Meet the Midwife - Birth Duluth Midwifery - Jana Studelska

You are a midwife, assisting at someone else's birth. Do good without show or fuss. Facilitate what is happening rather than what you think ought to be happening. If you must take the lead, lead so that the mother is helped, yet still free and in charge. When the baby is born, the mother will rightly say: "We did it ourselves!"

The Tao Te Ching

My fascination with midwifery, as is true for so many women, started with my own births. One by one, I gave birth to three boys between 1988 and 1998, and in the end, I was hooked: I wanted to catch babies. I was expecting a career my degree field of journalism (and in fact have done a good deal of writing for newspapers, magazines and publishers over the years), but my heart led me elsewhere, over and over.

Jana Studelska

After a number of years as a La Leche League leader, a certified birth doula, the founding the Duluth Childbirth Collective (which is now the Northland Birth Network), I began studying midwifery in 2003. I started assisting at homebirths with Duluth’s two midwives, eventually assisting gave way to apprenticeship. I’m very proud to have learned my skills much as midwives have always learned—birth by birth, over time, under the watchful eye of a more experienced midwife. Keeping the tradition alive! My hands-on education has been supplemented by years of didactic studying, assorted advanced classes and seminars, and an intense clinical experience in Central America. I passed my national exams and skill assessments in early 2008, obtained my state licenses, and began my own practice shortly thereafter.

Mine is a teaching practice. Having benefitted from the generosity of other midwives, I am dedicated to creating opportunity for new midwives. My assistants/apprentices are qualified doulas, trained in neonatal resuscitation, and anxious to offer support in any way needed. You’ll have ample opportunity to meet these women and invite them to your birth. When I’m not working with big bellies and sweet babies, I find plenty to keep me busy. My flower and vegetable gardens are super-sized, and I love to give tours when you come to prenatal appointments. I also like to needlepoint, read in quiet corners, snooze in the fishing boat while my boys and husband catch dinner, ski a bit in the winter, and get out of town whenever there’s a break in the birth schedule—especially if it means warm destinations in winter!

My great-great grandmothers were midwives in the Ozarks of southern Missouri; I have this work in my blood, I guess. Closer to home, I’ve learned from state records and old phone books that there were more than 40 licensed midwives serving Duluth and Superior around of the turn of the century. Most were trained in their native countries, and spoke their native language to the immigrant women laboring in a new country.

I’m proud to be returning to the roots set down by my grandmothers, to be reviving the tradition of community midwives serving neighborhood families, and celebrating the return of a baby’s first cry echoing through a warm house as waiting families cheer with joy and welcome!