About the Author
Jennifer Vanderlaan has been a childbirth educator and doula since 1999, but her interest in childbirth began while she was still a teenager. A firm believer in homebirth and midwifery before leaving high school, she attended college at Michigan State University, preparing for what she expected to be a career in medicine. She completed two bachelor's degrees, one in physiology and one in psychology.
She put her medical training on hold while she turned her attention to family living. While pregnant with her first child, her love for natural childbirth was rekindled and she became a natural childbirth educator less than 6 months after her daughter was born.
Since then she has continued to educate herself about natural birth. She trained with the Bradley Method™ but has since ended her affiliation with the organization. She was been certified as a doula through DONA from 2002 through 2009. She trained childbirth educators through CAPPA, organized a volunteer doula service in her community, worked to help start a not-for-profit childbirth ministry and has authored three Christian childbirth books.
In 2007, Jennifer decided to turn her hobby into her life's work. In addition to the constant expansion of the Birthing Naturally web site, Jennifer organized the Global Day of Prayer for Childbirth and is working with an organization in Central Africa to begin the training of skilled birth attendants for remote areas. She completed her BSN in 2009, and will begin studying midwifery and global health at Emory University in the fall of 2010.
Jennifer has been wife to Jeff since 1995, mother to Josette since 1999 and mother to Jaron since 2001. She is in the process of moving her family to Georgia, a prospect that brings a smile to her face daily.