The Bakersfield Birth Center is founded and owned by Justine Backhaus, LM, CPM, IBCLC. Justine knows that the best place for a woman to give birth is one where she is safe, and empowered to make her own decisions about her body, and her birth. Justine’s top priority is to facilitate this environment, by providing education, support, guidance, assessment and midwifery skills through out labor and birth and the immediate postpartum.
Midwifery care begins with expert prenatal care in each month of a mother’s pregnancy. Your prenatal appointments not only assess the health of you and your baby, they also offer the opportunity to develop trust and confidence in Justine as your midwife – your active facilitator and guide through pregnancy and birth. You can read more about Justine’s philosophy and our mission at the Bakersfield Birth Center Home Page.
More About Justine Backhaus, Founder of the Bakersfield Birth Center
When other teenage girls were reading Seventeen! Glamour and Cosmo magazines, Justine was fired up to read Midwifery Today (a journal of homebirth midwifery), which she came across at the local food coop. For her fifteenth birthday her mother gave her Ina May Gaskin’s book Spiritual Midwifery. That was it; Justine was captivated and moved by women and midwives! For Justine midwifery is a calling, and she has devoted her life to it. All of her own babies were born at home, in the water and with the assistance of a midwife. Justine is filled with gratitude that her vocation allows her to support women and babies.
However, passion and a calling do not a midwife make. Once Justine was an adult, she immediately pursued a host of professional and clinical certifications to give her the medical background and expertise that is fundamental to seeing women through healthy pregnancies, labors and births – whether that be at home, via a water birth, or at the birth center.
Justine started out working as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) while she pursued her midwifery education and training. This initial professional experience gives her an edge in her ability to remain cool, calm and collected in any emergency situation that may arise, as well as a healthy respect for when further medical assistance is required during pregnancy, labor or delivery.
First, Justine graduated from the National Midwifery Institute, which is a three-year California Medical Board approved midwifery school, becoming a California Medical Board Licensed Midwife (L.M.). Justine is also a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) through the North American Registry of Midwives. Justine has been in private practice for the past 11 years.
Although a healthy dose of breastfeeding education is included in midwifery training, and while Justine has been an active La Leche League leader for many years, she chose to continue her education through the University of San Diego and has become an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant.
To date, Justine has been honored to support and assist more than 400 mothers and babies through the sacred journey of labor and birth.
Please contact the Bakersfield Birth Center to schedule a free consultation with Justine and to learn more about midwife assisted births, as well as home births, water birth, the birth center or any other pregnancy and birth-related topic. We look very forward to providing you and your family with loving, compassionate and knowledgeable support through one of life’s most profound and empowering experiences.