Meet our Team

Jen is a midwife who loves babies and loves giving families evidence-based information to help guide their choices in pregnancy and parenthood. She is a birth and baby nerd. She trained as a homebirth midwife and had a solo practice in Vermont for 8 years before moving to Tri-Cities in 2022 to escape Vermont's long winters and work at the birth center. Jen loves it here! 

Some of Jen’s favorite things when she’s not at work are: spending time with and talking with her 3 adult children (they all live on the East Coast still, and are the absolute joy of her life) camping, the ocean, her cats and dog, visiting cities, snow sports (snow shoeing, x-country skiing, and snowboarding/split boarding), reading, sailing, and being nerdy. Jen love to sleep late, but she never minds waking up to meet your baby. She believes every family deserves respect and information to make choices that align with their own values, and she believes every baby deserves to enter the world safely, peacefully, and surrounded by love. 

Meg Zanol is a Certified Nurse Midwife who is passionate about bodily autonomy for everyone, true informed consent, and evidence-guided decision making- all with the client at the center of her care. Meg started her career in Business and Marketing, realizing after 5 years that this was definitely not how she wanted to spend the rest of her life, she pursued a career in healthcare. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and over the span of more than a decade, she progressed from caring for hospitalized pediatric patients to working at the Labor & Delivery bedside, where she spent years tirelessly educating and advocating for patients during her 12-hour shifts. Her time at the bedside illuminated the gap in care she saw her patients receiving. In order to fill that gap, she returned to graduate school and received her Master’s degree in Nurse-Midwifery as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN).  

As a Certified Nurse Midwife, Meg is able to fill that gap she saw: to ensure people experience care the way it should be – compassionate, with shared decision making and the client centered at the heart of care. Meg delivers this care expertly and tenderly both in prenatal care and birth as well as in caring for well-people across the lifespan, providing pap-smears, pelvic exams, IUD insertions, birth control options, STD testing and many other services. Combining Meg’s experience in both hospital birth and out-of-hospital birth, she brings a wealth of knowledge about the benefits and risks of each, as well as an understanding of the vulnerable, sensitive nature of reproductive health, gynecological health, and well-care.  

Before joining Columbia Birth Center, Lauren was a home birth midwife in Vermont and then a birth center-based midwife at another birth center in Washington. Lauren says that it is a tremendous gift to be part of this team and connect with families in Eastern Washington! She is also an IBCLC (lactation consultant) and loves talking about all things baby feeding. Lauren and her husband are Vermont-to-Washington transplants. The rural mountains of Vermont are her favorite place in the world, but Washington now feels like their home. Lauren has been attending births since 2015. She became a licensed midwife in 2019 after completing a 4-year midwifery degree.

The parts of being a midwife that bring Lauren the most joy are getting to follow families through prenatal care, answering questions and providing reassurance in prenatal visits, feeling baby move and interact when doing a belly checkup, getting to see people become parents (this is a real biggie for her), families seeing their babies on the outside for the first time, witnessing so much perseverance during birth, anything and everything about newborns, and helping parents figure out feeding struggles. There are so many…too many to list! Oh, and definitely waterbirth too!

What brought Lauren to midwifery and out-of-hospital birth was, frankly, a frustration and angst around a lack of options for care during pregnancy, birth and postpartum. She don't think the traditional medical model of care alone serves everyone in a way that feels empowering and safe. Being a midwife means creating options for families so that they can choose where their needs are best met. She truly believes that the model of care that midwives uphold changes people's experience during one of the most fundamental and transformative experiences of life. Midwives create a different kind of space for people to exist in during some of the most intense, vulnerable, defining, powerful and NORMAL experiences of life on earth. Pregnancy, birth, and postpartum CAN be different than what we have been told or what we have seen.

Lauren has also worked in social work and early intervention and honor that people bring to birth and postpartum a range of formative experiences, from childhood and adult life. No matter what those are, it is the most important part of her job to make sure clients feel safe and respected during care. Her aim is for our care to be based in trauma-informed, inclusive, evidence-based practice.

Lauren is a member of the Washington and Vermont Midwives Associations, Northern Vermont Homebirth Providers Collaboration, Northern New England Perinatal Quality Improvement Network, and an Evidence-Based Birth Professional Member.

When she is not with family or attending births, she absorbs as much research on up-to-date midwifery as she can—she loves to read and learn. You’ll also find her growing plants, dreaming up new projects (many of which never get completed…), making herbal remedies, continuously doing dishes and laundry, writing strongly-worded letters advocating for midwifery care to our legislators, and hiking (slowly) in the mountains.

Sierra Orr is a wife, mother, and passionate advocate for holistic family care. With a background in Exercise Science, her interests naturally led her toward prenatal and postnatal wellness. After experiencing the transformative power of her own homebirth, she felt called to pursue a career in midwifery. In between having her own babies, Sierra began working as a certified doula, supporting families in both hospital and home settings. These experiences solidified her desire to become a midwife. In Sierra’s free time she loves to be outdoors swimming, gardening, trying to keep her houseplant babies alive, and reading. 

Sierra hold two bachelors of Science degrees,  one in Exercise Science and the other Midwifery. She is a licensed in the state of Washington and Committed to the Midwifery Model of Care. Sierra emphasizes individualized education and shared decision-making, believing that birth is a natural process best supported with minimal interventions. She balances her respect for medical professionals with her belief that normal pregnancy does not require excessive medical intervention, striving to empower expectant parents through safe and supportive community birth experiences.

Maressa is a passionate mama to five amazing children. Her journey into birth work began at just 12 years old when she watched her first birth and felt an undeniable call to this sacred field. After her first two births ended in cesareans, she embarked on a mission to find a provider who would support her dream of a VBA2C. Against the odds, she welcomed her next three babies vaginally, a testament to determination and resilience.

In 2021, as her children were growing at lightning speed, Maressa picked up a camera to capture life's fleeting moments. Her newfound passion for photography led her to birth photography, and she quickly fell in love with documenting these powerful and intimate experiences. Driven by a desire to support families during labor, she became a certified doula, finding joy in both capturing and assisting during births.

The spark for homebirth ignited a profound sense of purpose in Maressa. She eagerly sought opportunities to assist midwives, leading her to immerse herself in midwifery research and hands-on experience. As the New Year approached in 2023, Maressa took stock of her future aspirations. It was clear that her heart was set on becoming a midwife, and she is excited to embrace this next chapter of her journey with unwavering dedication.

Gabriella is a mother to two children, who has lived in the Tri-Cities for the majority of her life. She has always had a deep rooted passion when it comes to helping people and serving her community. After two cesarean births, she decided she wanted to go to nursing school to work as a labor and delivery nurse.

While preparing for nursing school, Gabi was introduced to the birth center and fell in love with the idea of midwifery. One of her first experiences as a birthing assistant was watching a midwife feed one of the laboring moms chocolate when she was feeling tired. The amount of love and care they poured into the birthing moms, at all stages, was something she felt called to stand behind.

After a year working as a birth assistant, Gabi applied to the Midwives College of Utah. She is in her first year of school, and plans to graduate by 2027. She feels grateful to be working as a student under the midwives who taught her everything she knows now. She looks forward to what the future has to offer for midwifery and hopes she can make a difference in maternal care here in the Tri-Cities. 

Aliah is a Certified Medical Assistant and a Birth Assistant in training. She enjoys reading, doing puzzles, hiking, traveling, and spending as much time as she can with her friends and family. Aliah grew up in Zillah, WA and graduated from Zillah High School. She graduated from Charter College with her Certificate in Medical Assisting. Aliah worked at Associated Physicians for Women as a Registered Medical assistant while she was in school. She also worked in Orthopedics Surgery at Kadlec Northwest Orthopedics and Sports Medicine. Aliah was thrilled when she joined the team at Columbia Birth Center, where she loves getting to know all of the wonderful clients and their sweet new babies!

Heather started birth work as a labor doula in 2005 and quickly realized her calling to midwifery. She has had various roles, including La Leche League Leader, ICAN (International Cesarean Awareness Network) Leader, homebirth midwife, and has worked at birth centers throughout the country. She has a bachelor’s degree in Midwifery and master’s degree in Maternal-Child Health Systems. Heather is a licensed midwife and IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant).

Heather is passionate about supporting new parents through pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and lactation. She believes in the midwifery model of care, focusing on evidence-informed practice, informed decision-making, and empowering families to make confident decisions about their bodies, babies, and births. She’s a strong supporter of vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC), VBAC after multiple cesareans, and vaginal birth for twins and multiples. She believes that birth can be an incredibly empowering event, even if it does not happen the way that we plan. She loves working with breastfeeding families and helping them meet their goals.

Heather and her family settled in WA after her husband retired from the Army. They have 8 children, including two sets of twins, and various pets. Heather loves to travel and camp with her kids. She can usually be found drinking coffee. ​