Laura Bartko, CNM, NP

my background

When I was young, I used to watch a wholesome show called Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman.   It was about a small town doc back in the old days, who mostly just did her best to help her community.   It inspired me, and decided that’s what I wanted to do.

So I went to college (Duquesne University) and did their Pre-Med program.   I did very well at school, and was fortunate to get a full academic scholarship, so amazingly and gratefully I didn’t need school loans.   Pre-med is mostly lots of science classes in biology and chemistry, but my very mainstream school somehow had a very unusual psych program called Existential Phenomenological Psychology.   It’s a mouthful, but essentially they disputed the objective science approach, especially regarding human relationships.  Instead of a subject/object split of “observed and observer”, they talked about an I-Thou relationship, in which there is no separation - both people influence what happens, and it’s the connection that matters.

In my final year, the pre-med students shadowed doctors in a nearby hospital.   Again, I am so grateful for this experience.  This was back in the 90s, when docs were working 70-80 hours every week, and every one of the docs I was with was burnt out, miserable, and said they if they could, they would have chosen to do something else.  So that was startling.  The other thing that struck me-  in my pre-med rotations ALL of the focus was on physical issues, while in my psych rotations ALL of the focus was on psychological health.   I noticed there truly wasn’t any crossover - no one was addressing both.

So, disillusioned, instead of applying for med school, I joined the Peace Corps.  I was in the third group sent to a new Central Asian, former USSR country called Turkmenistan.  I chose a remote site out in a tiny village, where I was one of the first foreigners most people had met. I was there to teach English, but mostly to have a completely different cultural experience.   This is where I first heard that midwives were still an actual profession, which intrigued me. From there I wandered for a long time through India, Nepal and Thailand, where I was first exposed to homeopathy, meditation, and other ways of living in the world.   

When I came back to the U.S. I was excited and inspired by so many things.  I got a job assisting a naturopath, and another working in a birth center.  It was there that I attended my first births, and was blown away by the gorgeous strength and power I witnessed.   I ended up moving to Toronto, did a 3 year homeopathic program, while volunteering as a doula in a hospital.  This hospital was pretty awful - episiotomies were routine, and they usually did what’s called “pit to distress”.  This means they just kept increasing pitocin, as high as the baby would cope, causing horribly strong contractions that were unnecessarily hard on the mom.  To witness this was distressing, and at times traumatic.  As a doula I had zero power to change what was happening, but this experience gave me the fire to become a midwife, knowing I could do this better.

I moved to Oregon to attend OHSU’s three year graduate program to become a nurse midwife, and met my now-husband my very first morning there.  I graduated in 2007, and worked part-time as an OB/gyn advice nurse while our first child was little.   In 2009 I was fortunate to be hired by one of the grandmas of Portland midwives, Linda Glenn at Vivante Midwifery.   As OHSU is exclusively hospital birth based, Linda really was the one to teach me about homebirth, which is a very different skill set.  We worked together for a few years, then I started my own homebirth practice closer to home in Oregon City.

After my third child was born, being on call 24/7 became really difficult.  I switched to working at Women’s Healthcare Associates, where I got a ton of experience in gynecology, helped run a wonderful group prenatal program, and attended births in their new free-standing birth center.

In 2019 I did a year long Integrative and Functional Medicine for Women course with Aviva Romm, MD that completely changed my practice.   “Integrative” means using both natural and mainstream remedies, and “functional” means digging in to figure out root causes.   I started this practice towards the end of 2019, which worked out surprisingly well with the start of covid and suddenly homeschooling my 3 kids.   I am thrilled that I get to use all that I’ve learned to create my ideal practice where I live, getting to really know people in our community, and doing my best to help.   Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman would approve.   

Birth Assistants

We are incredibly fortunate to have many excellent midwives in our community. At every birth we have a second midwife come around transition (before pushing), and stay throughout the birth and postpartum recovery. Having a fully qualified and certified second set of hands is important, especially in a case where we need interventions. The second midwife we choose depends on their availability around the due date window, and the area in which a family lives. We try to have the second midwife be geographically close in case things progress quickly. Typically clients meet the 2nd midwife at the home visit at 36 weeks, and more frequently if desired. We love our supportive midwifery community!