Spotlight Series
Guest Name: Liz Stika
Credentials: Midwife & Founder
Dr. Betty DeLass: Hello, Liz. Thank you so much for being on our spotlight series for the best in Utah Public Health. I’m excited to get to chat with you again today. And before we get started, I’m just going to read your bio here for the audience so they know who you are. Awesome. Okay, Liz is a midwife, mother, and gardener. A love, she loves the quiet process of watching things grow. She loves teaching, creating, crafting, and all things folk. And if you come by the birth center, you see how much she loves plants. So she’s passionate about creating an environment where you feel free to be yourself, breathe, and know without a doubt that she is a partner in your care and helps you feel grounded in the moment. She loves when her clients can find their voice physically and metaphorically, and when she can support the experience they’ve prepared for. She feels strongly that there’s no right way to labor and that privilege to be part of the spectrum of choices available to Utah families. Prior to midwifery, she worked as a field director and a guide for wilderness adventure therapy. She experienced helped this experience helped shape her philosophy and approach to midwifery care. She has also served as the president of the Utah Midwives Organization, taught workshops for the Midwives College of Utah, and facilitated several annual statewide midwifery conferences. She is certified by the North American Registry of Midwives, licensed as a direct entry midwife by the state of Utah, and a registered NARM preceptor. Amazing! Thank you so much for being here today, Les.
Liz Stika: Thank you. It’s a pleasure on this beautiful day, and it’s always funny to hear all those things kind of listed out.
Dr. Betty DeLass: Like, oh, yeah, You’re pretty special. Yes,
Liz Stika: there I am.
Dr. Betty DeLass: Yes. So let’s jump in right off the bat. Tell us: how did you come to midwifery? Like, from what you were doing to midwifery, like what launched all that?
Liz Stika: Opportunities and circumstances and good people. I think a lot of Midwest talk about being called to the work, and while I do feel that pull, it was kind of a meandering task that got me there. So I worked at a health food store right at the end of college and right around when I first got married. And I’ve always been interested in nutrition. I’ve always been interested in plants and herbs and kind of that side of health and wellness. And while I was there, I made some friends, and one of those friends took a doula training. And I don’t know what inspired her to do that, but we were all pretty young, and we were learning about birth and about options, and about tracking fertility cycles, which all felt revolutionary at the time. There was so much that I didn’t know that I didn’t know, and I actually I remember where I was standing and everything when we were having this conversation where I said, “Well, maybe I would have a baby at a birth center, but I don’t think I would ever have a home birth, which seems like a whole lifetime ago. It was a whole lifetime ago, before I knew anything about all of this. So anyway, the more we learned, the more we wanted to learn, and we ended up setting up a doula training. And I started attending births, but as a young, just out of college person, it’s pretty hard to be on call and trying to pay bills, so I ended up working for that wilderness program, which is a little bit of another detour over here. But like I said in the bio, it really shaped the philosophy that I ended up coming back to birth work with, because fundamentally we were with people in challenging circumstances that maybe they had never experienced before: rock climbing for the first time, mountain biking for the first time, backpacking, and framing these experiences not only to help someone feel like they could do this overwhelming thing, but to put that in the context of their life and to create these metaphors for them, where they the idea is to help them build self-efficacy, which is this idea that you have concrete evidence that you can do amazing things because you have done amazing things, and it was framed that way for you, that you were surrounded by people that believed in you, and and I started thinking about how much birth was that way, and how much I wanted to bring that idea to birth. So meanwhile, this friend that had kind of opened the door for all of us to get involved in birth had gone on to become a home birth midwife, and asked me to doula for one of her clients. And this first time, mom was just doing her thing. I was rubbing her feet, you know, and we were chatting. And she gets up to go to the bathroom, and I hear her throw up, and in my. Like, baby, doe la brain, I was like, doesn’t that doesn’t mean something? And so I called my friend midwife, and I was like, I think she might be further along, but she’s really not acting like it. And so my friend was like, okay, I’m gonna start making my way down. And anyway, she ended up getting stuck in traffic and talking me through this home birth on the phone, and and I remember a moment of like, I’m gonna do, and then the next moment, feeling like, well, I’m gonna do exactly what I need to do to help this family have an amazing experience, and I I was on cloud nine and it was amazing and everything went really well and smoothly and I I decided after that that I I needed to get involved in birth in the midwifery way so then I did amazing
Dr. Betty DeLass: what a cool what a cool detour, though! Like through that path, that’s awesome. Kate, what do you feel like makes you different in the care that you deliver?
Liz Stika: I recently read a passage in a book called Transformed by Birth that I think really encapsulates it, because my relationship with birth and midwifery, like I love all aspects of it, but what really calls to me is transition. I think in all senses, and I love people, and I love, gosh, love. I don’t know if love is quite the right word, but I feel very passionate about walking that unknown path, and I feel like a practice in my own life, and what is very important in midwifery care is knowing that there is so much unknown, and to find comfort’s not quite the right word, but to find a place of trusting that each step forward is going to illuminate a little bit more of the path, and you can only understand birth one step at a time moving forward. I also feel like, like the bio says, there’s not any right way of having a baby, and that home birth or out of hospital birth isn’t the goal so much as being supported and feeling like your your choice. have been respected, and that in the end you have been a part of your birth process, and that foundation of you know healthy mom, healthy baby is sort of just like the bare minimum, and then beyond that, wherever we end up having a baby, how we get there is the really important part.
Dr. Betty DeLass: Amazing, amazing. Okay, can you give us an idea of who’s an ideal fit for you as a client?
Liz Stika: I think that kind of encapsulates it. So somebody that is invested in their care. Oftentimes, people say, “Well, why convince me? Convince me that you know you’re the right person, or that we should do this. And I’m never going to do that because we need to meet each other in the middle. This is a collaborative experience, collaborative care, where I have knowledge about birth in a broad spectrum, but the individuals who come to me, they know themselves better than anyone else, and so, goodness, sorry, I lost my train of thought. Just a minute. We have some setting up happening in the background. So, someone who wants to work in collaboration and wants to be invested in their care, in a part like, yeah, and there’s a there’s a certain amount of responsibility that comes from that because I’m not going to say this is what we’re going to do because I say this is what we’re going to do or check things off of a list. It’s it’s kind of about creating a care plan together, and so the ideal person for me would be someone who is coming to meet in that relationship throughout care. Amazing.
Dr. Betty DeLass: Okay, what is the process? You cut. You’re hitting on some of this already, but what’s the process look like to work with you? So, like, if someone’s like, I want to work with you. Like how do they how do they go about doing that?
Liz Stika: Yeah, just through the website, through the email. I try to keep things pretty flexible during the week. Most of the consults happen evenings, and we’ll schedule an in-person complimentary consultation. We’ll sit down and spend up to an hour going over questions that people have. We can tour the birth center and talk about their preferences if they’re interested in the home birth.
Dr. Betty DeLass: So cool, cool. Okay, and then let’s talk about this. This is a wide topic, but what does recovery look like? Is that a thing from like pregnancy into postpartum? Like, what’s your clinical ethos around that?
Liz Stika: Ooh, well, if I could wave a magic wand and have what I wanted for everyone, postpartum care is huge and lacking. Lacking, I think, in several areas. I think that it’s sometimes recovery and rest is seen as a luxury, and the things that can support that are seen as a luxury. So, if I could wave a magic wand, I would wish for people to have access to more of those things financially, and allow themselves access to those things as necessary and nourishing in the postpartum. I would wish for everyone to have community support, whether that was family or friends, with meals and care with other children to feel like their life is taken care of for them. I do encourage my clients as much as possible to try to stay in bed for you know at least three days, hopefully a week. Pelvic floor health would be huge and something that I do often recommend and that I wish was just standard for what people had access to.
Dr. Betty DeLass: Yes, yes. Okay. One of my favorite questions here: What is something that most people don’t know that you think that they should know about either you or your services?
Liz Stika: Well, most recently, I have shifted my student training to include medical students from the osteopathic college here in Provo. They came to me because they wanted their future doctors to have an understanding and respect for a variety of modalities, and I think that that is a huge step forward because, you know, it’s hard to collaborate. It’s hard to find a place for something that you don’t understand, and so being able to work with these students has opened a little bit of a window to that understanding. And they’re just short little kind of windows into the care that I provide, but I’m pretty excited to be a part of maybe creating some change in the way that we work with medical providers in the future. Love that. That’s amazing. Congratulations on that. Okay, is there anything special that you want to promote to the audience that’s watching? Anything that is on your heart’s passion or any upcoming events or anything like that? Well, something that has kind of been swirling around in the background is an idea that we’ve called roots and branches, because I’ve had many of my clients and many people I talk to about this option express that they’re the only one in their family or they don’t know any friends who have had a baby out of the hospital, or who you know want to choose? I don’t know, maybe more holistic life choices, and I use those terms with a little caveat, because I, I also really feel like we have so many amazing tools available to us, and I would never say that, you know, a tool is a wrong one, given someone’s life circumstances or anything. So holistic, really, in the sense of holistic, and including all of those choices that people make about their care, but so I started this monthly gathering for my clients, for current clients, people who have had their babies years ago, anyone who’s curious about. Those options, or just wants to create community. That’s been something I’ve been feeling very passionate about. In fact, I was just talking to one of my clients who had mentioned that with the advent of so many people having, like, playground sets and like really neat things at home, their kids are going to playgrounds and going out less, which means that moms get out less and they have less time talking with other parents. So, creating connections and a little bit more of that village mentality around midwifery and then out-of-hospital birth.
Dr. Betty DeLass: Amazing, love that. Okay, my favorite question to ask is, what is the main thing that you want to be known for?
Liz Stika: Okay, I think. I think I really would like to be known for the middle ground, and that’s a little bit of a hard thing to quantify. But what I want people to feel when they walk in the door is that they are welcome. Whatever they are bringing with is just right, and you know, assuming we’re a good fit, I want to meet them in that place. And my background and experience allow me to hopefully be able to offer options-not one option that is most convenient for me, but several options-that then I can support my clients in the decisions that they make about their care. And I would hope that in in walking through the door, there’s kind of a feeling of of peace and equanimity, and and a breath that when someone is in this space, to know that everything from the way that I try to be in the space to the colors to the plants that I have around me all support this idea, and that I love birth to be in the context of families and relationships, mental health. We talk a lot, a lot about all of that. But yeah, I want it to feel like a breath when people walk in the door. Amazing!
Dr. Betty DeLass: Thank you, Liz. Okay, where can we find you? Website, social media, all the things.
Liz Stika: Two Leaves Midwifery. It’s very long, but all spelled out, no numbers or anything. Two leaves midwifery.com. Two Leaves Midwifery on Instagram. I’m not very good at social media, but I do update roots and branches on there as much as I can. Email is just info at two leaves midwifery.com. Those are all probably the best ways to get in touch.
Dr. Betty DeLass: Perfect. Well, thank you, Liz, so much for being on our spotlight series, and thank you for all that you’re doing here in our community.
Liz Stika: Thank you. It was a pleasure.