Meet the Midwives

She/her
Midwife
Mother to Louis, (deceased) Grayson, Tom and Jake
Grandmother to Jaxon, Austin, Gunnar and Mackenzie

Hi my name is Helen and I began my journey as a midwife in 1984.
I was born at home and grew up in London UK. My mother chose a homebirth after being “treated like a naughty girl” by the hospital midwives during the birth of my elder brother. She taught me that childbirth was normal and nothing to be feared as your body does it for you and you just have to trust it! She said its hard work but nothing you can’t handle and hard work is challenging and rewarding! I grew up understanding that birth can be a loving and powerful experience.

After a year as a registered midwife in the UK, I moved to NZ where I worked as a hospital midwife for 7 years. During that time, I was very lucky to attend the homebirth of a very good friend of mine. I remember the feeling I had when walking in to her birthing space. I felt honored and humbled to be present at such a transformative event. I remember saying to myself “so this is what birth is supposed to be like” I felt overwhelmed by the peaceful space and the love in the room. Such a contrast to the clinical environment of the hospital births I had attended. At that moment I knew where my heart in midwifery was and thus began my journey to becoming a homebirth midwife!
In 1992 I left the hospital and starting attending homebirths as part of a Midwifery Group Practice, (MGP) with 3 other midwives. The place of birth was the couple’s choice. I loved doing homebirths and found my true passion as a midwife, learning from women birthing in their own environment. My learning curve was steep!

In 1996 after the birth of my fourth child we moved to Melbourne and I discovered midwifery and birth were different in Australia! Homebirth was not a publicly-funded mainstream option for women and homebirth midwives could not get indemnity insurance. After completing my Master’s degree in midwifery and 3 years of teaching midwifery, I went back to working in a birth centre and doing homebirths part-time. Whilst working at the birth centre I met the wonderful Mal Morieson and not only did we share the same midwifery philosophy but we became firm friends!

For the next 10 years myself and 4 other midwives (including Mal) formed a midwifery group practice offering homebirth and hospital support to families in Melbourne. During this time political climate was changing slowly in that 2 publicly funded homebirth programs began in Melbourne and more midwives moved into private practice and provided home birth services. Indemnity insurance also became available for Pre-and postnatal care for private midwives.

In 2015 saw the birth of Organic Midwifery with Malinda and I working in a midwifery partnership together. Due to family commitments and a change in personal circumstances, in 2017 I began working in the Sunshine MGP and homebirth program. Where I was lucky enough to meet the lovely Ramona Fisher and we began attending homebirths together and formed a connection based on mutual respect and understanding. 2018 saw more change and Malinda and myself began working at the MHW in their MGP program which sadly didn’t include home birth.

Fast forward to 2022 which saw the rebirth of Organic Midwifery! I am counting my blessings because I will be getting to work with my two favorite midwives and people on the planet, Mal and Ramona!

Welcome to Organic Midwifery and thank you for taking the time to meet our team.

My name is Mal and I believe birthing is a journey of self-discovery and self-belief and every birth is unique and amazing. A huge part of my continued learning comes from birthing women and the experiences and stories they bring with them.

I began my midwifery career in 2002 when I started my Bachelor Of Midwifery. I graduated in 2005 and have had the pleasure of working mostly in Midwifery lead models of care with low risk women. I first met Helen at The Angliss birth Centre in 2005 and we have been friends and colleagues ever since. I met Ramona five years ago when she was working with Helen as a member of The Sunshine Homebirth program- I felt an instant connection to her and could quickly tell our beliefs and passions where aligned.

I began my adventure supporting women choosing to birth at home in 2008 and still to this day believe it is the midwifery gold standard care for low risk women to give birth.

I have three adult children and three beautiful grandbabies of who I was lucky enough to be at their births and support my daughter for the days and weeks post birth.

I am passionate about women and their partner being an integral part of their pregnancy and birthing journey and an active decision maker. My role is to inform and empower couples so they are ready and prepared for the birth day of their newest family member and into their new role as parents.

I am currently studying Embodied Processing with The Centre of Natural Healing and plan to work with couples that are dealing with trauma related to past births. Sadly 1:3 women express feelings of trauma from their birth experience. I want to be able to help couples get some healing and closure to negative past birth experiences. In order to enjoy the wonderful journey of birth ahead of them as a new beginning.

Good luck with your journey.

I lived several lives before midwifery finally called me in.

Birthing my own two daughters as a young woman whilst living overseas taught me many things about myself, about the wonder of birth and of the power and resilience of women. I’d always been drawn to work in caring roles- into the service and the nurture of others.

Becoming a midwife would eventually be the natural progression for me and seemed a perfect coming together of the elements of my life I relished in- feminine empowerment, relinquishing autonomy, finding the strength in myself and others and having fun!… but the timing wasn’t right.

Once my (now) adult children were old enough, I relocated from Sweden and finally completed my midwifery studies here in Melbourne- a challenging and rewarding feat as a mature age student! But my love of learning, curious mind and refusal to settle for status quo saw me graduate top of my class and quickly move into a coveted Midwifery Group Practice role -supporting women both at home or in a busy tertiary hospital to achieve their ideal birth- on their terms.

7 years on and I haven’t looked back. I have the best job in the world! No two pregnancy journeys are the same, no two births are the same; the goal posts move and I get to use my expertise and experience to work with families in proactively planning for and implementing skills and mindshift changes that will see the birth of, not only their baby’s, but of them as well.

I believe that an empowering birth can be one of the most uniting, life altering and affirming experiences in your life and it is my honour and passion to help you uncover yours.

Between appointments and providing labour care I love to get out and see live music and comedy, sample red wine and delicious meals, snuggle my 2 gorgeous rescue doggos and travel to Sweden to bask in the glory of my three grandchildren.

I’m now certified to offer Acuneedling, acupuncture performed by a midwife, working specifically on location points related to pregnancy, labour, birth, breastfeeding and the early postnatal period. I’m happy to be able to offer this amazing complementary care to my clients