About Me

A vibrant landscape featuring mountains, a lake, and a clear blue sky, perfect for outdoor activities.

Where I am Now

I walk with women and families as a sovereign birth companion. Some people refer to me as a traditional birth attendant.

I'm also a guide for families exploring or planning freebirth.

I walk with people as they unveil their own truths, find their own way.

I walk with women. I'm not an authority over my clients.

I've served about 300 family-units for all things pregnancy, birth, and parenting. I've witnessed over 200 births, some sovereign and some under the obstetric system.

I see it that controlling birth outcomes, controlling the mother-newborn dyad, and controlling a person's destiny are all things that are not within my power to control, nor am I entitled to pursue control over these things

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I do respond in the moment as needed; if help is needed then it's about people helping people.

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Some of my clients come to me already fully sovereign, some start out in the system, and some create a hybrid.

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To connect with me, please sign up on the main page of this site for a discovery session.

My Path

PRIOR TO WALKING AS A SOVEREIGN BIRTH COMPANION (ask about joining our membership), I was a child myself, mothered my three children into adulthood, and worked 24 years in the medical paradigm: 18 years in cardiology and six years as a doula. I've had many certificates, degrees, credentials, and jobs.

I've also experienced all sorts of life happenings, many life happenings now because I'm old.

It's totally freeing to be a sovereign birth companion; my work and life are ONE.

Always, I listen to women.

I'm a naturally born midwife as defined in the classical way (dictionary, spiritual, and traditional definitions here, not the government's definition), a mother, friend, wife, earth worshipper, river walker, yogi, reiki practitioner, and a woman rich with life experiences. I'm deeply grateful for all of this.

I'm now an author. Words From Our Wombs can be found on Amazon.

My default is to be outside.

I'm deep in everything midwifery as shared by Oni Lee Logan, Whapio, Anne Frye, Sister MorningStar, Naoli Vinaver, Qiddist Ashe, Susun Weed, Talise Homebirth Queen, Heather Baker, Jennifer Block, Bridge Midwifery and the traditional midwives that they feature, other traditional midwives, in-system midwives, all kinds of people's birth stories, Dr. Sara Wickham, Dr. Stu, Breech Without Borders, Kemi Joy Johnson, and many local people.

I'm not a medical provider, nor am I in the process of becoming one. I do learn from sources within the medical paradigm.

MY ROOTS: I honor my ancestors, especially my mom Eunice Dittmer Girard and my main spirit guide grandmother Ann Keune Girard, my own children, friends, all kinds of people, Mother Earth, books, and just being.

Peace, and sincerely, Martha

Newborn emergence

As I move and learn along the path of sovereign birth work, I'm awed by the physiological, social, and spiritual weavings of the mother-child dyad.

My work is premised on a deep reverence to the mother-child dyad. A newborn is divinely and physiologically designed to be inseparable from her/his mother.

I've witnessed the drastic difference between sovereign birth and in-system delivery during these moments, minutes, hours, and sometimes days post birth.

I see the mother-newborn dyad as sacred; my view is unlike anything that is now and has been presented in the mainstream in the U.S. for at least the last 60 to 70 years.

I follow the mother with humility and love. I see it that mothers are the guardians of their newborns.

I've deepened my understanding about the newborn's transition from womb to earth by guidance from my own cellular wisdom, Whapio, SisterMorning Star, and traditional midwives.

I continue to deepen this understanding by studying "scientific" research, studying physiology, and by over and over replaying in my mind the births I've witnessed with attention to what happened in each case during the newborn's transition from womb life to air breathing. By replaying here it means not just "seeing" exactly what happened, but recalling sound, scent, and energy.

Image shared with permission.

Credentials and such

-Credentialed by Whapio's Matrona for Holistic Midwifery + five other Whapio credentials. I have a holistic midwifery education.

-Currently enrolled in Matriz Weavers midwifery school.

-I learn from all kinds of birth workers: traditional midwives, sovereign birth-workers, in-system people, holistic providers, and more.

-Ongoing review of the births I've witnessed.

-Ongoing review of Whapio's holistic midwifery course and other courses.

-Credentialed, Breech 101 and Breech Pro 2, Breech without Borders.

-Credentialed, Breech and Twins Master class, BWB in-person training 2025.

-Certified, Neonatal resuscitation.

-Formerly certified, BLS and CPR.

-Credentialed, EBL, Blood-Born Pathogens, Karen Strange NNR, resolving shoulder dystocia, and other one-time courses.

-Credentialed, Sovereign Cycles Practitioner, Qiddist Ashe/The Holy Well.

-Birth Keeper, Free Birth Society. (I'm aware of the attacks on FBS. I may share my personal truth on this if that serves you.)

-Completed, Innate postpartum, Rachelle Garcia.

-Credentialed, Hands-on breech workshop, Dr. Stu.

-Credentialed, Blood Mysteries, Nancy Lucina and Kristin Hauser.

-Certified doula x 3: Well Rounded, Hypnobabies, MTM.

-Credentialed, Lactation support person.

-Certified, CBE x 2.

-Credentialed, Spinning Babies x 2.

-Certified, Reiki Practitioner Level II.

-Credentialed, Prenatal yoga instructor, certified and a practicing yogi.

-Expired now, I was a certified cardiac ultrasound tech.