About The Midwife
Ireena began teaching childbirth classes in LaGrange county, Indiana in 1991. Her
focus was to educate and change the options offered to women who birthed in the
hospital. She educated families about their options providing information about
episiotomies, IV's, and other routine procedures that were being performed on them. She
taught classes for about 10 years, with many of her classes as full as 20-25 couples in a
class. Most of the time, those couples were all Amish. Slowly changes occurred in the
county and as they did, eventually more midwives moved into the area to practice.
Soon a free standing Amish owned birth center was built and many of the counties
couples began to birth in this birth center instead of the local hospital.
About the same time, she began working at WIC as a Peer breast feeding counselor, and then began working in the local hospital as an assistant to the nurses in OB. (You have to ask her in person what else she went on to get as far as degrees due to the fact that the state of Michigan restricts her in telling you in writing).
Ireena began working with the local home birth midwives assisting with home births about the year the free standing birth center opened, and did that for almost 10 years. During this time, she decided to became a midwife herself and began her training. After researching the choices of Midwifery paths available to her, she chose to became a CPM. She now works as a CPM-(Certified Professional Midwife), doing home births and births at a free standing birth center.
She has passed two national exams, (one a written and one a hands on from NARM) receiving the internationally recognized midwifery certification CPM (Certified Professional Midwife) from the North American Registry of Midwifery (NARM). To maintain her CPM certification she is required to do the following:
~Maintain her child/adult CPR certification
~Maintain her Neonatal Resuscitation certification
~Have 30 hours of continuing education every 3 years
Ireena has her Associates in the Science of Midwifery, graduating with honors and is a life time member of Phi Theta Kappa. She enrolled in the Bridge Certificate program from NARM, earning her bridge certificate.
Ireena is currently a licensed Midwife in Indiana, with the credentials CDEM, Certified Direct Entry Midwife and licensed in Michigan with the credentials LM-Licensed Midwife.
She maintains her membership in the following:
IMA, (Indiana Midwives Association)
MMA (Michigan Midwives Association)
ACBP (Association of Christian Birth Professionals).
She serves on the advisory board for ACBP and is one of the founding members.
Other Certifications/Workshops/Accomplishments:
~Associates in the Applied Science of Midwifery from Wisconsin Technical College
~She has served on the board for IMA
~She has served on the board for CMI (Christian Midwives International)
~She has written numerous articles for the Midwifery Journal: Midwifery Today.
~She maintains her Neonatal Resuscitation from the American Heart Association
~She maintains her Basic Life Support (BLS/CPR) from the American Heart Association
~She is S.T.A.B.L.E. certified
~She has taken the class from Mercy In Action Certificate in Pharmacology for Midwives
~She has taken Gail Tullys Spinning Babies and Shoulder Dystocia workshop
~She takes and successfully completes the Birth Emergency Training Training (B.E.S.T.) taught by Andrea Dixon, CNM-every three years.
~She has had numerous college classes in Health Care (4 years-ask her in person about these & degrees earned)
~Numerous workshops, conferences-attended from California to Georgia! She attends conferences yearly.
~She has taught at numerous conferences for Midwives, almost yearly for the past 15 years.
When not working with birthing families, teaching at a midwifery conference, hosting a midwifery conference, or writing for midwifery journals- Ireena enjoys spending time with her family and 5 grandchildren. In her 'spare time', she enjoys photography, drawing, painting, gardening, sewing, knitting and crocheting. She is an Artist at heart and the photos below are some of her work/paintings. Ireena is a believer of YHWH GOD-they attend a home fellowship.
Photos from Wild Rose Photos
