A Midwife of Technical Expertise

1. The undergraduate program aims to prepare students to practice at the full scope of the Certified Professional Midwife credential through the demonstration of broad, integrative, and specialized knowledge. 

A Midwife of Professional Excellence

2. The undergraduate program aims to prepare students to practice within their own communities and synthesize applied and collaborative learning.  Students will engage in the maternity care system professionally and ethically at all times. 

A Midwife of Personal Greatness

3. The undergraduate program aims to prepare students for reflective practice and a perpetual commitment to contribute to the professionalization of direct-entry midwifery.  

4. The undergraduate program aims to prepare graduates to educate others in their profession and in their communities. 

(Midwives College of Utah, 2012).

2024 Professional Goals

A Midwife of Technical Expertise

1. Attend one in-person or virtual training in Midwifery skills by the end of December, 2024.

A Midwife of Professional Excellence 

2. Develop a presentation, along with handouts, for my local Fire & Rescue / First Response teams to offer Lunch and Learns within my community.  This presentation will overview the role of the Midwife in community settings; the education, trainings, and credentials that licensed midwives must have in the state of VA; reasons emergency medical services may be activated during a community birth; best collaborative care policies and practices; and how smooth transfers positively impact outcomes.  The goal of these Lunch and Learns is to develop strong, collaborative relationships between myself and local emergency response teams to ensure appropriate, safe, and truly collaborative care can happen during transfers.  

A Midwife of Personal Greatness

3. Continue to attend local grade school Career and College Days to educate young children about the Midwifery profession, inspire young minds, and to discuss the importance and relevance of accessible Midwifery care for the growing families within our community.  

• 4/13/24 participated in Hardy Elementary School's Career Day 

2023 Professional Goals

A Midwife of Technical Expertise

1. I will attend one in-person or virtual training in Midwifery skills by the end of December, 2023.  

Unmet. This goal will rollover to 2024

A Midwife of Professional Excellence 

2. Complete my Phase Two coursework, clinical experiences, and required Integrated Assessments by the end of the Midwives College of Utah Summer 2023 term (August).  

   • Phase Two academic courses completed with passing scores April 21, 2023

   • Integrated Assessments completed with passing scores August 23, 2023

   • All clinical Phase Two experiences completed September, 2023 

A Midwife of Personal Greatness

3. Develop a local/state midwifery student resource group on a social media platform, with a goal in mind to help with student advocacy and support.  

   • I established the Virginia Midwifery Students Facebook Group and am currently organizing a limited peer review/student debrief meeting for December of 2023, organize and host group virtual chats, and actively participate in group posts/questions - this is a continuing goal

   • I created an open Google Form and Google Doc where midwifery students across the country can anonymously review preceptors in August of 2023.  The purpose of these documents are to help students find safe placements and to provide a space where students can see the experiences of other students and/or share their experiences.  

     1. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ypuM-kSrggaL9l-a2Az2j7pd82JFsfo6dZiBcptMGYI/edit?usp=sharing is the link to the Google Doc that lists preceptors in alphabetical order by state with the information gathered from the Google Form submissions

     2. https://forms.gle/DUEKNdDtmnDhseLQ7 is the link to the Preceptor Rating Form (Google Forms) if you would like to submit a an anonymous preceptor review

2022 Professional Goals

A Midwife of Technical Expertise

1. I will renew my NRP and CPR certifications by the end of October, 2022. 

   • Completed and passed NRP 8th Edition Advanced Provider online course and exam 7/1/2022

   • Completed and passed the in-person NRP workshop and assessment 7/9/2022

A Midwife of Professional Excellence

2. I will attend, at minimum, two webinars or workshops focused on cultural humility by the end of the 2022 calendar year. 

1. • Unmet - due to a family emergency I was unable to complete this goal by the end of the 2022 calendar year.  

A Midwife of Personal Greatness

3.  I will create a recorded presentation about midwives for the local Elementary School to use in their STEM Jobs in the Community module. 

1. • Completed March, 2022 (slides available below)

2021 Professional Goals

A Midwife of Technical Expertise

1. I will attend one in-person or virtual training in Midwifery skills by end of October, 2021. - Goal met by March, 2021. 

• • Signed up to attend Breech Without Boarders Hybrid Workshop on May 11, 2021. 

  • Completed workshop May 11, 2021.  

    1. Performed 5 primary simulated deliveries

    2. Performed 1 assist simulated delivery

    3. Witnessed 10 simulated deliveries 

A Midwife of Professional Excellence 

2. I will complete a basic course in American Sign Language by the end of 2021. 

   • Unmet - I was unable to meet this goal within the 2021 calendar year due to taking an emergency leave of absence 

A Midwife of Personal Greatness

3. I will complete the goal that I set out for in 2020 by developing and offering a free virtual class discussing the safety of midwifery care and out of hospital birth by the end of the 2021 calendar year.  

   • Unmet - I was unable to meet this goal within the 2021 calendar year due to taking an emergency leave of absence 

2020 Professional Goals

A Midwife of Technical Expertise 

1. I will obtain CPR and NRP certifications by the end of September, 2020.  - Goals met by October, 2020. 

• Online NRP exams and eSims completed 6/28/2020

• In-person NRP skills assessment with Karen Strange, CPM completed 7/6/2020 in Lynchburg, VA

• NRP Card awarded - exp. 7/31/2022

• Registered for American Red Cross BLS for Healthcare Providers Certification course for October, 2020

• Passed online portion of American Red Cross BLS for Healthcare Providers on 10/16/2020

• Passed in-person assessment for American Red Cross BLS for Healthcare Providers on 10/17/2020

A Midwife of Professional Excellence

2. I will attend one webinar or workshop on providing culturally sensitive care by December of 2020. - Goal met by June, 2020. 

• Attended Love Over Fear Wellness and Birth LLC: Moving Beyond the Binary webinar June 26th, 2020

• Attended National Advocates for Pregnant Women: Black Birth Matters - The Case for More Midwives webinar July 8th, 2020 (guest speaker Efe Osaren)

• Attended Peninsula Maternal Mental Health Coalition: Birth Trauma webinar/meeting July 20th, 2020

A Midwife of Personal Greatness

3. I will develop and offer a free virtual class discussing the safety of midwifery care and out of hospital birth by the end of the 2020 calendar year. 

• Unmet - I was not able to complete this goal by the end of the 2020 calendar year.  

2024 Personal Goals

1. I will continue to schedule one day each week where I will have no school or midwifery related commitments with the exceptions of births and 24/48hr postpartum visits.  

2. I will read 1 book a month that is not school or midwifery related, with the goal to read for fun for at least 15 minutes daily. 

3. I will make a focused effort to practice active stretching, mobility, and flexibility training for 10 minutes every evening prior to going to bed.  This will help with my overall recovery from births, mobility, and general aches and pain.  

2023 Personal Goals

1. I will continue setting aside time for my family that is free of school or clinical commitments on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings between the hours of 5 and 8pm during the school year, and between the hours of noon and 4pm during the summer break. 

Personal reflection: This goal was very hard for me to meet, as my course load and clinical commitments were fairly heavy throughout the year.  While I was not able to fully meet this goal, I was able to be intentional about setting aside quality time for my family - specifically individual time for each of my children - during the year.  This goal has helped me realize how important it will be as a future midwife in practice to set clear boundaries around my personal time and to make sure to check in with myself about priorities and the needs of my family along with the needs of my clients and my practice.  

2. I will schedule one day each week where I will have no school or midwifery commitments, with the exception of births/24hr postpartum visits as those cannot be scheduled in advance.  The goal is to give myself a large block of time every week where I can commit fully to any family obligations that need attention and to have time for self-care in an effort to reduce feelings of burn-out.  

Personal reflection: I found this goal to be a necessary one, but also one that ended up happening organically rather than me having to schedule it out well in advance.  Unfortunately the self-care aspect was almost impossible to do regularly, as the needs of my family tended to take priority over my own needs, however I know that I certainly stuggled due to burn out as a result of it.  Moving forward, I hope that I will be more mindful about my own needs and to take the adivce that I so often give to clients - You can't pour from an empty cup!

3. I will complete 30 minutes of coloring or journaling each evening before bed.  

Personal reflection: This goal was the "easiest" for me to forget!  Likely because it falls into the "self-care" category.  The times that I was able to sit down and color over the year were few and far between, however when it happened I chose to do it with my children as a way to settle down for the evening.  Coloring with them has always been a great way to help them to regulate in the evenings and get ready for bed, and it offered me the same relaxing and sedative effects.  I hope to incoproate this practice more into my daily routine.  

2022 Personal Goals

1. I will continue setting aside time for my family that is free of school or clinical commitments on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings between the hours of 5 and 8pm during the school year, and between the hours of noon and 4pm during the summer break. 

Personal reflection: Setting aside this time on a daily basis was challenging as I was juggling my academic commitments along with caring for my infant during the day and then dealing with a family medical emergency in the Fall of this year that required daily trips to and from specialist appointments.  Even though it was very hard to commit to keeping this time free for my family, I managed to do so most weeks and I don't regret it.  Ensuring that I have a good family/life balance during this journey through school has been very important to me and I know it will set the precedent for me to keep this a priority once I am in practice as a licensed midwife.  

2. I will actively participate in my family's 1000 Hours Outside Goal for the 2022 calendar year. 

   • As of June, 2022 we have completed 185 hours outside

   • As of August, 2022 we have completed 315 hours outside

Personal reflection:  While we didn't make our 1000 hour goal, we did make it to 400 hours outside!  Weather along with our family emergency prevented us from making much headway after the summer break.  We all benefited greatly from the time spent together as a family outside while going to parks, hiking, and spending many fun summer days at the water park.  We have all agreed that we intend on repeating this challenge in the coming year, with the hopes to add camping trips into the mix!

3. I will participate in a 10k in September of 2022. 

   • Registered for the Sloth Running Team: Not Fast, Not Furious virtual 10k 7/31/2022

   • Completed on 9/4/2022 - walked from Oxon Hill Park & Ride to the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge Trail and back (totaling 6.3mi)

Personal reflection: I was very concerned about whether or not this challenge would be achievable for me, given my current level of fitness and also because I would be bringing my eleven month old infant along.  I was incredibly proud of myself for finishing this 10k walk - and in under 4 hours, which was our goal!  My friend and I have already started planning our next 10k together for 2023.  

2021 Personal Goals

1. I will commit to improving my physical health by setting aside 40 minutes each Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday for an outdoor physical activity starting April, 2021. 

Personal Reflection: While I was unable to meet this specific goal each week, I was able to really focus on my health and well-being, which allowed me to feel better and improve my overall health.  I also was able to incorporate more outdoor activities with my children and spend a good deal of the summer with them outside, which was beneficial to all of our physical and emotional health.  

2. I will continue to set aside time for my family that is free of school or business commitments on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings between the hours of 5 and 8pm.  

Personal Reflection: I was able to achieve this goal and one of the best things about setting aside this time was to help find a good balance between my family and school commitments.  I found that by investing in more time where I was fully focused on my family that we were all able to weather the days or weeks where clinical commitments were heavier than usual due to births and postpartum appointments or when I had to devote extra time to school and my assignment load.  

3. I will read one book each month that is not as assigned reading for school or related to my doula business starting in April, 2021. 

Personal Reflection: While I wasn't able to read a new book each month recreationally, I was able to do a lot more reading that was not centered on school or my business than in the past several years.  I re-read one of my favorite Stephen King books (the unabridged edition of The Stand) as well as a few fantasy books by Mercedes Lackey.  Reading has always been a way to "fill my cup" and I plan to set aside time every month to be able to read outside of school.  One of the added bonuses was having my kids see me reading and making reading something for fun a priority on "off" days, which lead to many conversations about my favorite books as a child and opportunities to read several Roald Dahl books and other amazing series to them over the year.  

2020 Personal Goals

1. Starting March, 2020, I will schedule one day a month where I have no school, family, or business commitments.  This day will be reserved for personal reflection and self-care only. 

Personal Reflection: While I was not able to meet this goal every month as I had hoped, I did manage to schedule a day every other month where I was able to dedicate the day to self-care.  I took this time to schedule things like a massage or reiki appointment, meet a friend for lunch, and on one or two occasions actually drove out of town for the weekend to spend with a high school friend and decompress.  This time really helped ease any feelings of "burn out" I was experiencing and I hope to keep up this practice moving forward.  

2. I will spend 60 minutes every week grooming, riding, and spending quality time with my horses by the end of April, 2020. 

Personal Reflection:  I wasn't able to incorporate this time into my schedule in the way I had envisioned it, however I was able to commit to just going out and being with my horses each week which I haven't done in quite some time due to family and work commitments.  The time reminded me how much I enjoy just being in the presence of these animals and was a welcomed source of stress relief.  

3. I will no longer work on school or business projects or commitments on Mondays, Thursdays, or Fridays between the hours of 5pm and 8pm.  This time will be reserved solely for my family and so that I may devote more focused attention on my children and my husband during the school/work week.  

Personal Reflection:  Setting this time aside for my family really paid off emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.  It was far too easy for me to sink into school and work commitments and then suddenly realize at 11pm that I had missed quality time with my family - and we were all suffering for it!  Making the commitment to set aside non-family tasks during these hours allowed for greater connection with my kids and my spouse.  We spent the evenings coloring in special coloring books, playing board games, and found out that we all have a great love for puzzles!