Meet Your Midwife
Selena Eisenberg
I want to start by welcoming you to my passion project. The foundational ideas that led to Igi Osè began 16 years before I sent in the business application. Even before that, as a child of five or six, I confidently told anyone who would listen that I was, “Going to grow up to be a doctor who helps people have babies.” Way back then, I didn’t know what a midwife was; I didn’t even hear the term until I was in my late teens or early twenties. It wasn’t until I found myself pregnant with my firstborn that I learned how many types of midwives there are. My journey to this moment truly began during that very long induction.
In my early days (months) of research and study, I focused on how birth COULD be. What it was like when the birthing person was supported, heard, validated, and most importantly, honored during their journey. That made me wonder what patterns I could find in the stories; why is birth safer and more joyous all over the globe? It didn’t take me long to see that birth can be breathtaking anywhere, but you must stack the deck in your favor. The tricky part is every birth, just like every birthing person, is unique, and what works for one person may not work for the next. I knew I wanted to help others have better and less traumatic experiences. The idea of supporting people at home seeded my mind and spirit in those early days.
"I’ve been working with them since I found out I was pregnant, and I cannot recommend their services enough."
Stephanie M.
Life took some wild twists and turns over the next decade, relocation, being a single mother, and health problems, but there were also happy, beautiful twists. Meeting a new partner, deciding we wanted children, and going on to have three homebirths after a cesarean (HBAC). I couldn’t find a traditional midwife taking students during the times in my life when I wanted to train. I considered and started two different hospital-based career paths to change it all from the inside. What I didn’t know about my time in nursing school or the classes I took thinking that I needed to prepare for medical school was that I was creating my path.
I supported and educated friends through their pregnancies and births. I attended births in unofficial capacities. I began filling my resume with deeper and more heart-led practices around pregnancy: Spinning Babies, Breech without Borders, and traditional placenta practices. I said it was because I wouldn’t learn those things when I went to medical school. That was correct; if I had decided to continue on that path, medical school wouldn’t teach me those skills. It is why we don’t have doctors willing to deliver breech babies. Mix all this with learning the accurate and dark history of obstetrics and nurse midwifery; my path had changed long before I admitted it.
I was lucky to find the most fantastic preceptor who treated me and saw me as an equal. She recognized even before I did that, I had trained myself to be a traditional midwife. The world didn’t have the right person to teach me early on, and I had a calling that wasn’t waiting.
I have to say thank you to a lot of people. I am so grateful to the people in my life, those who have found me, those who made me, and those whom I have made. When I didn’t see who I was, they always did. My official preceptor, Jeaonna, was the person who gave me the confidence to be an unapologetically Black, traditional midwife. I didn’t know I was waiting for a special preceptor, but the Universe had plans. Misha, my unofficial midwifery guide, your advice, and guidance are always spot on. Thank you for allowing me to adapt all of my paperwork, documentation, and handouts from your work. Thank you for considering me as your birth attendant and reading my story.
