Providing midwifery and herbalism care to
Rockbridge, Augusta, Bath, Beford and Amherst counties
Meet Emma
Midwife, CPM, LM & Herbalist
Midwifery
Emma Gould is a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM), and is a Licensed Midwife (LM) by the Virginia Board of Medicine. She completed her training through the Portfolio Evaluation Process (PEP) which allows students to complete the requirements of medical licensure through the traditional apprenticechip model. Emma began working with midwives in Virginia in 2018, and has attended over 250 births in her birthwork career.
Emma maintains certification in Neonatal Resuscitation and Adult CPR. Recertification for the CPM credential is required every two years by the North American Registery of Midwives.
The root of Emma's calling to midwifery is deeply intertwined with her own journey through motherhood. Inspired by the homebirth of her daughter in Thailand, Emma began pursuing a path of empowerment for women in their birthing journeys in 2015. She trained as a birth & postpartum doula and a childbirth educator through Birth Arts International, and then in 2017 went on to begin her education as a midwife. She trained first at The Farm midwifery clinic with the midwives who established The Farm's midwifery practice alongside Ina May Gaskin. Emma then completed her training at birth centers in the Shenandoah Valley and Charlottesville, Virginia.
Herbalism
Emma uses plants that are native to her home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia to craft herbal medicines for building and maintaining good health.
She was drawn to plant medicine because it gave her the ability to take back sovereignty over her body and health, and that of her family. There is a sacred empowerment that grows within when we are able to identify dis-ease in the body and have a knowing of what would soothe it. Emma is impassioned to share the sacred wisdom of the plants with others, and to guide them on their journeys of healing and vitality.
Emma was introduced to herbalism through foraging for wild plants and mushrooms by a friend. Her interest deepened while living in Thailand and experiencing the healing abilities of plants used by the people there. She continued to expand her knowledge of herbs by studying with herbalists Jacque Maldonado, Stephen Harrod Buhner, Susun Weed and Phyllis D. Light. Between 2021 and 2022 Emma studied herbal medicine at the School of the Sacred Wild with Marysia Miernowska.
