About Guelph Midwives

Registered Midwives are governed by the College of Midwives of Ontario. We are certified in Adult CPR and Neonatal Resuscitation, and we have privileges at Guelph General Hospital and Groves Memorial Community Hospital. Our practice standards and protocols are in accordance with all formal requirements. We would be pleased to refer you to clients we have worked with if you would like references. Shared Care We are a group practice and care for clients as a team. In this way we can offer continuity for our clients while helping to assure that the midwives at your birth are well rested and have the opportunity to enjoy their families as well! We try to ensure that you have adequate opportunity to get to know all persons who may attend your birth.

Backup

In the unlikely event of multiple simultaneous births, or to help cover occasional holiday periods, we presently have various arrangements with area midwives from surrounding practices.

If a backup midwife needed to attend your birth, she would be assisting one of the midwives well known to you. If a midwife from another practice is scheduled to provide back up at a specific time, we will inform anyone due and try to provide the opportunity to meet the back-up midwife if you wish.

Students

We are a teaching practice. We do and will have students of varying skill levels working with us on a regular basis. We are very committed to midwifery education. Students working with midwives help to preserve some aspects of the traditional apprenticeship learning model. Clients benefit from the combination of experience enhanced by the freshness, energy and enthusiasm of students. The recent academic exposure the students enhances our continuing education. We encourage you to participate in the vital process of preparing more midwives to serve more of Ontario's women. We also fully respect your right to decline student involvement in any aspect of your care either before or after meeting the student. Students are closely supervised according to their level of progress.

Our Midwives

Basak Ardalani graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Midwifery from Azad University in Tehran, Iran in 1990. Following two years of supervised practice she received her Midwifery License and Midwifery Clinic Permit in 1992. She practiced as a professional midwife in hospitals and homes from 1990 to 1998. After immigrating to Canada in 1998, Basak successfully completed the Prior Learning Assessment Program of the College of Midwives of Ontario in 1999 and was registered in June 2000. Since then she has been working with Guelph Midwives. She has attended over 1000 birth in her 20 years of career as a midwife. She is a Partner with Guelph Midwives, and also participates in many midwifery-related activities including acting as a Neonatal Resuscitation Instructor for the Canadian Paediatric Society and as an Emergency Skills Instructor for the Association of Ontario Midwives. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University. In the Guelph community, Basak is the Chair for Maternal-Newborn Coordinating Committee of Guelph and attends Paediatric Department Meeting at Guelph General Hospital.

Shana Blackburn graduated from the Midwifery Education Programme at McMaster University in May of 2003 and attended more than 100 births over the course of the programme. Before starting her midwifery education in 1999 Shana attended the University of Guelph for two years majoring in Biology with a focus of electives in Women’s Studies. As part of her midwifery training, Shana completed two placements with the Cambridge Midwives, and spent her final year of clinical placements with the Guelph Midwives. She also completed her Community Block placements in Guelph, including a placement with Obstetrician Dr. Ben Ayanbadejo, a nursing placement at the Guelph General Hospital and an elective placement divided between the Meridian Wellness Centre and the Breastfeeding Support Centre.

Anna Jean Bradley has been a practicing midwife since 1986. She has worked as a community midwife and a registered midwife across Southern Ontario and from Jamaica to the arctic. She graduated from Mitchener Midwifery Education Program in 1993 and was one of the founding members of Guelph Midwives in 1996. Anna Jean does women's wellness work and counseling and is a member of the Assocation of Pre-Perinatal Psychology. She is the mother of three children and proud grandmother of one.

Sindy Cheung joined Guelph Midwives in 2009. She received her Honours Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Waterloo in 2003. Prior to pursuing a career in midwifery, she worked as a research associate at the Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Disease at the University of Toronto where she studied the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease. She also worked as a clerical assistant at St. Michael’s Hospital in the departments of Post Partum and Level 2 Nursery. Sindy entered into the midwifery education program at Ryerson University in 2003 and held internships at Mount Sinai hospital’s NICU department and breastfeeding clinic. She graduated from the midwifery program in 2007 and completed her new registrant year at the Midwives Collective of Toronto in Mount Sinai Hospital. She speaks both English and Cantonese fluently.

Gabrielle Hammond-Kannegieter graduated from midwifery school in Heerlen, the Netherlands, in 1993. She worked in both solo and group practices, attending both home and hospital births. Gabrielle immigrated to Canada in 1995 and now lives in Elora. She became eligible for Ontario registration through the Prior Learning Assessment programme of the College of Midwives of Ontario, and was registered in June 1997. She has attended over 800 births. Gabrielle is the Liaison Midwife at Groves Memorial Community Hospital in Fergus and is a Partner with Guelph Midwives.

Leslie Howarth graduated from the University of Guelph.  She completed a three-year apprenticeship in 1991 and provided primary midwifery care in Ontario and Ohio until legislation in 1994.  Leslie successfully completed the Prior Learning Assessment programme of the College of Midwives of Ontario and was registered in August 1997.  She is one of the founding members and Partner with Guelph Midwives in 1996 and the past Chief of Midwifery at Guelph General Hospital. She is currently a Clinical Practice Auditor for the College of Midwives.

Iwona Kempa received her midwifery education in Poland. She graduated from Midwifery College in 1987 and worked in a Level 3 Obstetrical Hospital in Warsaw. During her five years of work in Poland, she conducted over 200 deliveries. In Canada, she successfully completed the Midwifery Prior Learning Assessment in 1998. Iwona joined Guelph Midwives in 2000 and has attended over 700 births as a primary and secondary midwife. Iwona is the current chief of Midwifery at Guelph General Hospital and is a Partner with Guelph Midwives.

Celeste MacDonald has been a practicing midwife in Ontario for five years. She joined Guelph Midwives in 2007, and prior to that worked in London, Ontario at Womancare Midwives. She trained as a midwife in a very busy birth clinic in El Paso, Texas, where most of her clients were Mexican women choosing to give birth in the United States. Outside of her midwifery duties, Celeste practices the art of mothering daily. She has three pre-teen children.

Our Staff

Lisa Ruiter has been with Guelph Midwives since 2003 as our practice administrator, and is the proud mother of 4 children.

Leah Sprague joined the practice as our administrative assistant in 2008. She is the mother of a little girl born at home with wonderful midwives.