Believe Midwifery Services L.L.C.

Our Newest Arrival...

Simon David Lane

born on Father's Day!!!  

Penny Lane MSN, CNM

Believe Midwifery Services, LLC is owned and operated by Penny Lane MSN, CNM.  She is both licensed and certified to practice Nurse Midwifery in the state of Indiana.  Penny is a graduate trained nurse with certification in Nurse Midwifery.  She also has an undergraduate degree in Maternal & Child Health: Lactation Consulting and has attended numerous continuing education workshops and certification courses.  Penny has been attending births since 1997 within private homes, birth centers and within both remote hospitals and large, tertiary centers.  She has experience teaching and writing curriculum for nursing students at Ivy Tech State College and authored graduate level midwifery courses for the Midwifery College of Utah, in addition to serving as the primary thesis advisor for numerous graduate students.  Her independently-owned midwifery practice opened in October of 2007, more than a year following completion of her midwifery training at the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing.

Penny has dedicated herself to improvement of maternal and child health through participation in many professional and advocacy groups.  Currently she is a member of both the Indiana Chapter’s American College of Nurse Midwifery and the Indiana State’s Breastfeeding Task Force.  Penny is also the chair of the Boone, Clinton and Montgomery County Breastfeeding Coalition.  In effort to continue her quest in improving safe and satisfying options available to birthing women, Penny enrolled in the Juris Doctorate program at Concord Law School; however, due to the fast growth of her practice, she has taken a two-year leave of absence with hopes of returning after integrating a second midwife into her practice. 

Penny was privileged to be honored at the Salute to Nurses banquet as a 2009 Nurse of the Year finalist, sponsored by the Indianapolis Star.  Finalists were chosen by the Indiana State Board of Nursing and Penny was additionally awarded the Advancement in Nursing Award, as well as, Believe Midwifery Services, LLC, for her work in establishing not only a safe option for homebirth clients but also for her ongoing efforts to increase the standards of care and create a safe infrastructure of collaboration with other healthcare providers. 

Most importantly, Penny is happily married to her husband, Mike, and mother to their five children (one daughter and four rambunxious sons).  Believe Midwifery Services is a family ministry and it is their greatest pleasure to be called to serve the Lord and birthing families in this capacity.

Birth Assistants

All birth assistants have taken an intensive birth assistant course, are certified in Neonatal Resusictation, basic life support, and S.T.A.B.L.E, as well as DONA doulas.   

Amy Kirbow

Birth Assistant, Office Assistant

CPM Apprentice

Amy Kirbow began missions work with Youth with a Mission in 1993. During one of her travels the Lord lead her to South Africa where a love for children was first planted in her heart. Upon returning home from South Africa Amy met and later married Derek Kirbow.  They have three young boys and have continued missions work together as a family traveling into Europe, Central Asia and Africa.  Derek recently received his masters from Purdue University and is currently at the University of Southern Mississippi working towards his PhD with a focus on development in North Africa. Our heart is for this generation. Our heart is for the women, children and youth affected by AIDS, war, poverty and oppression. We long to bring His compassion and gentleness, His love to those the world passes by. Our desire is to help bring hope to women, children and youth through the medium of outreach into refugee camps, community development, education and midwifery.

Paula Miller MSN, RN, CD(DONA)

Staff Educator & Childbirth Educator

Paula has been the wife of a wonderful, Christian man for over twenty-two years and is the mother of three beautiful children.  Her first two children were born by cesarean section and the third was an empowering, natural birth.  Paula has a strong passion for birth support and feels her calling is to help other couples in their childbirth process.

Paula has attended births for over twenty years.  She holds a master's degree in nursing from IUPUI and carries certifications in childbirth education, as a DONA birth doula and additionally, is a DONA doula trainer.  She is currently adjunct faculty within the University of Indianapolis' nursing program.  Paula is co-founder of MOMS, which is an organization offering birth doula trainings, as well as co-founder of Birth By Design, which is a private doula practice. 

Paula has a talent for birth photography and enjoys capturing the beauty of birth for the families she supports.  Her desire is that each family experience a sense of accomplishment and over-whelming joy. 

Dana Fort

Office Manager

Birth Assistant, Doula

I have always been a firm believer that even though our bodies are not perfect, there is a perfect, godly design to how they work.  After the long and challenging home birth of my daughter in May of 2008 this belief was confirmed. I saw how with the proper, unobtrusive care my body was allowed to endure and adjust to safely bring my daughter into the world. This sparked a desire in me to share what I had learned through my experience with expectant mothers to help eliminate fear in the birthing process. 

A little while after my daughter was born I had the opportunity to provide labor support for a friend of mine during the birth of her first child.  Afterward she told me she didn't think she would have been able to make it without my help.  I knew then that there was more I could do for other women.  When the opportunity was presented to become a birth assistant for Believe it was perfect timing.  I am excited to be apart of a team that focuses on natural childbirth and helps guide the perfect actions of a woman's body during such a profound time in her life.  I look forward to the positive impact I can make in the lives of others and all that I have to learn and gain from the experiences to follow.

Rachel Claussen

Birth Assistant, Doula

Fitness & Nutrition Instructor

I was brought up in a home birth family.  I always loved helping my mom’s midwives with whatever they would let me do.  By the age of 14, I had cut umbilical cords, made herbal compresses, and brought my sisters placenta to my 8^th grade science class. My favorite books growing up were a series called, The Life Cycle. Needless to say I have always been enamored with the birth process. 

I decided to become a Doula in 2003 and loved attending births.  In 2006 however, our move to Indiana required I work a full time job so I was unable to offer doula services.  I’m very grateful for the opportunity to assist in births with Believe.  I am also very passionate about healthy living, and am excited to work on a prenatal fitness program for group prenatal visits.  I have been teaching fitness and dance classes since 2002.     

Emily Smith

Birth Assistant

I have been married for 15 years and am the mother of four Blessings. My road to homebirth was a long one. When I was pregnant with my first daughter, I got in the assembly line for pregnancy care not knowing that there were other options. After a routine enema, a failed epidural and a male doctor with no bedside manner, I knew next time would be different. With my second daughter I had a nurse get mad and roll her eyes at me because I wanted her to check me again, after about five minutes having previously been six centimeters.  She did though and discovered I was complete, began to panic and still failed to awaken the physician taking a nap to attend my birth. My third birth with my son, I went with a general practitioner. She was great and let me go natural, but I still had my ten pound baby lying on my back.

We thought we were done, that is until God changed our hearts and gave me the understanding of what a birth can really be. My third daughter (fourth child) was born at home, seven years after my last baby. It was wonderful to be in my own home with my family and not worry about the lack of privacy that you get in the hospital. I loved having my “friends” attend me and hope that the Lord blesses us again.

The last few years I have been studying more natural ways to live and care for and heal our bodies. Homebirth fit right into my new mindset and I look forward to increasing my knowledge base while learning from some wonderful women. I am honored that God has given me such a wonderful opportunity.

 Mindy Wolfe

Birth Assistant, Office Assistant

I love midwifery and women’s health care, and I have been a midwife for 7 years.  God has truly ordered my steps to bring me to this point, as midwifery was not “my” plan initially.  But I have found it to be true that God does work all things together for the good of those who love him, and midwifery has been such a blessing in my life.  I worked in the Philippines as a midwife in 2003, gaining valuable experience in how to handle emergencies while maintaining the grace and dignity that should be part of childbirth.  My own two little ones were born at home in 2007 and 2008 (and we are expecting a third this spring), and that gave me a personal appreciation of the special place that the childbearing year has for a woman and her loved ones.  I love that our bodies were designed personally and perfectly (even though our world is not perfect), and that as a midwife I can be available to answer questions, facilitate informed decision making, and be helpful should the need arise. 

"Professionals who provide medical and nursing care to people have privileged access to other people's bodies and occasionally forget that this is a liberty that merits respect" (Andrist).