Our Students
Your midwifery team at Tempe Birth Center believes in and supports the apprenticeship model for training future midwives. We believe that midwifery is an ancient art and “calling,” not just another professional career choice. Classroom learning with intermittent clinical experience would not equip a student properly for relating to clients with individual and unique needs. Apprenticeship is the absolute best model for teaching future midwives continuity of care for clients. Students see clients through birth and postpartum care from the beginning of their pregnancies. They learn to care about the individual, recognizing first-hand that what might be the “right” answer for one woman may not be for another.
We are very careful and selective about the students we choose to participate in our apprenticeship program. It is vital to us that our students share our values and are compatible with our personalities. For this reason, we hope that if you have hired us, you also will like our apprentices. Even though we are careful, we recognize that not every client will always be comfortable with every student, which is why we want you to know that you always come first. We encourage you to fill out occasional student evaluation forms, which help the student and our midwifery team know how they are doing and if there are aspects of their skills and/or training that need improvement.
Students are always supervised and only allowed to perform midwifery skills they have been taught. We also only allow the students to interact with clients who are comfortable with them. If at any time you do not feel comfortable with our students, please let us know. It is very important that your needs are met first and that you feel at ease with our entire staff.
Mary Holley, Apprentice
Hello All! My name is Mary Holley, and I’m from Milwaukee, WI. I am a mother, a divine woman, and a sacred space holder for birth. Since childhood, birth work has been something that I’ve always been drawn to. I vividly remember being an adolescent and being drawn to pregnancy, often spending time caring for babies in my mother’s daycare. Later, I became an early childhood educator myself working with infants, toddlers, and children with differing abilities. I’m someone who is very intuitive and has a natural gift to nurture. My gifts have created a very special connection to the other side, and I’m often able to see babies appear in people’s energy before they’re conceived. With my own child, I first felt her presence before ever becoming pregnant.
In 2018, after giving birth, I officially began my journey into birth work as a doula. I’ve been working as a full spectrum (preconception, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, abortion/loss) doula supporting pregnant women since 2020. I started working within my community in Milwaukee, WI, and I very recently relocated to Arizona. Currently, as a student midwife, I am eager to learn and very inspired about what I do. I view birth as something that is instinctual with hopes to start a tradition of midwifery within my lineage and continue the legacy in my community. In my practice, I’d like to have a positive impact on the way that people birth (birth is life) and I am so excited to be at Tempe Birth Center!
Hanifah Muhammad, Apprentice
Greetings Family, I am Hanifah! I am a daughter, sister, mother, wife&widow, auntie, doctor, herbalist, acupuncturist, educator, community advocate and student midwife. I am originally from New Jersey, but moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 2005 to pursue an education in Naturopathic Medicine, and begin my journey to becoming a doctor, midwife and community healer. And oooooo weeeeee has it been a whopper of a journey.
I am a “Community Baby” - an only child of my mother, brought up by a circle of elder women and men, who colored my character with a love of cooking, gardening, building/ construction, ALL types of music, art, knitting, sewing, card playing and traveling, as well as spirituality, self-sufficiency, resiliency, community responsibility and hardwork. Yep, I know that’s a lot, but it has made me a beautiful mosaic of a woman.
My passion for birth work began when I was a young girl, in the images of old female slaves, “the mammy’s” and “big mamas”. These women, who were always called on when the slave women or “Massa’s” wives were in labor, because they carried the knowledge, skill, strength and power to ensure the safe passage of a new life and new momma into loving space. These women were the holders of light and life in a very unsafe and hostile environment. Yet these women still carried the knowledge of foods and herbs, sang songs and stirred large pots of stew and special tea, or sat humming a prayer and knitting a stitch as they sat patiently awaiting the laboring mother, encouraging her and comforting her like known other had been able. These women, were my first archetypes of a midwife. By age of 6 or 7, I knew that I wanted to be a doctor who delivered babies.
I pursued degrees in Psychology and Public Health, prior to pursuing an education in Naturopathic medicine and Chinese medicine. And in between it all I got married, had babies, started a business and infused myself into community advocacy work centered around health disparities, reproductive justice, food equity, mental health wellness, and homelessness. I also travelled to parts of Africa and Haiti, where somehow I was always put with the midwives and maribous (traditional spiritual healers) to assist, learn and experience. I can tell you delivering babies by candlelight sheds a beautiful light on the situation.
I come with much learned and lived experience in the processes of birth, life and death, but also in the processes of healing, strength and joy.
My role in birth work, in the most mundane of senses, is to be a witness and assistant to catch the baby. But in the most magical of senses, my role is to take a journey with families, using my hands, my head, my heart and my spirit to create and ensure a safe space for moms, dads and families, where they can birth their new life into safety and love, on their own terms. Simply put, my role is to ensure that the new lives that come into this world, and the families that are created, are welcomed and held with love, respect, honor and majesty. It is an honored place to sit...right at the feet of our great mothers, waiting patiently at the door to life on this earth with a smile and good greeting for the new soul coming to join us. I was raised to believe that every child is an answer to a prayer. I am here to make sure those prayers are born into existence with gentle, loving care and gratitude.
In my free time, between doctor-mom’ing and supporting birthing families, I enjoy singing, dancing, poetry, photography, and all forms of hands on art. I also love cooking & eating great foods, enjoying great movies, traveling to new places, spending time in nature...park, mountain, lake, backyard (whatever you got, I love it), sewing, knitting or reading. And most of all, I love gathering with friends and family, laughing and sharing time.
My passion has always been to be an assistant to God in his works of healing and supporting life, light and love, through all of it’s cycles. I look forward to joining you and supporting you through this beautiful journey! Let’s go! Peace and Blessings.
Tia Perry, Apprentice
Peace I am Tia. A old soul deeply intertwined with the rhythm of the earth. I like yoga and its serene flow, old school r&b, and neo soul music. I resonate with earthy vibes, positive energy and enjoy anything that’ll have me laughing. As I love to laugh.
My greatest achievement isn’t written on paper but wrapped up in my 5 beautiful children with whom I adore! It’s a joy to be their mother and I wouldn’t have life any other way!
I am a huge advocate of breastfeeding as I have breastfed 3 of own and always looking to help families in any way that I can. With that my journey on becoming a midwife started with the birth of my 5th child as it was a traumatic experience for me, and that led me to becoming a birth and postpartum doula. So as I look back there are so many of my friends and family that had also experienced traumatic births with no answers, and no regard to how it would and could affect us down the line. This triggered something in me that I always knew was there. Which is me knowing that my calling here was to help moms and families in some way, and I found it! So here I am on this path to becoming a midwife and believing that I can help make a difference. And will make a difference.
Call us at 480-647-2099 or email us if you have any questions.