“Multipassionate means fulfilling my multiple purposes in this one life.”

As a child, whenever she was asked what she wanted to be in life, Jennifer always answered, “I want to be an actor and deliver babies.” Okay, kid. That was the response she got. She performed on stage beginning at two-years-old, but still always had the desire to be a healer. As the machines of school and society pushed her through their systems, she was told of course that she couldn’t do both. Jennifer laid down her love of the arts, heading to The University of South Carolina in 2002 to study pre-med with plans of eventually becoming a medical doctor, because that is one direction that would make everyone proud. Along that track, she met a man that would become her husband of 20 years, and unexpectedly became an expectant mother in 2005. As one of its patients, it was then that Jennifer became aware of the issues surrounding maternity care in the US. The birth of her child- that occurred when she was a scared 21-year-old new mother- was a traumatic one. “It was the catalyst that propelled me to heal with art, to understand how to step into the perspective of another person, and to make quality maternal care my mission.”

She returned to her love of performing occasionally as a young mother, but in being obsessed with how differently things could have gone with her birth, Jennifer discovered and started studying midwifery in 2009. She sought out a midwife of her own for the Home Birth After Cesarean of her son in 2010, and became a doula and midwife apprentice in the same year. She studied midwifery for seven years. She participated in an unpaid internship as an apprentice for seven years. During that time, she accomplished one more home birth of her third child. She continued to raise three small children while studying midwifery, occasionally performing, and participating in advocacy. In 2016, she completed her didactic studies and sat for the national board examination (The NARM exam), and received the national certification of Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) through The North American Registry of Midwives. She became licensed through the State of South Carolina as a DHEC Licensed Midwife. She opened her own practice and attended home births serving the city of Columbia, SC and its surrounding communities. Owning her own practice gave her the freedom to schedule a few performances, participate in theatre and film projects, create short films, and write for stage and screen occasionally, but an on-call-lifestyle is not conducive to committing to many artistic projects.

In 2020, when more and more women the world-over started seeking alternatives to hospital birth because no one wanted to deliver alone and many wanted to avoid the over-run hospitals in a great pandemic, Jennifer realized a great chasm in our society. “Just because someone is not a good candidate for out-of-hospital birth, does not mean that they don’t deserve the compassionate and all-encompassing care of a midwife.” She spent many 16-hour-days volunteering her time, just trying to inform people of their options. After catching hundreds of babies and an exhaustive few years as a healthcare worker in a pandemic, Jennifer returned to The University of South Carolina to finish studying both Theatre and Psychology. She graduated with a 4.0, Summa Cum Laude, in a way completing what she started years ago. Along the way, she met another multi-passionate birth-worker and filmmaker, Sadie Whitehead, Producer and Doula and studied under her husband, Dustin Whitehead, Actor and Director. They collaborated within Local Cinema Studios on film-making. Together their families have worked on two feature films in SC, Hero and The Grand Strand. Jennifer has also written a series pilot about modern midwives today in America entitled Midwife Crisis and an adaptation for the stage, The Birth Monologues.

Today, as well as being a successful actor, Jennifer works as an online midwife consultant and pregnancy health coach, helping clients plan their most empowering birth. This freedom of location allows her to continue to help mamas and babies from all over, as well as perform, write, advocate, and story-tell about the issues of maternity care in this country.