Sage-Femme Midwifery is an independent midwifery practice offering homebirth/hospital midwifery care, monitrice, well woman and basic primary care for women!
Sage-Femme Midwifery is an affiliation of women's health professionals who provide compassionate, holistic women's care throughout the life cycle.
In addition to full-scope independent midwifery, Sage-Femme provides space for nurturing mothers, babies, and families and hopes to be a proverbial village for healthfully birthing and raising children. Sage-Femme midwifery offers: breastfeeding, childbirth, and parenting classes, a new mother's support group, chiropractic & massage days, referral and coordination of care with a multidisciplinary team of birth professionals, and meeting space for workshops/informationals/gatherings of interest and benefit to families.
Unique to the Midwifery community, Sage-Femme offers both homebirth care and hospital-based midwifery. In the home setting, a team of three birth professionals will attend each family providing guidance and support throughout the birth process and beyond. Our admitting privileges at the Burdett Care Center in Troy NY, ensure that, should a planned homebirth require transfer to a hospital setting, Sage-Femme Midwifery is able to provide continuity of care in that setting thereby avoiding a transfer to a different maternity practice. Families planning a hospital birth with Sage-Femme enjoy the same personalized midwifery model of care which includes Doula support and follow up care in the home setting upon discharge.
Complimentary consultations to explore the option of midwifery in the home or hospital setting provided. Tours of the Burdett Care birthing center are available by calling 271-3393.
***Located in the heart of the Pine Hills neighborhood of Albany, our address is 527 Western Avenue. Parking is available at 12 North Allen Street and on North Allen Street. Please use this address for GPS directions.***
About the Midwives & Birth Assistants:
Kelly McDermott, LM, CPM, CNM, MS
Kelly, Founder and Director of Sage-Femme Midwifery, was called to midwifery as a ministry and vocation by the birth of her first child at home in 1984. Like many midwives, her relationship with birth has been long and varied. She has been privileged to serve as a direct-entry midwife, a Certified Professional Midwife, a labor and delivery nurse, and as a Masters prepared Certified Nurse Midwife. All 6 of her children were born at home. Her return to homebirth is a celebration and a rekindling of her commitment to women and birth.
Kathie Breault, CNM, LM
Kathie's personal and professional experience is that women birth better in the comfort, peace, and safety of their own homes. Kathie has been working with pregnant and birthing women in the Capital Region since 1987; first, as an RN at Albany Medical Center Hospital’s Labor and Delivery Unit, and later as a midwife, her calling. Kathie had her third baby at home in 1983, and graduated from SUNY Downstate’s Midwifery program in 1993. She worked in several area hospitals before “coming home.” Kathie has been attending births at home with Safe Passage Midwifery since 2009, except for a year in which she helped to establish Birthvillage, the first Birthing Center in Kerala, India.
Kristen Benoit, CPM, LM, Midwife's Assistant
Kristen is a Vermont state Licensed Midwife and Certified Professional Midwife, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Midwifery from the National College of Midwifery. She graduated from the Mercy In Action College of Midwifery and Primary Health Care in 2000, and spent time working as a missionary midwife in the Philippines, Mexico and Ecuador. As a Professional Herbalist, she also provides herbal education and consultation services through her business, Whole Family Herbals. Kristen is mom to four children who were all born at home with midwives. Her out-of-hospital birth experience makes her a great addition to the Sage-Femme team.
Kristen Klein, RN, CMT, Birth Assistant
Kristen, a Licensed Registered Nurse (2012), is currently training to become a Certified Professional Midwife. She is also a Massage and Polarity Therapist (2000) and a DONA trained Doula (2005). Shortly after massage school she learned about doula care and was inspired to serve women in this way. She did not actively pursue certification until after the birth of her first son in 2002. That experience was so empowering and transformative that she felt supporting other women on this journey was truly her calling in life. With Sage-femme since 2012, she has served as a doula, massage therapist, and birth assistant. In her free time she enjoys the outdoors and spending time with her potter husband and their 3 children.
Amanda Mody, CLEC, Doula, Placenta Encapsulator, Birth Assistant
Amanda believes that when women are supported, listened to, and provided unbiased information they will make decisions that are best for them and their family. She is carefully attuned to the pregnant individual she is working with and also coaches and guides the partner to be as involved and connected in the process as they desire to be. Amanda holds a Masters in counseling, is a Doula (since 2010), Certified Lactation Educator Counselor, and a Postpartum Placenta Specialist. Amanda also offers classes through Sage-Femme Midwifery and is co-leader for ICAN of the Capital District. Amanda loves spending time with her husband and three young boys (2 Sage-Femme babies), baking, and being in/near water!
Free Cancer Screening through Sage-Femme!!!
Sage-femme Midwifery is excited to announce that we are now a participating provider with the Albany County Cancer Screening Services Program and can provide Free Cancer Screenings!!
Women and men with little or no health insurance are eligible for free cancer screenings through the Cancer Services Program (formerly known as the Healthy Living Partnership). The program offers free breast, cervical and colorectal screenings, as well as prostate education.
Women who are uninsured and 40 years of age or older can receive a free breast exam, pap smear/pelvic exam and mammogram through Sage-Femme Midwifery.
Men and women over age 50 are eligible for colorectal cancer screening with a FIT (fecal immunochemical kit). A free colonoscopy is available if they have a family history of colon cancer, polyps, Crohn's disease, inflammatory bowel disease or colitis. Screenings may be done at an earlier age if there is a family history of breast or colorectal cancer.
If further treatment is needed and the patient meets income and other criteria, treatment for their cancer will be paid by the Cancer Services Program. Please pass the word about this valuable program and call the office if you'd like to schedule an appointment, 813-9290.
