My Bio and Professional Birth Story
I teach women holistic health and life skills - tools for not only coping with pregnancy, birth, postpartum and beyond, but also loving their experience, however it unfolds, whatever challenges they face along the way.
I help mommas create and live in their joy, find their authentic voice, and their divine feminine power and strength as women.
Professional Bio:
Anne Margolis is a Licensed Certified Nurse Midwife, Licensed Femme! Teacher, Certified Clarity Breathwork Practitioner, Yoga Teacher and practitioner.
She is a 3rd generation guide to mommas birthing babies in her family.
Anne has helped thousands of families in her 25+ year midwifery practice and has personally ushered the births of over 1000 healthy babies into the world.
She has also guided countless human beings to heal from emotional pain, inner stress and trauma, tap into their strength and power, live fully and vibrantly, and reclaim their radiance, joyfulness, calm and overall sense of well-being.
Through her online childbirth course 'Love Your Birth', her online and in-person midwifery for pregnancy and postpartum support consultations, her birth professional mentoring, her holistic gynecology, Clarity Breathwork, Yoga and Femme! experience offerings she infuses wisdom, compassion, inspiration, and joy into the entire process of women’s health care from teenaged years to menopause, as well as facilitating incredible healing and wellness for both men and women of all ages.
Anne is a two-times number one national and international best-selling author of 'Natural Birth Secrets: An Insiders Guide How To Give Birth Holistically, Healthfully and Safely, and Love the Experience', and also 'Trauma Release Formula: The Revolutionary Step by Step Program for Eliminating Effects of Childhood Abuse, Trauma, Emotional Pain and Crippling Inner Stress, to Living in Joy without Drugs or Therapy.'
Anne’s work, insights and advice have been seen on TV shows and movies including 4 episodes of 'A Baby Story' on TLC Discovery Channel, and the award winning feature documentary, 'Orgasmic Birth' and 'The Human Longevity Project.'
She has been interviewed for multiple local, national and international radio programs, shows, summits and podcasts.
Anne has also been a featured speaker and expert panelist at distinguished events for Weil-Cornell School of Medicine, the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, RCC State University of New York School of Nursing, and Birthnet Association of Childbirth Professionals and Hudson Valley Birth Network to name a few.
Anne's Clarity Breathwork and Femme! healing movement workshops have been hosted at numerous private events, as well as several yoga studios and wellness centers, including the conscious, high vibration and transformational community at The Assemblage in NYC.
Anne is a proud founding member of The Health and Wellness Business Association, which was created to promote initiatives that support better collaboration, interaction and ethical business practices within the health and wellness business community.
She has midwifed mommas and babies for over two decades, and guides individuals to birth themselves as healthy and whole human beings capable of immense joy and inner peace.
Her clients describe her as “passionate, sensitive, big hearted, and a playful ball of light.”
When she’s not helping mommas around the world you can find her doing yoga (anywhere and everywhere), dancing, riding her bike, paddle boarding, swimming, taking or facilitating powerful growth and healing workshops, enjoying family time and watching comedy and historical drama.
Including me, there are 3 generations of baby catchers in my family.
My grandfather and 2 uncles were beloved community obstetricians, considered to be the top practice in the locality I was born.
My mother went to them during her pregnancy with me: and my uncle actually caught me, with my grandfather also in attendance.
He was very excited to hold me, his first grandchild.
As I entered the professional world of obstetrics and gynecology, they were very proud, and I was blessed to learn from them.
But There's More To The Story ...I was 24 and an OB Nurse working in the hospital when I first became pregnant.
It was not expected or planned.
My extended family didn’t live near me.
I didn’t know people in my neighborhood where we lived for my husband's work; and I didn’t know about doulas.
I felt so alone.
I had extreme nausea and fatigue and I did not feel well.
I’m used to having lots of energy but I was too sick to be myself and do the activities I could normally do.
I was unprepared; I had a lot of fear; and I was really afraid of all the things I witnessed in the hospital as an obstetric nurse.
The OB center felt more like an emergency room. It was scary.
My body was changing in ways I didn’t understand. I had no sense that pregnancy and birth were normal and beautiful.
The vibes during the five minute visits with my OB were cold, impersonal and alarmist, and the feeling at the hospital was that every woman that walked in was a potential disaster or lawsuit - and I saw a lot of crises.
There was no calm. There was no beauty. There was no humanity.
At the time, I thought this was standard operating procedure. I didn’t know what was missing. I just knew it was frightening.
To prepare for my first baby, I took Lamaze.
In labor, after I was admitted to the hospital where I worked, I was not dilating fast enough for my OB, who kept checking me internally every hour.
He said I was stuck at 4 centimeters. I was lying on my back in the bed attached to IV and machines and told not to move, so they could get the readings from the monitoring.
I overheard the doctor tell the nurse outside my room to put me on Pitocin to make my contractions stronger to speed up the labor.
I told the nurse, my colleague, that I did not want Pitocin, as I knew the risks and I was afraid of the pain that would be triggered.
She said, "Sweetheart, you don't want a cesarean, do you?" I gave in.
My Lamaze went out the window at that point. I couldn't cope with the agony brought on by the medication, and I was really in a panic.
The doctor came in again and said “She’s still at a 4. Give her an epidural”.
There was a serious drop in my baby's heart rate.
The doctor directed the alarmed staff to prepare for an emergency cesarean. I had seen so many bad things happen to women in this process.
I was rolled away on a stretcher in a frenzy, and then was left alone in the operating room for an hour after they scrubbed me down, waiting for the assistant surgeon who never came.
No one was monitoring my baby.
At some point, I started pushing.
I screamed for help.
The doctor ran in yelling, “Get me a vacuum.”
He cut a big episiotomy and vacuumed my daughter out vaginally.
I didn’t want to see her because I thought by now she was severely damaged or dead.
But she was healthy and vigorous. She was beautiful! I, on the other hand, was not fine. I had what I now know to be birth trauma. I was terrified of getting pregnant again.
I did not want another birth.
Two years later I was still working at the hospital as an obstetric nurse and I became pregnant again - another surprise, and now I was even more anxious. I started getting panic attacks.
At my second baby's birth, the doctor stuck his hand up me and walked out.
He said, “We’re doing a cesarean” to the nurse.
He didn’t tell me, but I overheard him in the hallway, and told him to please come back, that I didn't want a cesarean.
He told me my baby was too high and posterior, facing my back, and would never come down.
I said "Do whatever you can to turn the baby manually; I have delivered a baby before, so I can deliver another."
He told me it’s going to painful and doubted it would work. I replied, “I don’t care, I don’t want to be cut and have major surgery.”
He rolled his eyes, stuck his hand up my uterus and successfully moved the baby.
I was drugged and given an epidural for the procedure, but these were not completely effective.
The experience was painful and I have no memory of my second birth. I just know that I narrowly escaped the c-section and I did not like the effects of the drugs.
I continued working as an OB Nurse in that hospital. I especially loved helping moms in postpartum and being in the nursery comforting the babies, and helping them breastfeed.
I didn't like how often I was a nurse in the operating room for what felt like too many cesarean births.
I felt like my hands were tied; I was having to rescue the problems caused by what began to seem like too many unnecessary interventions when there was no problem to begin with.
It was like I was working in a factory: get 'em in, get 'em out.
There was no joy and no concern for individuals. It was about expecting the worst and maintaining protection from litigation.
I was telling a friend about my frustrations with the system and she told me I should become a midwife.
I had never considered this before.
I did some research, applied soon after, and was accepted to the renowned, oldest nurse-midwifery school in the country. My husband was very encouraging; and I am forever grateful for his support and help with childcare and household responsibilities.
I was in midwifery school during my third pregnancy.
I was still traumatized from my two previous births, but I now knew what was possible.
I hired an excellent midwife and looked forward to a much better experience this time around.
I prepared in a whole different way and I had a completely transformed mindset.
My birth team, setting, preparation and mindset shift were keys to my success.
But, I told her for me to authentically practice midwifery, it had to work for me; and I really did not think I could actually do it.
She reassured me that I could and that it would be so healing and empowering.
She treated me like a human being.
The experience was as different as night from day in comparison to my previous pregnancies and births.
In labor and birth, she was with me. I wasn’t tied down to the bed.
It was a relaxed environment. I would labor in the tub. I would go to the shower. I would dance.
The birthing process was beautiful and was treated as something normal rather than a crisis.
I wasn’t left alone by my midwife.
I had her there with me helping me with her words and her heart, allowing my body to do what it was designed to do.
She gave me the trust that my body can do it.
I wasn’t afraid. I felt very supported.
It was challenging but so doable, I was encouraged to find my own strength, and I did it!
It not only helped to heal my birth trauma, it restored my confidence; it also convinced me that midwifery care works, and that I could now truly help women as a midwife.
If I could do it, so could other women when supported in this way.
I now felt outraged on how women and babies were treated in a lot of settings, and passionate about doing my part to enable mamas and babies to birth without the upsetting experiences and unnecessary interventions that result in real trauma.
As a midwifery student and then midwife, I worked at a free-standing birthing center, several inner city and community hospitals, and clinics.
It was at this time that I had a miscarriage.
It was intense.
I knew what was going on when I lost my baby during the first trimester.
Nothing compares to the feelings and emotions of what happens when you lose a baby. I have been there myself.
I also understand the nausea, vomiting, being exhausted and depressed because you don't feel like you used to feel, and can’t do what you used to.
As a midwife it compelled me to study all the natural and holistic modalities that I didn’t know with my first three.
In my next (and final!) pregnancy.
I was commuting two hours each way to my favorite private hospital practice in Brooklyn, NY with a team of two wonderful obstetricians and six amazing midwives.
But I was having a hard time being pregnant, working and doing my part in mothering my other three children, because of how exhausted I felt.
My son's birth with my midwife was beautiful and I was looking forward to rest and enjoy my family postpartum.
I felt like I was over caffeinated - my thoughts were racing, I was extremely agitated, panicked, completely overwhelmed and unable to function.
I could not think clearly or make decisions.
I could not sleep.
I felt faint, and was losing weight.
It seemed something was very wrong.
I felt alone again, with no extended family living nearby, and felt unable to ask for help, even from my close friends.
Friends and neighbors were concerned but I did not want them to know.
My dear holistic colleagues and alternative providers came to my house to treat me; but nothing was working.
At my lowest point, my closest friend, an osteopath stayed with me through the night, doing treatments to relax my system.
I had postpartum thyroiditis, an autoimmune condition in which the thyroid initially makes too much hormone, before not making enough.
This explained why I felt the way I did; it also created symptoms of moderate to severe postpartum anxiety and agitated depression.
The doctor prescribed medications I was so afraid to take, but I was more afraid of my symptoms.
I was so ill, I just surrendered and took them, but they also made me sick.
So between the illness and the medications...I was one big mess.
I am so grateful for the care I received at the center and from my mother, with whom I stayed for a month, and for my husband and friends, who took care of my other kids and home during this time.
I had to stop work for an entire year while recovering from my hyperthyroid illness and its effects on my system.
I do not remember much of my life then.
It actually took me a number of years to fully heal, using a comprehensive holistic approach.
I studied and experienced the benefits of many modalities. My yoga and meditation practice were life changing.
But the complete healing happened after intensive Clarity Breathwork sessions.
It was the most delicious and miraculous feeling of relief I ever experienced.
It was this process and personal experiences that had me become known in my community as the midwife people would call when they had postpartum depression, anxiety, and also birth trauma.
My passion and journey for helping women from pregnancy to postpartum and beyond was sparked by what I saw as a nurse in the hospital.
Being so very traumatized by my own first births, led me to midwifery for my last two births.
It was also sparked by my own postpartum illness and healing. It affected me so deeply that I had to help others.
I teach women life skills - tools for not only coping with, but also loving their experience, however it unfolds, whatever challenges they face along the way.
I help mommas create and live in their joy, find their authentic voice, and their divine feminine power and strength as women.
I preserve the sacred space so that a woman's body can do what it needs to do to fully surrender to the process, and still be completely empowered and worshipped like a goddess during her birth.
When I help a woman during pregnancy, a birth or with postpartum, I have been told that it changes the mom’s life and her baby’s life forever.
It becomes a family experience that ripples out to impact everyone.
It enhances the lives and relationships of everyone they touch.
I am so thrilled that after over twenty years of working with my local community I am now able to support mommas to have incredible journeys to birth and mama-hood, no matter where they live or what their plans are.
The more we can share information and create environments for empowered births and living, the more healthy, happy and vibrant families can be.
From Pregnancy Support, Postpartum Support, Holistic Midwifery Care, Birth Professionals, to Clarity Breathwork and everything in between.
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“I am so happy to have chosen you to care for me. I would recommend you to anyone having a baby. You are very caring, thorough and professional. I knew I was in good hands with you. I get emotional thinking about the outstanding care you gave me and my family. We were so blessed. Words can not explain how grateful I am. Thank you for all your love and support. This was one of the best experiences of my life. I have very beautiful memories and I’m grateful to have you as a part of them. You are fantastic at what you do. Thanks again for everything. May God richly bless you and your family."
— With lots of love, Erin
“How does one even begin to thank someone like you? There are no words or tokens of appreciation that match the gifts you have given us; those of love, support, faith, friendship, and humor. Thank you for guiding us and walking us on the beautiful journey of pregnancy and the surprising and wonderful arrival of L! We will always cherish our memories of our time together and hope that if other children await us, you might journey with us again. A whole heap of hugs and kisses."
— Lots of love, Anna and Francois
“Anne, you are a maverick! Changing the world through birth! I am forever in awe of your electrifying skill set as a midwife. I am forever grateful for my two beautiful home VBACS!!!!! Your work deserves the Emmy and Tony awards of the homebirth community! I love you!!!!!!"
— xoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxo Joni
“You are awesome. You made me comfortable with my decisions when I was discouraged by others. You are an amazing woman, you know your stuff and I wish I had all my children in this way at home. It was one of the most incredible experiences and so much more relaxing that a hospital. WOW! From beginning to end, what an amazing experience!! Your sincerity, knowledge, and an amazing sense of caring not only made my pregnancy enjoyable, but most of all, I always felt at ease. It was so nice to be able to have appointments with you, you knew my name and you always REALLY listened. The underwater birth and being at home is something I will always treasure forever! THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING. You really made a difference!!!"
— Kim B
“Your practice is excellent for both womens health and maternity. I found you when I was thinking of getting pregnant…Ive never had been to a more thorough appointment with a health care provider. It was amazing - my appointment lasted well over an hour, with you the whole time! When I got pregnant the first appointment was even longer. You went over everything. My pregnant friends would tell me they saw their OB for 5-10 minutes tops. Your care is excellent, personalized, conscientious and evidence based. Choosing a homebirth was a big decision for me and I wanted to ensure I that I had the best quality care that would keep me and my baby safe. I was impressed by your credentials and your calm and knowledgeable presence. I felt that I could completely trust you and felt comfortable talking with you about anything that came up during my pregnancy. One thing I really liked about using you is that I was in charge of my care. You presented me with choices about what I can do at every point in my pregnancy and you let me make the decision about it. You provided me with solid medical evidence that let me make the choice. There was not paternalistic expectations that I had to do something just because my doctor says and I have no choice in the matter. I left the experience feeling more knowledgeable and empowered. In terms of my labors and births, you were wonderful, knowledgeable, reassuring. I was scared and in pain and you got me through it and I safely delivered beautiful healthy babies. Bringing them into this world drug free, in a loving supportive environment in the comfort of our own home, were the most amazing beautiful experiences I have ever had. There is no other feeling in the world like the natural birth of your baby and if they could bottle that feeling it would be the drug of choice for everyone. The care you provided after the births was just as thorough and attentive, and ensured the health of me and my baby. I cant recommend you empathetically enough. Every woman deserves to be treated the way you treated me. I feel sad for my friends who put up with substandard care during any point in their lives, but most especially during their pregnancies. There is something better out there and you are it!!"
— Georgette
Bachelors in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania
Degree in Nurse-Midwifery from the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing
Masters in Nursing from Case Western Reserve University.
Licensed midwife in New York
Certified by the American Midwifery Certification Board
Prenatal, Postpartum and Restorative yoga teacher training from Yoga Garden of San Francisco - Yoga Alliance Certified
Yoga teacher training from Nosara Yoga Institute - Yoga Alliance Certified
Yoga teaching training from Nexus Yoga Institute - Yoga Alliance Certified
Yoga continuing education includes Teaching Beginners, Asanatomy: Applied Anatomy and Kinesiology, and Fundamentals of Teaching Yoga Poses with Noah Maze; Spirit Speak: Finding Your Unique Voice as A Teacher with Seane Corn; Restorative Yoga and Advanced Asana Practice with Cora Wen; Stand Up Paddle Board Yoga & Water Safety/Stand Up Paddle Education from World Paddle Association with Jessica Bellefato
Completed the Spirit Junkie Masterclass Level One and Two Training with Gabrielle Bernstein
Mastery and Creation Course Graduate of Mama Gena's School of Womanly Arts
Certified Clarity Breathwork Practitioner - Completed Levels One Through Five
Licensed Femme! Teacher
