The Partera Midwives

Pamela Echeverio & Monica Wood

Pamela Echeverio, CPM, LM

Pamela is first and always a mother. Her journey as a midwife began in 1977 when she was able, despite great odds, to successfully birth her first child at home. At that time she had just completed three years at the National Naval Medical Center working in ICU, CCU and Respiratory Therapy. Following honorable discharge from the Navy she worked at the Suburban Hospital on their emergency response team while trying to complete her RN. Choosing out-of-hospital-birth was far from the norm in 1977 and thus she found very little support. That reality inspired her midwifery journey and the beginning of a deep understanding of the need to support women’s choices.

Moving to Oregon in 1979, she was delighted to find wonderful midwives to attend the birth of her second child. Her goal at the time was to pursue midwifery through nursing but discovered that most nurse midwives attended births only in the hospital. So as a young mother with two small children she focused on the home front but began attending homebirths in a doula role. In 1986 her last child was born - an amazing water birth which still inspires her. (Ask Pamela about that story… she loves to tell it!) She studied herbs, continued her doula work both at home and in the hospital and, when her youngest was entering high school, was finally able to pursue her midwifery studies in earnest.

Pamela graduated from Birthingway College of Midwifery after four years and completed two apprenticeships with local midwives and an internship in the Philippines. She co-founded Alma Birth center in 2004 and practiced there until January 2009. She now teaches Postpartum, Pharmacology, Pelvic Floor Health and Suturing at Birthingway College.

Limiting births each month allows Pamela to teach and keep up with her large and growing family. She feels very blessed to be serving her clients and sharing a practice with Monica. She also volunteers with the Village Midwives which offers free prenatal care.

Monica Wood, CPM

Monica Wood, CPM began attending home births in Seattle, WA in 1999 as a labor doula and apprentice midwife. She graduated from Birthingway College of Midwifery in Portland with a B.S. in Midwifery and is a Certified Professional Midwife (through the North American Registry of Midwives). Her calling to midwifery grew out of an interest in holistic medicine, a desire to work with and among women, and to feel that she was making a difference in people’s lives.

Monica is passionate about creating a practice that respects and empowers women in their choices and demonstrates her fundamental trust in a woman’s knowing as to what is right for her and her family. Viewing birth as an inherently normal and healthy process, she believes in each woman’s ability to birth her babies in a supported and loving environment. Monica is honored to be a part of her client’s transformative journey through pregnancy and birth and she is continually inspired by the women she works with.

Micaela Schulten, apprentice midwife

Micaela is a compassionate and nurturing young midwife and mother. She attended her first birth at age four, when she saw her younger sister born breech at home in Missouri. Later, when she was eight and eleven, she stayed by her mother’s side through the births of her younger siblings. This early introduction to home birth taught Micaela that childbearing is a natural process to trust and encourage. 

After some deep soul searching while studying traditional Ayurvedic medicine in India, Micaela felt a strong calling to be a midwife. She researched home birth midwifery training, and the best option in the country seemed to be Birthingway College of Midwifery in Portland, so she and her husband moved to Oregon. Micaela started attending births at the end of her first year at Birthingway, in January 2008, with a local midwife. She continued working with this midwife for one and a half years, until she got pregnant with her own child.

In December 2009, Micaela gave birth to a healthy nine pound baby boy in a birthing tub in her living room, with the company of her husband, midwives, sister, and friends. She was blessed to have Pamela Echeverio as one of her midwives.

Micaela has had the opportunity to work with and gain experience from multiple home birth midwives in Portland, and is now quite happy to be working with Partera. She has completed her coursework at Birthingway, and is finishing up her birth experience so she can take the North American Registry of Midwives board exam in August 2012. In her free time, Micaela loves to cook, dance, garden, be in nature, and spend time with her family. Micaela believes birth is a sacred rite of passage that empowers women on their journey into motherhood. Blessings on your journey!