Meet the Midwife

Meshell Orozco

Meshell (they/she) is a Xicana Partera, a Certified Professional and Licensed Midwife (CPM, LM) and a Community Herbalist who centers community and ancestral knowledge in their work. 

An active participant in D.I.Y reproductive/generative healthcare groups throughout their adult life, Meshell has been serving their community as a full spectrum birthkeeper for 6+ years. Meshell has attended over 175 births, as well as other pregnancy outcomes in a variety of settings including home, hospital and free-standing birth centers around the country. Meshell is a facilitator with Thriving Together, a support group for prenatal and postpartum parents, the founder of Brambleberry Botanicals, and a co-founder of the Second Growth Herb Collective, a mutual aid organization that distributes herbal support and holistic health resources to marginalized communities.


Meshell has a B.A in Developmental Psychology and is a Licenced Midwife and Certified Professional Midwife in the state of Washington, primarily working on the unceded lands of the Chemakum and Sk’lallam peoples in and around Jefferson County. An avid herbalist, musician, craftsperson and birth attendant, when not at a birth you might find Meshell in the apothecary making potions, with their hands in the dirt, exploring the woods, playing music, or tending the life of an adventurous 8 year old.

Inspired by the perseverance, hard work, and the myriad of roles that community midwives and traditional Mexicana Parteras have assumed throughout history, I am honored to feel my bones and my spirit being called to this path by my ancestors.  

My Midwifery Journey

I fell in love with the humbling and raw experience of birth shortly after giving birth to my child at home in 2016. I had been interested in birth work for some time, but it was after my experience receiving midwifery care and going through such a transformative experience in the safety of my own home that I realized I couldn’t ignore the call any further. I dipped my feet in by traveling to California with my 7 month old to attend the Heart and Hands Midwifery Program. By 2017 I was traveling back and forth from Maine to attend Birthwise Midwifery School, attending various midwifery conferences, and seeking out mentors. 

My midwifery journey has been steeped in the reclamation of traditional birth practices rooted in Traditional Mexican Medicine. After several apprenticeships and clinical placements in various midwifery settings, I participated in the Mentorship Cohort of 2021 with Partera and Midwife Tema Mercado. This mentorship was transformative, and became a crucial aspect of my journey as a birth keeper. I graduated Birthwise in 2021, became a Certified Professional Midwife and a Licensed Midwife in Washington State, and most importantly, a Partera.

The roots of my interest in midwifery extend from a deep passion for access to healthcare for all beings. As a practicing community and clinical herbalist for over 10 years, I have devoted much of my time studying, sustainably wildcrafting and becoming allies with medicinal plants both in the wild and at home, providing free or low cost herbal medicine to my community. A holistic approach to community medicine and my background in social and reproductive justice work has provided a solid foundation for my journey into midwifery. 

”Meshell holds in clear balance the desire for safety in birth, while simultaneously trusting and yielding to the unknown, mysterious, and sacred reality of this threshold.”

Jennifer Jimenez

philosophy of care

As a Midwife and a Partera, I am an expert in the processes of conception, fertility, birth, and postpartum care. I believe that birth and loss are sacred life events which deserve to be honored as such. My services span the childbearing year and beyond, ranging from holistic fertility care and consultation, Intrauterine Insemination (IUI), comprehensive and personalized prenatal care, continuous hands-on support for labor and birth, postpartum care for parents and newborn, and lactation support, to scar tissue remediation massage, herbal medicine and support, bodywork, and holding ceremony for life’s transitions. 

I offer well-body care including PAP and HPV testing to those who are in care during the childbearing year up to 8 weeks postpartum, as well as STI testing, birth control options counseling, and care for sexual, pelvic, generative and menstrual cycle health.

Trainings and Certifications

  • Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) - National Association of Registered Midwives

  • Washington Licensed Midwife (LM)

  • Basic Life Support (BLS) for Healthcare Providers (2022) *recertification every 2 years

  • Neonatal Resuscitation Provider (NRP) Provider Program (2022) *recertification every 2 years

  • IUI Skills Training  - Tessa Landreau-Grasmuk (2023)

  • Spinning Babies (2022) with Tema Mercado

  • Fertility and Conception - Birthing Advocacy Doula Training (2022)

  • Queer and Trans Pregnancy and Birth (2022)

  • Breech Birth Provider Training  - Breech Without Borders (2021)

  • Unveiling the Journey, Mentorship for Aspiring Parteras (2021) with Tema Mercado

  • Midwifery Intensive - Heart and Hands Midwifery (2017)

  • La Cerrada - Angelina Martinez (2017)

  • Herbal Formulation - Wild Seed School of Herbal Medicine (2015)

  • Street Medic Training (2010)

  • Herbal Immersion Program - Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine (2007)