We recently connected with Mikaela Engarde and have shared our conversation below.

Mikaela , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style. Do you have an interesting story from that stage of your career that you can share with us?

I started apprenticing with one of my first preceptors in 2021.
She was a community midwife that worked with a large plain (Amish + Mennonite) population but also served English (non-plain) too. I had worked as a birth doula for roughly 7 years at this point, so labor and birth were nothing new to me.
However, I started to notice that many of the women in the Plain community had fast, uneventful homebirths.
I had spent years supporting women in birth: hospital, home, birth centers.
There was a difference with these births, in this community.
After some time working with this midwife and serving her clients, I had come to the realization that the main reasoning behind the difference can be boiled down to one key factor: they did not fear birth.
They did not fear the process. Their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and friends gave birth naturally at home. It was an everyday (yet extraordinary) part of life.
For us, outside of this close-knit community, birth has become less of that every day, extraordinary part of life, and more of a medical event.
For decades, midwifery care slowly morphed and obstetrical care took over.
But our statistics worsened.
Women were convinced that birth was something to fear and be rescued from.
I saw that alive and active as I supported many women within the medical model of care as a doula.
Through this experience, I gained an even deeper passion to bring birth back to it’s roots.
To encourage women to not fear birth, but to embrace it as a beautiful, everyday miracle.
That God designed the body to be wise and also created the birth process to function well.
Fear has the capacity to hold you back from your God-given potential.
This is true in any area of life, even birth.

Mikaela , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hello, friend! My name is Mikaela Engarde and I am a Christ following wife, mama and Traditional Community Midwife.
I began my birth worker journey as a birth/postpartum doula about a decade ago.
I became a mother at the tender age of 20, and after experiencing lack of support and advocacy during my daughter’s pregnancy, birth and postpartum period, I discovered the true nature of how flawed our maternity care system is.
Because of this birth trauma, I had a very difficult battle with postpartum depression that I fought mostly alone and in isolation.
I believe God used that dark season to call me into this work and fueled the deep passion that grew for ensuring each of my clients are educated in all of their options and supported in all of their choices.
I became certified with The International Doula Institute and offered both birth and postpartum doula services (CBD/CPD), as well as holistic, physiologic Childbirth Education from 2014-2023.
After years of witnessing obstetrical violence, lack of informed consent, policies and procedures that created poor outcomes and overall lack of human rights within the system, I became increasingly disgusted with the state of maternity care in our country.
After the redeeming, Spirit-led and faith filled homebirth of my son in 2017, I very clearly heard the call to midwifery.
Since then, I have apprenticed closely with other community based and experienced midwives over the span of 4+ years. Additionally, I have slowly worked through the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) PEP Process for CPM (Certified Professional Midwife) certification, which is nearing completion.
I now offer homebirth services to healthy, low-risk women in the Greater Philly area.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

Staying humble is probably one of the most important things in continuing this work.
You will never know it all and see it all, because there is so much nuance when it comes to pregnancy and birth.
In midwifery, no matter how experienced you are, each birth brings new lessons. A humble mindset keeps you teachable—open to fresh research, different perspectives, cultural nuances, and insights from your clients.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I have worked in the birth community for about a decade now.
There is so much power in word-of-mouth referrals and reviews!
I think what has helped my reputation the most is providing consistent, quality care for women throughout the community. They then share their experiences with others.
I am passionate about informed consent, transparency and advocacy.
My clients are the ultimate authorities over their care, and every decision made is done so as a team.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://belovedrootsbirth.wixsite.com/belovedrootsbirthllc
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/belovedrootsbirth?igsh=emw2enF1YTBhc29v&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/belovedrootsbirth

Image Credits

Karah Winkler
Native Flower Photography