Our Team
Terri Young
Midwife - BS, CPM, LM (ID, WA)
In 2000 my son was born in a vacuum-assisted delivery. His birth caused me to feel disempowered, disrespected, and that my maternal instincts were ignored. Fortunately, the teacher of my hospital childbirth prep class was an AMAZING doula/nurse in Denver. SHE was empowering and first lit the spark that started my whole journey. Largely due to her influence, I started attending hospital births as a labor doula in 2001. In 2004, I trained to be a midwife’s assistant. I was bitten by the midwifery bug and have attended home births almost exclusively ever since. I worked as a birth assistant for various local midwives in Coeur d’Alene and Spokane from 2006-2010.
In 2005, I birthed my nine-and-a-half-pound daughter at home with a midwife. This was an amazing moment in my life and showed me how wonderful birth can be when it is allowed to unfold naturally. It was such a different experience from my first birth and really pushed me to further pursue midwifery.
In 2010, I spent four weeks in the Philippines doing an internship at Mercy Maternity Clinic, where they deliver about 150 babies per month. It was a life-changing trip for me, as I had never seen poverty like that nor had I previously been to a third-world country. When I returned from my internship, I completed my clinical training and apprenticeship. As of January 2011, I have attended over 200 births, and in 60 of those, I served as the primary midwife. The apprenticeship route to learning the art of midwifery has given me a valuable perspective on normal, physiological births, and also how to manage complications. I took the NARM board exams in August of 2011, thus earning me my CPM (Certified Professional Midwife). In December of 2011, I was thrilled to become the 42nd licensed midwife in the state of Idaho.
My family and I moved from our native Colorado to the Spokane Valley in 2006. We love living near our extended family in North Idaho. My husband Kent is the music director at The Oaks Classical Christian Academy where both of our children attend school. This is a real blessing for our family because it allows me to leave for births without concern about the children’s whereabouts.
Dawn Brown
Midwife - BS, CPM, LM (WA, ID)
I was born in Colorado and grew up in Alaska. When I had my first baby, I felt like I was not able to have the natural birth that I wanted for my first birth in the hospital. So for my second baby, at 37 weeks I transferred to a out of hospital midwifery group to have a birth center birth, which changed my whole perspective on natural birth, birth options, and midwifery. My third baby was then born in the comfort of my own home with my husband, midwife, and my own mother present. After that I was sold, I knew that Midwifery was my calling and a journey I would someday start.
Before I started midwifery school, I worked in a very different setting. My training consists of a bachelor's at Eastern Washington University in Speech and Hearing Disorders with an emphasis on speech therapy in the school setting. In 2008 when my children were little, I became a doula and focused on supporting young single moms. I also started teaching childbirth education classes here in Spokane.
While homeschooling my kids, it was a few more years before I started Midwifery school and my five-year journey which included preceptorships at birth centers in Spokane, Idaho, Alaska, and Utah. During that time I lived and worked in Hawaii, I was also doing mission trips involving teaching classes in women’s health and CPR in Africa and Guam.
I enjoy doing research and keeping up with the latest studies. I continue to take classes for Birth Emergency Skills, Cultural Competency, Breech & Twins. I enjoy increasing my knowledge of nutrition, women’s health, and thyroid issues. I am always ready to learn from our local birth community and supporting our doulas.
Me and my husband of 20+ years have had an adventurous time raising three children who are almost all out of the house. We have built three homes, traveled, and been adventurous in backpacking, hiking, and sailing. Our family enjoys watching movies and eating pizza, I love cooking with my girls, and watching my son play sports. I am so happy to join Spokane River Midwives and continue to serve Washington and Idaho families.
EMT 1998-2005
Certified Lactation Counselor 2009
Doula, Childbirth International 2009
Lamaze childbirth educator 2010
Midwives College of Utah in 2012
Certified Professional Midwife 2016
Licensed Midwife Washington 2018/Idaho 2021
Midwifery Bridge Certificate 2021
Current Neonatal Resuscitation/BLS CPR
Felicia
Childbirth Class Instructor, Nuse, Lactation Consultant - RN, IBCLC, LCCE
Felicia loves teaching childbirth classes for Spokane River Midwives.
She is a Registered Nurse, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, and Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator. She has a special passion for education and informed decision-making in pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum. Felicia views this job as a ministry and loves serving in the community where she grew up.
Felicia spends most of her time being a wife and mom to her three children Jonah (4), Micah (2), and Evelyn (9 months).
We adore having Felicia teach our families, and assist them as a nurse and lactation consultant.
Miri
Student Midwife
Miri immigrated to America from the U.K 15 years ago. It was in England watching two of her siblings being born that she vowed to become a midwife “when she grew up”. After experiencing her own son’s birth she became a doula and started working closely with Moms in the hospital advocating for consent and respectful care.
Miri was overjoyed to be accepted into Mercy In Action College of Midwifery for the fall of 2021. She is currently working on her bachelor's degree in midwifery.
Miri is a Certified Spinning Babies Parent Educator and doula, when she’s not studying she loves to educate families on fetal positioning and helping breech babies flip.
She is married to her husband of five years and together they have a three-year-old son.
Karly
Birth Assistant/Postpartum Nurse - RN, BSN
When I tell people that I want to be a midwife they always say, “you must love babies!” to which I always reply, “I do, but I really love the moms.”
After having my first two children at home with midwives I knew that one day I would pursue midwifery—that was almost ten years ago. Since then, I became a registered nurse and added two more beautiful girls to our family. As a clinician I learned the value of holistic and evidence-based care as well as the often more important skill of slowing down and being present; it was this aspect of caregiving that I truly fell in love with.
While it is not yet time for me to pursue my midwifery education, I am excited to join this wonderful team to help support families in our community and the midwives that make out-of-hospital birth possible.
Melissa
Lactation Consultant
Heather
Student Midwife
When I was 2 years old, I told my parents that I wanted to be “the kind of doctor that delivers babies”, and while I did decide being an MD wasn’t for me, I always knew I wanted to be present with women birthing their babies.
After training and working as a doula in mainly hospital births for a few years and witnessing the way women are treated in that setting, I couldn’t remain as a doula, I knew I wanted to do more to help change the way women experience their care during pregnancy and childbirth and began looking into becoming a midwife.
I started apprenticing with Terri in 2013, and attended births with her for about 9 months since I got pregnant with my daughter immediately after beginning my apprenticeship. I decided to take a step back from midwifery so as not to miss her baby years, but kept my foot in the door, painting the office, catering picnics, helping with paperwork, working to open the birth center, anything I could do to stay at least a little involved in the world of midwifery.
Now that my daughter is older the timing has felt right to jump back in, and I started up my apprenticeship again, then enrolled in the National College of Midwifery.
Serving women has always been my passion, and I’m so thrilled to be a part of Spokane River Midwives.