About

Welcome. We're excited to meet you!

As the birth team, we work together to provide homebirth services and doula services to the families of eastern Massachusetts.

We share a common philosophy and strong desire to support the women within our community.

We were recently featured on WCVB's Chronicle with one of our amazing clients. If you'd like to watch us in action, click the video to see what we're all about!

Our Staff

Jessica
Jessica Petrone, CPM, BSN
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Jessica Petrone, Certified Professional Midwife, RN, BSN

Midwifery came into my heart when I became a mother. My own birth experience ingnited my training as a doula which fueled my desire to become a midwife. I have been attending homebirths and hospital births since 2006. My educational path includes completing a three year midwifery program remotely through the National College of Midwifery in Taos, New Mexico; where I earned a degree in the Science of Midwifery concurrent with a two year apprenticeship in the Boston area. I earned the CPM credential in 2009. Most recently, I have completed a Bachelor in Science in Nursing which included a 6 month preceptorship in a high volume/high risk maternity unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. Professionally, I am a member of the Massachusetts Midwives Alliance and I served as co-president for four years. I represent the MMA on the Postpartum Depression Task Force for the MA DPH. I hold certifications in CPR and Neonatal Resuscitation and IV administration.

Sarafina
Sarafina Kennedy, CPM
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Sarafina Kennedy, Certified Professional Midwife

I have been attending births since 2005. I began my work as a doula after training with the Association of Labor Assistants and Childbirth Educators. For my formal midwifery education I attended and graduated from Birthwise Midwifery School, a MEAC accredited school in Maine. Where I currently teach Midwifery skills classes. My clinical midwifery training has included a two and a half year apprenticeship with two different midwives as well as a 2 month intensive midwifery training at a high volume birth center in El Paso Texas. I have spent time in both Indonesia and the Philippines doing low resource, high volume midwifery. I am CPR, and Neonatal Resuscitation certified. I also hold masters degree in Sociology and Gender Studies from Brandeis University, where my studies were focused on childbirth and motherhood. I am also a childbirth educator and teach a comfort measures class at Mama and Me in Jamaica Plain.

Emily
Emily Bowler, CPM
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Emily Bowler, CPM

My first steps into the world of birth work were inspired by attending the births of my nieces and nephews, as well as teaching reproductive health and childbirth every semester as a health teacher in New York City. I trained as a doula and childbirth educator in 2011 and have been attending births in the Greater Boston Area since 2013. I loved (and continues to love!) supporting families through my work as a doula and childbirth educator, but I knew early on that I also wanted to have a clinical role with my clients. I enrolled in Birthwise Midwifery School’s 3-year MEAC accredited program and fell in love with home birth midwifery. I worked with 6 different midwives in my 3 years of apprenticeship, and I've been attending births as a primary provider since 2015. I am CPR and Neonatal Resuscitation certified and an active member of the Massachusetts Midwives Alliance. I earned my credential as a Certified Professional Midwife in 2016 and opened my own practice, Modern Mama Midwifery, before deciding to officially join Sarafina and Jessica in 2018. I look forward to continuing to provide personalized, holistic care to families across Eastern Massachusetts!

Maria
Maria Caudle, Part Time Midwife
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Maria

My relationship with birth work started in 2011 when a friend had invited me to her homebirth as her “doula”. At the time I had no idea what a doula was and tried to support her the best I could. Watching my young friend move through labor and choose how she wanted to birth sparked a love of supporting folks through the transition of parenthood. While finishing up my B.S. in Biology, I started my doula training at Birth Arts International and attending hospital births as a doula and through my Obgyn co-op. After some twists and turns, I attended Womancraft Midwifery Program as the foundation for my education and began looking for an apprenticeship to further my path to midwifery. In 2017, the stars aligned and I began my apprenticeship with Sarafina and Jessica. In addition to my work with Birth Matters, I offer full spectrum doula services, placenta encapsulation, childbirth education classes through That Darn Doula Birth Services and will be accepting homebirth clients in Fall 2019.

Tuly Duprat
Tuly Duprat, Student Midwife
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Tuly attended her first home birth in 1987 at 5 years old, when her sister was born, and fell so in love with it. Seeing a traditional midwife work with her oils and prayers, at light of candles in a dark night was hypnotizing for her. She knew then that being a midwife would be part of her path someday. Being born in Brazil, she was just on the wrong country, where traditional midwives were banned and C- sections were on the rise, between 60-99% depending on the region. Tuly decided to follow her mother's footsteps and became a dance teacher while also studying acting, performing and music until she moved to U.S in 2012. Tuly discovered that midwives were going strong and once again being a home birth midwife was a possibility. She took a DONA International doula training and has since attended more than 200 births. Tuly has attended several trainings to support women during birth; a Rebozo workshop (a technique of the use of a scarf for labor learned from Mayan Midwives from Mexico), Spinning Babies training, is a Dancing for Birth Instructor and a certified Hypnodoula with Hypnobabies. Tuly is now enrolled at Birthwise Midwifery School in Maine. When she is not attending births as a doula or midwife she is harvesting edible wild plants, walking her ferrets on the woods, swimming, dancing, practicing archery or cooking a vegetarian meal.
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Marika Michelangelo, Office Manager
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Both Marika and her brother were born at home assisted with midwives. She always knew that if she were to have babies, they to would be born at home. She is now a mother to three BirthMatters water babies! After having her second daughter, she chose to leave her postition as a Community Wellness Manager at a Community Health Center in Dorchester so she could have more time with her children. When Jessica and Sarafina posted the position of Office Manager she knew it would be the perfect position for her. Marika has a deep respect for the knowledge, compassion, confidence and truthfulness that the BirthMatters Midwifery team has. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about my birth experiences, or if you have a question about insurance, payments or any adminstrative concern.
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Adriana Jean Louis, Student Midwife
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After four years of doula work both non-profit and privately I’m so very excited to join the Birthmatters team as a student Midwife. Helping families and individuals realize their birthing experiences are entirely their own to create has been and continues to be my passion. As a woman of color maternal health and autonomy are so very near and dear to me and my practice. Midwifery has always been on my heart and after years of doula work and graduating with a degree in Public Health, I’m so excited to be on this journey.
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Ashley Bennett, Student Midwife
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A love for all things pregnancy and birth developed in my childhood as the oldest of many siblings and cousins. In my undergrad, I pursued the hard sciences in hopes of working with low-risk pregnant women only to discover midwifery many years later during my first pregnancy. Like many before me, my path to birth work felt like an unending tug at my heart strings after experiencing the care, effort and joy of having my own children at home in the care of wonderful midwives in 2012 and 2014. In the summer of 2014, I attended a doula training, and that following year, became a certified Bradley Method® teacher. Since then, I’ve taught and attended births consistently, and as of March 2018, began apprenticing with local midwives, and as of July 2018, started attending Birthwise Midwifery School to become a CPM. It is with great joy that I joined the Birth Matters midwifery practice as a student midwife in April 2018 to complete my training. In any role, it is my goal to provide the space, care, and encouragement you and your family needs to have the birth you want and hope for. I look forward to working with you and your loved ones!
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Jackie Karnoff, Student Midwife
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I began my journey into the birth world in 2010 as an eager activist out of college hoping to improve maternity care and empower pregnant people and their families through information, compassion, and support. I became certified as a birth doula through Birth Arts International and worked with a non-profit to support disadvantaged pregnant people throughout their care. This introduced me to the world of out-of-hospital practitioners and healers that I deeply resonated with. I knew it was in my bones to become a midwife. For the last 10 years I have been working as a doula and computer animation artist, and as of July 2018 I have been pursuing my life’s passion to become a CPM. I have been receiving my formal midwifery education from Birthwise Midwifery School and am thrilled to be joining Birth Matters as a student midwife. I believe pregnancy and birth are normal life processes that should be valued and cherished. My wish is to create a calm, kind, and safe environment for you and your family through this extraordinary life transition.