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My background
I was born at home by midwives on an intentional community in rural Tennessee called The Farm. In this community all women had their babies at home with midwives, so I grew up thinking this was the norm. This community has birthed over 2,000 babies in the last twenty years and has some of the best birth statistics in the country (to view their statistics go to http://www.thefarm.org/charities/mid.html). As I was growing up my mother used to attend births as an assistant to the midwives, and she would come home to tell me their stories. I was fascinated. By about the age of twelve I knew I wanted to be a midwife. |
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| I began attending births in 1995 as a labor coach while I attended my first midwifery program, a three month intensive with Elizabeth Davis in San Francisco. I was blessed with witnessing my first birth on my 21st birthday. After this experience I went back to The Farm to apprentice with the midwives there for the summer. In 1999, I graduated with honors from midwifery school at Miami-Dade College. As part of my training I had the opportunity to attend births in Jamaica and Haiti. Once licensed, I attended births in Honduras as a preceptor for midwifery students. After obtaining my midwifery license, I decided to go on to nursing school and graduated, again with honors, in 2001. I hold two licenses, one as a midwife and one as a nurse. As a registered nurse I specialize in the neonatal intensive care unit, caring for sick and premature newborns. This experience has added to my midwifery skills in that it has given me more expertise with the babies. For the past two years I have served on the board of the National Association of Certified Professional Midwives, a courageous and inspiring group of midwives who are working tirelessly to make sure that women all across the country continue to have access to midwifery care. Perhaps the most important part of my midwifery training came this year when I became a mother myself. Giving birth was certainly the most difficult, profound, and empowering thing I have ever done, and I have been deeply humbled by it. I have a newfound respect for all of the women and babies I have served and will continue to serve. I couldn’t have done it without the support, encouragement, and love from my three wonderful midwives, my sister, my mother, and Yves. My beautiful daughter, Nehama Renat, is certainly the love of my life, and motherhood my greatest teacher. Click here to read her birth story. I find birth to be one of the most awe-inspiring and profoundly spiritual experiences that we have as humans. I consider it an honor and blessing to be present with women during this incredible right of passage, and it is my dream to help more and more women discover the infinite source of strength and power that they have as the bearers of new life. Pregnancy, birth, and motherhood offer tremendous opportunities for growth and empowerment, and I have seen women, time and time again, discover this for themselves. This is what makes midwifery such a joy and a blessing. |
  Corina with her daughter Nehama * Photos by www.EdwinAntonio.com |
| Besides being a midwife I am also a professional drummer and dancer. I founded the Takada Women’s Ensemble, an all female percussion ensemble playing traditional West African, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Haitian, and Middle Eastern music. I have been dancing since age 5 and perform with several different groups. I offer bellydance classes for pregnant women as a way of preparing the body for birth, which is actually one of the original functions of this beautiful artform. To see a feature article about my practice in The New Times, go to http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2004-03-18/news/cuts-you-up/ |
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Bellymama Midwifery * Corina Fitch, L.M., R.N., C.P.M.
Bellymama Midwifery is a private midwifery practice offering pre-pregnancy counseling,
complete prenatal care, childbirth education, blessingways, and bellymasks,
home and birth center birth,VBAC, waterbirth, postpartum care, and breastfeeding support.