Laura
Gilbert was
born in El Paso, Texas but spent her childhood in Michigan and Northern
Indiana. Goshen, Indiana has been her home since 1983.
Laura first became interested in midwifery in her teenage years after witnessing the hospital birth of her sister, Sarah, in 1989. Her mother had desired a homebirth but could not find a midwife and she told Laura that the birthing experience could be much more positive than her hospital experience.
Laura read about nutrition, women's health and midwifery on her own until early 1993 when she returned to the place of her birth for a three-month internship at Casa de Nacimiento in El Paso, Texas. Casa de Nacimiento is a freestanding birth center run by non-nurse-midwives who serve the mainly Latino population of El Paso and Juarez, Mexico. During those three months, Laura attended 85 births and "caught" nearly 30 babies. "Casa" was the ideal place for Laura to begin her education because the true, natural rhythm of birth has been preserved there. Few people see so many labors and births progress unhindered and with such success as at Casa.
Upon returning from El Paso, Laura enrolled at Goshen College while working as a birth assistant to a direct-entry midwife with a homebirth practice. While working with the direct-entry midwife, Laura began to witness the complete course of pregnancy from prenatal visits, to childbirth and postpartum home visits. This experience led Laura to fall in love with homebirth and appreciate the special relationship that people have with their midwives. After more self-study Laura passed the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) written exam in 1995.
After two years away from school, Laura returned to Goshen College in early 1996 with a major in nursing and the goal to become a nurse-midwife. While her roots were in lay or direct-entry midwifery, Laura recognized that a career in nurse-midwifery would provide greater opportunities and ability to be available to more women. While the nursing school curriculum often was not concentrated on women's and infants' health, Laura appreciated the broad education in health as well as the introduction to the medical culture. During nursing school she continued to attend births as an assistant to several different birth attendants: including two nurse-midwives attending homebirths and family physicians at New Eden Care Center, a freestanding birth center in Shipshewana, Indiana.
Laura graduated with honors from nursing school in the spring of 1999. She married Ryan Stoy in the summer of 1999 and began Georgetown University's Nurse-Midwifery Program in Washington, D.C. in the fall. While she attended births in several hospitals during graduate school, her main integration experience was with BirthCare a practice of nurse-midwives in Alexandria, Virginia who helped women give birth at home or in a freestanding birth center. Laura graduated from Georgetown University in December of 2000.
On December 4th, 2000 Laura gave birth to her daughter, Iyla Maeve Stoy, at home in Goshen, Indiana. The pregnancy and labor, while hard at times, progressed safely and naturally. Motherhood has certainly added to Laura's understanding of her clients' experiences.
When Iyla was only six weeks old, Laura passed the ACNM accreditation exam in January 2001. After spending a few months mothering Iyla, with wonderful support from her husband, Ryan, Laura opened her homebirth midwifery practice in August 2001.