Welcome!
My name is Michelle Wilbert, and I am a midwife serving a small but wonderfully diverse community of families in Southeast Michigan. I am also the director of Close to the Root Family and Community Resources; a center on the web that we hope will become a real source of help in creating community with others who are seeking to live "Close to the Root" ~ of home, family, community, and spirit! On these pages, we offer our resources in midwifery, homeschooling, urban homesteading and Spiritual Mentoring as a way of combining ancient, spiritual practices with persistent and devoted social action for environmental sustainability, justice, reconciliation, and peace. We are committed to human rights; we believe that no one should do without food, water, shelter, education, healthcare, or love. Most of all, we believe in the power of loving, wise and knowledgeable companionship ~ in birth, parenting, learning, growing, illness, dying and grief.
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| Traditional Midwife Michelle Wilbert |
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On these pages, you will find that all our services,
ideas and essays are connected to the theme of living life "from the
inside out" by which we mean living true to the cultivation of our
deepest dreams for ourselves and our world. We're really hoping, by
joining with those who share our outlandish ideas about how to save the
world and by giving everyone a hand to hold onto and a "good word," to get
each and every one of us "Back to the Garden."
As you move through our website, you'll find pages devoted to several offerings. My midwifery page, The Kneeling Woman, contains the specifics of my midwifery practice including general information and downloadable essays and information for those planning a homebirth with me. In addition to being a midwife, I am an intern spiritual director at Manresa Jesuit Retreat House in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and the page entitled Wild Goose provides some insight into the process of spiritual direction and will give me a place to share my thoughts and experiences throughout my training and education.
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We love children at Close to the Root, and, our own kids being people of great creative potential, they'll have their say about music, art, making the world a better place, living with a midwife mama and a deeply knowledgeable, gentle and funny papa, knowing dogs with names like Scout, Bacon and Jamba; having a one-winged pet bird, travelling on a sailboat in Greece and going to Iona in Scotland, heading on a yearly pilgrimage to the Upper Peniusula of Michigan, and all about what it's really like to grow up living and learning freely, at home and in the world. They'll offer their perspective on our Genius Tribe page.
In a Family Way is our page devoted to families. It includes my "toolbox" of information and resources on Marriage and Partnership issues; preparation for pregnancy,birth and parenting including information on my "The Compleat Family Birth and Parenting" Classes which are based both on my training as an Informed Homebirth/Informed Birth and Parenting Educator and Birth Assistant/Doula and my intimate and extensive experience with birthing families as a midwife. I also include information, resources, and compassionate assistance to families suffering through any pregnancy/infant loss or a devastating prenatal diagnosis. I will support, through the pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, any such family needing my help, free of charge.
This website is published in loving memory of our two boys, Paul and Samuel Wilbert, who both died in infancy from a genetic, neuromuscular disorder and who became the inspiration for our family to offer ourselves to others with love, and with hope for a better world.
Peace! The Wilberts.
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