In addition to our CNM founders, Belinda Hodder and Diane Ortega, the entire team at Willow AZ Midwife Center is dedicated to delivering personalized, family-centered maternity care in our beautiful Mesa birth center. Our birth assistants come from varied health care backgrounds, and have all been trained in the Willow way.
Pam has been involved with mamas and babies her entire career. Starting out as a Bradley Childbirth educator for 4 years, working with home birth midwives for 3 ½ years as a birth assistant, and then became a registered nurse spending 20 years supporting woman birthing in the hospital.
Still feeling the call to be a Certified Nurse Midwife she received her master’s degree in nurse midwifery from Frontier Nursing University.
The majority of her midwifery training was at WillowAZ birth center. She is thrilled to be a part of the WillowAZ team of midwives. Teaches prenatal yoga at WillowAZ on Thursday evenings.
In her free time, she enjoys hiking, biking, snowshoeing, and spending time with her family in the white mountains of Pinetop, AZ.
While volunteering as a nurse in Arusha, Tanzania (East Africa), Micaela was introduced to midwifery by local midwives in a low resource setting with limited supplies. The beauty of this experience was overpowering and life changing. Micaela discovered that midwifery was more than just about the intimate relationship between a care practitioner and an expectant mother; midwifery is about policy, advocacy, and education, and it is a profession that needs to be mobilized in multiple socio-political contexts.
After nine years of working in an ICU setting as a nurse predominantly in her home Philadelphia, upstate New York, and New Zealand, Micaela changed fields and started working as a labor and delivery nurse while going back to school to become a nurse midwife. After graduating she did a fellowship at Holy Family birth Center, one of the oldest birth centers in the country, located by the Mexican border in Weslaco, Texas.
She has joined the team at Willow to be surrounded by a community that shares her same belief system and allows her to give women a transformative experience of birth that is unique to each individual.
Micaela also enjoys travelling, hiking, art, museums, live music, theater, practicing Spanish, martial arts, yoga, barre, and meditation.
Wendy is a southern gal from Alabama who relocated to Phoenix in November of 2020. She became interested in midwifery as a preteen because her neighbor was a home birth midwife. Wendy answered the call to be a midwife after the home birth of her daughter in July of 1998.
Wendy received her Bachelor’s in Nursing from University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2002. She practiced as a labor and delivery RN for almost 5 years before attending Frontier University for a Master’s in Nurse Midwifery in 2010.
Wendy practiced hospital midwifery in Gulfport MS from 2012-2018, then returned to her hometown in north Alabama to become the community’s first nurse midwife at the local hospital. After 10 years of hospital practice and raising her daughter, Wendy decided to follow her dream of becoming an out of hospital midwife full-time.
Wendy is passionate about helping women obtain their goal of unmedicated birth and looks forward to serving the women of the valley for many years.
Amanda is a native Arizonan from Kingman. She pursued midwifery after recognizing a gap in the healthcare education in her own community. She is passionate about empowering women to be engaged in their health and seeks to assist them reach their overall wellness goals. Amanda joined Willow to be able to offer women free birth choice and looks forward to support women in creating their unique birth story.
Amanda received a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Oregon State University before moving to New York to obtain a Bachelor’s in Nursing from New York University. After working as a Registered Nurse in critical care and postpartum care, she returned to her educational goals at Georgetown University where she received a Master’s degree as a Certified Nurse Midwife and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner.
When not in clinic, you can find Amanda in her kitchen exploring new recipes, golfing, spending time with family, or hiking with her 110-pound Saint Dane pup.
Janna’s journey to become a Certified Nurse Midwife started during her studies for her master’s degree in public health. Janna learned that research consistently supports the fact that midwives provide high-quality maternal and newborn care. That care contributes to improved health outcomes in communities, which fueled her passion to pursue an advanced practice nursing degree in midwifery.
Janna’s impressive education background includes a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Western Washington University, a Master of Public Health from A.T. Still University, and a Master of Science in Nursing (Midwifery) from Seattle University. She has a background in research and considers herself a lifelong learner. She enjoys reading newly published research and clinical guidelines from a variety of disciplines, and applying new knowledge to her practice. She enjoys her involvement in the greater midwifery community, attending educational conferences, and participating in advocacy efforts. Janna is also an active member of the American College of Nurse Midwives, and participates in local chapter meetings. She has volunteered for the Willow Wish Foundation, helping fundraise for community birth scholarships. She also serves as a preceptor for student nurse midwives.
Janna has served families in hospital and community-based birth settings, providing full scope midwifery care including primary, gynecologic, prenatal, birth, postpartum, lactation and newborn care. Janna strongly believes that everyone deserves respect, compassion, and a voice in the care they receive.
As a nurse midwife, she believes her role is to provide information and guidance to empower childbearing families to make informed decisions about their health and body. She values providing care based on respect for normal physiologic processes, the best available evidence, informed consent, and introducing intervention and technology only when necessary.
Janna is from the Pacific Northwest; she grew up in the Seattle area. She is married and has two daughters who were both caught by midwives at a freestanding birth center. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family outdoors exploring parks, hiking and swimming.
Rachel’s path to midwifery began with the pregnancy and birth of her children. She chose midwifery care and had empowering experiences birthing in a birth center and at home. She was drawn to midwifery due to the view of birth as a normal physiological process and the model of shared decision making.
She previously served in the Air Force as an engineer and program manager. While parenting full time, she began teaching childbirth education and working as a doula. She also completed training and certification to become an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). Eventually, she decided to pursue becoming a Certified Nurse Midwife and Family Nurse Practitioner, completing her Master’s in Nursing from Vanderbilt University.
Rachel spends much of her time outside of work with her husband and 3 daughters. She enjoys hiking, yoga, and being outdoors.
Ashley’s journey to midwifery began over two decades ago with the birth of her first son who was born at home into the hands of a midwife. Shortly after his empowering birth in 1999 she started attending births as a doula and birth assistant. As her passion for woman-centered care grew, she taught childbirth education and began apprenticing with a homebirth midwife, eventually becoming a nurse in 2006 working in a free-standing birth center. In 2010, weeks before the birth of her 6th child, Ashley graduated from Frontier School of Midwifery & Family Nursing with a Master’s in Nursing and received her credentialing as a Certified Nurse-Midwife.
Ashley has extensive experience caring for women throughout their lifespan, practicing in a range of settings including in birth centers, at home, in hospitals, and in public health care settings. Birth center midwifery is at the core of who Ashley is as a midwife and she is honored to be a part of the Willow team.
Ashley has seven children, 6 of whom were born at home and all into the hands of midwives. When Ashley is not catching babies she enjoys spending time with her kids, plant shopping, learning about essential oils, and cooking all sorts of yummy vegan food.
Caitlyn is a native Phoenician. She attended Arizona State University on a full-ride academic scholarship and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise & Wellness with a concentration in Health Promotion in 2009.
In 2011 she trained birth as a birth doula and began assisting women and families in both the home and hospital setting. Later that same year Caitlyn welcomed her first daughter who was born at home under the watchful guidance of Certified Professional Midwives. In 2012 her second daughter was born at home again with the loving support of midwives.
With those experiences she became impassioned with the Midwifery Model of Care and felt compelled to pursue her own path to serving women.
In 2013 she became a lactation educator and in 2014 after a rigorous apprenticeship Caitlyn achieved her Certified Professional Midwife and AZ Licensed Midwife credentials.
Kelli Beaty CPM, LM, is the newest member of the Willow at Home team. Kelli has been a licensed midwife for over 28 years.
A recent transplant to Arizona, Kelli is a Certified Professional Midwife and currently holds an Arizona Midwifery license, having previously served mothers in Texas for almost three decades. Kelli is delighted to begin serving the families and fellow midwives of the Willow AZ family, and also looks forward to enjoying the great outdoors of Arizona.
After college, Kelli began working in the medical field, and quickly recognized that her heart was somewhere else. After meeting a midwife, she suddenly realized where her heart was leading her…midwifery. Kelli began training and completed the Texas program for licensed midwives in 1990; she became licensed soon after. As a licensed Texas midwife, Kelli owned a birth center/home birth practice in Texas for 28 years.
Kelli’s education has been extensive, she has helped write and build one of the most successful midwifery training programs in the US, The Association of Texas Midwives Training Program. Kelli is an avid educator, and an advocate for women’s right to access safe midwifery care. She has worked alongside other midwives to help create policies, legislation and midwifery rules that ensures that midwifery remains an option for childbearing women. She has extensive experience with breech and twin home births. Kelli has also served mommies in several different countries including Haiti, the Dominican Republic (where she owns a scuba diving shop!!!), and Belize.
Moving to Arizona was supposed to be a retirement plan…but Willow AZ had different plans for her! After a three year sabbatical, Kelli discovered that working with the Willow AZ team was where she wanted to be. Kelli knows that the team atmosphere and positive attitude about birth is what cultivates a safe birthing space for all families, whether they are with the Willow AZ Home Birth team or Birth Center.
Your Willow AZ Midwife Center birth assistant is a vital part of your birth team; a professional midwife’s assistant with labor support, birth, and postpartum care skills. A birth assistant helps to keep out-of-hospital births safe and more satisfying for the family.
All our birth assistants have received special training and a detailed skills assessment to qualify them to perform in the role at Willow AZ Midwife Center. They have fulfilled all requirements, and meet our strict standards as birth assistants. Each is currently certified in CPR and neonatal resuscitation. They are competent, compassionate and have demonstrated the ability to work cohesively with our philosophy, midwives, and clients.
Dr. Mani TehranchiDr. Mani Tehranchi, MD, FACOG, is a board-certified physician specializing in obstetrics, gynecology, and the da Vinci® Surgical System at Bella Women’s Care in Phoenix, Arizona.
Dr. Tehranchi began his career after graduating with his medical degree from the University of Nevada School of Medicine in 1990 and completing his residency at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona. He was also a fellow at the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. He is certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Dr. Tehranchi’s long-standing desire to be at the forefront of modern medicine influenced his choice to become proficient with the minimally invasive robotic surgery known as the da Vinci Surgical System. Having practiced medicine for over 25 years, Dr. Tehranchi has been fortunate to know and care for many families, often delivering multiple generations of children.
If you would like to schedule a consultation, meet our team and tour the Willow AZ Midwife Center, use our contact form or call us at 480-565-5990 today.