Karen Swift grew up the youngest of three daughters in northeastern Ohio.  While attending Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois she was called to midwifery after reading The Immaculate Deception by Suzanne Arms.  She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Emory University in Atlanta in 1982, and after gaining nursing experience at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's Hospital and Northwestern's Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago, obtained her Master in Maternal/child nursing at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1988.  Her first midwifery jobs led her to Texas where she worked at two of the busiest maternity hospitals in the United States, Jefferson Davis in Houston and Parkland Memorial in Dallas.  In Texas she met her husband, Charlie.  After working briefly in southern California she moved to Olympia where she has resided since 1991.  She is the mother of two daughters, Ella and Molly, and loves animals, reading, yoga, gardening, and crafts.

Karen feels that all individuals have their own personal philosophies of health.  She honors these ideals while trying to help women explore their optimal wellness.  During her career she has attended births at homes, birth centers, and hospitals.  She continues to be amazed at the strength of women and the miracle of birth.

I was born at home into a family where birth stories were regular dinner table conversation. At a young age I was surprised to learn that not everyone was as familiar with or fascinated by their births as I was with mine! I set out to educate my peers and myself about pregnancy and birth by completing a high school capstone project on birth in America. During high school and college I also spent three summers in Latin America with the public health service organization Amigos de las Americas building latrines in rural Paraguay, lorena stoves in the mountains of Honduras, and supervising volunteers in the Dominican Republic. 

I attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington where I studied world religions and studied abroad for a year in Northern Spain. Upon graduation I worked as a college admission officer at Whitman, but my passion for birth and midwifery was never far from my mind. I trained as a doula at Seattle Midwifery School and volunteered as a birth assistant to two nurse-midwives offering out of hospital births in Walla Walla. While preparing to go to nursing school I worked briefly as a nurses’ assistant in a long term care facility where I enjoyed caring for people on the other end of the life spectrum. 

I earned my Bachelor in Science of Nursing from the University of Washington in 2008. I worked part time as an RN caring for postpartum moms and babies at Northwest Hospital in Seattle while enrolled as a full time midwifery student in the Masters of Nursing at UW. I earned my Masters of Nursing in June of 2010 and shortly thereafter became board certified as a nurse-midwife. 

I am very excited to join the WomanCare team and to offer midwifery care to women across the lifespan. When not working I love to cook, eat, ride my road bike with my husband, hike, read, and visit with friends and family.

Michelle is the newest midwife to the practice.  After being a nurse for many years, Michelle decided to go back to school to become a certified nurse midwife.  She graduated in 2010 after having completed her externship with WomanCare, so she's been working with us for some time already.  Watch this space as we add more information about Michelle here.