About Me
I was born and raised in Front Royal, Virginia, the second of 9 Furtado kids. We were all born at home and homeschooled. I spent endless hours and days wandering around the woods - sometimes on the back of my donkey, sometimes just on foot. (Pst- this marks the beginning of an absolute trust and love of nature!) Birth was not absent in my childhood years if you include the births of countless baby goats which I witnessed in awe and wonderment from a corner of the shed or from behind a tree since we ALL knew that everyone needs respect and a peaceful environment as they labor! As a pre teen I was also present for the birth of a sibling.
Music was a huge focus of our homeschooling, and by the time I was a teenager a few of us had switched from Classical music (still highly respected, I assure you) to Bluegrass music.....hence the banjo is an integral part of my identity. But rest assured, while banjo players are notoriously loud and obnoxious, I can be remarkable calm and peaceul as you labor! I'm an avid lover of bluegrass and while I would be truely honored to be invited to support you during your birth there are a few festivals per year during which I must ask you NOT to go into labor!! : P
I grew older, began dating the love of my life at 17 when he was flooded out of his home by Hurricane Katrina, and once I turned 18 we both left thecountry and spent a few months volunteering as english teachers at a little school in the beautiful mountains of Ocotepeque, Honduras.
The spring following that adventure I decided to go to college, where after one semester the most unfortunate and unhappy event took place - a stranger broke into my apartment and brutally beat and raped my sweet room mate. The degradation and dishonor that poor girl was made to experience, and I was made to experience in seeing her bloodied and ashamed of her body, I am beginning to see, has played a major role in my pursuing this line of work as a doula and future midwife. This is a way in which I hope to enable women to be proud of their bodies, not ashamed as the culture of today's america might have you be.
I married my sweet heart in October of 2007, and we had our first baby at home with midwives in April of 2009. A lovely experience! It seemed like the natural choice to give birth, well, naturally since that is what I had grown up with, but it seemed even more so once I had done it. The idea of being told how to labor, where to labor, maybe even when to labor seemed an impossibility that no way, no how, NEVER would I be able to tolerate! (To those of you who have done it, my utmost respect goes out to you. You must be so brave!)
I have had a number of miscarriages, too, that have contributed to my desire to support pregnant women. That kept my nose in pregnancy related books constantly, and from there I found myself drawn to this work, this mission. I soon decided to pursue a career as a Certified Professional Midwife, and have been apprenticing at Brookhaven Natural Birth Center in Harrisonburg VA since October 2010. In April 2011 my sweet daughter Phoebe was born at 30 weeks after a difficult, complicated pregnancy. I caught her myself and she died in my arms within several hours of her birth due to an extremely severe and rare heart defect. Eleven months later we were blessed with a rainbow baby, Maximilian Django, born at home in the water.
At this point I have been to 45 births, including twins, a number of VBACs, water births, home and hospital births. I am current in Neonatal Resusitation, CPR, and have attended a variety of pregnancy and birth related seminars. I studied at Virginia School of Traditional Midwifery and intend to become a midwife eventually.
Music was a huge focus of our homeschooling, and by the time I was a teenager a few of us had switched from Classical music (still highly respected, I assure you) to Bluegrass music.....hence the banjo is an integral part of my identity. But rest assured, while banjo players are notoriously loud and obnoxious, I can be remarkable calm and peaceul as you labor! I'm an avid lover of bluegrass and while I would be truely honored to be invited to support you during your birth there are a few festivals per year during which I must ask you NOT to go into labor!! : P
I grew older, began dating the love of my life at 17 when he was flooded out of his home by Hurricane Katrina, and once I turned 18 we both left thecountry and spent a few months volunteering as english teachers at a little school in the beautiful mountains of Ocotepeque, Honduras.
The spring following that adventure I decided to go to college, where after one semester the most unfortunate and unhappy event took place - a stranger broke into my apartment and brutally beat and raped my sweet room mate. The degradation and dishonor that poor girl was made to experience, and I was made to experience in seeing her bloodied and ashamed of her body, I am beginning to see, has played a major role in my pursuing this line of work as a doula and future midwife. This is a way in which I hope to enable women to be proud of their bodies, not ashamed as the culture of today's america might have you be.
I married my sweet heart in October of 2007, and we had our first baby at home with midwives in April of 2009. A lovely experience! It seemed like the natural choice to give birth, well, naturally since that is what I had grown up with, but it seemed even more so once I had done it. The idea of being told how to labor, where to labor, maybe even when to labor seemed an impossibility that no way, no how, NEVER would I be able to tolerate! (To those of you who have done it, my utmost respect goes out to you. You must be so brave!)
I have had a number of miscarriages, too, that have contributed to my desire to support pregnant women. That kept my nose in pregnancy related books constantly, and from there I found myself drawn to this work, this mission. I soon decided to pursue a career as a Certified Professional Midwife, and have been apprenticing at Brookhaven Natural Birth Center in Harrisonburg VA since October 2010. In April 2011 my sweet daughter Phoebe was born at 30 weeks after a difficult, complicated pregnancy. I caught her myself and she died in my arms within several hours of her birth due to an extremely severe and rare heart defect. Eleven months later we were blessed with a rainbow baby, Maximilian Django, born at home in the water.
At this point I have been to 45 births, including twins, a number of VBACs, water births, home and hospital births. I am current in Neonatal Resusitation, CPR, and have attended a variety of pregnancy and birth related seminars. I studied at Virginia School of Traditional Midwifery and intend to become a midwife eventually.