Who is Marlene?

I was born in Redondo Beach California and moved to Fargo North Dakota when I was in first grade. We moved to Worthington Ohio where I found my love for painting. When I was sixteen I found out that I was pregnant with my first child. I finished my last year of high school as a student of art at Fort Hayes School of Fine arts in Columbus Ohio. As a confused teenager I put all my energy into my paintings which I soon realized had to do with pregnancy and childbirth. At the end of my senior year I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl whom I placed for adoption. After ten years I went back to school in Gunnison and received a BFA (Bachelors of Fine Art) in painting focusing on pregnancy and childbirth. The summer before my last year of college I married a wonderful man and became pregnant once again. At the end of the school year our daughter Prairie was born and I finally got to become a mother with a child.

In 2001 we moved to Montana so my husband could finish his degree in Resource Conservation. Strangely I found myself surrounded by pregnant women. At the beginning of 2004 a friend of mine was having some trouble one day in her pregnancy and I rushed over to her house. After I had spent some time with her she asked me if I had ever considered becoming a doula. After I came back home I researched the idea which immediately seemed like something that I should be doing and started on the track of becoming a birth doula.

My husband daughter and I moved back to Gunnison in the summer of 2005, after living in Arlee Montana for a little over three years. I continued working as a doula in Gunnison and soon realized that I had been called to do more. I started studying midwifery soon after we settled back in Gunnison. The more births I attend the more I feel that becoming a midwife is the path I am called to follow.

I am now a Certified Professional Midwife, and Registered Midwife, through the state of Colorado. I am current in my certification of Neonatal Resuscitation and CPR.

 

Education and Training

• B.F.A. Bachelors of Fine Arts, Painting, Western
• State College, Gunnison Colorado
• Graduate from the Midwives College of Utah
• 2.5 Year apprenticeship with a homebirth midwife
• Member of Midwives Alliance of North America
• Member of Colorado Midwives Association
• Certified Neonatal Resuscitation and Adult CPR