Foundation
Support is a reflection of life experience, training, philosophy, and the lineage with which knowledge is passed down.
Ceniza Alcantar LM CPM
Licensed Midwife of Woven Midwifery
Ceniza was introduced to the art of heart-centered individualized care by apprenticing with Midwife Cristina America in 2010 while studying herbal medicine in the Siskyou Mountains. Ceniza had her own out-of-hospital birth in 2014, which solidified her passion towards Midwifery after spending the necessary time affirming this life path. Ceniza attended The National College of Midwifery and has attended births within the hospital, birth center, and home birth settings as a Comadre, Doula, Midwife, and Monitrice. In addition, Ceniza has offered placenta encapsulation, belly binding, herbal consultations, postpartum Doula care, and postpartum cerradas to the families in her care. She is the co-founder and board member of Monarch Midwives 501c3, founding member of The San Diego Doula Collective and member of the BIPOC Community Clinic. She has had the privilege of gleaning precious wisdom and considers the passing of knowledge to be a truly reciprocal gift to future generations.
The Midwives Model of Care™
The Midwives Model of Care™ is a fundamentally different approach to pregnancy and childbirth than contemporary obstetrics. Midwifery care is uniquely nurturing, hands-on care before, during, and after birth. Midwives are healthcare professionals specializing in pregnancy and childbirth who develop a trusting relationship with their clients, which results in confident, supported labor and birth. While there are different types of midwives practicing in various settings, all midwives are trained to provide comprehensive prenatal care and education, guide labor and birth, address complications, and care for newborns. The Midwives Model of Care™ is based on the fact that pregnancy and birth are normal life events. The Midwives Model of Care includes:
monitoring the physical, psychological and social well-being of the mother throughout the childbearing cycle
providing the mother with individualized education, counseling, and prenatal care, continuous hands-on assistance during labor and delivery, and postpartum support
minimizing technological interventions and
identifying and referring women who require obstetrical attention.
The application of this model has been proven to reduce the incidence of birth injury, trauma, and cesarean section.
Much like how parents lovingly braid prayers into their children's hair, the path of Midwifery was perfectly aligned, each strand leading to the next with a smoothness that is only possible with the transference of warmth and wisdom.
Midwifery Lineage
To the guides who stand in our wings, who held us as we discovered who we are within the context of service, who watered our roots and fortified our foundations, it is our responsibility to carry their wisdom in fulfillment of the commitment to reciprocity, and the wellbeing of future generations.
To know a practitioner is to know their teachers.
It is an honor to know them and to learn from them.
‘By the far one of the best decisions I made in terms of birth and postpartum recovery was hiring Ceniza. Ceniza was by my side the entire time. She was with me through every contraction. She showed up right away at my home and didn't leave my side through the entire -very long- process of my birth. She supported my husband. She supported the nurses. She made everything better. I am so grateful for her service…
When my son was born it was only my husband and I to take on this very amazing and overwhelming new job. We had no idea how hard it would be. After birth Ceniza continued to give us support with my recovery, breastfeeding, placenta encapsulation, baby wearing and so many other little things that came up when you have no idea what to do and whom to turn to!
We now consider Ceniza to be an extended part of our family and when we are ready to have our next child she will be one of the first people we call. I highly recommend her as a birth or postpartum doula. She will completely support you every step of the way and you will not want to let her go!’
Leslie S.
Land Acknowledgment
Woven Midwifery formally honors in respect and gratitude the Tipai Ipai Kumeyaay and Luiseño peoples whose land we have the privilege to live and practice within.
The land and people that we have had the honor to work with is uniquely situated. Tipai Ipai Kumeyaay land is severed by the U.S./Mexico border. Access to land, necessary connection, resources and historical medical trauma have sewn complexity around reproductive justice.
Woven Midwifery is committed to working towards Midwifery access for the original peoples of this land, from time immemorial.
‘All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you.’
Octavia Butler
My Story
Prior to the birth of my daughter, Azalia in 2014, my partner and I experienced 2 losses. It was through these losses that I experienced very different possibilities of care. I experienced slowness, patient advocacy, respect and warmth but also obstetrical trauma, coercion, and the coldness of a hospital bed without a loved one’s hand to hold. This deep loss led me through grief, rage and eventually impassioned action. At this point in my life I had been studying herbal medicine and learning about cultivars on the Klamath River, with Crimson Sage Nursery but had not yet begun clinical apprenticeship. I recognized that this passion for offering warmth through vulnerability was calling me, so I began to sit and pray for clarity around this path.
Vulnerability takes time, trust, and care to develop. To hold space for families as they grow and acknowledge their experience as it unfolds is the medicine of Continuity of Care. As your Midwife, I walk with you through this vulnerability from preconception, birthing, and into parenthood.
Ceniza is committed to working towards sustainability within the birth sphere and also for the community at large and finds purpose working on community building projects which include organizing to increase access to healthcare and resources, growing the next generation of Midwives and care givers, intentional community, gardening, medicine making, fermenting, and creating on all levels. Art is infused in all that she does.
TRAINING
Medical State Board of California – Licensed Midwife
North American Registry of Midwives – Certified Professional Midwife
A.A Science in Midwifery – National College of Midwifery
Storytelling and the Birthworkers Journey
Intrauterine insemination
Training in Basics of Fire cupping
Midwifery Finishing School
Indigenous Mexican Midwifery - Partera, Amalia Sanchez
Resolving Shoulder Dystocia - Spinning Babies
Holistic Neonatal Resuscitation
CPR/BLS
Traditional Bone Closing Ceremony
Postpartum Belly Binding
Perineal Integrity and Suturing
Working with Breech - Spinning Babies
Botanical Medicine for Women - Aviva Romm
Klamath Knot Permaculture Design Course
DONA Doula Training
Full Circle Placenta Encapsulation
Wilderness First Responder Training with MASHH Collective (Medicine for all seeking Health and Healing)
Birth Assistant Training - Birth Roots Maternity Center
Spinning Babies - Optimal Fetal Positioning
Continuum
Midwifery is so much more than a care practice to me, it is an investment in the wellbeing of the next 7 generations. With this deep respect I listen differently- to the respirations, the tears, the eyes and the heart. Sometimes I listen to the story that the heart is telling me, beat to beat. Our life experiences set the foundation for the way that we see and teach about nurturing the soil and the rest of our relations. Midwifery is weaving new pathways in time.
