meet joni
holistic birth companion
in its roots Mid-wife - With Woman
in the Wise Woman Tradition
I’m Joni M. Edelman. Retired Registered Nurse, Childbirth Educator, holistic birth companion, + full spectrum doula behind 13 Moons. I’m a mama of 6 and a granny of one busy toddler. As I complete my first half-century on the planet, I’m embracing my wise woman era.
I attended my first birth as a doula in 1992. As an enthusiastic 18-year-old I knew I wanted to be in birth, IN IT, but I didn’t know how. It would take me some years to figure that out. With experience at the bed- (or tub, or shower or wherever) side, first as a doula then as a labor and delivery nurse and now again in whatever role I can be of most service, I’ve been witness to hundreds and hundreds (surely thousands by now) of human beings taking their first breath.
I’ve seen just about every kind of birth you can fathom - vaginal and c-section, home and hospital, medicated and not, normal and emergency.
I believe that pregnancy and birth are sacred, fundamentally normal, physiological processes. I commit to respect and protect the birth space, allowing labor to take its normal course in order to help each woman birth naturally, safely and confidently. A laboring woman needs to feel private, safe, and unobserved, and as such I work hard to provide subtle but effective observation, only as needed and desired. In a nutshell, the more we intervene in the absence of true necessity, the more problems we cause.
I believe that the only expert in any pregnancy is the pregnant person. There is no substitute for a woman’s intuition in the childbearing year. I do not position myself as expert over any woman in her pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period. I operate as a wise guide and sister to help you navigate this transformational period.
My goal as your birth attendant is to help you achieve the birth you’ve been imagining (and if you aren’t sure what birth you are imagining, I can help you figure that out too!). My work is centered around the birthing person and their wishes and desires.
I’m here to remind you of your innate capability to grow, birth, and parent your child.
on the word “midwife”
The word midwife is ancient. In its earliest form it meant simply with woman — one who stands beside another in her time of birthing. Long before laws, institutions, or credentials, there were women who knew how to listen, witness, and tend the sacred threshold between worlds.
Over time, that simple and powerful word became legislated — a title reserved for those authorized by the state. In Texas and many other (but not all) states, “midwife” is now a regulated designation, one that requires licensure to use. I find it curious — and deeply telling — that a word born of relationship has been claimed by bureaucracy.
Yet no law can own what the word means.
To be with woman is to walk in reverence. It is to remember that birth is not a medical event — it is a physiological process and a rite of passage. It transforms body, spirit, and family. It invites a woman to cross a threshold and return changed, carrying both new life and new knowing. Baby and mother born together.
Medicine can sometimes serve that process, but it does not define it. Birth belongs to the birthing person — to the wisdom of her body, her baby, her lineage, and her intuition.
I call myself a birth companion, honoring the original spirit of the midwife: to stand with, not over; to guide, not manage; to trust, not control. My work is to protect the sacredness of this passage, to hold space for autonomy, and to remember that birth is — and always has been — holy ground.
My philosophy of birth
Birth is a physiological process, not a medical event. As such, the best outcomes are seen when we leave women and birth alone.
Any intervention has the potential to disrupt the symphony of hormones involved and should be carefully considered.
Learn more about my holistic birth and postpartum support → Services