Your Atlanta Birth Care Team

 

Meet Debbie Pulley, ___

(The blanks are where the word midwife was in the past. The State of GA seemed to have an issue with that so we removed the word midwife while we sued them. The good news is they realized they couldn’t tell Debbie she wasn’t a midwife. Leaving the blanks shows the tenuous situation midwives are in. We all need your support!

Hello and welcome!

I have been a _________ ____________ _______ (___) since 1995 and am currently licensed as a _______ in Tennessee. Until the time of which GA creates a legal path of licensure for the Certified Professional Midwife, I will not be practicing clinically in GA.

Once CPM legislation passes I will resume my Georgia practice. Ok, I probably won’t resume my practice in GA but will rest knowing other midwives are safe.

Through the years I have become very active in both state and national midwifery politics including being on two Department of Health Task Forces as a ___, and two Legislative Study Committees as a ___. I have testified in court as a recognized _______ (___). The State Department of Vital Records with approval from the Department of Health has acknowledged our national credential so we can file birth certificates for the families we serve. I am an active member in the Georgia Midwifery Association and serve on the board of the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM).

For NARM I attend the National Conference for State Legislatures (NCSL) and the American Public Health Association (APHA) conference annually. I am also part of US Midwifery, Education, Regulation, Association (US MERA) which is comprised of representatives from NARM, the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA), the National Association of Certified Professional Midwives (NACPM),  Midwifery Education Accreditation (MEAC), American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM), American Midwifery Certification Board (AMCB), and the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education (ACME). This group also collaborates with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN).

Every three years I attend the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) Council Meeting and Congress.

It has been my honor to assist Atlanta families at their births for over 38 years. I look forward to serving them again in the near future.

Meet Kay Johnson, CNM

Kay has maintained her passion for supporting women in labor through the almost 40 years of her professional career. She started her midwifery education inspired by Ina May’s Spiritual Midwifery, Silent Knife by Cohen and Estner and Our Bodies, Ourselves by the Boston Women’s Collective. She sat at the feet of Ina May, Frederick Laboyer, Michel Odent, Helen Varney and was supported in her studies by Liz Sharpe at Emory and her colleagues in practice.

Kay and Debbie have worked together for 30 years. Kay just can’t bring herself to totally back away from birth so she is now part-time with Atlanta Birth Care and spending her newly acquired free time traveling. You will still see her backing up Debbie for the remaining births on the schedule.  (Update: Everyone is retired!)

Her primary objective is maintaining a calm environment that allows the woman to progress at her own pace through the labor, delivery and first few hours after the birth by keeping interventions at a minimum. She feels her role is to keep a watchful eye on any signs that indicate a possible problem, but set back and out of the way of the woman’s natural labor process. She considers the first few hours of a mother meeting her baby to be important for bonding and a more normal transition for the baby.

Kay has worked in large hospitals in midwifery practices that cared for 100 patients a month. She has also worked in small private practices. In both, she has supported those women who desired an epidural as well as those who delivered on hands and knees, sitting on a birth stool and in a birth tub.

Since 2011, she has worked with Debbie at Atlanta Birth Care to provide home birth services to the metro Atlanta area. She has enjoyed home birth for the opportunity to participate in births uncomplicated with the time tables and protocols of a hospital. The family, without the constraint of the hospital environment, can be so much more involved and supportive.

In all of these settings, she has valued the opportunity to work with students. They keep their teachers humble and provide constant continuing education. She is proud to see the contributions her students have made to the profession.

 

Our Students

Our students are the future of midwifery and an invaluable part of the practice. Students start out doing basic skills and build up as they/we are ready. It is the hands on experience that gives them the clinical knowledge and confidence for when they are ready to leave the nest and practice on their own. Until we feel they have mastered a skill there is always a midwife standing right there for input.

Meet Lindsey Hughes

Hello! I am Lindsey. I am married with 2 boys of my own and live in the wonderful city of Athens, Ga where I own and run a doula business. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Christian Counseling and have found it so valuable in my practice of coming alongside the woman as a whole person. I am honored to be an apprentice and learn from the midwives at ABC since July of 2018 and am equally thrilled to begin schooling at the Midwives College of Utah as I work towards my degree in Midwifery.

Pregnancy and birth stir my heart in a way that not very many things do. The miracle of it, the deeply sacred time that it is, and the body’s ability to carry out these processes ignite a passion and a calling in me. Women deserve to be empowered and supported through education and encouragement so that they can make decisions that will benefit them, their babies, and their families. Birth work is so much more than a simple interest I have decided to act upon, it has repeatedly called to me and drawn me deeper into its intricacies.   (Photo Credit: www.lovestoriesco.com)

Meet Millie McWilliams

My fascination with birth began in 2010 when I began to think about starting a family. A friend who had her first baby at home introduced me to the idea that birth could be safely done outside of a hospital under the care of skilled traditional midwives. As I researched all of my options, I found myself drawn to the midwifery model of care which focused on birth as a normal physiological process rather than an event that should be routinely medicalized.

I have been attending births as a doula since 2013 and am a CAPPA Certified Labor Doula. I have had three children at home under the care of midwives, and the excellent care I received during my pregnancies and births inspired me to pursue traditional midwifery through my apprenticeship with Debbie and to attend Midwives College of Utah. I look forward to working with Atlanta Birth Care families on their journey though pregnancy, birth, and beyond!