Hamilton Yarbrough, Nurse-Midwife, Professional Midwife, Licensed-Midwife

Magan Grooms, Nurse-Midwife, Professional Midwife, Licensed-Midwife

Hamilton’s Path to Midwifery

My story of working in the homebirth world and becoming a midwife is a long, winding road that started when I took a two semester break from undergraduate studies at Auburn to teach English in Peru. A friend who was a nutritionist asked me to come help her  at a community market with some public health nutritional assessments. I was intrigued at how preventative the care was, and how gifted my friend was at counseling clients with their whole persons in mind - understanding that people are influenced by and influencing their communities constantly. It was so important to learn while people do have physical numbers of their health they are so much more, they are mental, emotional, spiritual beings - and this impacts a person’s unique motivations and challenges when working with them. My love for the honor of coming alongside a person and building up their own strength and confidence began here, and I started down the path of becoming a registered dietitian nutritionist. At this time I was simultaneously working on a minor in Hunger Studies that the World Food Programme was piloting, and doing a lot of work with the Women’s Resource Center at Auburn University and volunteering as a Rape Counselor of East Alabama - from the work and studies I was involved in two things became evident from an evidence and experiential perspective - women were the change makers and the backbone of virtually every culture around the world, and communities functioned optimally when they are lifted up and supported. I wanted to work in a role where I did everything in my power to ensure systems and individual practice that created safe spaces for women to do the incredibly creative and powerful work that they naturally do within their families and communities at large. 

After becoming a dietitian and realizing that our healthcare is not set up to value preventative health, I went back to become a Women’s Health NP with dreams of being able to provide more holistic, preventative care in this role. When I had my labor rotation for school, I had a light bulb moment when I was in my first birth and quickly realized that this had to be part of the work I did. I became a volunteer doula through Vanderbilt’s nursing school doula program and absolutely fell in love with the birth world and the midwifery model of care. This led me to make a shift towards becoming a nurse-midwife, and I took some time to work as an L&D RN prior to finishing my Master’s in Midwifery. I quickly realized that birth culture in the hospitals in AL was vastly different than what I experienced with the midwives in the hospitals and birth centers I had worked with as a doula and nursing student. After working as a nurse for a few years, I went back to school and finished my masters in nursing to become a midwife, and came back to Alabama hoping to further carve out better systems for safe care in the hospital setting, and eventually in the community setting. I became impassioned for creating safe spaces for routine preventative care, especially trauma informed care within birth and gynecological care, and loved working at my job in the hospital setting and making that a safe space for the people and families I care for. 

Then, after giving birth at home to my first child in July 2019, I was redirected to the beauty and absolute necessity of honoring a physiologic pregnancy and postpartum transition, not just a physiologic birth, after receiving the gift of my dear midwife holding that space for me and my family. It only felt right to move towards giving the same level of care to my clients, so in 2020 I started doing just that. I am beyond grateful to be working in this joyous homebirth role. 

In my time off, you can find me baking all the sourdough things and cooking by feel in my kitchen, reading books with my son Charlie, exploring the outdoors, enjoying the company of beloved friends, and occasionally enjoying a good Netflix binge of some Brittish murder mystery with my goofy husband Jordan (who is the real MVP - thank YOU for being the best mid-husband that ever existed!).

Videography by the incredible Marcus January

Magan’s Path to Midwifery

My path to midwifery began some years ago - honestly, probably with the birth of my first child almost nine years ago. I was not yet involved in birth work, but I knew I wanted a provider who listened and a birth experience that empowered me. The birth of my daughter was beautiful and magical but wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I still so strongly desired to have an unmedicated birth where I and my provider simply listened to my body. Fast forward (not far!) to the next year when I labored and gave birth to my son with a different provider and at a different facility- the difference was night and day! I was empowered, I was heard, I felt strong and capable and informed. I knew immediately afterwards that I had to work at this place which valued mothers and their knowledge of their own bodies. So, in 2016, I began working in labor and delivery at Princeton Baptist Medical Center, and it was there that I fell in love with the process of birth and the strength of women. Shortly thereafter, I had the privilege of working alongside Birmingham’s first full-scope Certified Nurse Midwife and seeing the difference midwifery could make for birthing people and families. In 2018 after the birth of my last child, I realized that I, too, wanted to the chance to develop relationships with women and their families sooner than when they came to the hospital in labor. It was so beautiful witnessing the trust and respect exchanged between midwife and mother, and I knew then that midwifery was my destination. So, in 2019, my journey began! I am so excited to be joining Hamilton and Aurora Midwifery to serve the central Alabama birth community. In my free time, I can be found around our farm with my husband, three children, and all of our animals - twenty-five chickens, four dogs, three cows, three ponies, a horse, and hopefully soon goats! I love baking all types of bread, especially rolls. We also love relaxing by camping (now in our travel trailer, but formerly in hammocks!), hiking, kayaking, traveling, and finding antique shops and used bookstores in all the little towns we visit. If I’m ever sitting still, I’m probably reading a book.