Pomegranate Midwives

I go by Alison or Ali, and I use the pronouns she/her/hers.

I have spent much of my life straddling the world of biomedical science and natural medicine. Rather than dissonance, this has given me an open-minded and holistic view of human health which I strive to share with others. 

I am committed to fostering relationships that value partnership, mutual participation, and compassionate care. I value evidence based information as well as traditional knowledge, life experiences and social contexts and look forward to encouraging and supporting many individualized approaches to health and wellness. My engagement with survivors of violence inspires me to strive towards providing trauma-informed care to everyone I work with.

When not catching babies, you can find me biking and hiking around Vancouver and surrounding areas! I enjoy visiting my family at my childhood home farm and find comfort in nature. I love being creative through music, food and art.

Hello! I am a settler midwife from Scottish and Irish descent. I graduated from the UBC Midwifery Program in 2014 and have worked at Pomegranate ever since. I have two children, ages 16 and 18. I am so grateful to be caring for your family.

I feel incredibly privileged for my work as a midwife. I cannot think of any other vocation that would be as satisfying to my curiosity, as demanding of my creativity, and as fulfilling to my spirit. I feel lucky to support families through the journey of pregnancy and birth, whatever path they take.

I came to midwifery from a background working as a researcher and coordinator with a number of maternity-related organizations in BC. These experiences opened my eyes to the importance of pregnancy and birth as a transformative time for families and to midwifery as a caring model to support this transition. I am also deeply influenced by my mother, who attended births as a family doctor in Vancouver for almost thirty years, and who was a strong supporter of midwifery.

I enrolled in the UBC Midwifery Program in 2006. In the course of my training, I attended over one hundred births, and was mentored by a number of gifted and experienced midwives, nurses, and physicians in Vancouver, Richmond, and Delta. My first clinical placement was at Pomegranate and I found here a community of midwives whose dedication and passion for normal birth was inspiring. I was thrilled to return to Pomegranate as a registered midwife in 2011.

As part of my training, I also had the good fortune to spend time working alongside midwives at a hospital in Uganda and at a clinic in Thailand serving Burmese refugees. These experiences reinforced the impression I already had that mothers are made for giving birth and babies are made to be born; for the vast majority of births, the only equipment needed by the midwife is her caring hands. At the same time, working in these settings made me so grateful that in Canada, we have access to resources and technology when we do need them. I hope to incorporate international work into my practice as a midwife in the long term.

I came to midwifery with a passion for reproductive justice, practicing harm reduction, and a strong commitment to serve others. It is a huge pleasure for me to serve my East Van community. I graduated from the Midwifery Education Program at UBC. Prior to becoming a midwife I studied in the faculty of Land and Food Systems at UBC. During this degree I was immersed in the concepts of international health, social justice, and parental and infant health. This led me to pursue holistic doula work prior to starting my midwifery career.

I recognize the privilege of being able to work and serve on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. I am committed to decolonizing my work and serving folks in a way that shifts the power imbalances within our healthcare system. I value honest, authentic relationships with the pregnant folks and families I serve.

When I am not midwifing you can find me in the forest, the ocean or curled up with my journal and a good book on the couch.

I am a Settler midwife – 2nd generation Irish and Scottish, and a descendent of midwives. I have been working on the Brown Team at Pomegranate since inception in 2006, after graduating from the UBC Midwifery Program. I also hold a leadership position at BC Women’s Hospital as the Assistant Head of the Department of Midwifery. I have 2 children – ages 8 and 5 – and a sweet Husky dog that keeps me busy on my off time. I love being active and get excited to compete in age group triathlons. I have a working knowledge of ASL (American Sign Language) and am passionate about providing accessible midwifery care to the Deaf community.

My name is Cello (pronounced “Che-low”) and I am a settler midwife from Japanese and German/Ukrainian descent. I graduated from the Ryerson Midwifery Program and have since worked on the Huckleberry Midwives with special focus on Indigenous families, youth, and non-insured clients. In my off-call time I enjoy foraging in the woods and gardening in my backyard.

I feel so fortunate to have found Midwifery as a career!  I grew up in a small town on Vancouver Island, where women need to drive over 80 km to birth their babies.  After high school, I moved to Vancouver in hopes of becoming a pediatric nurse.  During my third year of UBC Nursing School I witnessed my first birth – and was immediately hooked! After graduating in 2003, I became a Registered Perinatal Nurse at BC Women’s Hospital.  Soon into my nursing career I ‘discovered’ midwifery and found that my values surrounding labour and birth were much more congruent with the midwifery model of birth, specifically around continuity of care, building trusting relationships, informed choice, and normal birth.

I completed my Midwifery degree at UBC, working with midwives in Richmond, Nanaimo, and Vancouver, as well as with obstetricians and family doctors in Vancouver. I was very fortunate to spend my last year of school at Pomegranate and I am thrilled to have been working here since January 2012. I began working at Pomegranate as a solo midwife, and as my family grew, so did the size of the team of midwives I worked with! A solo midwife at heart, I feel so lucky to have found practice partners who are as passionate about choice, physiologic birth, and homebirth as I am. Now that my kids are a bit older, I have eased back into a smaller team, with fewer clients and a slower pace.

In October of 2021, I started working with Jenny Taylor on Jade Team, working in a team of two, taking 6-7 clients per month, providing care to families in Burnaby and (very) East Van who are planning births at home or Burnaby Hospital.

I have three kids: Norah, Audrey, who did not survive pregnancy, dying of a very rare brain tumour just before 29 weeks; and Maggie. All my pregnancies and births have contributed in some way to my being a midwife, but Audrey has taught myself and many others the importance of acknowledging our babies who are lost through miscarriage, stillbirth and infant death. If you have a story to share, or have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. We are here for you.

My journey into motherhood has shaped who I am as a person, a mother, and a midwife, and I am thrilled to be walking with other families on their journey into parenthood. When I’m not working, you’ll find our family enjoying the neighbourhood parks and community centers, baking at home, or playing board games.

In my senior year at UBC Midwifery, I had the privilege of being trained by the wonderful midwives who compose the Orange Team at Pomegranate Community Midwives, and now of course am glad to have joined as a practicing midwife on the team.

Before becoming a midwife, I worked in research, studying addiction medicine, psychedelic therapy for trauma, and the neuroscience of meditation. Closest to my heart was my work with youth and families. It was through this work that I began to understand the importance of providing safe, accessible, and non-judgemental care. I am deeply passionate about holding these threads in my midwifery practice. I was drawn to midwifery as I felt it aligned with my own ethics, in centering the belief that we are all experts of ourselves and of our own bodies, and that health care which respects this is a human right which we all deserve. To be with families during pregnancy and birth is a deep honour I hold dear to my heart. I look forward to getting to know you!

My journey to midwifery probably started before I was born: for as long back as we can trace in our family, there have been women attending births, including my mother (Labor&Delivery nurse and founding member of Doulas of North America), great-grandmother, and my great-great-grandmother (my namesake, who ran a community birthing home in southern Manitoba in the early 1900s). I know that I inherited from them a fundamental belief in birth as a life-changing force.  As a child, I played at the back of the classrooms where my mother taught prenatal classes at our local hospital. I continued as a teenager, tagging along to various childbirth conferences around the world with her, including the first-ever conference of the newly formed Doulas Of North America in 1990. Eventually I became a doula, and started going to births with her. People often ask if my mother encouraged me to go into either nursing or medicine, but actually she was the first to encourage me to consider midwifery. So, after five years of being a doula, I entered Seattle Midwifery School where I met my classmate and future midwifery partner, Lehe Spiegelman. She and I would go on to open Pomegranate in 2005. From the beginning, we had a vision of holistic, community-centered care that prioritizes access to quality healthcare for all pregnant people, including those who have traditionally been marginalized.

I grew up in Alberta, as a European settler on Treaty 7 land – the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (including the Sikska, Piikani and Kainai Nations); the Tsuut’ina Nation; the Stoney-Nakoda (including the Chiniki, Bearspaw and Wesley Nations), and the Métis Nation (Region 3). After leaving Alberta at age 18, I lived in various cities in Canada and around the world, finally landing in Vancouver in 2004. My partner and I immediately became deeply attached to the seashores, rainforests and communities of the West Coast. Between call shifts, you’ll find us hiking, plunging in the ocean, and doing as much Zumba as can fit into my work schedule! Whenever we can get away, we love to travel – from hiking the Grand Canyon to exploring Portugal by campervan.

I am an Indigenous midwife from the Katzie First Nation gratefully living on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ territories. I also have English ancestry from Blackburn, England and the surrounding areas in Lancashire. I attended my first birth in East Van 10 years ago and have been supporting birth ever since, first as a doula and now as a Registered Midwife. In addition to clinical and community midwifery, I work as the Indigenous Midwifery Lead at Vancouver Coastal Health and volunteer with the ekw’í7tl Indigenous doula collective – a collective which seeks to build capacity for Indigenous birth workers and families in the context of reproductive health care.

I have been working as a Registered Midwife in BC since 2014. I graduated from the Ontario Midwifery Education Program at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON. I am originally from Winnipeg where I completed a Bachelor of Science in Zoology and Botany at the University of Manitoba. My decision to pursue a career in midwifery came from an interest in healthcare, especially pregnancy and birth, as well as the belief that clients should be the primary decision makers in their own care. When I’m not busy catching babies I enjoy cooking, knitting, sewing, practicing yoga, reading and travelling to new places. I look forward to supporting you and your family on your pregnancy and birth journey.

When I was 5 years old, I watched eagerly from the side of a blow-up pool in our family kitchen as my mother worked hard to bring my youngest sister earthside. I was enthralled with the way her midwives cared so tenderly for our whole family during that time, and that spark continued to grow into the passion I have now for my work supporting other families in the same way.

Raised by a close-knit community of birth doulas, I grew up fascinated with the way my mother and her friends supported birthing people in our community to feel confident, secure, and loved as they navigated their journeys through pregnancy, birth, and new parenthood. I’ve been called to midwifery work for as long as I can remember, and I’m grateful to be fulfilling the dream I’ve had since I was a little girl, listening to my little sister’s heartbeat in my mom’s belly with her midwife’s fetoscope in our living room.

When I’m not busy measuring bellies and catching babies, I enjoy sneaking off to any patch of woods I can find for a ski or a bike ride, tending to my garden of herbs, and writing songs.

I am thrilled to be joining my wonderful teammates on Red team in providing trauma-informed and client-led midwifery care to our community in East Van and beyond.

Hi! My name is Mackenzie Churchill (she/her) and I am a white settler midwife of Hungarian and mixed Slavic/Celtic descent. I grew up in Dish With One Spoon Territory (Toronto) and completed my midwifery training at Toronto Metropolitan University. I also hold a Master of Public Health from Lakehead University and Bachelor of Science from McMaster University. I am excited to be joining Pomegranate Midwives to partner with Mary and be mentored by the Jade team!

Before becoming a midwife, I worked in public health as a researcher and professor. I mainly supported Indigenous-led research and education projects focused on cultural safety, anti-racism, and reproductive justice in health care. The incredible people I met through this work are a big part of why I chose (and continue to choose) to be a midwife.

Having lived in Vancouver in the past, I am delighted to be back on the coast to learn from and provide midwifery care to the families in the traditional and unceded homelands of the Coast Salish peoples, including the səl̓ílwətaʔɬ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations (Vancouver and Burnaby). It is an immense privilege to support, witness, and advocate for the strength of pregnant, birthing, and parenting people and their babies.

Outside of midwifery, I spend my time making art, playing music, getting absorbed into video games, running after our kitten, and (re)learning how to cook and tend to plants!

My name is Mary Decker, and I’m excited to be joining Pomegranate Midwifery as a member of the Quartz team and to be working closely alongside the Jade team. As a settler with Irish and German roots, I am grateful to be a guest on the unceded territories of the səl̓ílwətaʔɬ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) First Nations.

My decision to pursue a career in midwifery grew out of a passion for birth that I developed during my work as a doula. My personal approach to midwifery is also tied to my commitment to building futures that actively resist structures of marginalization and oppression. Midwifery offers a space to do meaningful work related to reproductive justice, consent, and social justice – areas that are all deeply meaningful to me and my world view. I am committed to the person-first and consent-based model of care that sits at the core of midwifery, and work hard to provide care that facilitates choice, autonomy, and client-centered care.

Before entering the midwifery program at UBC, I completed audio documentary program in Massachusetts, a Textile Arts program in St. John’s, NL, and an Associate Degree in Social Work in Victoria, BC. My diverse experiences have enriched and informed my ability to be a midwife. I feel incredibly lucky to do this work and to walk alongside families during this transformative time.

Aanii! My pronouns are They/Them/Iel. I’m fluent in French and English. I’m an Indigenous midwife, with mixed ancestry of  Anishinaabek Nation and Region 7 of the Métis Nation, as well as settlers of Irish descent. I grew up on traditional Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and Wahnapitae First Nations territory in Northern Ontario, which is a big compelling force for my drive and ongoing support of Northern, rural and remote access to health care. I’m a graduate from Toronto Metropolitan University’s MEP and spent my years of study in various communities in the North and Far North. I have experience and a continued desire to support fellow Indigiqueer kin and their families, as well as 2SLGBTQ+ families accessing reproductive health care. I look forward to meeting you and your growing family at Huckleberry! When I’m not working, I like to garden and forage, ferment, cook, as well as write music, hike, and shoot film photography.

I grew up in Edmonton with my parents and my sister, but with a very big (55 cousins and counting!) and close-knit extended family around the world. Visiting my family was always an adventure. They are loud and strong-minded, everyone has their own opinion, but of course, everyone thinks they are each right. You could never tell who lived where, with everyone stopping over to eat something, drop off their kids to be watched, or cousins going to play with each other. Being surrounded with a deep sense of supporting family and community, I always imagined myself working with women, children, and families.

I moved to Vancouver in 2004 to complete my degree in Biology. I then took a year off and volunteered with a maternity care research group. The researcher I worked with was very passionate and loved to talk about what research really tells us. He opened my eyes to how the education and care we give families can make all the difference. I also became a birth doula in several programs, volunteering with young moms, substance using moms, and new immigrant families. I came into midwifery when I saw how midwives spent time developing relationships, supporting women to make their own informed decisions, and how families could become incredibly empowered through their pregnancy and birth.

Through my midwifery education at UBC, I’ve learned from many families in Vancouver, Kelowna, and Uganda. My love for traveling and learning about different cultures has also led me to work with midwives and physicians in Israel, rural Ecuador, and Mexico. I speak English, Hebrew, and Spanish. When not catching babies, I love swimming, being at the beach, and camping with my kids, Noam and Gael.

Hi! I am Natalie Johnson (she/her), a midwife on the Orange Team. I am a white settler of Scandinavian/Scottish descent and grew up on the Traditional Territory and Treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (Mississauga, Ont). For as long as I can remember I have wanted to be involved in birth. I grew up with my mother telling birth stories at the dinner table and always dreamed of supporting families through this transformative time. I was drawn to midwifery because its focus on pregnancy and birth as a healthy, normal experience.

I have been practicing in BC since 2013, first in Abbotsford and Squamish before finally finding my midwifery home in Vancouver. I am passionate about full spectrum reproductive health care and perused my Masters of Public Health in 2019 with a specific focus on inequities in the Canadian healthcare system. It’s my dream that one day midwives will be able to provide care for families throughout their reproductive lifecycle!

During my time off I can be found exploring the city and its incredible surroundings with my partner and daughter. We love to camp, bike, swim and play frisbee whenever we have a chance! I am so excited to be a part of the community at Pomegranate and working with the Orange Team!