Meet your Midwife
Roberta Devers
Master of Science
Midwife
Most recently, a wonderful student midwife said (when speaking about her own home birth) “I was born on the day she was born.” She could not have put that any better. I remember, vividly, that same feeling when my own midwife, Hilary Schlinger, put Aaron in my arms. . .I knew I would be a midwife! The “calling” had sounded and there was no turning back.
I began going to births in 1987 with local underground midwives in NYS, and then onto Casa de Nacimiento, a free standing birth center where there was a volume of births. Casa saw more complicated cases, as it served Mexican women from across the border whose lives were less than “easy.” It was at Casa that I “caught” over 300 babies. I remain friends with the director, Linda Arnold, to this day. I am eternally grateful for her courage and her tutelage. I returned back to NYS to attend our local women, while completing my Bachelors degree in Maternal and Infant Health. It was during this time, that these same underground midwives were trying tirelessly to have their training, experience, and other state licenses recognized by the NYS legislator. Instead of being recognized, most were sent cease and desist orders to stop their practices. In 1997, I was the recipient of an arrest for practicing midwifery without a license. I used that arrest as a platform to decry reproductive injustice (see “The Criminalization of the American Midwife” by Jennifer Block).
Shortly thereafter, I moved to Vermont, where I could practice legally, but also where I intended to introduce legislation to license midwives. In 2001, the Vermont Midwifery Practice Act was signed into law, and midwives could now gain licensure.
My home birth practice flourished, and I was appointed by the Secretary of State to be the initial advisor to the promulgation of rules under the midwifery law. In 2004, retribution by the local obstetric community resulted in the removal of my license, although no nexus of care and bad outcomes was found. I appealed this decision by bringing a 1983 case to the 5th Circuit Court. The removal of my license created an uprising of clients and advocates of midwifery. One of my defense attorneys returned to Skidmore College to write a brilliant thesis, entitled “Misinformed Consent: Birth as a Human Rights Issue.” I spent the next 15 years feeling shame around the loss of my license, and getting Masters degrees; one in Clinical Mental Health and the other in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Midwifery, The Masters in Liberal Arts has only its thesis left to complete. The thesis is entitled, “The Social Constructionism of Midwifery.”
A few years ago, the shame lifted when I realized that many, many midwives around the country had suffered persecution and prosecution. My own political battles were put into context and I decided to reclaim what God destined me to do. I was reminded that the sweetest, timeless journey of motherhood, historically and safely attended by midwives, was as my friend Dr. Marsden Wagner said, “the pursuit of the birth machine.” It is not that for me; for me it is a Holy calling.
All politics aside, when we are together birth is something different. It is just as God intended; the euphoric moment of birth, when all the deep breathing and surrender of labor are behind you, and your baby is blissfully nestled skin to skin. The ultimate expression of love!
I have been privileged to be a midwife for over 30 years, having “caught” over 1500 babies at home or in birth centers, not one of those babies has been forgotten and it has NEVER grown “old.”
Finally, I have held midwifery licenses in California, Washington, and Texas. My allegiance is with the North American Registry of Midwives. This is the true midwifery model of care. I thank them for offering to return my credential. I am beyond humbled, and grateful to be back home where I belong!
