Meet Tampa Bay's Newest Midwife Johanna Lancaster CNM! | Tampa Bay Midwifery Care & Home Birth
In 2008 I started Barefoot Birth with a loose idea of what a great midwifery practice and 501c3 would look like for families. I figured our community would dictate the details over the years and yall have definitely delivered! We created The Community Roots Collective as a space for families to grow. Care from preconception through the first 5 years. What everyone has asked for time and time again is a holistic approach to gynecological care. Legally this was a grey area for us as Licensed Midwives so we are thrilled to be able to welcome a Certified Nurse Midwife to our team to continue to share how personalized, focused healthcare can change lives and our communities. We look forward to our families meeting her over the next few weeks.
Johanna is available for affordable well care including annual exams, birth control, and a more holistic approach to all gynecological care.
We are so excited to offer this expanded care to our community and we are beyond thrilled that Johanna is growing our Barefoot Fam. It has been truly a joy getting to know her and we can’t wait to share her and her expertise with yall!
“My name is Johanna (pronounced “Yohanah”). I was born in Hannover, Germany, raised together with a little brother by a passionately feminist mom and artsy architect dad.
Trying to summarize my journey to midwifery is quite the challenge, but I will do my best:
After finishing high school, I decided to pursue a Bachelor of Science in design, specializing in photography. For my final school project I moved to Tokyo, Japan for several months, working on a series of photographs attempting to capture the essence of beauty and the sublime. After graduating, I owned an advertising studio for several years in Berlin, doing photo-shoots for advertising companies and magazines, as well as exhibiting my art. Then adventure called and I decided to accept a scholarship for a Master’s program in photography at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland. I have always loved traveling, meeting new people, and immersing myself in different cultures, so this opportunity was right up my alley.
After completing my Master’s degree and while working in Scotland as a college professor for photography, I met my future husband, an army boy from Louisiana, in a vodka bar in Edinburgh. Madly in love, I followed him to the US, and we shared many adventures in different parts of the world, got married, and moved in together.
An important milestone on my way to becoming a midwife was a photography assignment in the remote Amazon jungle of Peru, where I lived with a native tribe for several months. I lived with the family of the village shaman, whose 17-year-old pregnant daughter ‘Erica’ gave birth during my stay. She delivered a healthy baby boy after over 30 hours in labor in the middle of the jungle, miles of walking and boat riding away from any medical care. Her mother ‘Nilsa’ acted as her midwife. I recall her telling me after about 26 hours of labor that she would have to cut her daughter open if she didn’t deliver the baby soon, pointing to a rusty machete. At this time I had no medical training, but still figured that this would mean certain death for Erica and possibly the baby. Erica made it and delivered her baby on the floor of the jungle hut, and I got to cut the cord (tied with yarn and cut with clean scissors). I became the boys’ ‘madrina’ or godmother and they named him ‘Tosh’, after my husband.
Shortly after returning to the US, I found myself pregnant with my first child. I knew from the beginning that I wanted an unmedicated birth and trusted my body to take care of things. I was and still am an avid yoga practitioner and presumed my pranayama, or breathing skills, combined with just general badassery would get me through this labor - no problem. I was wrong. Despite the unfaltering support of my midwife, nurse, and husband, my 18 hour labor brought me to the edge of a deep abyss of chaos and pain that I didn’t think possible. I screamed like a pig being slaughtered while pushing out my son. Nothing was peaceful or beautiful about this experience. I was proud of accomplishing a natural childbirth, but also realized that I lost control and maybe should have prepared a little better.
With the birth of my son ‘Miles’ everything changed: I transformed from an egocentric artist to a caregiver - and I loved it. It made me rethink my entire existence, and I decided to go back to school to become a nurse, to be able to care for other humans. In nursing school, I fell in love with midwifery while attending clinicals with midwives in a hospital-attached birth center. From then on, I pursued my dream of becoming a midwife.
While trying to make it through my prerequisite nursing course work and working as a nurse aide, I got pregnant again. This time I prepared and took a hypnobirthing class before attempting a second unmedicated labor. The birth of my daughter ‘Tut’ was everything I ever wanted in a birth: A transcendental experience with no perceived pain and a deep soul-mind-body-connection between me and my daughter during the entire labor. We birthed her together and it was one of the most beautiful and powerful experiences of my life.
While working in labor and delivery as a registered nurse, I worked endless nights, weekends, and holidays to complete my nurse midwifery and women’s health nurse practitioner program at Georgetown University. I learned how to care for women from menarche through the lifespan, assisting women giving birth, offering them family planning options and well women's care, as well as treating gynecological and primary health conditions.
My experience as a labor and delivery nurse as well as my training at Georgetown prepared me well, and I am now officially a Certified Nurse Midwife and board certified Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner, licensed to practice in Florida.
And that’s when another magical thing happened: We transferred to Tampa for my husband’s military job and I found out about the Community Roots and Barefoot Birth. I started facilitating a prenatal yoga and pregnancy support group at the Roots and met with Charlie from Barefoot Birth. From the moment I walked into her office on a Wednesday afternoon, I knew we would do great things together.
I am so blessed and humbled to be welcomed into this wonderful family of birth and community workers supporting women in the greater Tampa community. I am thrilled to be able to provide holistic and integrative midwifery care to all who identify as women.
If you would like to read about my trip to Peru and my pregnancies, here are some other blog posts I have written:
