952-856-0071 info@newbirthmidwifery.com 1580 White Oak Dr, Suite 275, Chaska, MN 55318

Jennifer Hall

CPM, LM Co-Owner

About Me

Name: Jennifer (Jenny) Hall
Favorite Books:  Anything by Francine Rivers, The Pretense by Lori Wick and anything about midwifery/birth and foster care.
Favorite TV Shows: Friends, Parenthood, Anne with an E & Burn Notice
Hobbies: Spending time with my husband and kids, playing games with my family, traveling, having people over to my house and going out for coffee with friends.
Favorite Foods: Anything Asian (except maybe chicken feet).
Places I’ve Been: Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Ghana, Brazil, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Belize, Puerto Rico and many islands nearby, Spain, Italy, Honduras, Canada, Kenya, United Kingdom and many states in the US.

Background

My name is Jennifer Hall (but my family and friends call me Jenny), and I am a Certified Professional Midwife, having passed the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) Board Exam in October of 2008. I am also a licensed midwife in the state of Minnesota. I hold current certification in Adult and Infant CPR and in Neonatal Resuscitation.

My passion has always been to see women and children cared for and treated well. As a young girl, I would play nurse to all my friends, bandaging everyone up who would let me. I was born and raised in the Philippines where my parents were missionaries for 15 years. I loved growing up in a part of the world where people were so happy with so little, and was taught well by my parents to not only care about the outside of the person but the inside as well.

I am the oldest of 5 children, the youngest are Michelle and Mae, twins who were a wonderful surprise addition to the family when I was 16 years old. By this time in my life, I knew I wanted to have a career in medicine, but I didn’t yet know how that would play out. When I met my Mom’s midwife, I knew that was the path for me. She was a nurse-midwife, and I was able to be at the delivery of the twins as well as at the delivery of my other sister, Rebecca when I was 10. My mom set a high standard for her girls – she birthed all 5 kids naturally even when she was pressured to medicate it. She is one of my biggest role models.
After graduating from high school, I had looked into nurse-midwifery, but decided to pursue a Bachelor’s degree with Bethany College of Missions first to get solid in my faith and have time to figure out what is really important in life.

By this time in my life, I knew I wanted to have a career in medicine, but I didn’t yet know how that would play out. When I met my Mom’s midwife, I knew that was the path for me.

Education & Experience

In 2006, 1 year after graduating from Bethany, I again was reminded of my passion to help women and babies, how much I love pregnancy and the miracle that is birth. I remembered that if I became a midwife, that would be my job – to help women through their pregnancies and birth, and started on that track again. So I searched and searched and one day found a school that seemed too good to be true. It was a 2 year, intensive midwifery program that was located in the Philippines! (www.midwifeschool.org) This time I would be going to the southernmost island, instead of the northern one where I grew up. I read over every bit of material on the school I could get my hands on, talked about it to my parents and friends until I think people started to get sick of me!

Then, in the fall of 2006, I said goodbye to my family, and boarded a plane to Davao. I spent 2 wonderful years there along with 5 other wonderful women who became my sister midwives during that time as we cared for women who lived so far below the poverty line that many didn’t know where their next meal was coming from. The courses we took were almost like independent study courses that were from a US based program, with some support from the teachers. We worked a minimum of 30 hours a week alongside our classes, and we had all caught our first baby within the first 4 months of our arrival! Over the two wonderful years that I grew as a midwife serving the beautiful Filipinas who are so strong, kind and courageous in the face of extremely difficult circumstances, I caught 92 babies as the primary midwife and attended almost 200 births in other roles.

New Birth Midwifery

I started New Birth Midwifery in 2010, and for many years ran it as a “part-time” (as much as that is possible when you are on call 24/7; 365!) practice. I took about 20 births/year and loved getting to know the clients I took care of in a deeply personal way.

In 2018, I started to look for ways to branch out and work with other midwives, figure out how to touch the lives of moms and babies who were dying of preventable causes overseas in undeserved populations. I connected with Sarah Barbosa, a midwife I worked with for a short time at a local birth center and a partnership was born!

This partnership that officially started in July of 2019 has been a wild ride going through a pandemic that brought more people looking for birthing options outside of the hospital than ever before!

Now our biggest adventure yet is starting a birth center that is called New Birth Wellness Center in Chaska, MN to serve even more families. This is causing both Sarah and I to take a small step back out of direct client care but we love still being around clinic to meet new people and hug ones that have become close friends as clients!

I love that having a team of midwives helps to create balance for each of us midwives personally and professionally but we also can still provide one-on-one care for our clients.

Personal Life

I celebrated my 13th wedding anniversary with my husband, Cullen in September of 2022! Life has changed a lot since I first became a midwife but in many good ways. My husband and I were foster parents to 17 kids in the 5 years we were building our family and of those 17, we adopted 3, so we have 4 kids total – Eleanor, our oldest and biological and Nehemiah, then our twins, Titus and Charlotte.