When I was pregnant with my first child during the summer of 2000, I, like many other mothers-to-be, spent endless hours reading books, surfing websites, and talking to others. I was well aware that giving birth would be a pivotal experience in my life, I just didn’t know to what degree! What it did was help me redefine who I was as a woman and define who I would be as a mother.
As a woman, the birth helped me gain a deeper, more profound understanding of what women’s bodies are capable of doing. When my newborn son was placed on my chest, I found myself overwhelmed with how much power, strength, and beauty lies within a woman and her body.
As a new mother, I would often use the memory of that resolve-building experience to remind me that I could go beyond my perceived limitations. For you’ll soon realize (if you’re birthing for the first time) that being a parent often does just that - tests your resolve!
Undoubtedly, it was that birth experience that motivated me to become involved in the birthing community. It wasn’t long before I became certified as a childbirth educator through Childbirth Education Association of Metropolitan New York (CEA/MNY) and as a labor support doula through Doulas of North America (DONA).
Since then, I have been fortunate to help educate and support women and their partners during their personal journeys towards parenthood. And it’s my hope that through working with other birthing families, I can help them have similarly life-changing experiences.
In 1990 I moved from Indiana to New York City to study Spanish at New York University (B.A.) and subsequently at Columbia University (M.A.). For seven years and up to the birth of my first child I taught Spanish at Stuyvesant High School, as well as graduate level Spanish courses at NYU. In Summer 2007 we moved our family of four children back to our home town of Fort Wayne, IN. And in 2008 my sister and I founded Birth Matters, an independent and freestanding childbirth education center in Fort Wayne, IN.
—
I’d like to thank Ken Walker, my webmaster, for his tireless work on behalf of this website. It took quite a bit of effort to pull off. Thank you Ken!
I would like to thank Lisa Walter who gifted us with many of the photos you see. She is loving beyond description!
I’d also like to thank David Sacks, who provided many of the photos seen on this site. He’s a great friend of ours, and he was very generous to allow me to use any photo I wanted from his stock collection.
Finally, more than anyone, I need to thank my husband. Oh, where to begin…
Hallie Greider
Back »