ABOUT

You've got this; and I've got you

Kathryn (Kate) Dewar is a Licensed Midwife (LM), Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). She is a member of the National Association of Professional Midwives (NACPM) and Maine Chapter (MACPM), International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA), and professional member of Evidence Based Birth.  Kate studied at Birthingway College of Midwifery, a MEAC accredited school in Portland, OR, and graduated from both the lactation and midwifery programs there in 2018.  She apprenticed with a private practice midwife and at a busy birth center that specializes in waterbirth.  Her lactation apprenticeship included in-home and clinic visits, parent support groups, and co-teaching a monthly prenatal lactation class.  Her own 2 home births and 4+ years of personal experience with breastfeeding did not count toward her credentials, but is foundational to the care she provides for families. 

Her goal when becoming a midwife and lactation consultant was to practice in a rural setting, as her experience receiving standard care during her first pregnancy in Maine was the catalyst that set her on this journey.  She moved to Vermont in 2019 where she attended UVM (1997-2002) for her undergraduate studies in English Literature and Environmental Studies and met, and eventually married, her husband (2005).  She assisted a local midwife and started Moonstone Sunrise Midwifery and Lactation in October 2020. It became clear that having a close community is key to birth work and returned to Maine in 2022. They are living in Kingfield, ME with their two, above average, kids, feisty cat, rescue pup, and four (down from ten) chickens.  Kate enjoys propelling herself forward in various ways including hiking, running, skiing, sledding etc. in an attempt to balance out her daily consumption of dark chocolate.  She also has a deep appreciation for seasons and loves snow, sugaring, gardening, and stacking wood.

Pregnancy and birth are a time of tremendous transformation and deserve time, focus, and sanctity. 

I was drawn to midwifery for its emphasis on continuity of care, informed choice, and the fundamental belief that pregnancy and birth are a natural physiologic state of being and process.  Midwives hold space for the rite of passage into parenthood for the first, third, or tenth time and strive to make the beginnings for our babies as gentle as possible.  Birthing people do best when given space to move around, nourishment, comfort, and reassurance from providers they know and trust and who hold a deep respect and awe for the moment of birth. 

There is nothing quite like it in this world.  Each birth is rich with story and deserves a telling.  May this generation of children be surrounded and brought up with birth stories that are full of words and phrases like: joy, strength, power, I did it!

When I was living in rural Maine and  pregnant with my first child in 2010, I traveled 45 minutes to the nearest clinic for an appointment that lasted about 10 minutes long. I often left with more questions than I had going in.  My parents were family doctors, who did obstetrics while practicing, and they were often my sounding board for questions, and to translate the medicalese I encountered. A friend, who had given birth at home, gave me a copy of Ina May Gaskin’s, Spiritual Midwifery, and I read it cover to cover.  Ricky Lake’s documentary, The Business of Being Born, was also circulating at that time. After watching that, not only did I NOT want to give birth at the local (not so local) hospital, I wanted to become a midwife.  Be the change you wish to see and all that…

As fortune would have it, my husband was offered a job in Portland, OR, and we moved in my third trimester from our off grid cabin, in a town of 600, to a very-much-on-the-grid rental house, 10 minutes by Trimet bus from downtown Portland.  The birth center was even closer.  My first appointment was over an hour long and the midwives asked me all the questions I didn’t know how or to ask in the first place.  I felt truly cared for and thought, “This is the kind of care all pregnant people deserve!” I had to uproot my whole life in order to find what I wanted.  I knew that if I became a midwife I would take that skill to a rural area where choice in maternity care is limited (and because I knew I couldn’t live in a city forever -- you can take the woman out of the mountains and woods, but you can’t take the mountains and woods out of the woman).  I went on to have an unplanned, but lovely home birth, and my fate to become a birth worker was sealed.