We were lucky to catch up with Christy Cannon recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Christy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.
As a long time NICU nurse of 20+ years, I saw a lot of unnecessary medical intervention around labor and childbirth in the hospital setting. It bothered me that women weren’t given choices about their body, and their birth experience. I witnessed providers making choices out of convenience, staffing ratios, and other external factors that often were not in the best interest of the patient. I always knew I wanted to go back to school for my masters in nursing, and when my youngest child of five was in preschool, I started exploring options and wondering where I could make the most impact. I attended a spiritual psychology program in 2017 at the University of Santa Monica where we dove into questions such as, “what brings you joy and purpose in your work?” As I was discovering more about why I loved my job, I was asked to attend a home birth of a dear friend and witnessed the raw and extraordinary experience of natural childbirth. I felt the call to midwifery as I realized my favorite part of my job was going to the deliveries and witnessing birth! After watching the midwives assist my friend through labor and childbirth, I felt the call to midwifery and decied that was the path for me. In that moment, I felt that I was born to be a midwife!
By that Fall, I was a student at Georgetown University where I learned about women’s health and specialized in midwifery, eventually earning degrees for Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner (WHNP). I traveled far and wide to complete the requirements for licensure which laid the foundation for my future career. After graduation I worked as a CNM Hospitalist for 3 years which gave me the experience to open my own midwife practice where I live in Thousand Oaks, California. We bought our first home near the local hospital so I could start the process of pioneering a midwife program and start working with the women of my own community – a dream that has been unfolding for many years! I opened my own practice, The Midwife & More, in January 2024 to offer out-of-hospital, holistic birth and full-scope women’s health care including annual exams, family planning/contraception, and hormone therapy. I am currently in the process of obtaining CNM privileges at Los Robles Hospital and will soon be able to offer the midwife-led model of care in the hospital setting as the first nurse midwife in my community. This will be a great honor and privilege to work with the women of Conejo Valley, and a dream come true for me!
Christy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
As a certified nurse midwife, or CNM, I have a wide scope of practice. There are different types of midwives, and I’m a full scope provider which means I can have hospital privileges and offer birth in any setting. As a nurse practitioner, I can take care of well woman/primary care needs such as annual exams including cervical cytology screening, lab work, hormone therapy, prescriptions and more. I named my practice The Midwife & More because I can do many things beyond pregnancy and childbirth. My vision for my midwife practice is to bring patients in at any stage of life and build a trusting relationship where I can take care of their health care needs through the years including pregnancy, birth, postpartum, well-woman care needs and peri/menopause care.
As a CNM, I can also transfer my patients and continue their care at the hospital once I obtain privileges at Los Robles Hospital. This means if my patient desires a home or birth center birth, and we need to transfer to the hospital, I can stay with them as their provider until the end, even if they need a C-section because I am trained as a surgical first assistant and can assist the physician in surgery, if needed. I also have many years experience as a registered nurse, and have a unique set of skills as NICU nurse which serves me well as a midwife.
I work as a concierge midwife, available for my patients 24/7 for any concerns, day or night. My practice is based on cura personalis, the philosophy I learned at Georgetown Univeristy which means “care of the whole woman.” My clients will receive personalized care, catered to their individual needs. At The Midwife & More, you will get “more” than just the basics. My care goes far beyond the standard of care, offering home visits and phone calls when clients have questions, urgent situations, or need extra support.
Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?
My favorite quote that hangs in my office is by Mary Oliver: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
My journey of becoming a midwife has been a lot of work – literal blood, sweat and tears to get me to this point and I am grateful for all encouragement from others, stepping stones, and remarkable experiences along the way that have stretched me beyond my comfort zone and taught me to be resilient, have courage, and grow stronger. Midwifery is not for everyone. It takes a lot of grit and dedication, a strong work ethic, and the ability to stay calm under pressure. There are long nights without sleep, the possibility of getting a phone call any hour of the day or night, the willingness to change plans last-minute for the needs of my patients that always come first, and other challenges of “the midwife life.” Along with the difficult parts, come many joys and beautiful things that I feel privileged to be part of and will always hold in my heart. It is an honor to be with women in their most vulnerable and intimate moments, and guide them through labor and childbirth. One of my favorite things about being a midwife is not only watching the birth of a baby, but also watching the birth of a mother. It is truly indescribable!
If I could go back, I would choose the same career because it is my passion and my dream to offer a better option for women in my community. To honor their preferences and give them a choice to birth with a midwife in a hospital. I currently offer out-of-hospital birth in my birth center or the patient’s home, but soon will have CNM privileges and feel honored to be the first midwife at Los Robles Hospital. I’ve been working toward this goal for many years, and although it’s been challenging to start my own practice, and trail blaze a path for CNMs to work at Los Robles, it has also been rewarding and full of purpose and joy.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
My time at Georgetown University was incredible in many ways. I had amazing professors from all over the country who taught live, online classes so I could be home raising my kids and continue my education via Zoom classes while my children were in school. The program was built for busy people like myself who wanted to continue their education, and I was grateful for that option as a mother of five children and a NICU nurse. I learned so much there and met amazing people who helped me embrace graduate school and find balance in my life as an adult learner.
Perhaps the most difficult challenge was securing clinical placements for midwifery. I was a midwife student during the pandemic which made it near impossible to find a clinical placement. I traveled far and wide in order to meet the requirements to graduate, including 2-3 hour commutes each way for placements far from home, and moving out of state for the summer of 2021 in order to finish my clinical requirements
Unfortunately, I had some preceptors that were not supportive of midwife students, which obviously made everything even more difficult as I was working so hard and sacrificing time with my family. I had to dig deep and build resiliency in order to finish my hours with the preceptors that were not helpful, and it took grit to get through those long shifts! I did my best to make it positive, and continue my learning despite the hostile environment at times. Fortunately, I also had many wonderful preceptors to learn from who were kind and invested in my learning, who became my mentors for which I will always be grateful! This experience reminded me of the importance of being kind and respectful to others, and treat others as you would want to be treated.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.themidwifeandmore.com
- Instagram: themidwifeandmore
- Facebook: Christy Connolly Cannon
- Linkedin: Christine Cannon
Image Credits
Gina Main – photographer
Tracy Cianflone – photographer