Today we’d like to introduce you to Christiana Delk.
Hi Christiana, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My Journey Into Out-of-Hospital Midwifery
My journey into out-of-hospital midwifery started long before I ever imagined becoming a midwife. In many ways, it began with the pregnancy and birth of my first daughter.
I was a young mother in my junior year of high school when I found out I was pregnant. I was scared, but I dove into parenthood with everything I had. I read everything I could get my hands on, from the teachings of Dr. Sears to breastfeeding resources and videos so I could learn how to properly latch my baby.
I also found local community programs, including Nurse-Family Partnership and Project Elect, which supported me through my first two years as a mother. I began building my village before I fully understood just how profoundly a strong support system can impact a person’s life.
My first pregnancy and birth were also my first real-world experiences within the maternal healthcare system—and they opened my eyes to a reality that shook me deeply.
I was surprised and disheartened by how cold and clinical pregnancy care could feel. Appointments were often ten minutes or less with a provider, followed by pamphlets, a scheduled follow-up appointment, and little opportunity to truly connect. The care felt rushed and, at times, almost robotic.
But there was one nurse who stood out.
She advocated for me. She sat with me while I labored alone. She encouraged me and did everything she could to help me feel confident in becoming a mother, despite how young I was.
That nurse changed the trajectory of my labor—and ultimately, my life.
She showed me something I would carry with me for years: the right support can change a person’s experience in profound ways.
That realization stayed with me.
Finding My Way to Birth Work
I went to college for nursing because I thought perhaps that was where I belonged. I wanted to become a labor and delivery nurse, and I was also interested in becoming a doula.
But the deeper I got into nursing education and healthcare policy, the more questions I had.
I couldn’t understand why individualized care, informed decision-making, and meaningful support—with the client being an active and respected member of their own care team—weren’t more central to the healthcare model.
I eventually realized that nursing wasn’t where my passion lived.
I left nursing school with a strong desire to support families during their childbearing years, but I wasn’t yet sure what that would look like.
Becoming a doula was still on the table. There were many certification programs available, but I wanted to be intentional about choosing one. I wanted my education to align with my ethics, morals, and beliefs about inclusivity. I didn’t want a highly biased training program. I wanted to be prepared to support people from all walks of life.
Then my own pregnancies continued to shape my path.
During my second pregnancy, I immersed myself in research about natural birth, attachment parenting, the baby’s microbiome, and many other aspects of pregnancy and infant health.
By my third pregnancy, I had discovered homebirth, hypnobirthing, bodywork, and herbs. I also became a certified aromatherapist.
And then I found doula work.
I decided to become a labor companion and support families in both hospital and out-of-hospital settings. A local doula training program was preparing to hold its first cohort, and I jumped in.
I completed the training in about a month.
I couldn’t put the required book down. Every extra moment I had was poured into learning about birth work. What started as curiosity quickly became a fire.
Books such as The Scientification of Love, The Birth Partner, and Holistic Midwifery spoke to something inside me that I hadn’t known was missing.
It felt like I had finally been called home.
I earned my doula certification and then hired my own doula for the birth of my next baby. Experiencing compassionate, informed support from the other side of the relationship left a lasting impression on me. It solidified my love for birth work and showed me firsthand what meaningful support could look like.
I continued my education in bereavement and full-spectrum doula support.
Eventually, I was offered an opportunity that would change the course of my life once again: a homebirth midwifery apprenticeship.
Learning the Art and Heart of Midwifery
I spent four and a half years working under a midwife while completing theory and book studies, attending births, and participating in prenatal and postpartum appointments.
During those years, I learned much more than clinical skills.
I learned the art of midwifery.
I learned the heart of midwifery.
I learned that midwifery is truly a work of heart.
I learned about business ownership, boundaries, responsibility, and the incredible honor of caring for people during one of the most transformative seasons of their lives.
Out-of-hospital midwifery changed me to my core. I came out of my apprenticeship a very different person than when I began.
For the first time, I had found a career that aligned not only with who I was as a person, but with the kind of care I wanted to offer families.
Prioritizing the relationship between midwife and family, upholding bodily autonomy, providing informed consent, and empowering people with knowledge and heartfelt support confirmed that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
In my final year of apprenticeship, I found out I was pregnant with my fourth baby.
I spent that pregnancy deepening my midwifery skills. I practiced feeling for my daughter’s position, spent hours learning to use a fetoscope, and took time to honor the incredible metamorphosis that pregnancy can be.
By the end of that pregnancy, my personal connection to and admiration for the art of midwifery had deepened tremendously.
And then, at the end of my apprenticeship, I experienced something that would forever change the way I understood birth.
I gave birth to my fourth baby at home.
It was my first homebirth.
It left me humbled and in awe.
That experience taught me lessons I continue to carry into my practice today.
Building Delk Birth Services
After returning from maternity leave, I formally opened my own homebirth midwifery practice in 2021 as a Direct Entry Midwife.
But Delk Birth Services actually began before that.
It started as a doula business offering placenta encapsulation, belly casting, and family support. As I continued my education and moved toward midwifery, the transition felt natural.
Many of the families I had served as a doula had followed my educational journey and encouraged me along the way. Some of those doula clients eventually became my primary midwifery clients toward the end of my apprenticeship.
That relationship-based beginning continued into my first years as a solo midwife.
From the beginning, I knew I wanted to practice differently.
I fell in love with hour-long prenatal appointments. I wanted intentional time with families. I wanted to prioritize relationship and trust between the midwife and the people in her care.
I wanted my clients to feel safe, confident, heard, and in control of their care.
So I decided that, from the very beginning, I would provide prenatal and postpartum visits in my clients’ homes.
I didn’t want care to feel cold or clinical.
I wanted to meet families where they actually were—in their homes, surrounded by their lives, their children, their routines, and their realities.
Being welcomed into someone’s home has allowed me to understand families in a way that I don’t think can always happen inside a traditional clinical setting.
There is something incredibly special about walking up to a front porch and being greeted with smiles, hugs, and little ones yelling,
“Hi, Midwife! I’m happy you’re here!”
Those moments are some of the things that keep pushing me forward.
Slow, Intentional Midwifery
As word of mouth grew and my client list increased, I made a conscious decision to keep my practice small.
I typically take only one to two families per month.
For me, this isn’t about building the biggest practice possible. It’s about building the kind of practice I believe in.
The slowness is intentional.
Having the time to sit down with a family, break bread together, drink a cup of tea, talk about parenthood, and genuinely get to know one another is a treasure.
Over the past five years, I have worked hard to maintain an intentional, relationship-centered homebirth practice.
Bodily autonomy, individuality, inclusivity, and informed consent are the pillars of my practice.
I love helping parents reclaim their power by giving them information, options, and choices.
I often tell my clients:
“I am not here to make decisions for you. I am here to offer my clinical experience and knowledge so you can make the best decision for you and your family.”
That philosophy is at the heart of everything I do.
The Reality Behind the Calling
It hasn’t always been easy.
Building a solo homebirth practice while raising a family has required sacrifices that aren’t always visible from the outside.
There have been late nights, missed special occasions, unpredictable schedules, and countless moments when I had no idea when I would be home after leaving for a birth.
My family had to adjust to the on-call lifestyle right alongside me.
There were nights spent finding babysitters at the last minute so my husband could still make it to work after I was called to a birth. There were times when I wouldn’t see my family awake for days because of births and appointments.
I learned what it meant to leave suddenly, regardless of what was happening at home.
I learned how to ground myself while living a life where the phone could ring at any moment.
Learning how to run a solo homebirth business while still prioritizing my family became one of the greatest lessons in work-life balance I have ever experienced.
I am incredibly grateful for the support I received during that transition—from stay-at-home mom, to doula, to midwife.
My family believed in me.
That support gave me the motivation to keep moving forward.
But my clients have also been an extraordinary part of my success.
Every family who has trusted me.
Every couple who allowed me to walk beside them when I was still a new midwife.
Every family who found their way back to me after I had supported them as a doula years before.
Every person who shared my name with a friend or family member.
Every person who took the time to write a review.
These relationships are what keep my practice going.
Without the support and trust of the families I’ve served, I would not be where I am today.
I am eternally grateful for every single one of them.
Following the Call Beyond Birth
My love for birth eventually led me somewhere else, too: lactation.
I fell in love with breastfeeding and lactation support early in my career, and this past year I added the Certified Lactation Counselor (CLC) credential to my name.
Lactation support has added another layer to my knowledge and ability to serve families throughout pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.
I am also a trained bereavement doula and support families through pregnancy and infant loss.
That work came from a belief I have carried throughout my career: the beauty of birth cannot be separated from the reality of loss.
There is a duality to life.
Both birth and death deserve bodily autonomy, informed consent, personalized care, and intentional support.
About two years ago, families began reaching out to me for support that extended beyond pregnancy and infant loss. While there is no official title for the role I have stepped into, I have had the honor of walking beside families as a death companion—supporting people as they prepare to leave this world.
Supporting people both as they enter this world and as they leave it has been one of the greatest honors of my life.
Looking Toward the Future
These past five years have shaped me in ways I never could have imagined.
I am honored to be doing this work.
This year, I have placed a strong focus on strengthening my skills and learning new modalities that can benefit my community and the families I serve.
It has also given me a new perspective on where Delk Birth Services may be headed.
Perhaps one of the most beautiful developments has been watching my own daughter become interested in the work.
She decided she wanted to join the team as a sibling doula. She became certified as a babysitter and can attend births specifically to provide support and care for the siblings who are experiencing the birth of a new baby.
After attending her first birth this summer, she decided that she wants to pursue midwifery herself.
Watching that spark ignite in her has been incredibly meaningful.
I have also begun dreaming about the next chapter of Delk Birth Services—community classes, doula skills days, expanded educational opportunities, and other ways to bring birth education and support into my community.
When I look back at the young girl who became pregnant during her junior year of high school, I could never have imagined that her experience would eventually lead here.
I didn’t know then that the nurse who sat beside me while I labored would become part of the reason I would spend my life advocating for compassionate, individualized care.
I didn’t know that becoming a mother would introduce me to my life’s calling.
I didn’t know that my own births would teach me so much about the power of informed choice, autonomy, support, and trust.
But now, looking back, I can see the thread connecting it all.
From young mother, to nursing student, to doula, to apprentice, to midwife.
From one birth to hundreds of moments shared with families.
From searching for the kind of care I wanted to receive to creating the kind of care I want other families to experience.
That is the heart of Delk Birth Services.
I don’t want to simply attend births.
I want people to feel seen.
I want them to feel heard.
I want them to understand their choices.
I want them to know that their bodies belong to them.
And more than anything, I want families to walk away from their experience feeling empowered, supported, and confident in the decisions they made for themselves.
This work has changed me.
It has humbled me.
It has challenged me.
And it has been one of the greatest honors of my life.
I am deeply grateful to be here.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Work-life balance has been one of my biggest struggles. When you love the work it is so easy to over extend yourself. I have to be careful and set boundaries to be able to continue this journey. Schedules are also the bane of my existence. I have to live by one, but a single phone call can just have my schedule go up in flames. I have learned to be very fluid and go with the flow due to the unpredictability of my ever changing schedule.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I am a homebirth midwife serving NEPA and beyond! I have a radius of 1-1.5 hours from Kulpmont, PA. I offer a variety of services including: pap smears, fertility and preconception support, prenatal care, home birth support including waterbirth, postpartum care, lactation services, bereavement care, and so much more! All of my care is given in the clients’ home so no need to drive to an office for a visit. We can have tea and relax on your couch during your prenatal!
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
That mother nature has a higher tolerance for loss than we do as humans. I respect birth for the physiological process that it is but, that doesn’t stop me from honing my emergency skills. With more L&D units closing, small hospitals being shut down, and parents looking for more personalized support all over PA, I have found myself up in the mountains over an hour from a hospital with a laboring family. Emergency Skills are not optional. As midwives we have to know normal so well that we can pick up as soon as something shifts from the range of normal. We must continue our education, keep our tools in working order, and try to restock the birth bag before the next baby decides its time for a birthday. Emergency birth skills save lives and should be practiced often.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.delkbirthservices.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1EaPYVDHTx/
