Health Coach Turned Midwife?
Nurse Midwifery has been calling my name since 2011 when my niece Ezra was born (shout out to my badass sister LJ).
I am an outside-the-box nurse: I love holistic health, nutrition, and low intervention. Modern medicine is amazing when you need it, but we fall short when it comes to learning how to get and stay healthy. Rather than get frustrated with this, I've decided to become a part of the solution like Mary Breckinridge, the founder of Frontier Nursing University, my new school. Mary founded the Frontier Nursing Service, and later the school, to bring safe and accessible care to rural neighborhoods. Originally on horseback, and later in jeeps, the tale of Midwifery’s beginnings in the US is epic and can be found in "Wide Neighborhoods," Mary's autobiography.
Me, a new travel nurse, amazed that mountains exist.
Williams Lake, Taos
What is Midwifery?
Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs) are master's degree educated APRNs and are similar to nurse practitioners, though have specific privileges including delivering babies, etc. Their education is focused on Women's Health through the lifespan and they can be primary care providers for women from puberty on up and newborns for the first 28 days of life.
My aim with this degree is less to work in hospitals delivering babies (though I will probably do some of that) and more to help women get and stay healthy. I am launching my health coaching business later this month and I'm hoping one day being a CNM will bring more services to that business (well women care, prescriptions, lab work, etc.).
Heath education, from TikTok or your doctor, is full of contradicting and confusing advice. I hope to be a responsible and reasonable voice in that cloud of information. I will argue that healthy is our natural state and we don't have to spend hours at a gym or valuable time weighing and boxing food for the week. Health is intuitive when you learn to eliminate the noise and translate what your body is telling you. I will provide evidence-based information wherever possible and personalized support and education. THIS is the way if you want to lose weight, keep up with your kids, and live a longer, more active life.
Looking forward to what the future holds <3
I’m Kasandra, a Labor and Delivery RN with a passion for holistic health. I love my job and I have been providing bedside care to women for 8 years, working in 12 different hospitals as a travel nurse with countless patients, OBGYNs, CNMs, and RNs. I have a bachelor’s degree in nursing, a primal health coaching certification, and I’m in school for nurse midwifery. I love yoga, being outside, physical activity, and not pushing myself too hard! My passions are real food, human connection, and living as large as possible. I hope we can connect and I can learn about you!