190: Empowering Births Through The Midwife Bus with Brooke Schmoe

Brief summary of show:

In this episode of the Motherhood Village podcast, I speak with special guest Brooke Schmoe, who discusses her transformative journey from being inspired by her OB-GYN father and experiencing her own midwife-led delivery, to becoming a midwife herself. 

Brooke graduated from the Florida School of Traditional Midwifery, driven by disparities she observed in maternity care. Residing in Southeast Orlando with her family, Brooke passionately brings prenatal and postnatal midwifery care closer to families through The Midwife Bus, serving as an alternative and accessible health option. 

The Midwife Bus, an innovative mobile clinic, provides comprehensive care, including ultrasounds and lab services, to under-resourced communities in Central Florida. Brooke and her team aim to bridge healthcare disparities, promote informed consent and autonomy in birth choices, and embody the integration of holistic and medical care. The episode gets into the significance of fear-free guidance, the impact of having a supportive care provider that matches one's birth goals, and the powerful difference thoughtful, personalized care can make in the birthing experience.

We talk about:

• 0:00 Introduction and Guest Background
• 01:13 Book recommendation
• 02:19 How Brooke got into midwifery
• 08:35 Misconceptions of working with a midwife
• 13:23 About her team
• 14:46 The idea behind The Midwife Bus
• 17:11 How is midwifery addressing and helping disparities in health care for women of different races
• 20:00 Is she hopeful that there will be more integration with hospitals and midwifery care
• 26:51 How people can connect with The Midwife Bus - donate to non-profit
• 28:23 The locations they serve
• 29:55 How she pours into herself so she can take care of her patients + family 
• 32:17 Final thoughts to the podcast world

Resources

• The Stranger by Albert Camus
• Boundaries by John Townsend and Henry Cloud
  
  

Connect with Brooke

• Facebook: ​​https://www.facebook.com/themidwifebus
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themidwifebus
• https://themidwifebus.org/
  
  

Connect with Nicole 

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.motherhood.village1/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The.Motherhood.Village1
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolegcumberbatch/
• https://www.themotherhoodvillage.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNzy4b2WHCxvP1k8lL0dvIA 

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