Shannon

Shannon was drawn to the calling of midwifery after witnessing the miracle of birth for the first time while supporting her sister as she birthed her eldest nephew in 2004. She immediately knew then, that attending families through their childbearing years was exactly what she was meant to do with her life. She returned to college soon after and completed her nursing degree in 2008. After undergrad, Shannon worked as a Labor and Delivery nurse at a high-risk tertiary care center in Buffalo, NY for 6 years. During that time, she also trained as a Doula with DONA, worked as a homebirth assistant with local midwives and attended midwifery school. 

In 2014, Shannon graduated, with honors, from Frontier Nursing University, with her Master's Degree in Nursing and received her National Certification in Nurse-Midwifery. In early 2015 Shannon moved to Northern Indiana and founded Tree of Life Midwifery, serving primarily Amish and Mennonite families. She attended births both at client’s homes and in two local birth centers. She was blessed to have welcomed around 200 babies into this world to this point, two of the most special of them being her second nephew in 2014 and only niece in 2018. 

In 2019 she had the opportunity to return to her native home”town” of Orange County, California where she was honored to be welcomed to join the growing team of amazing midwives and Dr. James at Laguna Beach OB/GYN. In her 2 years there she helped to continue to grow the briskly expanding midwifery program at Mission Hospital where they had recently opened the most beautiful “alongside birthing center” (in the hospital but a separate unit, only the 2nd in the state) and was blessed to have had her hands welcome nearly another 100 babies.

NOW, after taking a break from caring for others to focus on herself and her family (and moving from CA to NY and now back to FL), she is beyond excited to be back to her life’s calling, caring for our families here at Breath of Life Birth Center!

Shannon is extremely passionate about educating birthing persons and families about their healthcare choices and options using evidence-based information as a solid foundation but also encouraging and embracing shared decision making and informed consent (and refusal) as the cornerstones of individualized trauma-informed care. She is also passionate about protecting the birthing space and time as well as the mother-baby dyad and family bonding in the immediate postpartum period and beyond. 

When she is not busy catching babies, Shannon enjoys traveling, reading, listening to her vinyl collection on her vintage turntable, spending time with her nephews, niece and other family & friends and, of course, her husband, Jason, and their 3 feline fur babies.