Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittney Clay.
Hi Brittney, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Becoming a midwife was something I became interested in after having my first child. He was born in a hospital. I planned his induction, got an epidural as soon as I got there, and then was warned by nurses that the birth would probably end in a cesarean section. There is definitely an importance in cesarean, but it wasn’t going to be my first choice. I was very nervous about recovering from abdominal surgery all while learning to become a mom. The birth went smoothly, though, and my first son was born in 2003. Afterwards, though, I just felt that the whole experience was not what I expected. I felt like there should be more. The nursing staff was actually great, but I had never met them. The one person that I was familiar with only came in at the end, just before I delivered my baby. As I grew as a mother, I learned that there are other choices for birth experiences, that many people choose to birth their babies in community settings – birth centers and in their own home! As I talked to more people, I realized this was something I was passionate about and wanted to explore this for my future births. It took my husband another son to catch on, but by our third, we were all in and it was such a wonderful experience. But, by this time, I felt like it was too late in my life for me to actually explore as a career option, I had three kids and was not in a place to work outside the house. Years passed and I had two more children, both born in the hospital, one was a 34-week preemie and the fifth was a 27-week micro-preemie. After they were born, I dealt with a lot of birth trauma related to my experiences, and about that same time I was approached by my long-time good friend (who turned into my midwifery partner, Amy Tate) with a brochure for a midwifery school and her telling me, “You’re going here.”
Years later, with the support of a handful of community midwives and a ton of support from my family, who had to say goodbye to their stay-at-home mom who was always available for everything turned mom who wasn’t available for anything because she was “always at a birth,” I graduated from Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, passed the NARM, and begun practicing alongside Amy Tate, CPM, LM, at Swiss Avenue Birth and Wellness. I absolutely love what I do. I trained in a very high-volume birth center where I felt I barely got to know patients because we were seeing up to 30 births in a month, to now serving a much smaller clientele, where we get to spend an hour with each patient at their appointments. We get to know their hopes and worries in growing their families, their excitement over their birth, and all the pertinent birth and pregnancy stuff, but we also get to know about what’s going on at work, what are their stressors, what their dogs’ names are, and things their other children are dealing with. All of these things can have a positive or negative effect on a pregnancy and birth outcome, so our appointments are much more than just looking at vitals of the parent and baby. What we have is truly special and I love getting to build relationships with families as they grow. I look back at all the time I spent dreaming about becoming a midwife, but feeling too old. I think back to when I started my formal schooling journey, after turning 40, and now so glad I just took that first step knowing that each year that passed would be a year that could have been checked off of my education and apprenticeship. This truly has been such an important journey in knowing that it’s not too late, if something is important to you, chase that dream.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. I did workshops with Jennie Joseph in Florida and will never forget sitting, waiting on a phone call from a physician. The office manager could tell that something was wrong and I explained to her that I had a biopsy done on my breast and was just waiting on the news, that there had been a delay for further testing, etc. That I was trying to put on a strong face, explained that I don’t have time to take away from school, that I’m already over 40 and can’t have a delay. She looked at me and said, “This is midwifery school. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t go through something HUGE before graduation and licensing.” Luckily, after sending my biopsy off to Cornell University, it came back negative. It was a huge relief, but a stressful time working to pass test out’s and trying to figure out if I needed to make arrangements for surgery and chemotherapy. It was also a huge adjustment for my family. Before starting school, I was a costume designer at one of my son’s children’s theater. I designed at least 2-3 shows per year, worked 1-2 camps every summer, and spent a lot of my time working shows. When I wasn’t working shows I was taking my four other boys to other activities. My husband was working two jobs so I could go to school and continue my apprenticeship (which had me away from home for 50-60 hours per week many weeks), so my teenage boys ended up filling roles that I had done all of their lives. They helped younger siblings with homework, got dinner on the table a couple of nights a week, and, more often than not, did school pick up. Many nights they went to bed without me and woke up without me. This was all a big adjustment for everyone.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Swiss Avenue Birth?
We are a brand-new birth center on historic Swiss Avenue! We are a boutique practice, limiting our care to eight to ten clients a month. We specialize in supporting families in holistic prenatal care, birth, and postpartum support. We are different from many other birth centers because, not only do we plan to continue to keep our numbers low, but we also plan to only staff three midwives, utilizing each other as assistants and creating a birth team in which our clients will only have people they know and trust at their birth. We currently have two midwives and one student, who we hope will join us when she graduates. This will allow us to always support our patients with both a midwife and birth assistant that they have spent their whole pregnancy getting to know. We feel the comfort and safety of our patients is our highest priority and having a birth team that truly knows you creates safety in that intimate space. We are excited to be here on Swiss Avenue and excited to build more relationships as we watch our community grow through natural and holistic birth experiences.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
I wouldn’t have even taken that first step without the push I needed from Amy Tate. We met ages ago when our older children were nurslings through a mom’s “board” called Dallas Area Moms. She had been with me through the birth of my last son. She was going to be my care provider but things took a turn that led me to become high-risk. She helped find all the resources I needed through that time and was there for delivery. Then, when she could see that I was ready, she nudged me to begin healing from my birth experience and pushed me towards finally taking that step. I began classes and shortly thereafter, began my apprenticeship. She walked beside me through each semester and encouraged me when I would mess up. She pushed me hard and had high expectations, which was probably one of the reasons I was the first in my class to become licensed and graduated with honors. She made sure I met other school requirements and encouraged me to reach out to other community midwives to learn from. I was happy to also have Rachel Slaughter, CPM, LM, Megan Desrochers, CPM, LM, and Cori Lively, CPM, LM all on my team, pushing me through the finish line and reminding me that I knew what I was doing, that I was well studied and well prepared for licensing exams, and they were all there for me to celebrate when I passed. Then, as I stepped into the role of staff midwife at Swiss Avenue Birth, I continued to have support from all of these midwives from the community. It truly is a great community where if there’s ever a question about things, you know you have a team of other midwives you can count on to provide knowledge and resources. They’ve all encouraged the growth of Swiss Avenue Birth as well. I love being part of a community where we know there are so many people needing support through birth that it isn’t a competition but an honor to be chosen. There is a midwife for everyone and finding the best fit is so important.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://swissavebirth.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swissavebirthandwellness/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swissavebirth
Image Credits
Erin Beth Birth Photography
Sharon White Photography
