Hi! I'm Kim, your local midwife. The story of how I came to be here in Utah, serving women through pregnancy and birth is an interesting one. My education consists of a Bachelor of Art in Sociology with an Emphasis in Ethnic Studies, a Juris Doctorate with Emphasis in Criminal Law, and Certification as a Professional Midwife. My calling has always been to serve people in a humble, practical and pragmatic way. Creating positive change in people' s lives in the most efficient way possible. Over the years, this guiding principle has taken me on many adventures through different areas of life, different communities, and around the world. I grew up the child of two Air Force parents (Lawrence Hardeman and Cynthia Wright), traveling back and forth to Japan over my early years and around the US as I got older. During my settled years, I lived in Kansas City, Missouri. Unbeknownst to me, a distant ancestor of mine was one of the first to settle that area before Missouri was even a state. Peter Hardeman Burnett, a lawyer who defended Joseph Smith while detained in the Liberty Jail, adventurer who led 1000 pioneers on the Oregon Trail, and eventually became the first governor of California.
During my college years I became a mother for the first time and with the help of a fantastic nurse midwife I endured 19 hours of pitocin induction with no epidural. I was so young and naive at the time I didn't understand the true blessing she was in my life. That revelation hit me during my second birth, where a midwife wasn't available. That was the hardest pregnancy, the most life threatening delivery, and the most depressing postpartum experience of them all. I waited five years before deciding I was ready for another and this time I studied, I scoured my city for resources, and I found another amazing midwife. That birth was magical. I created an experience with the support of my midwife, my husband, my mother and mother in law that healed every traumatized part of my soul. My fourth birth was even better because I had a home birth midwife that time who helped me feel empowered and confident beyond what I had achieved in my prior pregnancies. This is when I decided that a law degree is nice, but midwifery lights my FIRE! I started my training soon after my son's birth and haven't looked back since.
Beginning a career as a midwife during the height of a worldwide pandemic, when hospitals prioritized control over freedom in birth, was truly a gauntlet. Women sought out of hospital birth for the first time, fueled by fear and anxiety. I learned to meet women where they were at and move them into a space of peace, calm, and confidence in their bodies and their babies. In that space, my midwife mind was developed. I served hundreds of families in Missouri and Kansas, some families as far as 3 hours from my home because no midwife would travel to them. I gladly chose to drive hours round trip for home visits and births, because on those long drives through the Kansas plains, I was able to lay down prayers with every mile. Asking God, "Where do you want me? How do I get there? When should I go?" Like my ancestor, Peter Hardeman Burnett, the answer was "Go West, to the mountains".
Full of faith, I began winding down my Kansas City practice and made plans to move to Utah. I married my spouse under the aspen trees at the foot of the mountains in Rotary Glen Park in Park City, UT and began building a life here. Now, I find myself rooted in the same valley as you all, with open arms and an open heart, ready to serve the families that are sent my way.
