“Birth Matters… It matters because it is the way we all began our lives out side of our source, our mother’s bodies.It is the means from which we enter and feel our first impression of the wider world. For each mother, it is an event that shakes and shapes her innermost core. Women’s perceptions about their bodies and their babies’ capabilities will be deeply influenced by the care they receive around the time of birth.
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Hi there!
THIS IS TIGIST TOLERA EJETA, MSN, CPM, LM., AN ETHIOPIAN MIDWIFE, BIRTH DOULA, EVIDENCE BASED BIRTH ® INSTRUCTOR.
Tigist is a Direct Entry Ethiopian Midwife with her masters in Nursing. She is one of the first graduates of Direct Entry Midwifery program in Ethiopia. She has worked as a Midwife Instructor in Ethiopia for five years before she came to US. She has lots of experience managing complications during pregnancy and birth working in hospital and birth center. She is very confident in her ability to identifying and managing or referring/consulting obstetric emergencies.
Tigist is a small town girl; a small town called AMBO, a warrior city with a big name in Oromia, Ethiopia. She is the third child in her family. She has three siblings, two brothers (Asmera and Wakayo) and an only sister (Almaz). Growing up, she had always looked up to her mom, Alemnesh Tasew, the most beautiful, fearless, strong and dedicated woman and her father, Tolera Ejeta, a respected Nurse and now a public health professional who did his second degree in public health. Her father who she adores and respects had never been tired to help others his whole life and he was one of the first few people to go to school from his village, and the best student at the time. And because he is one of the first to go to school and become a health care provider, he was kind of responsible for the health of the whole village, his community at large. If someone is sick, they would come to the city, look for him by name and stay at his house so that he would help them get to a hospital, help them financially. She grew up playing with her fathers medical instruments, a stethoscope he uses to listen to her moms heart beat mostly; dreaming she will use one of those one day. Her mom was a cardiac patient. So her dream was to grow up and become a doctor to treat her mother. When she was 11, her mom was pregnant with Tigist’s youngest brother Wakayo. Tigist used listen to his heartbeat using her fathers fetal stethoscope (a Pinnard Stethoscope) which was so cool. Feeling his movement on her mom’s belly was so interesting and exciting to her. She would spend the night with her mom and dad to feel the baby’s kicks. Yes she was sleeping with her parents until she was 11! Co-sleeping is the only way of sleeping she knew until she came to US to find out that co-sleeping was unsafe!
After finishing a high school, she was assigned to study Midwifery at the University of Gondar College of Medicine and Health Sciences, one of the Pioneer Universites in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, when students finish highschool, they are given to choose three departments they want and are assigned to one of the departments depending on available space in each departments and the score the students have from the national college entry exam. Tigist’s number one choice was Medicine and then Health Sciences then Engineering. She was given her second choice, Health Sciences and then Midwifery. She didn’t like it because being a doctor and helping her mother was the only thing she wanted to do. She remembers crying, telling her father that she doesn’t want to live her life catching babies. Her father told her to wait, do at least one semester, observe a birth and maybe assist a birth of a baby or a placenta. It became more interesting as days go by and as she started to find out what she’s able to do. She fell in love with this profession more after the very first birth she did as a student without assistance where the nurses and doctors were not present and she has to do it by herself in a panic and that changed her life. After that Tigist can’t talk enough about her profession and the length women go to have their babies.
Educating women, empowering them and enjoying the miracle of birth is always at the top of her head! Laboring women always enjoyed her presence and the support she gives even in stressful situations where she has to take care of more than one laboring mom. She values and respects their opinions and always has a time listen to their stories. Most women in Ethiopia are not educated where the providers words are taken as Gods’ words and childbirth education is not given at most hospitals. Being at the hospital is always a strange thing for most of the women, specially for those coming from the rural villages. They don’t know why most things at hospital happen the way they do and no body cares enough to tell them because most providers under estimate their understanding and they want to keep the hierarchy intact. Women are encouraged to give birth at the hospital or a birth center as the traditional home birth midwives are pushed aside as being not clean and safe. Culturally women are very modest and private parts are kept private. It is very challenging and shaming for women to be checked at the hospital and their private parts are open for a show. Providers usually shrug their shoulders saying its not a big deal and would laugh. When a woman gives birth in the villages, rooms are kept quite and dark. Nobody violates her privacy, she will be surrounded by women with lots of wisdom. She would have all the support she needs. It has always been a big question to her why most health care professionals always talk down to laboring women, do exams without a consent and violate their dignity. She was known to speak up and get herself in to trouble whenever she witnesses violence against women during childbirth and she is always protective of her clients.
She did her masters degree in Maternity and Reproductive Health Nursing in Ethiopia at Addis Ababa University School of Nursing and Midwifery after two years of study while she was working as a Lecturer in Hawassa University, Ethiopia. She had taught Nursing and Midwifery students, trained local Nurses and Midwives working in local birth centers on emergency obstetric care and family planning methods(Implants and IUD insertion/removal).
Tigist moved to US with her husband Bekele, a Phd student in Physics at the time. Her first son was born in Cincinnati a year later. Her birth was traumatic as she was new to the place, the people, culture and environment. Her personal knowledge about childbirth and being a Midwife didn’t help at all. She had to be on one side lying on the bed for 24 hrs, was in a lot of pain after having an epidural and had to go through every possible intervention which finally ended up with having an unplanned C-section. Postpartum was even more harder because she ended up having a fluid overload which had impacted her breastfeeding journey because her breasts were swollen and as well, her swollen legs wouldn’t let her move freely for more than two weeks. She was depressed and had been trying to mask it from fear of loosing her child if she is found ‘unfit’ (all the stories she had been hearing happened to mothers, specially immigrants). It was a big shock for her to learn there is a system that can potentially take away babies from their moms. This alarming childbirth experience initiated her to search for more information about how the US maternity care system works. She or her husband didn’t know how to advocate for themselves at this vulnerable situation at the time. The more she started looking for information after birth, the more shocking it was for her to learn that women are not getting the proper care they deserve during childbirth and many of them end up experiencing traumatic birth where the rate is even higher for immigrant women and women of color. She decided to do whatever it takes to help all women in her profession yet found Birth With Tigi Pregnancy and Birth Services.
“A woman will always remember her birth”
My goal as your Midwife, your Instructor or your Doula is to educate and take a good care of you! It is to help you make your decisions and plan for your birth. It is to create a safe place for you at your house, in the hospital or birth center in any role you want. Remembering about your birth, I want you to feel confident about every decision you made at the time and that you’re happy. I will help you learn about your rights during childbirth, feel confident and prepared for any situation during childbirth.
For her second pregnancy, she was more educated, confident in her ability to have a VBAC and tried to find a supportive provider, but she didn’t feel supported because her provider was trying to find a reason to schedule for cesarean where the evidence shows VBAC is possible for most women. By this time, she was living in Tucson with her husband and her genius son. Her midwife preceptor and a dear friend came from Cincinnati to support her as a Doula and that made a tremendous effect on the outcome of her labor and she had a successful VBAC.
As she started exploring her options to transfer her credentials to US, she learned that it was impossible to get her license here in US because she was told that none of her credentials are accepted her because she is a direct entry midwife and there is no nationally recognized direct entry midwifery program to compare her credentials to. She learned that NARM has an entry level licensing process for foreign educated midwife who want to become a home birth midwife. NARM evaluated her credentials and told her she is required to do 10 out of hospital births in US which she taught was cool and easy until she found out finding a preceptor was the hardest thing. She doesn’t remember how many emails she has to write asking midwives if they’d accept her to be an apprentice and there was no luck.
In addition, because she has a dependent visa, she was not allowed to even volunteer anywhere related to her profession. After that restriction was lifted, she thought being a doula could give her an access to the birth world and and took the Doula workshop organized by DONA International approved trainer and she heard about Evidence Based Birth for the first time from her trainer and became an Evidence Based Birth® Instructor. This gave her a chance to know different birth workers.
Apprenticing was not easy for her as she was expected to get signed off for everything she knows and was expected as if she doesn’t know anything, it was rewarding always to be around moms giving birth. Even though she doesn’t wish any of her experiences on some one and as it was the most difficult path in her life, getting the approval letter confirming she is a midwife which she already is was very important for her to stay in her profession. It was a torture to her being exploited through the preceptor apprenticeship relationships, all the hardships she faced with NARM application process, she is glad that she is done with this process once and for all and has received her CPM license. She is more than ready to serve her community and is very exited for what the future holds.
Tigist is always passionate about helping expectant parents. She is dedicated to support, educate and empower them. She focuses on advocacy, teaching them their rights during childbirth as well educate them about the current evidence. She is all about supporting her clients wishes, creating a safe environment no matter where that is. Under the “Odaa” tree in Tigist’s culture, no conversating escapes; anything discussed under this tree is confidential. It is a safe space, like home, like a mothers hand and she wants to create this space for her clients as feeling safe during pregnancy and birth is primary for a mom to bring out her baby into this world! Tigist loves to walk with her two priceless beautiful boys, laugh, cook and read books related to pregnancy and birth. She is an author of a book written in her own language “Ijibbaata” which is dedicated to her dear mother!
Get in touch
I understand that finding the right Midwife, Monitrice or Doula for your care is tricky and primary. Getting affordable services is even harder these days. That’s why Odaa Birth, LLC offers different packages for care. Every pregnant woman deserves a support person and a safe hand to trust her baby come in to! are you planning a home birth? Do you want to know if home birth is right for you? Are you a person of color and are looking for a black midwife or a black doula/monitrice?
Let’s chat and let me help you exhaust all your options!
Please contact me for free consultations to discuss about your needs, your goals, and your budget and we’ll come up with a plan.
