As a nurse, I have a great deal of respect and gratitude for the hospital system.  However, when it came time for my pregnancy and birth I felt strongly about pursuing midwifery care while always having the hospital system there as a backup. My dream was to have a home birth.  So many of my nursing colleagues had been cared for by Vivante and spoke very highly of Sharon and Linda.  I was concerned at first about being out of network and paying for our costs. I must say I was very surprised at how affordable the care is considering how much I have heard folks pay with insurance for hospital births. This was a huge relief. I pursued midwifery care for many reasons and Vivante went above and beyond. They are incredibly skilled, loving, and knowledgeable human beings. Safety is their number one priority.  The hour-long visits and home visits were incredible.  They made my partner feel welcome and involved. We never felt rushed. I felt like the care was individualized to our unique and holistic needs - from physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. They spent  time listening to my fears, anxieties, and excitement.   We built a trusting relationship together and I felt they respected us and our personal choices.  This was very empowering and made me feel like the decision maker in my care.  I also loved the way they included my baby in our care even while still in the womb. We were able to meet all of the safety hurdles even though my baby was breech and needed to be flipped! After our baby was head down - I still got my home birth, vaginal delivery.  I even had complicated tears that were able to be mended skillfully at home. The best part was, I no longer feared needing a transfer to the hospital.  If it needed to happen the best part was I would have my amazing Vivante advocate right there.  Whether you want to have a home birth or want to birth in the hospital from the start - I would still highly recommend midwifery for prenatal care and birthing support. Vivante midwives truly care about the whole picture of your pregnancy, birth and family life.  They also continue to care for you after the birth of your child. You're not forgotten about. I was so sad on our last visit because I will truly miss their care! I am so grateful for this experience and hope we get to do it again in a future pregnancy. They will be the first folks I call!!

Sharon and the whole Vivante Midwifery team are amazing. I had made a short list of my top choices, but the second I met Sharon my search was over. She radiates compassion, joy, and self-empowerment, not to mention she is an incredibly skilled midwife. Throughout my whole pregnancy she was the perfect balance of thoughtful/listening and practical/hands on. Our checkups were enriching and highly attuned to each part of my pregnancy, and she has a beautiful way of addressing various options and medical decisions without pressure or judgement. She was incredibly inclusive of my partner and his role throughout pregnancy, labor, and postpartum care. Sharon is also incredibly well connected and has fantastic recommendations for other medical professionals in Portland. Thanks to her recommendations, my breech baby flipped without having to go to the hospital for an ECV or c-section, and her chiropractic recommendation amazingly fixed my pelvic pain. The birth experience itself was beautiful and everything I'd hoped for. Sharon was this calming, highly competent presence that came in and out of my laboring at the perfect moments. I felt safe and capable each step of the way. As our child was being born, Sharon's steady hands expertly unwound the cord from baby's neck and placed baby straight into my arms. The at-home visits afterward were amazing -- we never wanted them to end!! Sharon is a gift to the midwifery world and Portland is lucky to have her; I would choose her a hundred times over.

The midwives at Vivante take absolutely no risks when it comes to the health of you and your baby. Their care is loving, thorough, and fiercely protective, and they have an amazing reputation with the nearby hospitals! For us, though we had planned a home birth, our baby had other plans and we did end up transferring to OHSU to deliver our son. Sharon never left our side and was able to call ahead and even get us a room with a view at the hospital! One of the things I had been most afraid of about giving birth was that I would end up feeling alone and terrified if I needed a hospital transfer. Thanks to Sharon's care, nothing about our birth was an emergency and she helped me maintain my sense of strength and control over every choice that we had to make. Shockingly, I never felt afraid during birth- not even once. Sharon's love and guidance was the reason my wife and I emerged from what could've been a traumatizing birth experience, feeling strong, empowered and in love. Sharon is not just a midwife. She is a sun beam in human form and we are so lucky that she was a part of our family's story. She is an educator, an advocate, and an extremely skilled healthcare professional who will love you, your family and your growing little one from the moment you meet her. I cannot recommend Vivante enough!

After meeting Sharon for the first time I knew that I wanted her to be my midwife. I felt that if I didn’t read anything on pregnancy, labor or birth that I would be in the best of hands. Sharon really took the time to not only address any concerns or questions related to pregnancy/birth but really took the time to get to know me and my husband. I ended up needing to transfer to the hospital after laboring at home and Sharon was there every step of the way. She helped my husband and I navigate through all the options/procedures that were presented in the hospital and made sure our wishes were respected when it came to birth and baby. Sharon is an absolute gem of a midwife and I would be honored to have her be part of another pregnancy.

My entire experience with Vivante was fantastic. I am a hospital based nurse midwife, and when I got pregnant I asked colleagues for recommendations - who did they know to be a safe homebirth practice based on transfers and consults? Again and again, I was sent to Vivante. I came into prenatal care having had a very difficult first labor. Sharon and Linda supported me so much emotionally during pregnancy. Being a midwife myself, I can't help but have my clinical brain on, and I experienced Vivante to be exceptionally safe, caring and skilled midwives. In labor, when I was able to finally surrender and just be a birthing person, Sharon was a true guardian angel whose hands I was so grateful to be in. I highly recommend this practice to anyone seeking homebirth!

I'm grateful to have the good fortune of living in Portland, OR where there are many options for choosing maternity care services with a midwife. As I was choosing, the most important criteria for me were: safety, kindness, respect, experience, and midwives with the ability to navigate both the home and hospital birthing environments. Vivante Midwifery blends the warmth of midwifery with rigorous safety standards and deep knowledge about physiologic birth. Because of my personal medical history, I needed to give birth at the hospital. I was still able to do all of my prenatal and postpartum care with Vivante. One of the midwives also accompanied me to the hospital and stayed to advocate for me throughout the entire birth. It made giving birth at the hospital much less stressful. I'm not sure I would have been able to achieve a vaginal birth without the advocacy of Vivante at the hospital. Vivante is composed of a diverse team of midwives. This is important to me as an African-American woman. It's one of the few midwifery groups in town where I truly felt comfortable. I highly recommend Vivante and Sharon in particular!

I’m so grateful to Sharon, Linda and Vivante. I had the most unimaginably beautiful home birth thanks to their care and expertise. From the moment we met Sharon, she put our family at ease by giving us resources targeted to our needs, and with the sense that she genuinely cared about our journey. She took time at all of our visits to address every question with grounded evidence, while never rushing us and genuinely connecting with each family member. Most crucially, she never minimized risks of birth, and had concrete contingency plans for every situation, with a comfort and confidence around the hospital setting. Sharon attended our family’s birth, and I’m still in awe of her ability to simultaneously bring a sharp eye, humor, and calm to any situation. She has the capacity to effortlessly blend professionalism and compassion. Sharon is a rare gift, and I’ll be forever grateful for the opportunity to be cared for and guided by her during my birth and pregnancy.

I have had an absolutely wonderful time working with Sharon and Linda as my midwives. With this being my 3rd pregnancy, I came to Vivante with loaded prenatal and birth experiences from my first two babies. After my first consult with Sharon, I felt confident she would be able to support me in navigating the complicated feelings that had carried over from my last birth. I also felt reassured by her and Linda’s combined extensive experience in midwifery care, and by their balanced intuitive and medically informed approach. Now, three weeks out from the birth of my third baby, I am thrilled to have put my trust in Sharon and Linda for this pregnancy. I felt very supported during the challenging times of my first/second trimesters, and I had a beautiful and breezy third birth experience. Sharon and Linda were very respectful of my labor wishes and took great care to avoid repeating dynamics that had made things more challenging for me in the past. I am very grateful to them for listening to me and working with me to ensure that my labor/birth would be able to unfold in the way that it did. I have felt completely safe every step of the way in the care of Vivante, and I will not hesitate to work with them again for a future pregnancy.

I started working with the team at Vivante before getting pregnant and I'm so glad to have gone through the entire journey with them. At every stage they were the calm, collected, experienced, and lighthearted voice you hope to be hearing. Always available to answer questions and provide a plethora of recommendations for any additional needs. During my labor, Sharon brought all of the warmth, compassion, and she'd demonstrated through my pregnancy. We decided to do a hospital transfer, which she helped facilitate so smoothly and stayed with us all through until the baby was born healthy and happy. The postpartum home visits made after were a respite in the newborn haze. I will absolutely continue to use Vivante for my annual appointment and if I ever become pregnant again, I wouldn't even consider another provider; that's how good they are!

There aren’t enough words to describe how wonderful the Vivante midwives are! I absolutely loved my experience with them, start to finish. The prenatal appointments were personal, thorough, and never rushed. Any concern or question was met with compassionate and evidence based answers that always left me feeling confident about my pregnancy and my upcoming labor/delivery. My husband was initially nervous about the idea of a home birth but after our initial consultation with Linda, he was immediately put at ease. It was clear from the get go how competent and experienced the midwives at Vivante are. They are well respected in the medical community and by the area hospitals. Amy Jo was the one to help me deliver my daughter and she couldn’t have been more amazing. (I tear up every time I think about her ❤️) She made me feel safe and empowered me when my confidence started to waver. My daughter’s birth was very fast and Amy Jo was on top of everything the entire time. It’s obvious how experienced and skilled she is. If you’re considering a home birth, Vivante is the cream of the crop! I’m forever grateful to Amy Jo, Sharon, Sarah, and Linda!

Working with Vivante through our pregnancy and birth experience was an absolute delight and exactly what we needed! We wanted to work with midwives who balanced hard science with spiritual and emotional needs and we got exactly what we wanted! We felt comfortable and supported the entire way through the pregnancy and were incredibly well supported post-partum as well, even in the midst of all the stresses of COVID. Our labor was not what we expected (is it ever?) but Sharon and Laura helped us transition seamlessly from our hope of a peaceful at-home birth, to a brightly-lit c-section. Sharon stayed with us through 40 hours of labor, somehow always being on top of her craft and her support of us. She was so impressive that the hospital docs and nurses were happy to have her in the driver's seat, which was exactly where we wanted her. We will be forever grateful to her for standing by us and offering her kind, quiet, steadfast support along with her medical knowledge and ability to translate the doctor-speak and my own physical experiences for us. She kept our spirits high during our very long and tricky adventure. My partner and I found ourselves regularly saying how much we missed Sharon in the weeks and months that followed our son's birth. We can't recommend Vivante highly enough. This is who you want to work with if you want to personalized, tender, genuine, experienced support throughout your pregnancy, birth and post-partum journey.

My husband and I chose our care at Vivante for our first pregnancy based on positive reviews from our friends who’d had babies with their group. The care we received was outstanding- compassionate, patient-centered, and the midwives are extremely knowledgeable. I felt so comfortable placing my trust in them for myself as well as for our son. I really appreciated being given choices when making decisions about my care, and being offered tons of information and guidance. The midwives were so personable and wonderful, we truly couldn’t have had a better experience. I would pursue care at Vivante for any future pregnancies, without hesitation.

Sharon and Linda were incredible supports for us during our journey. Sharon, who delivered our little one at our home, conveyed a combination of warmth, tenderness, competence, and confidence throughout the process, and we always felt we were in good, capable hands. This was most evident at the moment of birth, which involved complications and was scary for all involved; in spite of this, I never doubted for a moment that Sharon knew exactly what to do and would help our little one survive the transition from womb to world. What's more, her follow-up care was fantastic, and at every appointment she made our 3-year-old feel special, included, and like she was part of the process, which was very important to her. There was also never any doubt that we had her 100%, undivided attention during all of our visits. I would highly recommend Vivante Midwifery (and have!) to anyone looking for their entire family to feel genuinely supported throughout the pregnancy, birthing, and post-partum process.

I couldn't be happier with Vivante. They took such a good care of me during the pregnancy but also 2 months after I gave birth. As a foreign person , even when i knew my english was not quite correct, I didn't feel judged or discriminated. The midwives are so kind, respectful , and truly care for you. I would recommend Vivante at 300% . Loved my experience so much!

Vivante Midwifery is an incredible practice that takes excellent care of their clients. When we first met Sharon we knew from the get-go that she would bring the same compassion, energy, honesty, wisdom, and dedication that she brought to our first meeting. Here are some reasons why we love Vivante, and you might too: - Sharon is incredibly inclusive and competent when it comes to providing care to queer couples. - As a person of color herself, Sharon is a great support to clients of color and to multicultural families. - Every visit consisted of one hour of genuine connection with our midwife, where we got all our questions answered and were able to talk about medical matters as well as mental health matters. - The midwives at Vivante, especially Sharon, are very proactive at including clients and their partners in their care. I learned how to use a fetoscope while at Vivante! - No matter what kind of birth you end up having (our son needed to be born via c section), the midwifery model of care is so amazing and worth the investment. After being with Vivante, I now understand it's less about "homebirth vs hospital birth" and more about "hospital/medical model of care vs. midwifery model of care". With the midwifery model of care, you get more time with your provider, more focus on the emotional/mental health changes and challenges that come with pregnancy/birth, and more opportunities to be an active participant in your care and pregnancy. I could not recommend Vivante enough. If another queer couple or multicultural family is reading this now and would like to talk with us about our experience, please ask Sharon to connect us! We would be more than happy to share our experience with others.

There are not enough stars to give Sharon at Vivante Midwifery for my superb care. Being my first pregnancy I did a lot of research looking for the perfect care giver for my birth. I interviewed many different options from hospital, birthing center, to home birth. The minute my husband and I met Sharon we knew we found our person. Her welcoming, charismatic personality and her directness about her practicing style and belief was what we were looking for. I don’t know a single other mom who can say they became friends with their care taker during their pregnancy. All of our check ups were an hour long were Sharon check me and baby physically and also took the extra step to check in with me and my husband emotionally. It was so reassuring to have a non judgmental person to talk to about any worries or hardship we were going through. She helped put both of us at ease many times. By the time birth came I felt like Sharon really knew me and I wasn’t just a name on a chart. I went into my birth feeling confident and supported from everyone there. During the birth Sharon helped me feel grounded and well taken care of with her constant check ins with me, the baby and my husband. She also allowed me space where my husband and I got to spend some alone feeding off of each others strength. I decided to get transferred to the hospital because my little one got stuck in my pelvis for about 10 hours., Even if I wasn’t planning a home birth I would want Sharon by my side at the hospital. When the doctors started to talk about options and plans Sharon was there to explain everything and advocate for us. She helped us feel supported and heard. The postpartum care was more than I expected. Our baby was on the border for high risk jaundice. When we were still at the hospital we talked to Sharon about our plan and our goal. We wanted to be home as soon as possible if there was no problems. The hospital wanted us to stay the night so they could give him a blood test in the morning to check his jaundice. We wanted to go home but everyone at the hospital was telling us we needed to stay. We consulted with Sharon and with our situations we all decided there was no need for us to stay. Sharon could come to our house in the morning and take the sample. It was empowering to talk to Sharon and have her tell us that its okay to go home and advocate for ourselves that we were not going to get anything more from the hospital expect charged for an extra night. Sharon was at our house first thing in the morning to test. Our little one tested high again so Sharon ended up coming to our house everyday for almost a week. She recommended we get some sunshine and have plenty of feedings. With that advice our baby got over jaundice really fast. We had 3 more visits with Sharon for our postpartum care where she checked in on our little one and also on me. I felt so privileged to have someone checking in on me weeks after the birth. I’ve had other friends talk about how they tried to call their doctors about concerns they were having and the doctor would tell them they were no longer in their care! Sharon on the other hand talked and asked about everything, how I was feeling emotionally, physically, how was the adjustment to new life going, sleeping habits, eating habits and over all just general well being for the whole family including my husband. I could write some much more on the superior care I was giving to by Sharon and Vivante. If you are looking for someone that will truly take the time to care and know you and your family. Sharon is your Midwife!! I will be recommend her to anyone that is pregnant wether they want a home birth or hospital birth.

After 2 traumatic hospital births with OBs, I deeply desired for a different experience when I found out that I was pregnant with baby #3. Immediately after my first phone conversation with Sharon, it was decided- Vivante Midwifery was the perfect fit. I could feel her genuine warmth through the phone! The midwives were the perfect combination of compassion and competency that I was searching for. Throughout my prenatal care they were extremely thorough, talked me through my fears, and supported me in making informed choices. The delivery of my 3rd baby was deeply transformative, healing, and redemptive. I credit this in large part to the care, support, and advocacy that I received at Vivante. I would highly recommend them to any expecting mother.