A Conversation with Becky Schayes, CNM, ARNP
Becky, we love having you as part of the Mobile Mama team. Can you tell us a little about your journey in getting here?
I opened my private practice in May of 2014 in the small upstairs office of Birthroot’s (then brand new) birth center. I was a new Nurse-Midwife with a new second baby of my own. Despite the sleep deprivation that comes in that first year postpartum, I had a vision for what reproductive health care could look like.
Doesn’t everyone deserve to be held during vulnerable times? Isn’t seeking health care undoubtedly one of the most vulnerable things we do? Doesn’t everyone deserve a midwife, regardless of their current or lifetime plans to be pregnant?
Questions like these spurred me to learn how to run my own business and so I opened my doors with an unwavering commitment to be present and hold each and every individual that came to see me for care.
Twelve years later, I find myself in awe at the opportunities I have had to work with and alongside so many people, supporting a range of their reproductive health care needs: Annual exams, birth control consults, IUD insertions, breast exams, UTIs, thyroid disorders, vulvar and vaginal issues, painful and heavy periods, cancer diagnoses, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, pain, miscarriage, abortion, even for a short time things like asthma and ear infections. ALL OF IT and so much more.
To be present, to be gentle, to hold space for things to emerge, this has been a gift.
My practice has had different names and homes at different times: Rebecca Schayes CNM- ARNP, Bellingham Center for Healthy Motherhood, Bellingham Natural Family Medicine, and now Mobile Mama. I am so grateful for the chance to continue this work. While my services have narrowed some in scope due to only offering telemedicine, I remain committed to the same practice of presence and holding for all my clients.
What clients would be a good fit at Mobile Mama- what may they be trying to figure out, explore, heal, symptoms?
I am a process-oriented person. As a midwife, I honor the process of birth. Every step must happen to get the outcome we want: a baby! I approach all my care in this way. While a therapeutic outcome is the goal, whatever that might be, the process is just as important to me. The best fit for my practice is someone who is ready to do some discovery work, to participate in a process, and who is open to maybe finding answers where they least expect it. For clients already doing this type of work in therapy, my process is usually a natural fit and a welcome alternative to the short, brief interactions that dominate modern medicine.
Individuals interested in exploring possible herbal supports and/or medications for depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, and ADHD are all potential fits for my practice scope and focus. Topics such as periods, sex, sleep, fatigue, thyroid, appetite, birth control, trying to conceive, miscarriage, abortion, emergency contraception are all areas of reproductive health care that are appropriate for telemedicine and areas I love to help support people in.
What are some of the strategies that you used to support clients in their healing?
People ask me all the time: “So are you midwifing?” My answer is always enthusiastically “YES!”. Midwife literally means “to be with” and this is one of my key strategies I bring to supporting clients. It is no surprise that healing will struggle to take place when there is a sense of hurriedness, minimal collaboration, and an utter absence of trust.
In my practice, as much is clinically safe, I slow things down. I center clients’ experiences in their body and view them as their own expert, joining them as a teammate in their work of understanding, learning, and healing. I use my medical training to help ensure we have examined necessary data, considered all possibilities, and really understand choices. In real life this means longer visits, more space to share personal experiences, and an open invitation to ask more questions and fully participate in care.
What else should we know?
I am just as committed to my own learning and growth. I seek out and study with my own teachers and mentors. I know that to hold others, I must also be held! I am honored to be a part of this larger web of support.
