ABOUT – Origins Midwifery

About Origins Midwifery

Origins Midwifery provide compassionate client-centered care with a focus on prevention and health-promotion. Origins Midwifery respect our client’s uniqueness, providing individualized care for all we serve. We pride ourselves with informed choice, continuity of care, choice of birthplace and evidence-based practice. As primary health providers we collaborative with other health professionals if needed, to offer safe and effective care for the client and the family. Origins Midwifery believe parents are empowered through their experience of pregnancy and birth.

The Team

Midwifery has been an important part of my life ever since I could remember. I was born at home through the gentle hands of a midwife in Ghana, West Africa and have always had a fondness for the emotional, spiritual and physical components of childbirth. I’ve been a Registered Midwife in the Province of Alberta since 2004 and have travelled with hundreds of women on their birthing journey. I started my education at the U of C obtaining a Bio Science Degree; I then began my midwifery education at the University of Brighton in the UK and finally graduated from the Seattle Midwifery School in Washington State. I completed my international practicum on the beautiful island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean.

The diverse cultural, ethnic and social background of my clients has allowed me to gain great appreciation for the women I have cared for and is the basis for my strong conviction in completely individualized care. It also re-affirms my belief that birth is one of the most wonderful and natural parts of life.

I am a mother of 2 wonderful boys with an amazing husband who has been with me through my wonderful journey of Midwifery and more. I look forward to meeting you and being part of your wonderful birth journey.

Twenty-eight years ago, I observed my first birth; an extraordinary midwife attended waterbirth in London, England. Now after 22 years of practising midwifery, I continue to be awed by the power and beauty of birth, as well as observing families grow deeply during this life transition.

I recognize the important role midwives play in health care, and actively accept the responsibilities and joys that come with this important work. I am passionate about providing informed choice, family centered care and I strongly promote bodily autonomy.

I have had the privilege of working in Oregon, Miami, and Jamaica as a student midwife. Upon returning to Canada, I relocated to Central Alberta where I completed my education as an apprentice midwife. I am grateful for my rural midwifery experience as a student and newly practicing midwife.

I have birthed 2 wonderful boys into this world, who bring me great joy.

“You are a midwife. You are assisting at someone else’s birth. Do good without show or fuss. Facilitate what is happening, not what you think is happening. If you must take the lead, lead so that the mother is helped, yet still free and in charge. When the baby is born, the mother will rightly say, we did it ourselves.” Lao Tzu

The spark of midwifery came to me while travelling in Belize where I spent time with a traditional healer and midwife. Yet it was not until I experienced the birth of my first child, with the support of loving midwifery care, that I recognized midwifery as my vocational calling. I studied midwifery at Mount Royal University and enjoyed many varied practicum placements, but the most impactful was my time in Cardston county where I was immersed in the beauty of rural home birth. I graduated with my Bachelor of Midwifery degree in 2018 and completed my New Registrant year working in Medicine Hat and Brooks area before moving back to join Okotoks’ new practice, Origins Midwifery. Having lived on my family’s land near De Winton for most of my life, it is a joy to be able to serve my home community.

I am gratefully blessed to be wife to a wonderful husband and mother of three beautiful homeschooled children. Together we live on our acreage along with my lovely parents, a small flock of fibre sheep, heritage chickens, and a few other critters.

It is my belief that every family should be given the option of a maternity care provider that aligns with their values and meets their unique needs. My offering as a midwife is rooted in a deep respect for natural childbirth along with the recognition of the special blessing it is to be able to witness and protect it. Additionally, as the daughter of an herbalist, I am familiar with natural remedies and I enjoy including this traditional wisdom in my practice. With my background, I also have knowledge of the unique challenges and rewards of rural and small-town life, so I am passionate about providing quality maternity care in these homes and communities. Overall, I strive to provide the families I serve with compassionate, respectful care that is based in mutual trust and supportive of choice within their birthing process.

The birth of a child is such a precious gift! Thank you for the opportunity to be involved in this special time of your life, I am honoured to be your midwife.

Hello beautiful souls,

My name is Maddy and I am passionate about the way I show up for women during their pregnancy and births. I view it as a privilege to be invited to walk with you on this path, as giving birth is one of the most profound initiations to spirituality that a woman can have. I have made it my life goal to empower women by returning the ownership of birthing back to where it rightfully belongs – with the mother.

I believe in the fundamental pillars of midwifery care intertwined with respect, compassion and informed choice, including informed refusal and bodily autonomy, which I offer to all of my clients, without question, at every interaction. It is my experience and opinion that these values are of utmost importance between a mother and a midwife, and it is my honour to accommodate long discussions that will allow you to explore and understand all of your choices, thereby enabling you to make the best decisions for you. Afterall, no one knows you better than you!

I was first drawn to midwifery when practicing as a doula in 2013, and since then my philosophy of childbirth and my deep trust in natural, physiological birth has expanded and grown exponentially. Not only through my own pregnancies, home births and post baby changes, but through witnessing the power of women over and over again. I graduated from Mount Royal in April 2021 and, prior to Origins, I worked in a small practice in British Columbia serving rural and remote families. I loved rural practice, there was a certain sentiment and slowness captured by the surrounding nature, calmness and quaint, quiet lifestyle.

During this last year, my husband Clark (an incredible acupuncturist and healer), 2 daughters and I explored Latin America. We visited Mexico, El Salvador and Costa Rica, before putting some roots down in Nicaragua. I was fortunate enough to sit with some local midwives in these areas, and was blessed to be able to share stories and learn their historical birthing traditions. I am incredibly grateful for this last year; it has been, without a doubt, one of the best of my lifetime yet – made even more sacred by my invitation to support 3 natural births. What an honour to witness in this way.

In my spare time, I love teaching art classes, crafting macrame, and working on my loom. I enjoy getting outside, cold plunges, writing and spending time with my amazing family and incredible network of friends.

Thank you for reading.

I’m looking forward to meeting you soon. In the meantime, never forget that “giving birth should be your greatest achievement, not your greatest fear”.

“Giving birth and being born brings us into the essence of creation, where the human spirit is courageous and bold and the body, a miracle of wisdom.” – Harriette Hartigan

About Origins Midwifery

The Team

Theresa Barrett

Janna Miller

Carissa Murray

Maddy Thompson