After years serving as a doula and apprentice midwife, Alexis Starting has been delivering babies since opening her business three years ago
Alexis Starting opened the doors to her private practice, SYV Midwifery, in January 2022 and recently held a ribbon-cutting opening on May 31 of this year.
Midwifery is one of the most ancient professions. It has been around since the beginning of time, offering the opportunity for at-home births. A midwife is a trained medical professional who provides medical care during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum for those who are considered low risk. Midwives serve families with individualized and highly skilled clinical care and are commonly the primary care provider for pregnancy worldwide. It is the standard of care globally, outside of America. As a California Licensed Midwife (LM), Starting serves as a primary health-care provider that women can choose in lieu of an obstetrician/gynecologist.
Starting has served as a combination of both doula and apprentice midwife since 2006, before becoming a licensed midwife in 2021. A doula, she explained, is a person who assists the mother, offering nonmedical techniques during labor, such as breathing, massage, and helping you move into different body positions. A doula is not a substitute for a midwife or doctor since they do not have any medical training. Although she attended births since 2007, her ultimate desire was to become a midwife.
She completed her formal midwifery education through the National Midwifery Institute (NMI) in 2021. She says that her teachers and guides in midwifery have been a combination of indigenous and Western teachers, and she weaves aspects of these modalities into her midwifery care. She believes strongly in the scientific efficacy, common sense, and wisdom of traditional/pre-institutionalized birth and postpartum practices and is committed to learning all she can to bring these support systems back to the community.
Born and raised in Chicago, Starting attended UCSB at 18 and received a degree in religious studies and Native American religious traditions with a minor in indigenous studies.
“At the time, UCSB was the only school offering classes in Native American religious traditions,” said Starting. “I met a Barbareño Ph.D. candidate, Julie Cordero, and I assisted her in her research and herbal medicines. She introduced me to a family who invited me to watch over their two older children while their mother gave birth.
“That’s when I became interested in midwifery, which was about 20 years ago. From that moment, I was certain I wanted to be a midwife. Some of my friends jokingly suggested that I take part in more births before making a final decision,” she added with humor.
Ironically, Starting’s objective had to wait for her own child’s birth.
“My decision was delayed a bit as I became pregnant and moved to San Diego,” she said. “I had a successful home birth there and ended up having an apprenticeship for a year with my midwife, taking my son to the births with me. That was in 2007. She wanted me to pursue licensing at that time, but I opted to wait until my son was older.”
She subsequently volunteered at UCSD Medical Center as a doula and remained there for a few years, continuing with her training in midwifery skills.
“In 2011, I had my second son with another successful home birth and took a break from attending births for three years while raising both of my sons,” she said. “Then we moved back to the Santa Barbara area, and I started a private practice as a doula, and I was very busy attending five to nine births a month.”
In order to become a licensed midwife in California, it is a requirement to attend a midwife school. So, in 2019, she enrolled in the National Midwifery Institute, graduated, received her license in 2021, and opened SYV Midwifery soon after.
“There are a lot of misconceptions about what is required to become a midwife. Each state has different licensing policies. I’m licensed by the California State Medical Board as a primary care provider for low-risk obstetric and gynecological care, which means you can hire me instead of an OBGYN to oversee the entirety of low-risk care, in an out-of-hospital setting, such as your home or a birth center. There are no birth centers here in the Valley at this time, but I have plans on creating one in the near future,” she said.
“I love home births because they are so intimate, personal, undisturbed, and empowering. It gives the newborn the gentlest entry into this world, and I have seen that peace reflected in the babies as well as the mothers. Birth is the intersection between the physical, anatomical, and spiritual, all of which come into play at the delivery stage. It is one of the greatest spiritual mysteries of the universe,” she said. “It is my job to hold on to the containers safely, the mind, body, and spirit of both mother and child, and to listen for what I can do to best assist them both.”
“I have taken on a small number of clients so as to be able to give them full, personalized care through the whole pregnancy and after the birth with multiple home visits to make sure everyone is doing well and thriving,” she added. “I check on the whole person, the mind, body, and spirit, and all aspects of the person to get the complete picture of their well-being and advise my patients should they need more support, such as acupuncture, pelvic floor therapy, and chiropractic. I have great collaborative relationships with certain local OBGYNs if I need to consult or transfer care.”
“Women will remember how they are treated in birth for the rest of their lives, and so will their children,” she added.
When Starting is not attending births, she prioritizes filling her cup and fortifying her nervous system by spending time with family, in nature, and in quiet so that she can be a more balanced and grounded community member. She can also be found sitting by the fire, working with plant medicines, and relearning traditional ways and practices.
For more information, visit www.syvmidwifery.com or email syv.midwife@gmail.com.
