our midwives:
Jacqueline Hope Medford
Certified Professional Midwife, massage therapist,
Artist, Healer, grass-roots organizer, Doula

"Women have the innate ability to give birth
with confidence and dignity."

The heart of midwifery is supporting healthy, natural, and gentle birth experiences which honor mother, child, and family. Hope provides personal midwifery care with a friendly touch. She educates and encourages families to understand and remain empowered with birth options, and assists them to make decisions based on their own values. This approach increases healthy outcomes and happy families.

Choosing to approach pregnancy and birth as natural life processes is aligned with the birth practices of many countries in Europe, where statistical outcomes for both moms and babies are better than they are here in the United States.

Hope Medford has been attending births since 1997, and has assisted around 375 families in birthing their babies in the U.S. and abroad.
She trained at the Northern New Mexico Women's Health & Birth Center under the supervision of Elizabeth Gilmore in Taos, New Mexico. That birth center is unique in that it serves more births per capita with midwifery care than any other birth center in the U.S.- approximately 25% of families choose to give birth outside the hospital, as compared with 1-2% in the rest of the country.

Hope graduated from the National College of Midwifery in 1999 and became a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) in 2000. After a small private home birth practice, she moved to Portland to work at the Andaluz Waterbirth Center and earned her Oregon State Midwifery License in 2001. Working at Andaluz, the first Waterbirth Center in the United States, she earned confidence in her experiences with waterbirth.

Hope is also trained in massage, infant cranial sacral therapy, and yoga, thus offering a holistic health perspective to her care. With a background in hospice work, in-home health care, and support work for women and children suffering from domestic violence, it was natural for her to continue to serve families at the precious time of birth.

Hope believes an effective way to bring about the positive changes we want to see in the world is through education. She worked with the African Birth Collective, attending births alongside African Midwives and teaching students in a birth center in Senegal, West Africa. She has also travelled and exchanged knowledge with midwives, nurses, and birth assistants in Peru, Brazil, and South Africa to learn about their countries’ birth practices. Hope is consistently seeking knowledge in natural birth, often looking to blend the wisdom of modern medicine and world traditions.

Hope facilitated The Artemis Institute of Women's Healing Arts workshop seires: Healing Arts for the Childbearing Year. This was an integration of her skills as artist, midwife, drummer, and education coordinator- reintegrating the creative arts with the healing arts. The creative spirit is the heart of birth. As an artist, Hope's paintings often express aspects of women and pregnancy. As a musician, she has co-facilitated drum circles for many families and youth, encouraging communication, confidence and community building through rhythm. As community education organizer, she was a co-founder of the local non-profit, Tryon Life Community Farm, a sustainability education center.

Hope loves her work supporting women and families through their birth process. She feels it is an honor to support families as they grow and an inspiration to witness new life emerging into this world. She feels every family deserves the birth support they need and is glad to be a part of it as both midwife and doula.

"Hope's gentle encouragement, firm support and grounded education gave me the confidence to have the birth I truly longed for. My baby, my partner and I are forever grateful to have found her" - Jen

Please contact us:
Portland ~ 503-343-9911
Vancouver ~ 360-635-5666
...or contact us online!