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Jana Voelke Studelska has been a mother since 1988. Her three sons range in age from college student to
elementary school. Her first was born in a Twin Cities hospital with a Certified Nurse Midwife.
The second was a homebirth in Ely, and the third another hospital birth when a fast labor kept her in Duluth.
She began attending births as a friend and support person in 2000. She was one of Duluth’s first doulas,
and the first trained, certified doula in the Twin Ports area. During her doula training, she learned
about the Minnesota Childbirth Collective. In the fall of 2002, she gathered friends and other “birth junkies”
to found the Northland Chapter of the Childbirth Collective. The Northland Collective has been going strong
ever since, educating families on birth choices and connecting doulas, midwives and women during the childbearing years.
She has years of breastfeeding experience with her own children, and volunteered as a La Leche League Leader
in Ely and Duluth from 1998 to 2002.
In 2003, she began attending homebirths as a midwifery assistant. Shortly thereafter, she shifted to working as an apprentice,
learning skills and gaining experience through the time-honored method of woman-to-woman training. In the fall of 2006,
she spent three weeks in Belize with the Arizona Midwifery Institute, honing her clinical skills in a busy hospital maternity
ward and working with rural public health nurses in villages near the Mexico border. Jana hopes to sit for national exams soon, joining several other area Certified Professional Midwives in bringing homebirth choices to northern Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Jana has a B.S. in mass communications. She makes a living writing for national magazines, editing
for a local publisher, and writing non-fiction books for several publishing houses.
Monica planned to be a doctor from the age of four, but college opened her eyes to issues of social justice,
environmentalism and feminism, and sent her on an unconventional path. After graduation, she worked in domestic
violence and youth crisis shelters, and became an instructor for Pacific Crest Outward Bound School, leading
three-week mountain adventures. Quite by accident, she was introduced to Naturopathic Medicine. And the light
bulb came on—medicine with a conscience.
At Bastyr University, an accredited university offering a four-year post-graduate naturopathic medical degree,
Monica completed a doctoral program. In addition to clinical training in Seattle, and a post-graduate internship
with a naturopathic physician, she spent time working in East Timor under the supervision of Dr. Dan Murphy, an
American physician dedicated to serving the people of this small country.
While at Bastyr, Monica fell in love with midwifery, attracted to the intensity and mystery of the birth experience.
She added midwifery studies to her course load, studying and working with naturopathic midwives in Seattle and
the traditional midwives in East Timor.
Monica and her husband made Duluth their home in 2003, and a daughter, born at home, came along in 2004.
She offers creative and natural options for healthcare, with a thriving medical practice located in downtown Duluth.
Her homebirth practice is equally busy, serving families throughout northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin.
“Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers ~ strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know
their inner strength.”
~Barbara Katz Rothman
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