Our Founder
From a very young age I knew I wanted to help bring new life into this world. At first I wanted to be a doctor, but when senioritis sunk in, I did not continue that long road.
I joined the US Navy after graduating from high school. I served as a hospital corpsman and worked in the Labor and Delivery, NICU, and Pediatric Inpatient satellite pharmacy at one of the largest Naval Hospitals in the US. While in the military, I married my high school sweetheart and had the first 2 of my 4 children.
I started college as soon as I moved back to Amarillo to pursue a bachelor’s degree in business administration. However, three semesters into my studies my path was unexpectedly diverted. I lost my husband, welcomed my daughter 2 months later and at 4 months postpartum, I was recalled and given orders to Camp Pendleton to man the hospital while sailors were deployed to Afghanistan. During that 7 month enlistment, I realized that as a single mother I needed job security, so I changed my major to Nursing.
I realized during my labor and delivery rotation in nursing school that birth was my passion. I remember thinking to myself that if God gave me this skill, I will give back to those in need.
During my last year of school I met and married my very supportive husband. I graduated with my bachelor of science in nursing from West Texas A&M in December of 2007.
My first nursing position was at Northwest Texas Children’s Hospital on the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. During my five and a half years in the NICU, I was a Charge Nurse and a member of the Transport Team. I also delivered my 4th and last baby.
I was accepted to the Texas Tech School of Health Sciences Midwifery program in January of 2013. Getting a nurse midwifery degree while living in the Panhandle was not an easy task. I had to travel to Dallas, Houston and El Paso to get my clinical hours. I was away form my family for weeks to a month at a time. But it all paid off, I graduated with my Masters in Midwifery in August of 2015 and became the first certified nurse midwife in Amarillo.
One of my ultimate goals after becoming a midwife was to provide care to low-income woman. I guess this desire stems from realizing how much my parents struggled to make ends meet. Both my parents were immigrants who came to the United States to make a better life for themselves and their children. My mom had 3 births in California. She mentioned to me that she had limited prenatal care with her pregnancies and they paid $20 every month for years to pay off the hospital deliveries. I founded ABBI for people like my parents, those that leave their homes for better opportunities.
God has blessed my practice immensely and I am finally able to start helping those in need. But my vision has grown to more than just using my skill to provide a service to the community.
It has grown to where I want to use midwifery to improve maternal and neonatal outcomes in the community. And I do not want to stop with Amarillo, I want to eventually be able to travel to the rural communities so they too can have midwifery care and better outcomes.