Jackie Griggs, CNM, is a Certified Nurse Midwife who has been practicing in the Houston/Beaumont area for the past 35 years. She is a mom of 5 grown sons, 3 born at home with the help of midwives. – Three grandchildren are the light of her life. She has helped mainly with home and birth center births, but has worked in the hospital some as well. She is the owner of birth center of Beaumont, and also helps with home births in the Houston area. She has been on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Birth Centers, until just recently, and still is a very big advocate for midwifery care at a birth center or home, for the women of this country. She is also focused on training new midwifery students and helping to increase the number of birth centers in Texas and the United States.

Toni Kimpel, CPM, LM, is the owner, Director and Senior Midwife at Jubilee Birth Center. She earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Mobile, where she achieved a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Business Administration, with a minor in Biology. Her mathematics degree is actually used in midwifery in figuring angles and vectors for getting babies to come out, her business administration has been helpful in running a business, and of course biology is involved in the science of midwifery. She has been a midwife since 1985. She completed the certification process to become a Certified Professional Midwife in 1996. She currently holds a Texas Department of Health Services Midwifery License. She opened Jubilee Birth Center in 2012 in Bryan, Texas. She gave birth to eight children between 1977 and 1998. And adopted a daughter in 2004. So,she raised nine children and now have 21 grandchildren and 6 great grand-children. She delivered five of her grandchildren and 2 of her great-grandchildren.

Diana Nash, CPM, LM, and her husband, Don have been married almost 25 years. We’re a blended family of 6 grown children – 5 boys and 1 girl – and have 13 grandchildren, ages 16 years to 3 weeks! She was a late bloomer and didn’t start her Midwifery training until 2005 with the Association of Texas Midwives and graduated in 2007. Since then, she has worked in both home and birth center settings in Texas and Arkansas, but returned to the Piney woods of East Texas 5 years ago. She serves a large area surrounding Polk County, much of which is a maternity desert. She is in the process of starting a freestanding birth center in Livingston, TX. She offers twin, breech and VBAC delivery and recently had the joy of attending her 500th birth!

Jackie Griggs, CNM, and Toni Kimpel, CPM, LM, and Diana Nash, CPM, LM

Jaelin Stickels, DNP, APRN, CNM, co-owner, founder of Holistic Heritage Home Birth and cofounder of She is.com, a site for women by women. Also, on the show is her mid-husband who is so supportive for Jaelin and midwifery.

A certified nurse midwife who is honored to work with families as they experience pregnancy, labor, birth, and the postpartum period. Jaelin followed her passion into midwifery and has been practicing with women and babies since 2010. She has spent the last 40 blissful years married to her high school sweetheart and “midhusband”. She has three children and one brilliant grandbaby. In addition to her passion for women’s health; she loves quilting & is enamored with her granddaughter. Jaelin is proud to be known as the designated Birth Hog. No one has ever loved birth as much as this girl.

Jaelin Stickels, DNP, APRN, CNM

Dr. Cambria Nwosu is a nurse, legal nurse consultant, healthcare advocate, and entrepreneur whose career has spanned bedside care, leadership, administration, and healthcare accountability. She began her nursing career as a perioperative nurse at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey, where she developed a strong foundation in patient safety, surgical care, and systems-based practice.

Over time, Dr. Nwosu advanced into multiple nursing leadership roles, including serving as a Stroke Program Director, where she worked at the intersection of clinical care, quality metrics, and regulatory compliance. Her career later expanded into healthcare administration, where she served as a national telemedicine administrator, gaining firsthand insight into how healthcare delivery, technology, and policy intersect and how system design decisions shape patient care and access.

Alongside her clinical and administrative work, Dr. Nwosu co-founded Seth Usifo Nwosu® Incorporated (SUN INC) with her husband, a certified paralegal and legal document preparer. Through SUN Inc., she provides legal nurse consulting services focused on medical negligence, patient rights, healthcare system failures, and civil accountability, with particular attention to how marginalized communities are disproportionately harmed.

Dr. Nwosu is married and the mother of one child, and her lived experience as both a clinician and a parent informs her advocacy. In recent years, she has taken a more public-facing role through education, media, and social platforms, where she speaks candidly about patient safety, informed consent, civil rights, and the urgent need for ethical accountability in healthcare.

In February, Dr. Nwosu will be launching CJN Network, a platform dedicated to deeper, long-form discussions on healthcare justice, patient rights, and systemic reform that are often difficult to fully explore in short-form media. More information can be found at www.sunicorp.net, and she can be followed on social media at @cjnlegalnurse

Dr. Cambria Nwosu

“Trish” Perkins is a Certified Nurse Midwife who began her career as a Labor and Delivery nurse at Jefferson Davis Hospital. She is the mother of 4 children all brought into this world into the hands of midwives. The first 2 were born in the hospital and the last 2 at home with Pat Jones!

After raising her own family, she realized her lifelong dream of studying midwifery. She has worked as a midwife at a free-standing birth center and for Baylor College of Medicine at The Centers for Children and Women. Her experiences also include working as a Lactation Consultant at St. Joseph’s hospital, helping them achieve Texas Ten Step status. She is now the owner of a beautiful free-standing birth center just north of The Woodlands, Bliss Birth Center. Trish is passionate about providing quality, woman-centered, compassionate care and has the unique knowledge, skills and experience to provide comprehensive, evidence based midwifery care that women deserve.

Encouraged to support women after the birth of her own daughters, Catrice Harris has been helping families with childbirth education, labor & birth, postpartum and lactation support since 1992. Her initial Lactation training was through the University of Texas Health Science Center and City of Houston WIC Programs. She continued to embrace caring for women and children by becoming certified as a birth and postpartum doula. After observing many challenges faced by women who did not feel enabled to advocate for themselves during childbirth, it seemed that the only next step was to pursue midwifery.

Taking the leap away from Corporate America in 2012, she embraced birth work full time. Growing into a midwife has been a journey that constantly presents new opportunities for growth in many beautiful ways. Currently, with a solo home birth practice, Catrice also trains and mentors doulas through a grant funded program seeking to provide birth support to underserved communities in Houston, TX. Having supported over 365 families with the births of their babies as of 2023, she is truly grateful that this work found her.

Trish Perkins, CNM, & Catrice Harris, CPM

Kathleen Vandegiessen, CNM, MN, founder of North Houston Birth Center since 2005.

A Certified Nurse Midwife since 1994, Kathleen Vandegiessen has been a CNM for nearly three decades, indicating her expertise in providing healthcare and support to pregnant women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. She has a Masters in Nursing since 1995 and she has been a Registered Nurse for 25 years. She worked as a staff midwife at Baylor College of Medicine for 4 years.

She started a Midwifery service at a small community hospital for 6 years. She started a free-standing Midwifery service at North Houston Birth Center in 2005. Kathleen Vandegiessen’s dedication to full-scope midwifery means she provides a wide range of healthcare services to expectant mothers, from prenatal care to delivery and postpartum care.

Her extensive experience, education, and career achievements suggest a passion for women’s healthcare and a significant contribution to the field of midwifery.

Website: www.made4birth.com
Instagram & Facebook @Made4Birth
The Made For Birth Podcast: https://themadeforbirthpodcast.buzzsprout.com/ (Also found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, etc.)

Book links:

Autographed copy :
Amazon Print copy: https://a.co/d/g570t7W
Amazon EBook: https://a.co/d/8Df9wQP

Kathleen Vandegiessen, CNM, MN

Katherine Stephens is a doula, childbirth educator, and the warm-but-unfiltered voice behind the Made for Birth podcast. Based in Southwest Louisiana, she’s dedicated to supporting women through pregnancy, birth after cesarean, and postpartum with compassion, clarity, and a whole lot of truth-telling.

She’s a homeschool mom of six—ages six months to nine years—which means she brings a very real, very lived-in perspective to the families she supports. Katherine has been through inductions, cesareans, medicated and unmedicated births herself, and she pulls from that experience to guide moms with both heart and authority.

Jackie Griggs, is a certified nurse midwife who practices at Birth Center of Beaumont in Beaumont, Tx. Shes been a nurse midwife for 25 years and still loves her work as much as ever. Shes also the mom of 5 grown sons and 3 small grandkids. She is active with the American Association of Birth Centers and wants to make it easier for more women to use birth centers. She got to help Katherine with her birth this year in May.

Website: www.made4birth.com
Instagram & Facebook @Made4Birth
The Made For Birth Podcast: https://themadeforbirthpodcast.buzzsprout.com/ (Also found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, etc.)

Book links:

Autographed copy :
Amazon Print copy: https://a.co/d/g570t7W
Amazon EBook: https://a.co/d/8Df9wQP

Katherine Stephens, doula, & Jackie Griggs, CNM

Rachel Jones is a student midwife and doula, homeschool consultant and founder of the cool nerds.org. Rachel is a Memphis native with a B.A. in African and American Studies and a minor in Philosophy, as well as an M.A.T. in Instruction and Curriculum Design from the University of Memphis.

As a lifelong learner and passionate educator, she brings a wealth of knowledge to her role as an educator, herbalist, doula and student midwife. Rachel is committed to nurturing healthy individuals from birth through adulthood and is rooted in the belief that healed people heal people. Rachel is dedicated to supporting families in establishing strong, thriving individuals who build strong, thriving communities.

Rachel Jones, student midwife and doula, nerds.org

Georganne Chapin, MPhil, JD, Executive Director of Intact America, author of award winning memoir, “This Penis Business: A Social Activist’s Memoir.”

In addition to her executive positions, Georganne taught health law and bioethics at Pace University School of Law, and bioethics to doctoral-level nursing students at Dominican College. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Daily News, HuffPost, The New York Post, and Minneapolis Star Tribune, and she has been interviewed by The New York Times, the Economist, the Guardian MSNBC, NBC10 (Philadelphia), WPSU radio, AskMen.com, SheKnows, First Time Parent, Mel Magazine, and South China Morning Post. Fluent in Spanish, Georganne also has been interviewed by Telemundo, Univision, and La Voz con Mariel Fiori.

Numerous podcasters have featured Georganne on their shows, which include Armchair Expert’s Flightless Bird, The Holistic OBGYN, Chicana Chisme, Sex Out Loud, Depths of Motherhood, The Baby Pro Podcast, Curiosity with Jon and Mike, The Mountaintop Podcast, and Informed Consent, among others.

Georganne earned a BA in Anthropology from Barnard College and an MPhil in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University. While chief executive of Hudson Health Plan, she earned a JD from Pace University School of Law, with certificates in Health Law and International Law.

A life-long art collector, Georganne lives near Woodstock in New York’s Hudson Valley. She invites listeners to learn more about keeping baby boys intact at IntactAmerica.org.

Georganne Chapin, MPhil, JD, Executive Director of Intact America

Jackie Griggs, CNM, is a Certified Nurse Midwife who has been practicing in the Houston/Beaumont area for the past 35 years. She is a mom of 5 grown sons, 3 born at home with the help of midwives. – Two grandchildren and a new grand baby just recently. She has helped mainly with home and birth center births, but has worked in the hospital some as well. She is the owner of a birth center in Beaumont, – Birth Center of Beaumont – and also helps with home births in the Houston area. She has been on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Birth Centers, until just recently, and still is a very big advocate for midwifery care at a birth center or home, for the women of this country. She is also focused on training new midwifery students and helping to increase the number of birth centers in Texas and the United States

Erin Sing is a the program director for the Texas Tech Nurse Midwifery program, which is primarily a distance program, and a midwife in Houston, TX. She has also held various volunteer roles in the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) and the state affiliate of ACNM, known at the Consortium of Texas Certified Nurse Midwives.

Jackie Griggs, CNM, & Erin Sing, CNM

My journey as a doula and entrepreneur began from a very personal place. When I became a mother in my twenties, my pregnancy came as a surprise. I didn’t know much, so I turned to books—but what truly guided me were the women in my family. Many of them had natural births, some even at home, and their stories gave me confidence. I wasn’t afraid, because I felt held—by the women who came before me and by the men in my family who protected that space.

Her mission is simple: to make every family feel seen, heard, and understood—to help every mother and partner trust their inner wisdom, and to remind them that even far from home, they can still find their tribe. For her, entrepreneurship is not just about business. It’s about transforming my own story, my talents, and my passion into meaningful service. With every family I support, I’m giving back what I once received—and planting seeds of resilience, belonging, and love for generations to come.

Also, on the show with Spanish interpretation is Natalie Guzman. She walks this path in service to the BIPOC community, honoring their ancestral ways and offering care that is culturally rooted, spiritually grounded, and deeply loving. As a Spanish-speaking, vegan mama who homeschools her vibrant 7-year-old son, het life is a weaving of motherhood, activism, earth-honoring living, and community building.

Birth is her obsession, her devotion, her offering. She’s here to protect its mystery, celebrate its power, and help us all remember: birth is ceremony. She is also the co-founder of Aliento de Nacimiento – A school of traditional birth arts.

You can also find her @sweetsurrenderdoula on Instagram

Raima Giusti, founder of Nesting Healing Hummingbirds