Meet the Team
Loretta Shupe
CPM, RN, BSN, LDEM
Loretta Shupe, owner and founder of My Family Birth Center, has spent her adult life caring for people. She knew that she wanted to become a midwife before high school. She entered the nursing field to help her gain those skills and has been a nurse for over 40 years. Loretta has worked in hospital settings in Labor & Delivery, Newborn Nursery, Postpartum and other specialties.
Loretta entered an apprenticeship to become a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) in January of 2014. She worked with 17 different midwives and has participated in over 100 births. She received her certification in January, 2017.
Loretta and her husband, Jon raised a family in North Ogden. She has born seven children, all unmedicated. Three of these children were born at home under the care of a midwife. Spending time being a wife and mother has been a highlight of her life. Now she is poised to help others experience a natural, safe birth of their dreams.
Loretta understands a woman's desire to be in control of her birth. She has found through study and personal experience that birthing in an out-of-hospital setting is a safe option and helps to protect the spiritual nature of childbearing.
Laura O'Bryan
CPM, LDEM
Laura is a licensed midwife in the state of Utah. She has a home birth practice in Murray, Utah and also attends births at My Family Birth Center in Ogden, Utah. Laura has been in the field of birth since 2007. Once Laura started supporting women and families during birth, she had found her special niche in life. First as a doula, then as a childbirth educator and finally licensed as a midwife in 2014. Laura moved from Alaska to Utah in 2012 and has called Utah home ever since. Laura is a mother to four elementary aged children and homeschools them. She thoroughly enjoys working with families of all different backgrounds as they bring babies into the world. Her compassionate and encouraging nature lend strength and guidance to all she serves.
Tarrin Pendergrass
Midwife, DEM
Tarrin started attending births in 2007. She was licensed as a midwife in Oregon by 2010. She first went to college pre-med but found a professor in the field of Anthropology who was a midwife. Since learning about what midwives really did, she was hooked. She started taking midwifery classes on the weekends as she finished her degree – now in Medical Anthropology. As soon as she graduated college, she found a birth center to work at as an apprentice. Over the next 2 years, she learned all of her clinical skills and fell in love with working with mamas and babies. After getting licensed, she opened her own home birth practice in Oregon. She has attended over 150 births and loves every part of being a midwife. After having 3 babies of her own, she took a break from full time midwifery but has since moved to Utah and has felt the call to work with mamas and babies again! She currently lives in Kaysville with her husband and their 10 children.
Sarah J. Carter
CPM, LDEM
Sarah has practiced as a midwife in homes and birth centers since 2011. She is now faculty and assessment specialist at Midwives College of Utah, and the first Biodynamic Resuscitation of the Newborn (BRN) instructor in Utah. Before midwifery, she was a writer, editor and doula. Pleasant View, Utah is her home, where she enjoys dark chocolate, Star Wars, her black lab, three teenagers and her husband, John.
Carol Greenlee
CNM, RN MSN
Carol is a Certified Nurse Midwife, who has been providing personalized care to women in an OB/Gyn setting for 45 years. She has attended over 2300 births as a midwife in both hospital and birth center settings. She has served as an educator to women and families, and a preceptor to student nurses and midwives, as well as medical residents. She was able to fulfill a lifetime dream of working in a birth center since moving from Nebraska to Utah in 2016.
She is passionate about women’s strengths and the power of birth. She is an avid supporter of water birth and women’s choices about their birth experience. She is an advocate for safe and natural childbirth.
She raised four children with her husband of 47 years. She is enjoying time for knitting, gardening and being an active grandmother.
Tara Mansius
CPM
Kandice Baird
Senior Apprentice
Kandice Baird is a trained HypnoDoula who proudly serves Davis County, Utah and surrounding areas. She has a passion for birth and birth education and found her place in the world as a birth doula. Kandice respectfully sees the sacred nature of each individual birth story and feels honored to be a birth worker. She faithfully supports and has a deep love for all mothers in all stages of their life journey.
Kandice is married and together she and her husband have four beautiful children. She has personally experienced multiple hospital and home births. She enjoys connecting to nature through hiking, camping, and fishing with her family.
Micah Bingham
BSN, RN
Micah is passionate about helping women and families during the prenatal and birth process. She went to school for her bachelor in nursing at UNC-Greensboro. She is a Southern girl at heart. She was raised in North Carolina with the best of mountains and beaches.
She moved to Salt Lake City to work on Labor and Delivery and to study in the midwifery program at the University of Utah. She worked on the OB flight team at the University Hospital.
Micah met her soul mate and lived the Army life. Her husband served as a helicopter mechanic and deep sea diver. They currently live in North Ogden. They have five children and enjoy camping, gardening, and sports.
Her desire and passion to help women in the birthing process stemmed from reading stories of midwives who would travel to homes in the country to help women during birth. She wants to help empower women to do what the body has naturally done for thousands of years.
Jessica Collins
Jessica Collins is passionate about caring for women and families throughout the adventure of pregnancy and birth. She has wanted to be a midwife since before high school, feeling that it is her calling in life. Jessica is certified as an Emergency Medical Respondent and has worked as both a Postpartum and Birth Doula to support mom throughout the Davis County area. She is currently studying at the Midwifery College of Utah to become a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) in the state of Utah. Jessica enjoys working as an apprentice midwife for My Family Birth Center, learning and supporting the mothers and the midwives.
Bethany Knighton
Midwife Apprentice
Bethany is a passionate advocate for natural childbirth, and for parents’ being able to write their own birth story. She is married to Karl and a mother to five awesome children. With her first two babies, she was induced and had an epidural. She started living a more holistic lifestyle and earned certifications as a family and nutritional herbalist. Bethany had her next two babies with no medical intervention with an ob/gyn, but still felt something was missing. With her fifth baby, Bethany finally had a midwife and could not believe how different that birth was! She believes all families should have the wonderful experience she had, and hopes she can bring care and compassion to everyone she meets at My Family Birth Center.
Bethany considers herself a life-long learner. In her free time, she enjoys reading, gardening, hiking, going on dates with her husband, and playing with her kids.
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