We Are...
women, mothers, who strive to serve humanity from our highest place, in integrity with our soul’s purpose.
Mission & Vision
Our Mission
We are called to continue the work of our wise-women lineage and to provide a blend of traditional midwifery wisdom and evidence-based care that is emotionally-intelligent, spiritually-driven, and culturally-sensitive.
Our highest goal is to support every mother to use their journey as a catalyst for profound personal growth.
Our Vision
We envision that through our work we create a community of empowered and courageous mothers and women leading a matriarchal rising capable of changing society for the better.
Our Values
At Sacred Birth we are guided by the values closest to our hearts:
- We believe in creating a microcosm of matriarchy that puts mothers and their wellbeing at the center of all our efforts.
- We believe in autonomous, undisturbed birth and in holding the invitation for birth to be experienced this way.
- We believe in vulnerability, radical self-honesty, and that to get to where we want to go, we must first acknowledge where we are.
- We believe that closing maternal health disparities among BIPOC women requires a dismantling of the systemic racism that exists in our healthcare system and in our society.
- We believe that the LGBTQ+ community deserves loving, respectful, and safe care from midwives who are supportive of their choice to become parents.
- We believe in honoring the ancestral knowledge of the wise women - the parteras and the curanderas that came before us. We are grateful for their work, their sacrifices and their wisdom.
Our Sacred Birth Family
Midwives
Michelle Isla, LM
Midwife & Founder of Sacred Birth
My love and passion for holistic birth began 20 years ago. For me, midwifery came on my path of spiritual growth. Peeling away the layers and moving deeper into my healing work, I came to feel great joy and purpose in holding space for others to also do their own healing work. For the last two decades I have immersed myself in a world of traditional woman-wisdom. This deep learning along with my spiritual practices have helped me understand that mothering is a profound spiritual journey and rite of passage. I created Sacred Birth to embody these values and I infuse them in everything that we do in our practice.
I have been a Licensed Midwife in Florida for 11 years. Prior to this I worked as a birth doula, birth educator, and lactation counselor, and served on the board of the Central Florida Birth Network. I worked at the Dept of Health providing breastfeeding education and advocacy, and have attended births in both the home birth and birth center settings. I earned a B.S in Business Administration from UCF and was also a public school teacher before entering the birth world.
I am proud to be the daughter of immigrants and carry my South American heritage strongly. I am honored to carry the tradition of my ancestors- the parteras, hierberas, and curanderas of my maternal lineage. I lovingly acknowledge them as without their sacrifice and wisdom, who I am would simply not be possible. I also acknowledge the spiritual teachers and mentors who have guided me on my path for they changed the course of my life with their selfless love, their care, and their dedication to awakening consciousness.
My two greatest teachers are my precious daughters, Luna and Nova, both of whom were born at home. Mothering them is my greatest inspiration and the catalyst to my spiritual growth. They continue to teach me that doing the heart-work is important work to be done on the planet. They have both taught me that this journey was always about birthing a new Me as much as it was about birthing them.
Jaclyn Hauge, LM
Midwife
I’ve been working with Sacred Birth families since March of 2020 but I’ve been practicing Midwifery in birth-center and home-birth settings since 2015. Education is my main passion and I really love spending time talking with families about every aspect of how the birth process works. It’s so important for me to have well educated mothers, who pass knowledge about their bodies to their children. When we normalize talking about our bodies in an anatomical and positive way, we normalize talking about birth and create a generation of people who will see how wonderful, wise and dynamic our bodies really are.
I began Midwifery school in 2012 and graduated from FSTM in 2015. Throughout that time I was able to precept in a large Birth Center and attend hundreds of births. During my senior year I became pregnant and had my daughter Margaux in August of 2015, at home. It was a long and hard labor but there was never a doubt in my mind that I could do it, even when I didn’t really want to. That experience taught so much about how resilient and strong women are and made me so grateful to be in this community. When I think back to that day, I can’t imagine having that birth anywhere else. In July of 2019 I had another home birth. This was a totally different experience. I went into that day with a different confidence and after 3 hours of labor welcomed a son, Sullivan, into our family.
Jessica Wilson, LM
Midwife
I have been serving women during the pregnancy year for over 15 years. For the first 5 years, I worked as a midwife’s apprentice, doula, and birth assistant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I apprenticed for a local homebirth midwife. I was a Dona-trained doula and was trained as birth assistant at The Farm by Pamela Hunt and Ina May Gaskins. I moved to Orlando, Florida to attend the Florida School of Traditional Midwifery. I became a Florida state licensed midwife in 2018 and since then have been serving Central and South Florida at birth centers and in the home birth setting. I have also worked as a clinical director for a birth center in South Florida and have served as a clinical preceptor for student midwives.
I first felt called to be a midwife 20 years ago through my pregnancy and birth of my first daughter. I was “midwifed” so well by a group of midwives in Baltimore, Maryland, I began looking for opportunities to pass along the type of care I received during pregnancy and birth.
After my second daughter was born, I began an apprenticeship to a local midwife and started my life of serving women during the pregnancy year. Through the years I have developed different passions that have defined the type of midwife I have become and am still becoming.
Some of those passions have been and are: providing individualized, conscientious care; providing evidence based care; providing education and honoring informed consent and shared decision making; preparing and supporting women for VBACs; providing education and support for maternal, perinatal mental health especially focused on postpartum depression and anxiety; social justice through prenatal care: addressing the disparity of outcomes for BIPOC parents through the midwifery model of care; nutrition and lifestyle support for pregnancy and postpartum; creating a culture of support for other midwives and student midwives; teaching and precepting student midwives.
Outside of midwifery I love history, reading, traveling, nature walks, the ocean, kayaking and paddle boarding, spending time with my family and friends.
Reina Chávez, LM
Midwife
Reina’s passion for educating and leading families came in 2011/2012 with her pregnancy and birth of her daughter Zyah in South Florida. She was the first in her community that sought midwifery care, and adopted an attachment parenting lifestyle. Although she did not know it, she was positively influencing her friends around her into making educated decisions surrounding childrearing.
In 2016, she opened 360 Birth Svcs in Southern California as a birth & postpartum doula, lactation educator and placenta encapsulation specialist and eventually became a midwife’s assistant, and phlebotomist. In 2018 she decided she would become a licensed midwife and began her studies at Midwives College of Utah, earning her Certified Professional Midwife credentials and a Bachelors in Midwifery in January 2024. Overall, Reina has attended more than 200 births.
Her background and focus have been serving marginalized communities and she prides herself in providing trauma informed and culturally competent care. Just prior to covid, she helped launch SoCal Childbirth, which provided birth education centering black and brown families in Los Angeles. She currently sits on the Board as Treasurer of Elizabeth’s Perinatal Legacy, a non-profit organization aimed at providing access to maternity care for black & brown families.
Her favorite things to do include cooking (and eating), spending time at the beach, exercising, crocheting, knitting and being with her family. She looks forward to building a new community in the Central Florida area and hopes that in the future her impact and legacy extend nationwide.
Maribell Opperman
Student Midwife
I was raised in Peru and grew up in a loving, large Christian family. I was educated and trained as a midwife in Peru and worked in both the hospital setting and private practice for over 9 years attending hundreds of births. I’ve been married to my husband David for over 10 years, and we have two incredible boys, DJ and Noah. Every day, my family inspires me to be the greatest version of myself, and I am grateful for their support during my midwifery journey.
I’ve been blessed to join the community of supportive women at Sacred Birth where I have been working as a Birth Assistant for about 2 years. I have been learning holistic and natural midwifery care and working to bring back home birthing to the community as a safe choice. I’m so thankful to all the midwives in this practice and for all of the wonderful parents along this journey. I am excited to soon attain my midwifery license in Florida.
I am a Certified Breastfeeding Counselor (CBC), Microbiome Approved Provider, Certified Doula, Childbirth Educator, Certified Instructor of Dancing for Birth, Peanut Ball Ambassador, Certified Water Practitioner, and Spinning Babies® Certified Parent Educator.
Midwifery is my life’s purpose and vocation and honors both my Hispanic heritage, as well as my grandmother Amalia’s work as a granny midwife in Peru. Being a midwife fills my heart and soul because it allows me to witness sacred moments where expectant parents and babies share an unbreakable bond and fully embrace the beginning of life and being a family. I believe every woman and expectant parent deserves to own their own childbirth experiences as a one-of-a-kind life-long event, filled with love, care, and respect.
Besides my midwifery journey, I love exploring new places and tasting exotic Latin food, learning new things, and enjoying time with my boys and our lovely dog Asher.
I am excited about living the life I want as a mom and future midwife in Central Florida, excited for the journey, and for being inspired by like-minded colleagues, and families. I’m looking forward to guiding, helping, and supporting you and your lovely family soon!
Lauren Wales
Student Midwife
Presently, I’m a licensed massage therapist with 20 years experience, specializing in abdominopelvic work including uterine massage for preconception, pregnancy and postpartum. My practice, Body Luminous LLC is located within Sacred Birth. I have training in cesarean & top surgery scar tissue remediation, newborn massage and CST & I am a lactation counselor, a full spectrum doula serving all outcomes, & offer placenta encapsulation. I completed the Beyond the Binary training in culturally sensitive LGBTQIA reproductive care with King Yaa in 2021 & I have gratitude for the opportunity to continue to serve my queer community with joy and resilience as a student midwife. I often find myself working with multiple generations in one family, from baby, to birthing person, to partners and grandparents & feel deeply that the medicine for cultural loss & disconnection, is finding our way back into our bodies & engaging the elements of the Earth in a good way. I believe this reweaving of torn pieces whole again happens most powerfully at threshold times in our lives, such as during birth & through engaging simple practices of reverence. I see this philosophy & decades of experience in bodywork, community organizing, & lifelong learning as the core of my midwifery approach.
In 2020 I married the nonbinary love of my life, a social worker named therapist Meghan, & we enjoy making art & herbal medicine, exploring, hiking, & being silly together. In our home you will find multiple cats & plants, & both of us agree we wish we still had chickens. Together we caretake my mom, a retired doula & breastfeeding counselor named Mary, who has lived with us since 2017. I like to joke that I live in a matriarchy. As a family, we participate in Central Florida Mutual Aid & other local grassroots community organizing efforts in the Orlando Area.
In 2022, I returned home to Central Florida, where I was born, so Aliah could continue college, & I could complete my 20-year goal to become a licensed midwife. I am delighted to serve all of the clients of Sacred Birth as you grow your families. I currently reside on the unceded occupied homelands of the Seminole & Miccosukee tribes of Florida.
Clinical Support
Alejandra DeMaio, IBCLC
Educator & Breastfeeding Support
Most of you know me as Ale. I am a bilingual IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant), birth & postpartum doula, and childbirth educator. I take pride in being an educator for Sacred Birth Midwifery where I teach a variety of classes and facilitate Mama Rising, our weekly pregnancy & postpartum support circles.
I was born and raised in Colombia but moved to the states when I was a teenager and graduated from UCF with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
I started my path in the birth world soon after my first son. After an empowering, unmedicated, vaginal birth, I wanted to be a support for other families. I began as a birth assistant, where I learned a lot about physiological birth, and mother-infant care from birth through the early postpartum hours. As I continued my journey, I often found myself wanting to be nurturing the birthing mother during labor — breathing with her, supporting her emotionally, and caring for her family’s needs. Therefore, I decided to become a certified birth & postpartum doula and also trained to be a lactation counselor. I worked as a breastfeeding peer counselor for the Department of Health in Orange County. A few years into my employment, I also passed the IBCLC exam. While all that was happening, I also birthed three more sons at home and breastfed each for four years.
I consider mothering to be one of the most profound and powerful experiences of my life. I am an advocate for conscious pregnancy, natural childbirth, connected parenting, and healthy living. I have found my passion in guiding, holding space, and honoring other families on their own journey to parenthood. In addition to my work as an IBCLC, doula, and childbirth educator, I also offer a variety of services such as facilitating mother blessing ceremonies, belly casts, henna art, birth photography, sealing ceremonies, belly binding, and placenta encapsulation. I look forward to connecting with you and supporting your journey.
Kim Holder, RN
Nurse/Medical Assistant
Samantha Kay, LMHC
Licensed Mental Health Counselor
I’m Sammi Kay, a licensed mental health counselor, birth, and postpartum doula. I have a deep passion for supporting women on their journey through motherhood.
It was my first experience in postpartum that led me to seek out training in perinatal and postpartum mental health. Growing a family is one of the biggest life transitions we can go through and we are not intended to do so alone.
Through somatic practices and mindfulness techniques, I guide women in healing their nervous systems and finding inner strength. I am EMDR-trained and provide trauma-informed care. I offer holistic support to mothers during the deep experience of pregnancy, birth, and beyond. As a mother of three myself, I recognize the mental load of motherhood and the importance of receiving support. It’s been an honor sitting beside many birthing people and witnessing their journeys.
My mission is to empower women to manage the intricacies of motherhood with resilience, compassion, and care.
Administrative Support
Olivia Richmond
Practice Manager
Brittany Muscarella
Receptionist
Supporting women throughout their pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience has been one of the greatest joys of my life. I am a licensed massage therapist, birth doula and artist. I love to work with umbilical cords to create funky dreamcatcher art. My journey as a massage therapist led me to study prenatal bodywork, which inevitably led me to fall in love with the process of birth. Through my experience, I realized how powerful massage therapy can be for the pregnant and postpartum body.
I became a doula student after working in multiple prenatal based offices as a prenatal massage therapist. I was lucky enough to mentor under really incredible women and will forever consider myself a student of the incredible birthing body. I feel so honored and privileged to witness birth and support families through their pregnancy, birth and postpartum journey. I deeply cherish the transformations that come with birth and carry my position as a doula with my whole heart.
Working in our team has been an incredible joy of mine. If you are interested in our offerings here at Sacred Birth, you will likely chat with me over the phone and I will be happy to explain all things home birth. Deep in my bones, I believe in the work of Sacred Birth Midwifery and I am so happy to be our receptionist. I can’t wait to chat with you!
Rebecca Williams
Office Manager
I am Florida born and raised, and now raising my own baby in our beautiful community. A younger version of myself never could have envisioned how fortunate I would be to work with, and support, such an amazing team here at Sacred Birth. I have deep reverence and gratitude for this work and this life. I am here for it all.
We will see each other in the office. I won’t be at your birth, but I am here for you!
