In 1999, as a student midwife, I read two books that changed everything for me: Wise Woman Herbal  for the Childbearing Year by Susun Weed, and Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin. Alongside these were the works of anthropologist Robbie Davis-Floyd who named the technocratic model of care in which I was learning and the holistic model that I strived to practice. These each created a foundation for the midwifery that resonated in my bones and their words gave shape to an approach that still anchors my work today: the Holistic Wise Woman model.