Sahra Kress
Registered as a midwife in New Zealand since 2004, Sahra approaches her work with pregnant and childbearing women guided by respect, with an emphasis on safety, passionate about the transformative nature of childbirth. Attending her first birth at the age of 6, she became caught by the significance of birth as she watched her sister born underwater at home.
Originally from Germany, Sahra grew up in the Rocky Mountains of New Mexico, and spent five years living by herself in a rustic cabin herding goats, making cheese, and watching kids born in the spring. Sahra also spent some time observing the work of several homebirth midwives, but when looking beyond their small practice, was frustrated by the lack of continuity in the state maternity system, the lack of choice for women, and envisaged a climate of greater support - in whichever environment the woman and her family chose.
New Zealand proved a country of greater social awareness, offering a training in midwifery that reflected the union of safe, evidence-based care with consideration for childbearing women and their families.
Over the last few years Sahra has pursued an avid interest in working with birthing women in resource poor countries. Time spent working in the slum hospital of Port Vila, Vanuatu, provided valuable exposure to raw medical care and the challenges of working in a very different context. This experience was broadened and taken to a far greater depth when she recently spent time in an extremely remote setting in the hinterland of Papua New Guinea, faced by the challenge of providing care with no option of transfer to medical backup. The contrast to the challenges faced in a New Zealand birthing setting have given her an overview of differing needs in supporting birth.
Sahra has recently completed an article for publication on the influence of Chaos and Complexity Theories on childbirth, in which her passionate stance for the need to decrease unnecessary medical interventions in normal birth is articulated. Ongoing theoretical, academic, and clinical exploration enhance and broaden her fascination with, and dedication to the potential transformation that comes with the threshold of childbirth.
Originally from Germany, Sahra grew up in the Rocky Mountains of New Mexico, and spent five years living by herself in a rustic cabin herding goats, making cheese, and watching kids born in the spring. Sahra also spent some time observing the work of several homebirth midwives, but when looking beyond their small practice, was frustrated by the lack of continuity in the state maternity system, the lack of choice for women, and envisaged a climate of greater support - in whichever environment the woman and her family chose.
New Zealand proved a country of greater social awareness, offering a training in midwifery that reflected the union of safe, evidence-based care with consideration for childbearing women and their families.
Over the last few years Sahra has pursued an avid interest in working with birthing women in resource poor countries. Time spent working in the slum hospital of Port Vila, Vanuatu, provided valuable exposure to raw medical care and the challenges of working in a very different context. This experience was broadened and taken to a far greater depth when she recently spent time in an extremely remote setting in the hinterland of Papua New Guinea, faced by the challenge of providing care with no option of transfer to medical backup. The contrast to the challenges faced in a New Zealand birthing setting have given her an overview of differing needs in supporting birth.
Sahra has recently completed an article for publication on the influence of Chaos and Complexity Theories on childbirth, in which her passionate stance for the need to decrease unnecessary medical interventions in normal birth is articulated. Ongoing theoretical, academic, and clinical exploration enhance and broaden her fascination with, and dedication to the potential transformation that comes with the threshold of childbirth.
