Planned Homebirth Integrative Midwifery Holistic Gynecology
Holistic, Comprehensive, Feminist Healthcare
 

Accessibility, education and Service

Midwifery care and education should be accessible. Midwifery is service work.

Maintaining and strengthening networks across perinatal professions is invaluable in changing the face of maternity care in the U.S. and improving outcomes. One of the largest tasks midwives face today is working towards a supportive and inclusive birth model that works in all settings. Grace believes deeply that low risk people should have access to appropriate care providers and birthing locations of choice in order to achieve this. The more accessible midwives become, the sooner this will happen.

Concurrent to her midwifery education and training, Grace worked for over a decade as a doula in local hospitals. Over time, she was fortunate to form relationships with many types of perinatal care providers and learned the language and culture of the medical community in the Bay Area. This is unique as an out-of-hospital maternity care provider.

Experiencing true feminist healthcare during her pregnancy while working with midwives, Grace’s views on healthcare were transformed. This care model shapes her work as a midwife and influences her approach to pregnancy, birth and newborn care today. Grace continues to be a seasoned advocate in maternal and infant healthcare and strives to make midwifery accessible to all birthing people.

 
Midwifery Care
 
 
 
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OUR COMMITMENT TO ACCESSIBILITY, EDUCATION AND SERVICE

In 2022, a percentage of midwifery fees went to the following organization:

Mothers-for-Mothers Postpartum Justice Project

 
 
Grace Bender, 10 Moons Midwifery

Grace Bender

Midwife

 

In the words of my midwife, I learned birth from birth, my own and the births of others.

My midwifery training came through both an apprenticeship model and a traditional educational path. I have been passionate about women’s healthcare and birth for over half my life. Being a midwife fills me with purpose. 

I hold an Associate of Science in Midwifery degree from National College of Midwifery. I received my Licensed Midwife (LM) and Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) credentials in 2017 from the Medical Board of California and the North American Registry of Midwives. I have been attending births in all settings for over 12 years. I am a member of the Bay Area Homebirth Collective and participate in regular peer review with other Licensed Midwives in the Bay Area. I have attended 300+ births.  

I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from The Evergreen State College in Women’s Studies + Creative Writing. I have been a student of yoga and ayurveda for the past 20 years. My background includes a decade of teaching yoga and over a decade of working as a perinatal and postpartum massage therapist. These things deeply inform my midwifery practice. I live in California for the food and the weather, and because I feel most at home near the ocean. My heart is spread wide across the country with roots in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, the waters and dunes of Lake Michigan, and the rocky caves and creeks of Missouri. I am more country than city, but need both to thrive. Reading cookbooks, hiking, and lounging at the beach with my family are my favorite things. I love being a mother and I really love being a midwife.

 
 
 
From our Clients
 

  • “I can't say enough great things about my experience with Grace. What I appreciated the most was her intuition…I really felt like I could look at Grace woman to woman and she would know what I needed. I think that's the most you can hope for in a care provider, because sometimes I didn't even know what I needed.”

    Ali

  • “Grace was an incredible support. Throughout the entire labor, she made me feel both comfortable and empowered. I cannot stress enough how those two emotions are *everything* when you're giving birth. My birth experience was incredible - every single moment of it — and so much of that is due to Grace being there.”

    Meg

  • “Grace provided kind and generous support throughout our birth. We couldn’t have been luckier to find our way to her and we can’t imagine what it would have been like without her. She gave us the confidence we needed at every step to have the birth we envisioned. Her advice postpartum has been invaluable to us.”

    Susanna

  • “We couldn’t imagine having brought Asher into the world without Grace's help. We so appreciated her calm and guiding presence throughout the experience.”

    Chel

  • “In spite of my son's unexpected positioning, the whole event was remarkable. It was wonderful working with Grace. She helped make my homebirth an amazing experience.”

    Shelley
 

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