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MEET THE MIDWIVES

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Leonora Colen

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Leonora is a midwife, mom, and a human who believes that birthing people should have autonomy in their birthing experience. She grew up splitting time between the foothills of Northern California and the Bay Area, took a gap year, and studied abroad for a year in Ecuador. She got a BA in Filmmaking at Bard College in upstate New York and took another year studying abroad in Spain. After graduating she moved to Austin, Texas and began a midwifery apprenticeship in a thriving home birth practice and, after graduating from the Association for Texas Midwifery program, she started working at Austin Area Birthing Center where she worked for 10 years. 

 

She is licensed through the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) and the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM). 12,000 prenatal and postpartum visits and over 500 deliveries later Leonora felt called to return to her home birth roots and do everything possible to keep birth safe and normal especially in the midst of a global pandemic. 

       "I started my family with my partner Cory by having the most empowering home birth I could have imagined and received such fantastic, unobtrusive care. We spend the majority of our time parenting (wrangling) 3 boys, one pug mix, a persian cat, and a hairless cat here in South Austin. In my free time I like to make pottery, swim at Barton Springs and go to the movies as often as possible."

Meg Rodenbusch

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Meg Rodenbusch is one of the two founders of Home Birth Honey.  She is a Certified Professional Midwife through NARM and a Licensed Midwife in the State of Texas.  She worked at Austin Area Birthing Center from 2011 to 2020 as a Staff Midwife and, in her last year, as Staff Development Director.  Meg has attended over 850 deliveries and cared for and supported thousands of women during pregnancy, labor and postpartum.  Prior to her time at the birth center she apprenticed in the home birth world and attended many deliveries in her own semi-rural neighborhood southwest of Austin.  One of her greatest pleasures has been maintaining relationships with the families whose children she has helped bring earthside and functioning as a continued part of their lives and evolution.  Meg has also been lucky enough to catch five of her nieces and nephews, three of them by Vaginal Birth after Cesarean and one of them on her eldest daughter's 18th birthday!

 

Meg is the biological mother of two children, both born with midwives - the first at AABC and the second at home.  She also has a stepson who was born at home, but to his own mother!  She lives with her husband and their blended family, 3 dogs, 2 goats, 3 cats, 12 chickens, and innumerable fish in a farmhouse on a couple acres in the hill country Southwest of Austin and not far from Hamilton Pool.  Meg has a BA in Literature and Dance from New College of Florida, an MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College, and is a graduate of the Association of Texas Midwives Midwifery Training Program.  Prior to discovering birth work, Meg ran a dance program at an all girls school in Greenwich, Connecticut.  She was also briefly the director of her own Calyx Dance Company here in Austin.  She grew up in Massachusetts, in Texas, and overseas in The Netherlands, where she graduated high school.   Meg is an avid yoga practitioner and revels in her time in the garden and on the lake.  She has a Mongolian yurt on her property that serves as both a personal yoga shala and as a satellite clinic space for Home Birth Honey!  She loves concocting spontaneous dishes in the kitchen with her husband, traveling to British Columbia and Baja California, and nourishing her children’s creative spark.  Her greatest passion is helping women harness their power and unlock the creative potential of their own bodies.  She believes that giving birth where and with whom you wish, with the care team of your choice, is a fundamental human right.  She is excited to be a part of this important time of transition in your life as a family.

Cat McGrath

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Cat McGrath began serving women and families at the age of 19 when becoming a DONA certified Doula. She first gained experience as an on-staff hospital Doula in New Mexico where she served both labor and delivery, postpartum and NICU families. Two years later she moved to Austin and began working for the Austin Area Birthing Center as a birth assistant, postpartum caregiver and prenatal yoga instructor.  Her work and education spanned 10 years at the birth center where she trained under both certified professional and nurse midwives, attending over 500 births. To date she has attended over 800 births and counting! Cat's care is a blend of 17 years experience, both in and out of hospital, integrating her connection to body, mind and spirit with her deep love for yoga. 

 

"I support women in all ways and all places they choose to give birth. It is my deep belief that when women and families are truly informed about their choices in birth, no matter the outcome of that day, they will feel empowered in their transformation as individuals, parents and new families; Thank you for the opportunity to serve yours!"

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Brittany Smith

I have been in the Austin birthing community for over 18 years. I have worked in the hospital setting beside OBGYN's, in a high risk maternal-fetal medicine office and in an out of hospital birth center with many wonderful midwives. I graduated from the Association of Texas Midwives training program in June of 2023, and have had the pleasure of being a student here at Home Birth Honey for the last 3 years. Women's health and birthing rights have been a passion of mine since my own delivery 18 years ago, and I am excited to have taken the leap into becoming a midwife after all these years.

 

I am a true Austinite, born and raised. I am married to my best friend, and we have two beautiful daughters. Besides driving and cheering at all of their extra curricular activities, I enjoy traveling with my family, 2-stepping with my husband, working out, and loving on our 3 dogs and cat. I have had the pleasure to be involved in hundreds of births over my 18 years in the birth world, but now I am looking forward to serving in the home birth community of Austin.

Heather Kim, DO

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Heather Kim, DO is our Consulting Physician with Home Birth Honey.  Heather works with us on prescriptive needs and has signed our standing orders. 

 

She has her own private practice, Intuitive Pediatrics, and has also worked in urgent care and neonatology.  Heather is available for consults via Telehealth during your pregnancy for moments when medical decision making by a physician is required. 

 

Her collaboration contributes enormously to our commitment to safety at Home Birth Honey.  We are indebted to her for helping make the dream of this midwifery group a reality. 

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Nicole Moya-Amengual

Nicole is a Student Midwife, a birth assistant and a Holistic Doula. She is originally from Venezuela and speaks Spanish. She believes that the body is brilliantly designed, and your intuition is powerful. She is here to support and honor the whole family through this rite of passage; that is the magic of birth. 

Nicole studied medicine throughout college while also being a pre-school teacher, and in the end it was the children that chose her for this work. Nicole began her birth journey as a yoga instructor by teaching Pre-Natal Yoga. In complete awe of birth and children she enrolled in doula training that has led her down a passionate path into Midwifery. She started her midwifery journey two years ago by traveling and learning from traditional midwives/parteras in Central and South America; and has gained permission and knowledge for this work and the medicine she shares. Nicole works a lot with the Indigenous community to bring back home birth, community/culturally based care and womb wisdom.

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