Katharine has over a decade’s experience in birthwork. She trained formally to be a doula as her community called her to do so.

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Katharine attended her first birth at fifteen, working at the maternity ward in Kanad Hospital (formerly Oasis Hospital) in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi. During her time in the UAE, she witnessed and assisted mothers, parents, families and caregivers through dozens of births both physiological (natural) and medically managed. She also edited the hospital’s childbirth education literature into a single, easily understandable and culturally sensitive handout for expectant parents, which was then translated into multiple languages. It was an enormous privilege to walk with these families and learn from them.

She went on to get her BA from Carnegie Mellon University in Medieval & Renaissance Studies, a self-designed degree where she specialized in Christianity’s impact on traditional faiths, women and queer history, witchcraft and healers, and birth.

While studying, Katharine worked at UPMC Shadyside’s leukemia ward as a unit coordinator, then later as lead administrator and patient care advocate to the chief of vascular surgery. She also served as the head of infant-2yo nursery care for her church, and began work in prenatal education, postpartum doula support, and psychological support for parents.

Katharine has worked with birth, with death, with loss and joy, with real people at real moments of walking between worlds, of finding good choices and community. …and she knows how to handle an administrative tangle!

Her own health history has given her great respect for both holistic healing practices like herbs and whole-food nourishment, and for pharmaceutical and clinical medicine. Both should be used with care and wisdom.

Outside of work and study, you’ll find Katharine contra dancing and drinking tea, cooking beautiful food, singing with the Mendelssohn Choir or practicing opera. She enjoys life with her husband on an old farm in Moon Township. She will probably try to give you fresh rosemary & thyme.

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