Holistic Reproductive Health & Education Center
OUR MISSION
We are a midwifery practice that exists to provide exceptional
physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual care for birthing people and their babies on
Vashon Island.
We understand that by nurturing our birthing parents, we encourage
healthy and empowered families, which supports thriving communities, and
all of humanity.
OUR SERVICES
Midwifery
Our comprehensive childbirth midwifery services are available to all families, regardless of where they plan to give birth. Offered as a bundle of services, or selected individually, based on the client’s needs. We are the only pregnancy-care providers and resident birth attendants practicing on Vashon. Additionally, we offer end-of-life midwifery care to assist an elderly person and their loved ones before, during, and after death.
Doula
A childbirth doula is a skilled professional providing emotional support, information and education, and physical comfort to birthing people before, during, and shortly after childbirth. A postpartum doula is here to accompany newly postpartum families through the transitional time at home with a new baby.
Bodywork
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Our bodywork services are provided in-house, or through a referral to other pregnancy-specific bodyworkers located on Vashon. We offer unique abdominal therapies, including a holistic cesarean recovery service. We also offer gentle newborn support for babies experiencing fascial tension and oral restrictions.
Fertility
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Awaken fertility through holistic services that combine ancient and modern practices including nutrition and herbalism, acupuncture, preconception health screening and testing, genetic health screening, counseling, and conception support.
Lactation
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In depth, one-on-one lactation support from the client’s home or in our clinic office. Our lactation services are available to all island families and are provided by licensed midwives and/or IBCLC professionals.
A MESSAGE FROM OUR
FOUNDER & MIDWIFE
Welcome! Thank you for being here. I sincerely appreciate you considering offering your business to our local nonprofit for all of your pregnancy and childbirth-related needs.
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My passion for this work is derived from the belief that birthing can be one of our greatest achievements as human beings, birthing is inherently transformational, and birth itself is a physiological event. As midwife Ina May Gaskin proclaims, "Remember this, for it is as true as true gets: Your body is not a lemon. You are not a machine. Our creator is not a careless mechanic. Human female bodies have the same potential to give birth as well as lions, rhinoceri, elephants, moose, and water buffalo. Even if it has not been your habit throughout your life so far, I recommend that you learn to think positively about your body.”
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If we begin with the assumption that birth is or will be a medical event, it will only ever be a medical event. So it is imperative that we treat birth as the physiological event that it is, understanding that sometimes birth does require medical resources and being ready with those resources in case the need arises.
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The midwifery care provided here at Vashon Island Midwifery utilizes the ancient, artful, and experience-based technologies of global perinatal health, in collaboration with our evidence-based, modern medicine methods of diagnosis and treatment. Midwifery care has been shown to be the safest option for low-risk pregnancies, with the best outcomes for parents and babies.
As your midwife, it is an absolute honor and privilege to be invited into your family to witness, support, and facilitate a space for you to feel empowered throughout your birth experience. No matter where you intend to give birth, know that we are here in support of you.
May you have the resources and support to be held in the tenderness and resiliency of this perinatal experience.
May you trust in the intelligence of yourself, your body, your innate wisdom, and the sanctity of life.
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May you experience what it feels like to surpass any perceived limits you have about what you are capable and worthy of in life and in birth.
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Your midwife-
Katelyn Costley
CORE VALUES
WHOLE-PERSON CARE
HEALTH EQUITY
INFORMED DECISION MAKING
TRAUMA-INFORMED
REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE
SOVEREIGN BIRTH
RESPECT FOR CULTURAL VALUES
CONFIDENTAL
We acknowledge that our community occupies the land of the sx̌ʷəbabš ("swiftwater people").
UPCOMING EVENTS & CLASSES
​Childbirth Education Series
Childbirth education can be scheduled as a private or group series.
The offering is facilitated by a midwife and covers a range of topics that allow for a deep understanding of the childbirth experience.
When held as a group, this series is also a great way to meet other expectant parents!
Contact us to inquire about our next childbirth education offering.
Film Screening / Live Q&A
Why Not Home? The stories of doctors, nurses, and midwives who choose to have home births.
Why would doctors who attend birth in hospitals choose to have their own babies at home? What do they know about birth that others don’t?
Join Jessicca Moore, filmmaker and nurse practitioner, on a compelling journey through maternity care in the United States. Told through the lens of doctors, nurses, and midwives, Why Not Home? examines the latest evidence on risks and rewards of different birth and accessible view on the latest research, along with moving personal stories of medical practitioners faced with big decisions for their own growing families. Viewers are challenged to move beyond preconceived ideas, and to envision a fresh future for maternity care in America.
Postpartum & Baby Wellness Series
Join us for this postpartum and baby wellness series, where we explore cross-cultural ways of being that support a physiological postpartum recovery and thriving baby after birth.
This education and planning series can be scheduled for private couples or for a group.
Contact us to inquire about our next postpartum and baby care offering.
TESTIMONIALS
"Vashon Island Midwifery is exactly what our island needed! Katelyn was our midwife for the birth of my second baby here at home on the island. Katelyn's knowledge, skills, demeanor, and wisdom were an incredible gift for my pregnancy and birth and postpartum journey. She was professional, attentive, kind, communicative, and deeply caring throughout. Her practice is family-friendly - in fact my older son said after birth - 'Can you have another baby so I can go to Katelyn's office again?'" - Client
CONTACT US
Vashon Island Midwifery
vashionislandmidwifery.com | Email: info@vashionislandmidwifery.com