Jennifer McFarland is a former Medical Assistant and Emergency Room Medical Technician. Jennifer is certified as a labor and birth doula through Childbirth International. She is certified in neonatal resuscitation and is a student midwife through Ancient Art Of Midwifery Institute (http://www.ancientartmidwifery.com/). She also studied for two years under Joanne Dozor, CPM, RN at her school in Media, PA, taking her Art Of Midwifery I and Art of Midwifery II courses. In 2004 Jennifer completed a Midwifery Internship in Senegal, Africa, where she assisted as a secondary midwife at births. Jennifer is a Certified Happiest Baby on the Block Instructor as of June 23, 2005 and offers classes in this wonderful baby calming technique. Jennifer also offeres traditional childbirth courses, iCare Pregnancy courses, and Imagery Birthing Childbirth Courses (she is a Certified Imagery Birthing Instructor).

Jennifer is a member of Citzens For Midwifery, Childbirth International, and Doulas of North America (DONA), and is a Trust Birth Initiative Trained leader, holding monthly meetings in her home. If you want to know what my clients have said about me, please click on the client info tab on the left and follow the links to the testimonials there. (Please scroll down for more information on Jennifer's training.)

Jennifer has five children, three of whom were hospital born, and the last two were born at home in waterbirths. She understands firsthand how a birth experience can shape your life and influence both your future, and your baby's. At the age of 18, she gave birth to her first son, who was an unplanned pregnancy. Her first three labors were posterior babies and her second child was a true face presentation. She had epidurals with all three but was not satisfied with her birth experiences. With her third birth, she was a single mom who had escaped an abusive marriage. She continued to feel that birth had to be better somehow. An influencing factor in all three of her hospital births was a cascade of interventions and lack of proper support. Her homebirth in 2002 was a truly healing experience and made her realize just how important proper support for mothers and their birth choices really is.

Many women have been traumatized by their birth experiences and are looking for a better birth, just as Jennifer was. There are better options for moms and babies, if you have the proper support and are willing to take positive steps towards achieving your birth. Jennifer believes that women are strong and made perfectly for birth. Birth By Design refers to her belief that our Creator designed us, "Fearfully and Wonderfully!" and it is His design for us to have safe, good, even joyous births. If you wish to know specifically what Jennifer's personal beliefs are, click here. Jennifer's beliefs do NOT preclude her from supporting women of various faiths and walks of life! In fact, 90% of her clients do not share her same personal beliefs.

Her philosophy of birth is summarized by the following phrases:

• "Birth is as safe as life gets" Harriet Hartigan
• "Freedom to Choose where, when, and with whom, to give birth. True freedom for adult women --- an idea whose time has come." Gloria Lemay
• John 16:21 A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
• Psalm 139:13-16 For you have formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.
• "Look at your hands. These hands are holy-ordained by God to receive babies. What is the substance of this divine trust? What is the responsibility? Midwife, partera is a high calling. (All practitioners are midwives if "with woman." I am talking about the calling, not the profession.) How do you carry out your role? First, do no harm. If possible, do some good." Jan Tritten
• "Remember, the people you serve are your strength. Listen to them! You will be rewarded." Ruth Watson Lubic, CNM, EdD
• "Imagine that you are a midwife: you are assisting at someone else’s birth. Do good without show or fuss. Facilitate what is happening rather than what you think ought to be happening. When the baby is born, the mother will rightly say: ‘We did it ourselves’.Western women are so often overloaded with irrelevant information, frightening anecdotes and conflicting advice around childbirth, that their faith and confidence is diminished long before their birthing begins." Unknown
• "$13 to $20 billion a year could be saved in health care costs by demedicalizing childbirth, developing midwifery, and encouraging breastfeeding." Frank Oski, MD, Professor and Director, Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
• "If I had my life to live over, instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished ever moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle." Irma Bombeck
• "Well behaved women rarely make history." Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

• "If a doula were a drug, it would be unethical not to use it". John H. Kennell, MD
• "We have a secret in our culture, and it's not that birth is painful. It's that women are strong." Laura Stavoe Harm

Currently, Jennifer is a stay at home mother of her four boys and one daughter in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. She is also an apprentice homebirth midwife and is working with a local CPM in Stroudsburg, PA. She homeschools her children and is also the webmistress and advertising director of her beloved husband Robert's businesses (http://www.mcfarlandartists.com/ and http://www.atlanticcoastopera.com/ ). She also assists Joanne Dozor, CPM at her school Art of Midwifery in Media, PA as her Office Manager. Jennifer does periodic editing and desktop publishing work for Carla Hartley of Ancient Art Midwifery Institute and is the Challenge Project co-ordinator, Fabulous Freebies Author, and co-editor of Helping Hands, An Apprentice Workbook e-book edition.

Jennifer is a born again Christian and sees Midwifery and serving birthing women as a calling and a ministry. It is her pleasure to serve in her calling and to attend women in their births from all walks of life, regardless of race, religion, creed, or differing lifestyles.

Jennifer's Qualifications:

Disclaimer: The materials provided at this site are for informational purposes and are not intended for use as diagnosis or treatment of a health problem or as a substitute for consulting a licensed medical professional.