Mid-week Midwife Edition, Rachael Jean Cohen of Elemental Midwifery
Mid-week Midwife Edition, Rachael Jean Cohen of Elemental Midwifery
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 guest is Rachael Jean Cohen of Elemental Midwifery based out of the Ellsworth area. She is a licensed midwife, a certified professional midwife, and sacred birth keeper here in Maine. We are going to be hearing about her journey to midwifery and what lead her to create her online Birth Education Program called Elemental Birthrights where she teaches women to approach their pregnancy and birth as a sacred right of passage. All of her in person clients who she does home births with also get to go through her course work and learn about all the magic that is involved in birthing!
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 Rachael, welcome to MyMaine Birth
Rachael: Hi Angela, thank you so much for this beautiful honoring, I am so grateful to you and am looking forward to our conversation.
Angela: Me too! So to start will you share a little bit about who you are and what you do here in Maine.
Rachael: Absolutely, so My name is Rachael Jean and I am a CPM, LM, here in Maine. I am also a sacred birth keeper and I have a program and a company online that is called Elemental Birthrights and that is international. I teach women to approach their pregnancy and birth as a sacred right of passage, so also my in person clients who I do home births with also get to go through my course work and learn about all of the magic that is involved in Birthing. They are the center of it so I feel very blessed.
Angela: Alright so lets talk about your journey to midwifery, go ahead and start wherever it feels right to you.
Rachael: Yeah, it’s actually a pretty magical story, I was in my 20’s quite the gypsy, traveling around a lot for almost 15 years all over the world and all over the United States. I found myself in California, I was in my late 20s by that point, and I was really searching for a purpose, I felt like I had come to this planet to offer something more than just - I don’t know what I was doing at that time - I was just wondering around meeting people, and kind of living life by the seat of my pants. And I got really involved with a community out there doing ancestral healing and sacred plant medicine ceremonies. During that time one of the prayers of my healing was I was really calling in a sacred purpose and really asking for guidance in that way from spirit. And so at that time I was sitting in ceremonies about once a month with my teachers at that time. And one late December ceremony in late 2011 into 2012, I was working with the medicines and it came through that I was going to be a midwife. And it was like - this message descended upon me - my teacher communicated to me that she was receiving a message, and I was so happy, I was so excited, it totally fit. I was already involved in massage therapy and had been studying sound healing and different modalities of healing as well as nutrition and herbalism and it sort of felt like it was the title to the woman that I was already cultivating and becoming - that it kind of created this narrowing of focus that I just hadn’t seen before. So when she was like - you're going to become a midwife- I was like, yeah, how! And there was this message - oh you're going to go to Texas. And I started crying, I was so sad because I didn’t want to go to Texas at the time. And so I was balling, I don’t want to go to Texas. So I avoided going to Texas for as long as I could possibly could. I went to Birthwise Midwifery school in 2012 in September. I became a DONA Doula early in 2012 - a couple months after the message came though. I got to attend my first birth that summer as a Doula in a hospital in San Diego. Then I found Birthwise midwifery school in Maine - I had owned land in Maine since my early 20s and had been going back to Maine to try and look after my land - but I really was just so excited when I found Birthwise because it was calling me back to a place that I had already planted roots in and a place that I really resonated with so deeply. The land here really captured my spirit when I first came to Maine to learn about herbs. So I was so excited to find Birthwise Midwifery school, because not only was it an amazing school but it was in this state that I had all these roots in and a really strong connection. So I started their community program in 2012 which included coming on to live in campus in Bridgeton, Maine and studying for two weeks at a time and then going back to my community which at that time I was in California. So I was doing the bi-coastal thing and apprenticing out on the West coast with some wonderful midwives out there. And it just really started from there and just progressed. I got my CPM license in 2015. Then was working in Colorado for a couple years at a really awesome busy practice out in rural Colorado. And then finally was like, I have to go back to Maine. That is where my land is, I have to take care of my responsibilities and I really want to go back there. So my husband and I moved back to my land in 2018 and we built a Yurt off grid, and we just committed. I started my practice at that time Elemental Midwifery and we have just been going strong ever since. So it was a big part of my midwifery journey, and really just grounding out in my life, building home, connecting with the land and just building community around me.
Angela: What part of Maine do you offer services in?
Rachael: I live in Sullivan Maine, which is just up the coast from Ellsworth, I don’t know if they consider this downeast yet but its definitely on the way to downcast - so I would say within the Ellsworth area, as far as Machias, and then up towards Bangor, and out towards Blue Hill, about an hour in every direction - but sometimes if its the right woman, I’ll drive.
Angela: wow, thats so cool. What would you say was a defining moment for you as a midwife along your journey.
Rachael: Absolutely, yeah, there was a defining moment for me that happened when I was practicing out in Colorado. I will say that based on the story that I told in the beginning that this was definitely a spiritual calling for me - I definitely consider birth work to be very sacred work - and in order to become a midwife, you really just have to go through the process of becoming educated. And a lot of the values that called me to be a doctor or a nurse to the field - have to be put aside while you are becoming educated because really you just need to get the experiences that you need to be able to go to enough births to become a midwife. So for me the spiritual nature of birth really took a backseat while I was at school and apprenticing - I was just really, really trying to get my numbers. And when I became a midwife I got invited to join a practice in Colorado. She had a busy practice it was still very rural. I was serving Amish and Mennonite people all over Colorado. But it was very high volume for me, it was sometimes up to 9 births a month or maybe even 5 - for me that was like running around constantly doing visits and just having a lot on my plate. And there was a woman in that community that I served and I considered her a friend before we got started - I did know her a little bit. Once we got to the birth, she had a really long labor - very, very hard. Just didn’t seem to be progressing, like she was at 9cm for days and we were staying at home and just trying to really just trust the process. I definitely probably showed up a little bit too early as the midwife, because it was her first. And she ended up in the end needing to go to the hospital, deciding to transport. So we did transport her in and she did have a cesarean section, which was really devastating for me at that time. I was born cesarean and I still had a lot to work through around birth outcomes and different ways stories could go. And she actually didn’t want to see me after that, she didn’t want me to continue her postpartum care. The other midwife took over, and she really blamed me for the way that the birth went and I had a really hard time with that. It was really heartbreaking to me because for me when I get involved with families, I want what they want. I want them to have the birth that they want, I want them to have the best care possible and so to hear that she felt like it was something that I did that lead her to her birth outcome - it just completely changed everything that I was doing because as I was working at this was a busy practice and I was serving people - I always felt like I was leaving a lot of me out of it. I was like coming with my bag, and checking peoples blood pressure and checking off the chart - and just really doing what it was that I learned in school. But not necessarily infusing my work with who I am - which is - I am a healer. That is really who I am before I am a midwife. That traumatizing birth outcome for that client and just the way that she responded to it - literally sent me in a completely different direction. And it sent me back to the roots of why it is that I became a midwife - which is really to honor the sacredness of birth. And so from that story, I realized that all interpersonal healing and transpersonal healing that I was working on in my own life - that was a part of my core values - I wasn’t bringing that to my clients at that time, because I didn’t see that it could necessarily fit. I was like well this is midwifery and this is healing and they are separate. And so I thank that mama so much for her experience because it really sent me back to who I am. And from then on I began to form Elemental Birthrights which is intrinsically connected to Elemental Midwifery and so that is how I birthed my course - which is very spiritual in nature, it is very focused on ancestral healing and childhood wound healing and really coming to terms with how you were parented as a preparation for how you are going to parent. So really infusing pregnancy and birth care with looking at how you were parented - maybe going into some of your defense patterns - and creating ritual and ceremony around releasing things that are no longer serving you so you can consciously come into a new relationship with parenting your own child. And honestly, I probably wouldn’t be doing midwifery anymore if it wasn’t for me coming back to the spiritual aspect of my calling to midwifery and really infusing that ceremonial connection to consciousness and conscious parenting into my work - and so now its like if people don’t want to do that they don’t get to work with me, because really - that is what I do. That is where I really shine and that is really what calls my soul to come and be in the service of birth. So all of my clients get to go through my course work which is also available in an online setting for people who live anywhere in the world. And it just makes my work so meaningful and I just see people having really positive outcomes in their birth when they are able to do the shadow work and go into some of the more deeper layers of their subconscious and find more resources and tools - spiritually to lean on during their labor an birth - that are also going to then empower them as parents. So that is definitely the most important birth story that I could ever tell. I could definitely tell fun stories about surprise twins and all the crazy antics of being a midwife but that one for me was the most defining.
Angela: Yeah that is really interesting. So hold on, you have been at a birth with surprise twins? Tell me more!
Rachael: I have, I have, I don’t know for sure if the family based on the response - was surprised - because they were just like this is wonderful! I was like what? You guys are rolling with this really smoothly. They were supposed to get an ultrasound but they just decided - oh no, we’re not going to go. And she had a baby, and then she was just really in labor still and I just looked at her and was like - what is happening here?! And I put the doppler on after the first child was born and there was a heart tone. And not soon after there was a head and a little baby followed. So that was a wild journey up in the mountains of Leadville, Colorado. That was just, very surprising but also very cool and miraculous and everything worked out really well.
Angela: So have you ever attended a breech birth?
Rachael: I have, in Colorado - all well. My first birth ever that I went to as a student was a twins birth and the second baby was a breach, the first baby was head down. And I had attended a breach birth also with the Amish community, they are a little bit more open to just trusting in birth - so I got to experience a lot of more complicated or interesting birth stories with that community for sure. And a couple breach births in Maine also before they changed the laws.
Angela: yeah, because the laws in Maine are more restrictive for midwives in that aspect.
Rachael; Absolutely, but before that - yeah, we were definitely helping people out with that in this area.
Angela: and successfully?
Rachael: Yeah, I have only been to one breach birth where the arms got stuck up - and that was really challenging to watch. Eventually the baby did come but the midwife had to do a bunch of little things with pulling the arms in - because the head can get trapped but the arms were also up so it was very challenging she just kind of pushed the baby up a little bit and then bring them back down. But luckily everything worked out. I have never had any demises or any deaths that happened at least under my care - so I am very blessed at this time.
Angela: Wow, ok so can you share more about your midwifery practice and the services that you offer to women here in Maine?
Rachael: Absolutely, so yeah - I do home birth care. And I would say more than even home birth care what I really offer is I offer really, really in depth prenatal care. That is part of my home birth package - and postpartum care, of course. And I work with clients as early as just the turn of going from the first trimester into the second trimester - I like to start around that time, and the coursework is such an intricate part of my prenatal care. I lead people through 8 modules that coincide with pregnancy - so we go through the father the mother and the inner child modules first and its really looking at how you were mothered how you were fathered, what has worked for you - and what really didn’t work for you and how that has impacted your own relationship to your inner child. So it is a really beautiful time to enliven or awaken somebody to their inner child - because not only do we have an inner child, but then when you are pregnant you actually have this physical manifestation of the inner child. That can serve as a really beautiful reflection for remembering to tend to your own self. So it is a beautiful journey to go through those modules - and really get the inner mother the inner father and the inner child sort of in dynamic with each other and in relationship so there are conversations happening internally which can create a shift in consciousness and prioritizing of self care, learning to speak to yourself more kindly and really just show up for yourself as you would for a child. So that when you do have this child on the outside you come from a resourced place and you have more to give. And then we work through the five childhood wounding patterns so we work through the air, the water, the earth, the fire, and the crystal. And those all represent five core wounds. So the first one is fear of embodiment and then abandonment and then there is humiliation/invasion, betrayal, and shame. So we work through those particular wounding patterns and how they come online at different times of childhood development, using the lens of the elements and really connecting in with the natural world, creating altars, prayers, intentions, doing rituals like releasing the past and calling in the new. It is just very beautiful work, it is very sacred. I lead all of my clients through this work and pray that it supports them in their birthing. And then of course, I do prenatal - I check on people in their home, I sit with them and talk with them about what is going on in their lives and form a really deep bond and relationship based on trust. It seems like the coursework really gives us an avenue for deepening in that client relationship - so we have a lot of material to talk about and really go deep with in the relationship so they can be transformed through their care with me and come into their birth with a lot of self knowledge and groundedness and really treating it as this sacred moment where like - the gestational period of a woman is nine months - that time is to prepare. Not just to buy things for your baby room but to really get in touch with yourself and intend for what it is that you are trying to create through raising this child and growing your family. So that is what I do. I provide all in home visits, I don’t have an office at this time. So my care is just very personalized and in depth, and I meet with clients just as any other home birth midwife would throughout their care. The same kind of schedule, monthly and then bi-weekly, and then as we get closer to the birth weekly, and then I come to their labor and birth. And then we do postpartum, we have 6 weeks of postpartum care. I like to offer a lot of ritual to people, doing closing of the bones rituals and herbals for nutrition - bone broth - just really bringing in that deep well of nourishment to the new mothers. And just being there to process with them what happened with their birth and what that was like for them. So they can integrate as they let go of their old identity and step into the new phase of their motherhood whether it is their first baby or if they are on their 4th or 5th is always much different. And as you know, Angela, there is always so much to take in through the experience of it. So that is really what my care looks like, it is very holistic based, it is very relationship based and there is a lot there. There is a lot of spirit, a lot of sacredness, and that is what I do.
Angela: So your coursework, thats really interesting - its not necessarily just for mothers, it could also be for the partner too?
Rachael: Yeah, so I have had couples just have so many powerful experiences together because maybe they didn’t have the chance to do this type of relating about how they were parented but it is such a wonderful way when the fathers get involved and really do each of the modules. It really just grows the couple in their unification and it’s just really beautiful to watch both of them go through the journey of healing together and really taking this on as - this is our rights of passage - we are becoming parents. Not all the fathers are as willing, but definitely when that happens - there is a certain magic to the birth and to the experience that really just makes me light up. I also train birth workers in my modality so I have a 9 month sacred birth keeper training which we are into the four month of now, the second round of - and that has people from all over the world and all over the country that meet every two week and go through the modules and learn how to be a facilitator of the work that it is that birth through me. It is just a really beautiful community, we definitely support each other a lot in the work that we are doing. So yeah, it’s awesome. There are a lot of layers of what I bring to midwifery. And I am very very honored to have this particular approach, it resonates very deeply with me just to be lighting people up about how powerful it is to become a parent - and how sacred it is to get into that relationship of becoming a parent and walking through it with a lot of consciousness.
Angela: It sounds like your course could be really helpful for anyone
Rachael: Yeah, it could be. I haven’t had any fathers buy the course on their own. So there are two levels how you can interface with the course work - you can either work with a practitioner, so the people I’m training or myself included - can guide you through it. We have zoom sessions where you can go through the modules and you are also having that accountability with a practitioner. Or you can just choose to guide yourself and just go through it and do all the homework - that just makes it available to different people with different financial capabilities. It is obviously going to be more affordable if you're like - ok I’m just going to do this by myself - it’s just harder for people to hold themselves accountable with that. So I do often see people sign up for it - and then they get into it - and then they kind of avoid it, because it’s really deep stuff. And it does kind of take someone holding your hand - or just being like a reflection to you because yeah, things are going to come up - things you don’t want to look at are going to come up, and that’s ok. Just like parenting is, it’s not always easy and it’s not always fun, but that doesn’t mean we don’t do it. So yeah, there is a couple ways to access the course through my website at https://www.elementalbirthrites.com You can join the free membership and there is a bunch of awesome free content. There is a little miscarriage mini course that is free and different videos you can watch more about some of the concepts that we are teaching about presence and ritual and ceremony. And then there is a beautiful library and photos. There is a quiz to help you figure out what kind of elements you might want to work with through your pregnancy that is really fun and free - it sort of starts to introduce what I was telling you earlier about the childhood wounding patterns. So you can find this all at https://www.elementalbirthrites.com. You can purchase the course there, and you can also obviously purchase the practitioner guided course as well so if you don’t live in Maine - you could live nowhere near Downeast Maine and are interested in this - yeah, I would love to welcome you to our community, and get to know you and guide you through your pregnancy - it is very powerful.
Angela: Awesome, I will link all of your information in the show notes so people can find you, and thank you so much Rachael for sharing your story today!
Rachael: Yeah, thank you Angela for having me, and for the work that you do too. It was really beautiful to be in the birth space with you and I can feel that you have a really pure heart when it comes to serving women. So thank you for taking the photos and for being such a calm and kind grounding presence for women, it is wonderful, and I just honor you and honor your podcast and I am very grateful to share today so thank you so much!
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.