What are Midwives?

Registered Midwives in BC offer primary maternity care to healthy pregnant women and their newborn babies. Midwifery care is covered by your Care Card. Midwives listen, observe, educate, guide and care. We order and interpret tests and discuss results. We screen for physical, psychological, emotional and social health. We are with women during pregnancy, labour, and birth: normal and complicated. We catch babies. We do home visits after your babies are born. We help with breastfeeding and adjusting to life with a new baby.

We work together and with obstetricians, pediatricians, family physicians and nurses. We practice evidence-based, woman-centred maternity and newborn care, and are an established part of the BC health care system. In a nutshell, midwives are experts in healthy pregnancy and birth.

Our Practice

Established in 2001, Cowichan Midwifery Group has steadily grown to meet the community’s demand for personal and professional care. Currently the Cowichan Midwifery Group consists of five midwives, providing care to about 30% of the women and families birthing in the Cowichan Valley. The majority of these babies are born at the Cowichan District Hospital, however, approximately 30% of these families choose to birth at home.

Inspired by the birth of her children--one at the hospital and one at home, Selina Boily pursued her midwifery career at the Seattle Midwifery School. Selina graduated in 1999 and registered with the College of Midwives of BC in 2000. She moved to the Cowichan Valley with her family and started the Cowichan Midwifery Group in 2001.

Mother of five children, all born at home, Kate Koyote trained to be a midwife at King Alfred's College in Winchester, England, returning to register in 2000. She moved to the Cowichan Valley in 2003 to partner with Selina in the Cowichan Midwifery Group

Selina and Kate met as new graduates in Kelowna, preparing for the College of Midwives of BC midwifery exams. In a very short period of time it was clear that they shared the same vision and passion for midwifery. After years of practicing together and hundreds of babies later, Selina and Kate remain enthusiastic and committed to their vision of safe, powerful, beautiful birthing for their clients.

Jane Ballaro joined the Cowichan Midwifery Group in 2006 having studied midwifery in Ontario. She too is a dedicated and skilled midwife adding to the reputation of the Cowichan Midwifery Group as one of the best on Vancouver Island. She is joined by Talia McKenzie a  UBC midwifery graduate. Talia spent a year with Selina and Kate as a student and has a philosophy and approach to care that is consistent with those of the Cowichan Midwifery Group: Respect, Trust, and Empowerment.

Sarah Atkinson completed her midwifery education at the University of British Columbia.  She has been working within the Cowichan Midwifery Group since July 2012, initially providing coverage for Selina and Kate.  She than transitioned to cover Talia's maternity leave in the fall.  Some may remember Sarah from her time as Selina and Kate's student from 2010-2011.  Sarah is thrilled to be starting Cowichan Midwifery Group's third team in September 2013, officially bringing up the group's Registered Midwives to five.  Sarah is passionate about providing woman-centred, evidence-based care to families from a diversity of backgrounds.