Labor of Love L.A.
Jennifer Buonamassa, LM,CPM

Beth Cannon, LM, CPM

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The beginning of my path and interest in birth occurred in 1982 when I was 11 years old.  My oldest sister Mary decided to have a home birth. Her choice to do so gave me the advantage of trusting birth from an early age.  She shared Ina May Gaskin’s book Spiritual Midwifery.  What an incredible gift this was…

 

Little did I know at that point in my life that I would be called to become a midwife!  

 

In 1990, I was primary labor support, or doula, to one of my other sisters, Jackie.  Attending the hospital birth of her son opened my eyes to the reality of the medical model of birth.  I was shocked at the routine and impersonal care that she and her son received.   That imprinted my mind with images that will never be forgotten.

  

When I became pregnant in 2000, I knew that I wanted to be present in my body for the birth of my child.  I knew that I would seek out midwifery care and wanted to participate in my radical rite of passage into motherhood actively.  My first daughter was born gently into the water on Winter Solstice, and we had a beautiful birth center birth! 

 

I was called to midwifery after the home water birth of my son in 2004.   As luck would have it, doors opened for me naturally and I was asked to apprentice with the midwives who were present during my son’s birth.  I accepted their offer and jumped in!  I enrolled in school at The National Midwifery Institute and juggled the demands of apprenticing with a busy midwifery practice in Los Angeles, being a wife, raising my children as well as giving birth to another daughter (this time, on land!), finishing school, passing the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) Exam in 2009 to become a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM), and becoming a Licensed Midwife (LM) by the California Medical Board in 2011.

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I am an advocate for birth options and informed choices. It has been quite the journey, and I feel fortunate and blessed to be at every birth that I am called to be at.  Throughout my career as a community midwife, I have attended births with several midwives in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, both Licensed Midwives and Certified Nurse Midwives, as well as over a dozen years assisting Dr. Stuart Fischbein, an OB/GYN who attended breech and twin community births in Los Angeles and Southern California vicinity.

 

Teaching student midwives is a passion of mine.  We need more midwives in our country and around the world.   As well as being committed to having student midwives on my team, I have hosted student skills labs and have had the honor of working with wonderful cohorts of students! I am a NARM-approved preceptor and have precepted students from the National Midwifery Institute, Midwives College of Utah, Nizhoni Institute, and National College of Midwifery.  

 

I have a private practice with my primary office located in Sherman Oaks, providing care to folks from fertility through postpartum, well-person visits, and educational sessions to demystify puberty for pre-teens and teens.