Midwife to Midlife: My Journey to Redefining Women's Healthcare

Every woman deserves high-touch, loving care from a hormone expert—care that is personalized, not cookie-cutter. This philosophy isn’t just a slogan for Aurelia; it’s rooted in my journey as a midwife and the realization that grew for me over time, the realization of how poorly women are treated in healthcare.

I started down the path of women’s health almost twenty years ago. I was a young 20-something, in NYC, and teaching music classes to moms and babies in Chelsea. After class one day, I watched as a group of expectant mothers and their partners gathered for a childbirth education session. Later, I saw those same women return with their newborns, looking profoundly different. It wasn’t just their changing bodies or new-mother exhaustion—it was something deeper.

I wasn’t a mother yet, but I recognized that the transition into motherhood was about more than sleepless nights. It was an identity shift, a transformation that required support, validation, and care. That realization led me to become a midwife—a term that means “with woman"—a term that resonated in my bones.

But what I didn’t realize at the time was that this transformation—this stripping away of identity—was not limited to new motherhood. It was happening to women again in midlife, and no one was talking about it.

By 2020, I was pregnant with my fourth child, practicing midwifery in the midst of a global pandemic. The strain of 24-hour shifts and hospital politics weighed on me, but my commitment to standing with women never wavered. I founded my practice to offer general functional medicine for women, but I quickly realized something profound: beyond childbirth, medicine had little to offer women. And yet, we have lots of life to live. And plenty of transitions to navigate. 

Women over 40 made up the majority of my patient population, and conventional medicine—and even functional medicine—was failing them. I was trained to believe that Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) should be avoided at all costs. If absolutely necessary, it was only for hot flashes, and only for five years. What I wasn’t taught was the undeniable connection between hormone loss and the skyrocketing rates of chronic disease in women over fifty.

I had to seek out the truth myself. I learned that estrogen maintains vascular health, reducing inflammation and the risk of heart disease and stroke. I discovered that estrogen is a precursor to serotonin, which explains why so many women in perimenopause feel their resilience, energy, and sense of self slipping away. No one had prepared me to sit with a woman as she grieved the changes in her body and mind—but midwifery had trained me to witness, to listen, and to support transformation.

In my practice, I apply this understanding every day. I aggressively manage hormones, restoring them to optimal rhythms and levels, because I have seen time and time again how functional complaints—GI issues, joint pain, autoimmune disorders, fatigue, skin concerns, anxiety, and cognitive challenges—improve when hormones are addressed correctly. This approach is a 180-degree shift from my early training, but at its core, it remains the same:

Everything we do stands for women and with women.

Just like midwives in childbirth, we prioritize safety, honor physiology, and—most importantly—we listen.

Every woman deserves this kind of care. And if this resonates with you, I invite you to join us.