A BIT ABOUT US
Katie Connor, CPM, Midwife and Founder of Maternal Healthcare International
Maternal Healthcare International was founded by Katie Connor in 2019. Katie is a Certified Professional Midwife who began her education with the goal of taking her midwifery skills and bridging the gap of access to healthcare for women in the most desperate places. Katie is a graduate of Go Midwife, a school designed specifically for midwives training to work in the developing world. After finishing her midwifery certification Katie worked at a thriving homebirth practice in Kansas City while she continued to prepare for serving overseas. In April 2020 Katie will be moving to Port au Prince, Haiti to work as a midwife with Heartline Maternity Center. With Heartline Katie will work to serve local women through throrough prenatal, labor and delivery, postpartum and breastfeeding education and care programs. She will also help support local Haitian midwives as they develop their skills in their first years of practice.
A BIT ABOUT US
Katie Connor, CPM, Midwife and Founder of Maternal Healthcare International
Maternal Healthcare International was founded by Katie Connor in 2019. Katie is a Certified Professional Midwife who began her education with the goal of taking her midwifery skills and bridging the gap of access to healthcare for women in the most desperate places. Katie is a graduate of Go Midwife, a school designed specifically for midwives training to work in the developing world. After finishing her midwifery certification Katie worked at a thriving homebirth practice in Kansas City while she continued to prepare for serving overseas. In April 2020 Katie will be moving to Port au Prince, Haiti to work as a midwife with Heartline Maternity Center. With Heartline Katie will work to serve local women through throrough prenatal, labor and delivery, postpartum and breastfeeding education and care programs. She will also help support local Haitian midwives as they develop their skills in their first years of practice.
Our Team
Katie Connor, CPM, Midwife and Founder of Maternal Healthcare International
Maternal Healthcare International was founded by Katie Connor in 2019. Katie is a Certified Professional Midwife who began her education intending to take her midwifery skills and bridge the gap of access to healthcare for women in the most desperate places. Katie is a graduate of Go Midwife, a school designed specifically for midwives training to work in the developing world. After finishing her midwifery certification, Katie worked at Sacred Song Homebirth, a thriving homebirth practice in Kansas City, as she continued to prepare to serve overseas.
In August 2020, Katie moved to Port au Prince, Haiti, to work as a midwife with Heartline Maternity Center. During her time with Heartline, Katie learned so much about Haiti, the Haitian language Kreyol, and how to serve women in developing world settings. In May 2022, Katie moved north to Hinche, Haiti, to work with Midwives for Haiti as the Educational Director of their Midwifery School. Katie continues to dream of opening a new Maternity Center in Haiti, where women would be served and midwifery students would have the opportunity to learn. Maternal Healthcare International continues to support and send Katie as she continues her hard but blessed work in Haiti.
Auriette Reimer, CPM, Midwife and Executive Director at Maternal Healthcare International
Auriette Reimer is a Certified Professional Midwife who first became interested in midwifery at the age of 15 when she was able to witness her first birth at Heartline Maternity Center in Haiti. The reality of women not having access to quality healthcare and having to deliver at home alone was overwhelming to her and she decided that she wanted to become a midwife. Auriette attended midwifery school in the Philippines at Newlife International School of Midwifery which is a school that is focused on training skilled missionary midwives to go work in rural settings. After completing her midwifery examination, Auriette moved to Port-au-Prince, Haiti in February of 2020 to work as a midwife at Heartline Maternity Center. There she serves Haitian women throughout their pregnancies, births, and postpartum periods together with the Haitian midwives. In 2022 Katie and Auriette plan to expand MHI and develop a new Maternity Center to extend the reach of maternal healthcare in Haiti.
Board of Directors
Anna de Graaf
Anna de Graaf has been with Maternal Healthcare International from the beginning. Anna works in political advocacy but began her career as a schoolteacher and is passionate about enabling people to pursue their passions. She believes that the work of Maternal Healthcare is vital to raising up and protecting women around the globe.
Anna’s undergraduate education focused on International Relations and she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Global Security at Johns Hopkins University. She works for the American Medical Association in Washington, DC.
Whitney Akpi
With a Bachelors's in Global Studies, and years of experience in cross-cultural missions, Whitney has walked beside Katie in her vision and dream for MHI. The two served at Surfing the Nations in Hawai’i, both attended GoMidwife midwifery training, and served in a small clinic together in Togo, where she was living for 2.5 years.
Whitney and her husband Kossi currently serve in Malawi with Extending Hope Organization, a small local community development organization. Having lived in Malawi and Togo for the past 5 years, her eyes have been opened even more to the plight of childbearing women around her.
She believes that through the hard work of MHI, local midwives will be trained to serve their communities more effectively through the training and skills that MHI offers.
Sam LeGassick
Samantha has been involved in birth work since 2004, serving families as a doula and childbirth educator, as well as through work as a Registered Nurse in Obstetrics. She has a passion to see women educated and empowered to partner with underserved populations and to train birth workers dedicated to the communities around them. She believes Maternal Healthcare International will become a standard for holistic maternal and infant care in some of the most underserved areas of the globe.
Sam trained student midwives as the Director of Education and Instruction for the Global Organization of Midwives for several years before embarking on the development of Created For, an organization designed to cultivate family within the childbirth education process. She also serves on the Pastoral staff at Revive Church in Redmond, Washington.