Mid-week Midwife Edition, Acadia Gantz and Grace Pease of Sacopee Midwives
Your tuning in to the mid-week midwife edition of MyMaine Birth. In these episodes we explore the world of pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood from the perspective of midwives in the great state of Maine. We’ll delve into the latest research, share personal stories and experiences, and connect with experts in the field to bring you the most up -to-date and reliable information. Whether you’re a soon - to - be mom, a seasoned mother, or simply interested in the world of birth, these episodes are for you.
If you, or someone you know is expecting and would like to capture the precious moments of meeting your baby for the first time, I highly recommend considering my birth photography services. I am a professional photographer specializing in documenting the beauty and emotion of birth, annnndd. For all of my birth photography clients I create a personalized and intimate photo album that you will treasure forever. For more information head over to https://www.mymainephoto.com and schedule complimentary zoom consultation with me
Today’s midwife guests are Acadia Gantz and Grace Pease of Sacopee Midwives. We are going to get to hear all about their journey to midwifery and about the services and support they provide to Maine families.
Now join me as we dive into the world of childbirth and the vital role of midwives in Maine and beyond.
You can Listen to the full episode here, or scroll down for the full transcript.
Angela: Hi Grace, Hi Acadia! Welcome to MyMaine Birth!
Grace: Hi, this is Grace!
Acadia: Hi we are excited to be here, thanks for having us!
Angela: So to get started can you tell me a little bit about who you are and what you do here in Maine?
Grace: Sure, so my name is Grace Pease and I am a CPM, a Certified Professional Midwife in Maine, so that means we get to help people have their babies!
Acadia: Yeah, I’m Acadia Gantz and I am also a Certified Professional Midwife and I work with Grace at Sacopee Midwives. We are based in the southern Maine area, our home office is in Limington. We also work out of the Bridgeton Brith Center, and all along the western/southern Maine area.
Angela: So between the three of you there is quite a range that you cover.
Acaida: Yeah, I live in Brownfield so I am sort of the most north. And then Grace and Brenda are both in the Cornish/Limington area. So they are a little farther south, so we cover a pretty broad spread from the area that we live.
Angela: So Grace, starting with you, will you share about your journey to midwifery? Go ahead and start wherever it feels right to you.
Grace: So I was born at home myself, my mom had a home birth with me and actually Brenda Serbian Emerson was there, she is the other midwife in our practice so she was a student at the time working with my Moms midwife. So that was my first interaction with midwifery was the day that I was born. And then I went to college for public health and it wasn’t until after college that I sort of started to think more about midwifery and just reproductive health in general. That is when I went back to school, to Birthwise to a school that was based in Bridgeton, Maine. I joined that school in 2018 and then I did my clinical rotation during school with Brenda and Lindsey and Robin who were Sacopee Midwives at the time, the three midwives there. And then I did my preceptorship up north in Bangor with Holly No.7 as a brith center up there. I got my CPM last year and joined Sacopee Midwives last year and now I get to work with Brenda and Acadia.
Angela: Wow, oh my gosh, I love that Brenda was at your birth and now you are working together. Now Acadia, can you share a little bit about your background and what lead you to midwifery?
Acadia: Yeah, so unlike Grace I wasn’t exposed to home birth or midwifery at a young age. But my Mom had really positive birth stories, so I had always had a really positive view on birth. I became an EMT after college, I worked in Emergency Medicine and outdoor recreation for a few years and began looking for my forever career because emergency medicine didn’t feel like the fit for forever. So I had been exposed to the idea of midwifery and home brith in college during a women’s gender studies class. So I decided to pursue midwifery and originally thought I would take the route of becoming a Certified Nurse Midwife because that seemed like the most accessible route at the time. And during my pre-requisites for nursing school I met the woman who had started the Midwives college of Utah, so she was a Certified Professional Midwife and she taught one of the classes and it opened my world to the idea of home births and CPMs so that started me down the journey of becoming a Certified Professional Midwife. I also attended Birthwise, I began there in 2015 and throughout my time at Birthwise and becoming a midwife I really sort of solidified - coming into school I wasn’t sure it was what I wanted to do - and every birth I attend, I fall farther into the feeling that this is the right place and this is where I want to be.
Angela: So Grace, going back to you - what would you say was a defining moment for you as a midwife?
Grace: Really just generally being a part of the clients journey into parenthood has shaped me a lot. It is a very personal window that you get into peoples lives and its really such a privilege and pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period and just parenting in general are all such transformative times in peoples lives and we really get to be a big part of that. So it has been really amazing to watch clients grow and it definitely shapes us as midwives to be a part of their journeys. Its challenging, and its tough, but its also really beautiful and rewarding process and we definitely get impacted by that as well.
Angela: Yeah, absolutely! Acadia what would you say to that same questions, were there any moments that stood out for you along the way.
Acadia: Yeah, I feel what Grace said, I feel like every experience has its own way of being a defining moment in being a midwife because there is so much to learn in every birth and in every interactions. But I do feel like it’s so important, kind of like what Grace said, that childbearing year - becoming a family - is so transformative not only for the people given birth but also for the child and how much the parents learning and empowerment will change how they parent and in turn will affect how that child is raise and I feel like that is such a cool and important thing that we get to be a part of and that is what is so different about the care that we provide.
Angela: That is incredible. So Grace, can you tell me a little bit about what the Sacopee Midwive practice looks like and the services that you offer?
Grace: Yes, we do full prenatal care, we do birth of course, and we do postpartum as well. And what that looks like is folks can come into our practice at anytime, even if they are not pregnant yet. We can help with fertility issues or just if they want to meet us before they get pregnant, they can come and have a meeting with us.
We do free consultations. And then we start prenatal care, it can be anytime from early on. We meet every month in the beginning and then we start to meet every two weeks and then every week at the end of pregnancy. We can order any tests we want, we can order ultrasounds or do blood work. We really talk a lot about all the choices that get to be made during pregnancy. Then preparing for birth and the postpartum period. Then we do the birth and that is seen as the big event a lot of the times, but the postpartum is also really important.
We do a one day visit at their house and we are available on call for the first little bit too. Then we come back at three days and one week at their house, and then we do some office visits up until - we now have even a 12 week office visit, just to check in. So we try to provide a lot of support during the postpartum as well.
We can also offer well body care to folks, so if people needs paps or other things, we can do that. We sometimes do IUD removals and we can do IUI as well, and then Brenda can do consultations for pelvic floor health. Acadia does coaching for people who want to keep running during pregnancy as well. So we can offer a lot of different things.
Angela: That is incredible, so Acadia can you tell me a little bit more about what the coaching looks like?
Acadia: Yeah, so in. addition to being a midwife I am also a certified running coach and this sort of came out of a passion for wanting to help pregnant athletes because there is a lot of mis-information and a lot of outdated information. I actually did my senior research project during midwifery school on high level exercise during pregnancy and I was simultaneously pleased to find that a lot of the information and rules that people are being told are outdated and I was also really frustrated at the lack of actual research about what are good guidelines for exercise during pregnancy. So I work one on one with pregnant mothers, coaching, I have a lot of ultra-runners and distance runners who run during their pregnancy. And also we sometimes have runners and athletes coming into our care and being able to work from the midwifery perspective to work with them about what they want their activity level to be like. And then folks that aren't athletes as well, I think thats also really important. Pregnancy can be a big time of change and making healthy shifts, so finding ways to move your body that feel good and feel good during pregnancy are also really important. So I kind of offer the whole range there.
Angela: Wow, thats really cool! And Grace, I think its interesting what you said about the other women’s care services you offer, I think a lot of people don’t really think of midwives when they think of going somewhere for just general women’s health care.
Grace: Yeah, I think that you are right that not a lot of people think of midwives when they think of going to get a Pap or going to get an IUD removed or an IUI, but its something that is in our formulary here in Maine to do and within our scope of practice. Different midwives do it at different levels, I would say that we don’t do a lot of well body care outside of our clientele that are with us for their pregnancies. We usually offer Paps to folks that are in our care anyway, or folks that are coming into pregnancy might want us to remove an IUD or something if they are thinking about becoming pregnant. But yeah, midwives are really good at fertility issues and if we are too busy with our clients then we can refer someone to other people who have more of a speciality in it as well. Like there are a couple other midwives that do it a lot more than we do, especially with just fertility counseling. There is a woman who works closely with us named Abby and she is really good at that, so we might refer people on to other folks if they have more experience, but midwives are definitely trained in those things and I think its a nice thing, people can even go to your home to do a pap or a well body exam, or to have an office that is kind of cozy that you can come to. Its a different kind of care, we can spend an hour with somebody and just sit and have tea before we talk about their IUI or whatever they want we can really tailor it to their needs and thats really nice to be able to do.
Angela: Yeah, I love that. So what is the biggest piece of general advice that you would give to someone who is expecting?
Acadia: Yeah, I think the biggest piece of advice for anyone who is expecting for the first time or any time is to really trust your intuition and find the care team and the care place that feels the most supportive for you. I think thats really important. And as a home birth midwife, I always tell people - obviously I believe in home birth, I believe in the kind of care that we provide - but if it’s not the place or the people that feel like a supportive environment for you then its not going to be the right birth experience. So I think really taking the time to find a team of people that really align with your values and your intuition really make a big difference in the long term for the care of your pregnancy, your birth and then moving forward into raising your child.
Angela: Yeah, absolutely. Grace, what would you say to new or expecting parents?
Grace: Yeah, I totally agree with Acadia that I would just encourage folks who are giving birth to learn all about their different options for care and to choose the one that makes them feel the best supported. I think that people should give birth where they feel the most comfortable, whether that is in a hospital or at a birth center or in your own home. And to do interviews with different providers and to choose the care team that best fits their needs and to not be shy to ask lots of questions and to communicate their preferences and needs surrounding their care. Also to spend some time planning for the postpartum period, as much as you are planning for your birth and all that. Just find support that works for you and there are great postpartum doulas that are awesome. And you can line up family that can help and friends that can bring you food. And definitely focusing on the postpartum as well as much as the birth to prepare for is important.
Angela: So what is the best way for people to get ahold of you?
Grace: We have a website, https://www.sacopeemidwives.org and we have a Facebook and an Instagram @sacopeemidwives and you can find our phone number on our website and you can book a free consultation as well through our website.
Angela: Ok perfect, I will link all of your information in the show notes so people can find you. Thank you so much Grace and Acadia for sharing your stories today!
Acadia & Grace: Thanks for having us on!
And that’s the end of another episode of the MyMaine Birth Podcast! Thank you for joining me and listening! I hope that the stories shared here have been inspiring and informative to all of my listeners.
If you’re looking to capture your own birth story, I highly recommend considering my Maine birth photography services. I am a skilled professional Maine Birth Photographer, and am very passionate about capturing the raw and emotional moments of the birthing process, annnnd I also design a personalized and intimate photo album, creating a beautiful and lasting memory of one of the most special moments of your life. For more information about Maine Birth Photography head over to https://www.mymainephoto.com and schedule a complementary zoom consultation with me!
Thank you again for tuning in and I look forward to bringing you more amazing birth stories. Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review! And I’ll See you back here again, next week.
