they experience practicing midwifery with a disability.
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About Shannon Kaltenbruner, RM
Shannon began advocating for accessible midwifery care since the early 1990’s while part of the grass-roots organization “Calgary Association of Parents and Professionals for Safe Alternatives in Childbirth (CAPSAC)”, presently known as “Birth Unlimited”. While at CAPSAC, she volunteered alongside many other passionate individuals to encourage registration and funding for midwifery services for the families of Alberta. She is proud of how far Midwifery has advanced in Alberta over the last few decades.
After completing her Bachelor of Science in 1992, she studied to become a certified childbirth educator and doula. She worked with Alberta Health Services and The Calgary Childbirth and Doula Association for 18 years in this capacity. In 2013, with the unrelenting support and encouragement of her husband and two daughters, (really, the whole family!) she decided to take steps required to complete her long-standing goal of becoming a midwife. It was a dream come true when she graduated from Mount Royal University in 2018 with her Bachelor of Midwifery. Her goal as a midwife is to ensure that each and every one of her clients feels truly cared for, well informed, and supported.
About Chantal Gauthier-Vaillancourt RM
Chantal grew up in Northern-Eastern Alberta (Plamondon) with environmentally conscious parents who took her family's health to heart by growing a big garden and making homemade concoctions for colds, flus and tummy aches. Holistic health seemed 'normal' to her, however, it was through her travels that she discovered her passion for women’s health. She did a home visit with a doctor in Guatemala for a woman who had just had her baby. She was intrigued by the village midwife who was helping the new mother by making her sip on a special herbal tea to help her uterus.
When she came back to Canada, she realized midwives were very hard to come by and it was even harder to get the necessary training. Her secret dream of becoming a midwife took the back burner and she became a massage therapist and continued traveling around the globe. Her desire to work with pregnant women and their families grew stronger every year. She specialized in pregnancy and baby massage & maternity reflexology and then decided to become a doula. Ten years after having been inspired by that Guatemalan midwife, she decided she could no longer put off her passion! In 2008, with the help & support of her loving husband and family, she moved to Trois-Rivières, Québec to complete a Bachelor of Health Sciences in Midwifery Education.
Once she graduated, in 2012, she was thrilled to move back to Alberta and find work in Edmonton with some of her mentors at Lucina Birth Centre. After having experienced her own midwife birth, she finally found her way back home. She now has two children of her own and is co-owner of Tree de la Vie Midwifery in a rustic little birth house in Plamondon. She is blessed to be a mother and a midwife offering holistic, woman-centered prenatal care to the culturally diverse women and families in her community.
Get in touch with us:
treedelaviemidwifery@gmail.com
Show notes:
To hear more about interprofessional collaboration in midwifery, as referenced by Lolly in this episode, listen to Episode 03: Labouring Together: Interprofessional Collaboration in Maternity Care — Alberta Association of Midwives (alberta-midwives.ca).
