Following an Emergency Medical Training in 1981 and working for the local Ambulance service I met a CNM with a local homebirth practice in 1983 and offered to assist at any of her upcoming clients births if the occasion arose. Father’s Day weekend, June 1984, neither of the CNM’s assistance were available; I received a call in the early hours Saturday morning to come to the birth of a couples second baby. I arrived to a very domestic scene of the husband rubbing his wife’s back as she leaned against a nearby wall. Within an hour the couple, the midwife and I moved to a bedroom and the woman continued to push and soon a pink an responsive baby was on the mothers chest and I was placing a warm receiving blanket on the wet crying baby. The midwife monitored both the mother and newborn, the mother didn’t hemorrhage and the very responsive baby began to breastfeed and I was directed to get something for the mother to drink. In about an hour the midwife’s pager notified her of another woman in labor and I was instructed to help mom into the shower as dad held baby and then get her something to eat which I did. In about two hours the phone rang and it was my call to come to the fast approaching birth about six blocks away of a first time mother and father. I arrived to discover a young couple working together to birth their baby and trusting the midwife quietly and gentle guiding this inexperience birthing woman. Over the next few hours another pink, responsive and crying baby was placed on their mother’s chest and soon latched on and successfully nursed. Because this first time mom trusted her own body and her midwife she pushed without needing an episiotomy or any stitches afterward. This healthy young woman’s body contracted her uterus and didn’t need medication to control a postpartum hemorrhage. After about four hours of monitoring the midwife and I left and we both went home and slept until the third woman in 36 hours went into labor and I received another call to come to the home of a woman having her fourth baby. It was a beautiful sunny Father’s Day and about 3:30pm, the mother was outside walking on her deck in the warm sunshine. Her husband had recently started a new job and being the newbie wasn’t able to get the day off but would be home about 4:30pm. The midwife had called me because the woman had rapidly reached the point she could push her baby into her arms at any moment, at 4:35pm the husband arrived and the baby arrived at 4:38, pink from head to toe. These where the first out-of-hospital births up to that weekend that I had attended and at the end of those three births I knew what I wanted to do the rest of my life.
Over the next four years while assisting and working with this same CNM I studied the practice and art of midwifery, attended conferences, workshops and trainings. In 1988, I was given the opportunity to establish Carrick Childbirth Services when the Midwife I worked with returned to attain her Masters so she could teach Midwifery at the University level.