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2020 WHO Year of the Midwife: Interview with Ebony Simpson, CNM
Ebony Simpson is a Certified Nurse Midwife with 23 years of experience in healthcare and 6 years of experience in women and infant services. Her passion for informed Obstetric care began as a nursing student at Emory University. She has provided hospital nursing care at some of the District of Columbia’s busiest maternity care units and trained with some of the regions best hospital, birth center and home birth Midwives to include the George Washington University Hospital midwifery group, Birth care and Women’s Health in Alexandria VA, and M. A.M.A.S. homebirth practice in Takoma Park MD. Her specialty is natural childbirth. She has attended upright births, water births, breech births, twin births and preterm birth in collaboration with physicians. She is currently birth assisting with BirthCare and Women’s Health and creating herbal blends for her company Herbal Resistance to boost immune-function and promote resistance to viral illness. She lives in Takoma Park, MD with her teen daughter. She enjoys traveling to Africa, Meditation and Plant-based cooking.
What led you to this career? I decided at the age of 11 that I wanted to catch babies. My mother was pregnant with my little sister and I realized I was obsessed with pregnant bellies and newborns. I read the seminal book “A Child is Born” by Lennart Nillson quickly and intently. I was already excelling in the sciences at school and in afterschool programs, so it made sense for me to become a doctor and deliver babies. That was before I found out about midwifery and learned that the philosophy of a midwife was more in line with my personal philosophy.
What do you enjoy most about work? The squishy newborn babies. The variety of it all, every birth is as different as every woman and every family. Getting to be with people in their home environments. Being a community resource. Encouraging and supporting humans being human and not machines. The natural flow of birth reminds me of the importance of being in touch and in tune with the natural environment. I take that energy to other areas of my life. There are times during my routine meditation where I find myself spontaneously breathing like a laboring woman. It’s trippy!
If you are a parent, how was your birth and postpartum? I gave birth to my child 15 years ago with a nurse-midwife by the name of Katherine Abelson at the Brooklyn Birthing Center. I was 21 years old, single, not a college graduate and hadn’t attended one birth education course. When people asked me how my birth was, the only thing I could think to say was that it was the most exciting day of my life! People were always confused by that. It’s the truth…it was smooth. I was able to sleep during early labor, so by the time I got to the birthing center I was 5 cm, I labored in a warm jacuzzi in a candle-lit bathroom, I ate oodles of noodles, listened to soft rock and experienced my contractions, one at a time. They were intense but I never suffered. I rode the waves like that for about 5 hours…next thing I knew, the birth assistant checked me in the tub and was so surprised by how imminent the delivery was. She asked me to exit ( which I wasn’t happy about!) and 19 mins later, I delivered my baby into the hands of my midwife who quickly tossed her onto my bare chest! How exhilarating! We transitioned and I was home in 6 hours. Breastfeeding was smooth. Engorgement was the most challenging thing (good problem to have) My personal experience definitely made me a believer in the power of “provider” and “setting” when it comes to allowing the flow of normal labor and birth! I was completely ignorant but because I had a provider that not only believed in the competence of my body but created a supportive environment, I had a safe, satisfying birth experience.
What resources would you want parents to have? I think it would be good for parents to have more education resources, including understanding the social, historical, and political factors that have created the current state of maternity care delivery in this county, more community prenatal care options like Centering Pregnancy™, a plethora of out-of-hospital birth providers, postpartum and breastfeeding community-based support through the first year, financial resources to allow at least 1 year of maternity leave.
What is one unique thing about your Midwife/ OB practice that your patients love? I’m making plans to own and operate a freestanding birth center/home birth practice in 2021. It will be unique because I will help my clients be well-informed about this country’s maternity care delivery system. My goal is that they will be empowered to help effect change from the grass-roots level so that a larger portion of the population has access to a plethora of birth options.
What's one thing you think the world needs to do to improve the lives of new parents (or people living in our service area)? Incorporate out-of-hospital midwifery into the healthcare system formally and permanently. All health insurances would cover childbirth education, home and birth center services, midwives, doulas, and lactation specialists at respectable rates.
What do you think is the hardest part of expecting a baby or becoming a parent? Hearing all the scary stories of high-intervention hospital births can be traumatizing. Lack of time to enjoy pregnancy and first year of life due to societal expectations of productivity. Being forced to stay in the hospital for at least 24 hours after normal vaginal delivery. Lack of family and community support due to the breakdown of the extended family. What products or services do you personally love? It’s been 15 years for me, so I’m definitely not a products expert. I love the “Breastfriend” pillow for positioning newborns during breastfeeding. I do believe that “hands on” healing modalities such as massage, acupuncture and acupressure as well as movement such as yoga, physical therapy and stretching exercises can work wonders to relieve the discomforts of pregnancy and labor.
How do you start each day? I try to wake in the 0600 hour. I’ve found my mediations are the best in this hour. I always acknowledge a higher power as I’m waking. I avoid looking at my phone. I make a cup of herbal tea for myself and my daughter. I sit on my porch and allow my mind to wander. Then I journal. My recipe is PMJ for a PMA. Prayer, Meditation and Journaling for a Positive Mental Attitude. It works! Then I watch Democracy Now at 0800 so I can get fired up about doing the work to change the world!
What's your favorite thing to do in the DMV? There are many. I’m originally from NYC and grew up nature-deprived, so I love to go on nature walks and observe the plant and animal life. I like the international events, like when the embassies open their doors to the public. I enjoy all the lectures and book signing at places like Politics and Prose and Sankofa books near Howard University. I love the peace of Virginia, places like Spa World for cheap spa treatments. I love the opportunities to experience African culture; the people, music, and food!
What do you want people to know about WHOs Year of the Midwife and/or Black Maternal Health Week in 2020? I want people to know that a healthcare system that installs Midwifery as a permanent part of it functioning, preferably as the first level of contact any pregnant woman has with the maternity system, provides the highest-quality of care at the lowest cost. This has been a known fact for quite some time. We need to all be skeptical of any system that doesn’t do this. Additionally, when we aren’t providing the highest level of care at the lowest cost, the segment of society that suffers the most are those who have been systemically oppressed and then the rest of society follows in that order. So by reforming the system so that it addresses the needs of the least of us, the rest of society will be more than well taken care of. The maternal mortality rate of Black Non-Hispanic Americans is significantly higher than for White, Non-Hispanic Americans, even when all other factors are accounted for. Learn more at https://blackmamasmatter.org/resources/literature/.
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