Let Me Introduce Myself...
Hi - I'm Debbie,
For more than half of my lifetime I have been working with childbearing women and families. I have always trusted in my Creator and believed that women had everything they needed to birth their babies calmly, gently, safely, and well. And time and time again I have witnessed this truth.
It has been my calling and my life's mission to assist loving and committed couples in welcoming their babies into the world, and I have experienced an immeasurable amount of joy being involved in the miracle of childbirth.
Our birthing experience sets the tone for how we mother and parent our children and calls forth our nurturing and instinctual abilities.
Our baby’s temperament is greatly influenced by the calm, gentle birthing environment into which they are welcomed.
My Story . . .
I was born and raised on a small farm in Casper, Wyoming, as the 7th child of 13. We worked hard and self-reliance was our gig. We were up with the sun to milk cows, gather eggs, weed gardens, bail hay...and I always had a baby in my arms. I knew as a young girl that I wanted to be a nurse and welcome babies into the world.
My desires were fulfilled as I was hired to work in Labor and Delivery as a graduate nurse in 1985. I worked for a year, served a mission in Bolivia for 18 months, and returned to work at The Birth Place until I married my husband, Jay, in 1988 and moved to Salt Lake City. I began working for IHC at LDS Hospital in the maternal/newborn/GYN/high-risk antepartum unit, trained all the new hires from 1989-1994, climbed the career ladder to Clinician Nurse IV, and completed my certification as an Inpatient Obstetrical Nurse (RNC-OB®).
With nearly a 98% induction/epidural rate at LDSH, I remember wondering "what are you people doing with birthing?" There seemed to be a spiritual disconnect with women and the magnificence of their birthing bodies. I transferred to Alta View Hospital to work Labor and Delivery in 1994, and also certified as a childbirth educator.
Following many years of fertility struggles and multiple pregnancy losses...
My husband and I adopted two sons, Jayson in 1995 and Jonathan in 1999. We were blessed to carry our 7th pregnancy to term and I birthed Matthew unmedicated in 2002. After having assisted childbearing women for 17 yrs, I chose to hire a doula to assist me and after Matthew was born, I turned to my doula (even before the placenta was delivered) and said, “Claire, next time let’s do HypnoBirthing®!”
I knew there had to be a more comfortable way to birth my babies! Two years later, I comfortably birthed our 4th son, Benjamin, using HypnoBirthing® techniques with my husband and doula at my side. He arrived quickly and my nursing colleague received him before the doctor arrived. As we were leaving the hospital and taking our baby boy home, I turned to my husband, Jay, and said, “That was so much fun! Let’s do it again!”
In 2006, I arranged for Marie Mongan, founder of the HypnoBirthing® Institute, to come to Salt Lake City and do a practitioner training and brought the HypnoBirthing® program to IHC (Intermountain Health Care) in March 2007. My personal birthing philosophy was fully expressed in the HypnoBirthing® program and I have found great joy helping women all over the world experience a calm, gentle, more comfortable birthing the way God intended...something that was always lacking in the medical model. I have always trusted that God gave us everything we needed!
Our 5th son, Eran, (10th pregnancy) was delivered at 33 wks. via cesarean after special circumstances. Though it was not the comfortable, calm, gentle vaginal birthing experience I had envisioned for my son, I used my HypnoBirthing® techniques to breathe love and life down to my baby after a placental abruption and that experience has made me even more passionate about the HypnoBirthing® program and how I prepare couples for birth.
I am so happy you are here and I am honored to support you and your loving partner on your birthing journey and beyond!
How I Can Support You
I Am AFFILIATED WITH THE HYPNOBIRTHING® INSTITUTE
"Gentle birthing creates gentle beings!"
Teaching HypnoBirthing® has brought me a great deal of joy...
And satisfaction in my efforts to create a gentle birthing experience for both women and babies and instill in women a confidence in their birthing bodies and of birth’s perfect design, with the support of her partner.
I returned to the bedside of laboring women as a doula (professional labor companion) in 2010 after completing certification requirements through DONA International and have maintained my certification.
I chose to step aside from IHC in 2011 after 23 yrs of service and employment to teach independently so I can more fully offer the ongoing support that the HypnoBirthing® program advocates as well as provide doula services to my clients and facilitate my clients’ birthing desires and philosophies rather than hospital protocols and procedures.
