About
Hello, I’m Carolyn
I’m a writer, a bit of a graphic artist, and someone who loves diving into creative projects. I’ve also been a midwife for over 35 years and deeply understand the importance of nurturing growth and providing support. Through my journey, I’ve come to appreciate the value of teaching and encouraging parents and others to learn. This path ultimately led me to create Birth Work Designs, a venture I embarked on in 2020 while living aboard our boat named Home Berth in the Caribbean.
Living on a boat in the warm waters of the islands felt like paradise. However, paradise took on a different meaning in 2020 during Covid lockdown when the Caribbean and Bahama islands closed their borders to visitors and boaters alike. With plenty of free time on my hands, I immersed myself in creating documents and handouts for midwives, doulas, and childbirth educators and taught myself to design childbirth graphics using Adobe Illustrator. Additionally, I started writing blog content for the website I had built and began working on a childbirth preparation book. A year later, when the islands began to reopen, we set sail.
Life is full of new opportunities, and our incredible adventure at sea allowed us to uncover a new path in a different time and place. One thing that has remained constant throughout all my adventures is my passion for working with pregnant women and families. Now settled in France near the beautiful coast of the Mediterranean waters, surrounded by vineyards, olive trees, and the distant Pyrenees mountains, I continue to grow, create, and develop ways to teach and provide support to birth workers and mothers.
The journey continues, which I could not have done without a team that believed in the purpose of Birth Work Designs.
Our Team
Our team believes that each baby should be born into the hands of the parent, loved one, or a skilled, compassionate, and respectful caregiver.
Birth Work Designs
Team & Advisory Council
Birth Work Designs Founder
Carolyn Quinn Reisman, M.A., CPM (retired)
Midwife, Virtual Doula, Online Childbirth Instructor
Many life experiences led me to become a midwife, including becoming a mother. I have two daughters, both born naturally and one born at home. I took my birth experiences and layered them with knowledge, research, and self-confidence. Three years after my home birth, I enrolled in a midwifery school and embarked on a fulfilling 35-year midwifery career.
Now semi-retired, I am using my knowledge and expertise to teach childbirth education – a lifelong passion for empowering parents on their birth journey. I also offer private midwifery consultations and virtual doula services.
- Master of Arts in History – with an emphasis on women’s history.
- Certified Professional Midwife (CPM-retired)
- Virtual Doula
- Author of Your Birth Journey: A Holistic Guide for Pregnancy
- Author of Navigating Your Birth: A Complete Childbirth Education Guide
- Author of Positions for Birth (coming soon)
- Founder Birth Work Designs
Jeannette McDonald, M.P.H., CD (DONA) CLC, RYT
Childbirth Instructor, Instructor Trainer, Doula
My work in Public Health for over 20 years has been varied and deep but has always focused on women’s health. In one of my roles, I researched why our region has such high infant mortality rates. We focused on bringing preconception health and women’s support services programming to Chattanooga.
Before we started a family, my husband and I decided to move to Bali, Indonesia, and focus our time at a birthing center and health clinic called Bumi Sehat. I was pregnant within the year of planning that transition, and the decision to have our baby at Bumi Sehat was made. Living and working around the clinic for six months allowed me to see birth as I had experienced it; empowering, transformative and natural. In subsequent years, I became a registered yoga teacher, certified lactation counselor, and certified birth doula. I use my past education and experience to bring my work as a doula to my clients. It is an honor to support women and their families in their birth journey.
Now with two sons, our life is full and active. I love time with my family, all outdoor activities, and time with friends. I am first and foremost a mom who very much desires to support other moms through their birth journey in whatever shape that takes. Outside of my family, my loves include yoga, being in nature, plants, and writing.
- Masters in Public Health
- Certified Doula (DONA)
- Certified Lactation Consultant (CLC)
- Certified Intuitive Birth Arts Instructor
- Midwife Assistant
- Certified in Neonatal Resuscitation
- Basic Life Support / CPR for Healthcare Providers
Midwifery Advisor
Website: Birth Wellness
Shalmai Hollingshead, CPM
Certified Professional Midwife
Having a mother who was a home birth midwife, my path to midwifery really began during my childhood. But first, my life would see two beautiful sons born with the help of midwives and my mother, Carolyn Reisman. After raising my sons through adulthood, I knew it was time. I moved to Tennessee with my husband Mat from the Southwest in order to pursue midwifery training under the direction of my mother.
In June of 2019, after a 3-year long apprenticeship, I completed the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) exam and earned my credentials as a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM). Having midwifery skills passed from mother to daughter completed a time-honored tradition, and now I feel privileged to work on the Sage Birth Arts Advisory Council advising my mother.
Education
- Associates of Arts in Liberal Arts University of New Mexico, 2018
- Associates of Science in Midwifery National College of Midwifery, 2019
Certifications
- Neonatal Resuscitation (NRP)
- Basic Life Support / CPR for Health Care Provider
- IV and Blood Drawing
OUR PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATION
Mission: Promote evidence-based, respectful childbirth education to mothers and families.
Work: Offer professional training for childbirth educators.
We advocate for families and babies by:
- Seeking to ensure that all childbearing women are treated with dignity and respect during the pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum periods.
- Promoting self-awareness and autonomy during pregnancy, childbirth, and beyond.
- Supporting each pregnant woman’s right to be surrounded by a loving and supportive community.
- Believing that each baby should be born into the hands of the parent or a skilled, compassionate and respectful caregiver.
- Protecting the mutually dependent dyad of the mother and baby.
- Revering the sacred nature of birth and its potential to transform women, relationships, families, and communities.
- Striving to improve birth outcomes for women and infants where perinatal health disparities and inequities exist.
- Improving the quality of maternity and newborn care in all settings through evidence-based education and support.
- Dedication to helping families have empowering, satisfying and joyous experiences from conception through gestation, childbirth, and early parenthood.
