Trillium Midwifery Care

Meet Emme

Emme began her journey to birth work with the joyous birth of her first born in 1991. Birth was transformative and empowering and she loved being a mom more than anything in the world. Emme soon discovered that her view of birth as was a rare one. Most birth stories she heard were not joyous empowering experiences. Armed with the knowledge that birth can be different Emme began to be invited to many of her friends’ births. In 2000 when her last baby was weaning Emme completed her birth doula certification with hopes of one day becoming a midwife. Emme quickly became an active doula sitting on the board of the Childbirth Collective and attending hundreds of birth in the hospital setting. Early in her doula career Emme witnessed her first home birth. She immediately knew home birth midwifery was the path she would take to become a midwife.

Emme started her formal midwifery apprenticeship in 2003 and continued it until she earned her Certified Professional Midwifery credential in 2008. Emme has had the privilege of working with many community midwives both traditionally and formally trained. Along with learning directly from midwives at over 100 births Emme attended the Farm Midwifery training Center and was thrilled to learn directly from Ina May Gaskin, Pamela Hunt and the rest of the Farm Midwifes. In 2005 Emme was accepted into a demanding and intensive internship at a busy Birth Center in the Philippines. While living and working at Mercy Maternity Center for her seven week stay Emme was able to learn directly from mothers, babies and many foreign midwives. In addition to her apprenticeships and internships Emme is trained and certified in advanced neonatal life support and cardio pulmonary resuscitation.

Emme is a member of the Minnesota Council of Certified Professional Midwives (MCCPM), MNow!, Midwives Alliance of North America, The Childbirth Collective and DONA International. She is vice President of The Childbirth Collective and is active with the Minnesota Better Birth Coalition. Emme lives and plays in South Minneapolis with her three amazing kids Noah, Levi and Sydney and her equally wonderful husband Paul.

Meet Clare

I was born and raised in Richfield, MN, the 6th child of 11, and remember well the happiness that the births of my younger siblings brought to our family. As a midwife, it is truly a privilege to share with families the joy and excitement of their journeys as they prepare to welcome a child into the world.



I worked as a labor and birth nurse from 1984-1997. I graduated from the U of M Midwifery school in 1997 and began my work as a Certified Nurse Midwife (5 years of practice at Regions, 2 years at North Memorial and one year at Fairview Riverside).



In January of 2006 I "came home" and began to attend home births in the Twin Cities. I love my Trillium partner and the new dimensions homebirth brings to my practice of midwifery. There is richness, a depth of relationship in homebirth that I believe is at the heart of the midwifery model of care. 



I also love my yoga practice and students. I began my yoga studies in 1987 and taught my first class (a prenatal yoga class!) in 1998 at the St. Paul Yoga Center, where I continue to teach three general classes each week. http://www.stpaulyogacenter.com/classes.html



I also offer a "donation" class each week for pregnant women (and their doulas) at the Minneapolis Yoga Workshop ( http://www.mplsyogaworkshop.com/ ) on Sundays from noon to 1:30pm. All are welcome (all trimesters and levels). We practice yoga poses and sequences (with attention to the breath) to relieve common discomforts of pregnancy. Yoga teaches us to be present and to make friends with our bodies, and I think this connection helps women and their babies during the birth process. The prenatal yoga class also provides a space for birthing women to form relationships with other mothers and mothers-to-be. I have witnessed such wonderful support and mentoring among the women--they share information about everything (from bras to diapers)! 



I live in St. Paul with my loving man, Paul, and our two cats. Our son Julian also lives in St. Paul with us.