MEET CHRISTY

MIDWIFERY SERVICES

DOULA SERVICES

MODEL OF CARE

WHAT FAMILIES SAY

DIRECTIONS & CONTACT

LINKS OF INTEREST

Christy Martin’s love for working with childbearing families came unexpectedly while she was completing training to be a nurse. For her preceptorship, she worked with a CNM (certified nurse-midwife) in a homebirth practice in Missouri. It was during this experience that Christy first saw the beauty of labor and birth accomplished by women in the safety and comfort of their own homes surrounded by chosen and trusted people, and without unnecessary interventions. These experiences provided a strong foundation for understanding that pregnancy and birth are normal, healthy processes, and that midwifery care provides women and their families with excellent options for their maternity care.

Before pursuing her midwifery training, Christy worked as a Registered Nurse for 4½ years, a year and a half of which were spent in labor, delivery, and postpartum, as well as in the newborn nursery. While working in the hospital, Christy attended about 90 births which were a mix of natural and medicated labors, and vaginal and caesarean births. During these years she also provided labor support for some of her friends and continued to develop her passion, skills, and heart for serving women during pregnancy, birth, and afterward.

In 2004, when the time finally came for Christy to start her midwifery training, she chose a program that focused on another of her passions, serving in developing countries. After spending four months in Idaho preparing to live overseas training as a midwife, Christy traveled to Manila, Philippines, where she spent fifteen months working with Mercy in Action Maternity Center providing free maternity services to impoverished women and their families in an urban slum area. While with Mercy in Action, Christy attended over 130 births; she was the primary midwife for 80+ of these births, either catching the baby herself or overseeing a student midwife, and she was the assistant midwife at another 30+ of these births.

Christy’s heart for the developing world and for serving women has also taken her to Tanzania, East Africa where she served in a rural clinic. During her time in Tanzania, she worked alongside Tanzanian midwives, doctors, and nurses giving prenatal care and delivering babies. Also while there, Christy taught a maternal-newborn health class for a group of primary healthcare students from six different countries.

In August 2006, Christy graduated from Mercy in Action Midwifery School and the National College of Midwifery. She passed the licensure exam given by the North American Registry of Midwives, making her a Certified Professional Midwife.

In 2007, Christy moved from Arkansas to Fort Worth, Texas, founding Celebrate Birth Midwifery and Doula Services. She is also a staff midwife at Gentle Beginnings Birth Center in Hurst, Texas. Gentle Beginnings is the only birth center in Tarrant county. Christy’s desire is to help women and their families have healthy pregnancies and rewarding birth experiences through providing education, preventative care, personalized attention, and skilled hands.


MY CREDENTIALS AND AFFILIATIONS                        TOPofPAGE


▪Bachelor of Arts in Christian Ministries
▪Associates Degree in Nursing
▪Associates Degree in Midwifery
▪Certified Professional Midwife, North American Registry of Midwives
▪Licensed Midwife, State of Texas
▪Registered Nurse, State of Missouri
▪Certified in Basic Life Support/CPR for adults, children,
 and infants by the American Heart Association
▪Certified in Neonatal Resuscitation by the American  
 Academy of Pediatrics
▪Certified Breastfeeding Educator by Lactation Consultant
 Services
▪Midwives Association of North America (MANA) Member
▪Association of Texas Midwives
▪North Texas Midwives Association
▪Coalition for Improving Maternity Services Supporter