Colette Mercier, CPM, LM

Biography

I am a nationally Certified Professional Midwife (CPM), California State-Licensed Midwife (LM) and Birth Doula, specializing in home birth and hospital labor support. I attended my best friend's birth in 2003 and was so moved that I enrolled in a doula training that weekend. That training led me to apprentice at the Northern New Mexico Midwifery Center and study midwifery. In October 2006, I graduated from the National College of Midwifery in Taos, NM. I currently reside in Sebastopol, CA where I have a home birth practice serving Sonoma, Marin and other Bay Area counties.

I have attended births with a diverse population of women, including volunteering as a midwife in the Philippines. I have experienced how culture, expectations and the mind/body connection can shape a woman's experience of her birth. I am committed to supporting parents with prenatal education, working with my clients to explore their desires for their birth, and aiding them in discovering what is best for their baby and family. I am a Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner and use the perspectives of Ayurveda in my nutritional counseling for pregnancy and postpartum.

I love pregnancy and birth because for parents it is a time of complexity and growth. The mixture of love, wonder, excitement, vulnerability, challenge and for some stress lends itself to profound changes for the expecting mother and her partner. This transformation looks different for every family and I see my role as your support team for this process.

Prior to becoming a midwife, I worked as a Rape Crisis Counselor at Bay Area Women Against Rape and a Program Associate for The Ruckus Society both in Oakland, CA. I also graduated with a BA from the University of Chicago in Environmental Studies in 1997.

Learn more about my midwifery and birth doula services...