We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nancy Pol.

Nancy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Setting up an independent practice is a daunting endeavor. Can you talk to us about what it was like for you – what were some of the main steps, challenges, etc.

Growing up, I always knew I wanted to be in service to others. Caring for them at one of the most life changing times in their lives. Hearing about pregnancy always intrigued me. I started my journey as a nurse. I worked for years in the hospital setting, I did in home care, however, it was the birth of our oldest son, who is now 16 that affirmed becoming a Midwife is who God had called me to be.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Growing up, I always knew I wanted to be in service to others. Caring for them at one of the most life changing times in their lives. Hearing about pregnancy always intrigued me. I started my journey as a nurse. I worked for years in the hospital setting, I did in home care, however, it was the birth of our oldest son, who is now 16 that affirmed becoming a Midwife is who God had called me to be. Not only the physical act of caring for women and families, but also the awareness and education of how one can be cared for became so important to me.
I entered graduate school in 2010. I specialized in nurse midwifery.
As I was receiving my training, I was able to serve families in all settings- Home, Birth Center, and Hospital. I truly believe that the best place to give birth is where you feel the most comfortable, my hope is that most low risk, women and families feel comfortable in their own home. Interventions start the minute a low risk woman leaves her home. One of the biggest things I began to realize is families would feel a lot more comfortable knowing the background, the training, the knowledge base that nurse midwifery provides. Only 2% of nurse midwives work in the home setting attending to women who desire to birth at home, so doing so definitely sets our practice apart.
I served the community in Southern California since 2010. I founded Emergence Midwifery + Wellness in 2018 after a deep desire to provide loving, holistic care in the home setting and being able to come alongside families and make informed decisions together. After I moved to the east valley in Arizona, I restarted Emergence Midwifery in March 2020. Providing Perinatal in-home care which is prenatal labor, birth, and postpartum, is what a majority of our families seek out services for. Additionally, we provide well women care, lab draws, preconception care, family planning, birth control, IV therapy, placenta encapsulation, and lactation consulting.
In January 2022, Caitlyn Laney and Kayla Padgett join me in practice to expand our midwifery services. It allowed for our two Midwife model of care at births, which is also something that is unique to the care we provide.
As we have continually served the East Valley for the last three years, intentionally limiting the number of families we provide care for, it has become apparent that this model is desired outside of our current care radius.
It is with a grateful heart that as of June 2023, we will be expanding to Phoenix, Scottsdale and certain parts of the West Valley, as we welcome another certified nurse midwife to our team, Jessica Olano.
I am proud of the model of care that we provide to our Emergence families, however, I’m also extremely proud of the model of care in which we get to do business in. It puts sustainability at the forefront. It values ourselves as women, wives, and mothers. And it blesses us in more ways than we could have imagined. God has been so good to us.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

The first Midwife to join me and Practice I was Caitlyn Laney. It was summer of 2021. I had been in solo practice for quite some time, but just over a year after restarting in Arizona. I was also newly pregnant with her fourth baby, and had severe hyperemesis gravidarum. I got a quick message to Facebook messenger reaching out, introducing herself telling me that she’s another local homebirth Midwife in it if I needed anything to let her know because she wasn’t quite sure how I was so sick and managing to run a practice. At the time I thanked her, but didn’t think much of it. Retrospectively, I look back and think, wow! God was doing big, big things even then, because I had prayed about the right person to come into my life, both personally and professionally and work alongside me. When you start your own business from nothing – twice, you do not just bring on anyone! As time passed, I had mentioned the message to two Emergence mothers that were currently in care, knowing they had worked with her before in the birth setting. Each one of them separately made a comment that if I were to ever go into practice with anyone, Caitlyn was the one! With that insight from two people that I know and love, I reached back out and said, “maybe we should chat?” to which she almost immediately said “how is tomorrow morning?!”
I went to the Olive Mill that morning thinking we could chat for 15 minutes about how she could help me out while I was on postpartum leave to cover caring for my families. Three hours later, we not only discovered that we were midwifery soul sisters, I realized that my vision for expanding the model of care that I was providing would deeply benefit other Midwives both in their personal and professional lives. The rest is history!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

A story from my journey that illustrates resilience … those of you that were in my life back in 2016 know this one well. I won’t go into great detail as I will not let that time or what someone tried to do to my career (without any reason other then selfishness), steal my current joy. Why I want to share is for those of you who may see current success, and don’t realize the work and the incredible struggle …for those of you who may be going through a deep dark valley, for those of you who feel underappreciated and undervalued, for those of you who are in a toxic environment. What I hope for this message to be is a message of Joy on the other side. A reminder to not give up, a reminder to believe in yourself and surround yourself with people that believe in you, a reminder to leave any job that doesn’t honor and serve you in a positive light.
Success so much greater when you fought so hard to get there.
I’ve been asked, if I would’ve changed anything about my professional journey, where I was or the things that I’ve gone through to get where I am. And the answer is no. I am the type of provider I am today. I am the type of leader that I am today because of the struggles that I went through. And even though in the moment it was one of the toughest things to navigate, there is immense beauty on the other side of it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.emergencemidwifery.com
• Instagram: Emergence_midwifery
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/nancypolcertifiednursemidwife/
• Yelp: https://s.yelp.com/nmxz9XJvP4

Image Credits
Carey Lauren Photo Angela Williamson Photo Susan Joy Photo