KBC Student Midwives
Johanna
Being born and raised in Colorado, Jo has always found home in mountainous settings. Growing up, she was fascinated with babies and pregnancy, seeking every opportunity to learn from the pregnant women around her. In September 2018, she had the honor of attending the birth of her niece in their off-grid home in Tasmania which ignited her passion for birthwork. Since then, Jo has worked and studied dance, herbalism, wildcrafting, wilderness therapy, and women's medicine- all of which prepared her for her journey towards Midwifery. She went through a doula apprenticeship in Colorado and attended a Midwifery Assistant course on Ina May's Farm in Tennessee. Last year, she worked as a field guide in a wilderness therapy program in Southern Utah, teaching bushcrafting skills, facilitating Rites of Passage ceremonies, and learning much about the experience of being a woman. Jo is passionate about educating and empowering women to be intimately connected to their bodies, cycles, and birth. In August 2022 she moved to Klamath Falls to apprentice under and work with Eliza at Klamath Birth Center, with plans of becoming a Midwife. When she's not at the birth center, you can find her harvesting wild plants, having late-night solo dance parties, reading and studying all things birth-related, or making herbal medicines in her kitchen.
Vira
Vira has been passionate about birth work since 2010. It was the birth of her firstborn son in 2010 that stirred a passion within her to help women embrace the sacredness and autonomy of birth. Training as a DONA Certified Doula CD, Childbirth Educator (BWF, Spinning Babies, Gena Kirby…), Steamy Chick Vaginal Steam Certification, Sacred Pregnancy Retreat Leader (SLM), Placenta Crafter (IPPA) and "Mother Roaster" prepared Vira for the many services she offers women in Southern Oregon. Her passion lies in guiding women to an understanding of what we as women all feel, which is that we need to move and feel free to move as we please in birth. Life is dynamic not stagnant or controlled. MOVEMENT IS LIFE! Movement is creation. She believes as women, we are the vessels and conduit for creation. This is a vehicle to reconnect with divine feminine and REAWAKEN to being the author of our story, the KEEPER of our own AUTHENTIC SELF. Vira lives tucked away in the mountains of Bonanza, Oregon where she home schools 3 of her children and home-birthed her youngest son. She gardens year-round providing the majority of their fresh food and herbs for health & healing. She began her apprenticeship with KBC in September 2022 where she will continue her journey to becoming a Midwife.