Betsy Merbitz, CPM, LMT, EMT
I’m a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM), Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT), and long-time doula and childbirth educator. Based out of Chicago, IL, I provide holistic services throughout the life cycle, including massage, childbirth education, herbal healing, and more.
Welcome to Violet Circle Midwifery
I became a midwife via several years of apprenticing with out-of-hospital midwives, and am a graduate of National College of Midwifery and Midwest Maternal Child Institute. I have supported hundreds of families during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum as a midwife, labor support and postpartum doula, and childbirth educator. I value holistic, family-centered, consent-based reproductive healthcare.
I am also an herbalist. I attended my first herbal medicine training with the late Michael Moore in 2006. I’ve also studied at the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine, the People’s Medicine School, and other schools, and also through apprenticeships.
After having become a midwife, I became a Licensed Massage Therapist in order to incorporate bodywork into my perinatal care and holistic healing. I specialize in Manual Lymphatic Drainage and neurolymphatic massage, as well as massage techniques for chronic illness. Lymphatic and neurolymphatic massage can help with post-covid syndrome, brain fog, allergies, muscle fatigue and more. I love offering multimodal healing sessions that incorporate massage and herbal medicine.
I am also available for pregnancy and postpartum massage. I am also certified as a Body Ready Method childbirth preparation professional, and offer perinatal massage sessions that incorporate Body Ready Method techniques.
I’m currently a birth assistant at a local birth center and I’m not accepting private clients for home birth midwifery care at this time. My childbirth education offerings include some unique stand-alone classes on topics such as choosing where to give birth, postpartum preparation, and avoiding interventions. I also offer 1:1 and group midwifery tutoring for midwifery students and any other childbirth professionals seeking to deepen their knowledge, and coaching for doulas.
I am passionate about equity and justice in holistic healthcare and strive to be accountable for my own actions and support others in accountability. I am a current board member of the Holistic Birth Collective, an initiative for birth justice and midwifery access in Chicago.
I write poetry and prose and am working on a series of poems about medicinal plants. Click here to read my work.
Facts on Betsy:
Full name : Elizabeth Therese Merbitz
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Favorite Breakfast food: Eggs and Toast for sure!
Favorite sport: Ultimate Frisbee
Least favorite sport: Volleyball (can we please just play ultimate instead?)
Attended my first birth in: 2006
Favorite Poem: “Why I Write Poetry” by Major Jackson
Number of births attended: About 200