Midwife Delivers for Mothers

Lani Rose Jeansdottir, a Canoga Park midwife, remembers vividly the time a decade ago when she agreed, as a favor to a colleague, to keep an eye on an expectant mother during the early stages of the woman’s labor.

Shortly after arriving at the house, Jeansdottir heard telltale pushing sounds coming from the bedroom. Hurrying to the woman’s side, the medical practitioner deftly delivered a tiny 4-pound infant, followed minutes later by the birth of a surprise sibling.

“The mother didn’t know she was carrying twins and was thrilled,” Jeansdottir said with a chuckle. “The father fainted.”

One would think that after 18 years and about 300 babies, the licensed midwife would have difficulty distinguishing one delivery from another. Not so, said Jeansdottir, 53, who went on to “catch” two more babies the day the twins came on the scene.

“When I deliver a baby today, it’s more of a thrill than it was 18 years ago,” she said. “Each birth is unique, and every time I’m present at one, it reinforces what a miracle the process is. I still marvel that the babies will grow up and have babies of their own.”

The greater marvel may be that Jeansdottir managed to practice her vocation, as she calls it, at all. It wasn’t until 1993 that the California Legislature passed a bill awarding licenses to nonnurse midwives, ending a 15-year effort by the California Assn. of Midwives (CAM) to achieve that legal status and legitimacy, Jeansdottir said.

A founding member of CAM, Jeansdottir was among the first

group of women to receive certification from the North America Registry of Midwives and to be licensed by the state of California to practice midwifery.

“I have known Lani for six years, and she has always made sure everyone stayed informed about the licensing effort, even when she was battling breast cancer,” said Portia Bray, the regional CAM representative. “She has worked tirelessly to make sure midwives could practice legally and with the recognition they deserve, while giving women an option of where they felt their babies should be born.”

Jeansdottir, a Michigan native, became interested in midwifery in 1971, after reading a book about natural childbirth. The young mother, who had experienced what she described as a “1969, typical, horrific childbirth” when her son, Eben, was born, determined that the next time around she would not undergo the medical intervention she experienced the first time.

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After moving to California with her husband, Ned Rosenberger, in 1974, she began photographing home-birth deliveries. She befriended Margie diFelice, a midwife with whom she trained for more than three years. In 1981, Jeansdottir delivered her first baby.

“Lani gives the most exquisite care, from the first appointment through the birth,” said Miriam Abraham, a Jeansdottir client who gave birth to a son, Alexander, recently. “She’s very professional and sensitive.”

Jeansdottir recently received a 1999 California Assn. of Midwives Brazen Woman Award for her contribution to the advancement of midwifery. The award name was coined after a Sept. 23, 1990, Wall Street Journal article that claimed the California midwives “brazenly” established their own certification process when the state Legislature failed to license them in 1987.

“I was born to do this,” Jeansdottir said recently. “Catching babies is like a religious calling for me. When I get that call, even in the middle of the night, I say, ‘Oh boy, another baby!’ ”

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