Karen C. Parker, MN, CNM (ret)
About Karen
In 1974, Karen Parker sat at the bedside of her laboring friend and helped her to breathe her way through a natural birth. The only credentials she had to do this job were her own life experiences and a deep desire to help. It was a volatile time of change in the country and the medical world was no exception. Birth activism helped to push the options for birthing women to be more family friendly and the idea of informed choice took root. Karen was deeply and negatively impacted by what had transpired during her own childbirth experiences and that inspired her path to becoming a Birth Advocate and Midwife.
She began her career with labor coaching and childbirth education. This led to learning midwifery as an apprentice and she soon became deeply involved with the home birth movement. After seven years she was restrained from her home birth practice by the physicians in her community. This led to a move to Oregon where the laws for non-nurse midwives were more supportive. After 13 years assisting home deliveries she chose to pursue and receive a Masters Degree in Nursing with her speciality in Nurse Midwifery. She delivered many thousands of babies over her 45 year career. The last baby she delivered was named Lucy.
These facts are the outline of a very full career. What is softer, and more elusive was the spiritual journey Karen experienced. This was not a conscience choice made at the beginning but was a quiet reveal that was life-altering. Learning what the unborn had to teach became deeply influential to her work: The unspoken guide of her heart and hands. It shaped the very core of her belief in how we come into this life and what happens when we exit. This was not learned in a place of worship or in a school of theology. It was learned at the bedside and it was taught by the newborns themselves.
After she retired from midwifery practice, Karen taught Obstetrics at Oregon Health Sciences University School of Nursing in Ashland, Oregon. During this time she wrote the book, A Small City of Children. Karen lives in Southern Oregon, close to her children and grandchildren and Daphne, her great granddaughter. She is a world traveler, avid gardener, writer and Kylo, the best dog ever, is always by her side.