Victoria Dean

I was born at home in Santa Fe, New Mexico into the hands of a skilled midwife. Midwives and home birth were always part of my story. Attending an amazing alternative high school that included a mentorship program, I spent my senior year shadowing a home birth midwife. I was able to experience the day to day work of midwives, the length and breadth of care, the relationship that’s built, and I loved the countdown of waiting for someone to go into labor and the way it felt to leave my house in the middle of the night for something so special. In 2013 I was accepted to Birthingway College of Midwifery in Portland, Oregon. I was trained at Vivante Midwifery by both Certified Professional Midwives and Nurse Midwives. Passing my certifying exam with NARM in 2017, I continued to gain experience working as an assistant midwife and postpartum midwife in home and birth center settings in Portland, rural eastern Oregon, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2021 I moved to Philly to join Refuge alongside my long time friend Ray Rachlin. Being able to work in a practice with a clear vision toward social justice, midwifery as reparations, and to be an out queer midwife with a public mission to serve queer and trans families has been such a dream come true. Midwifery is the way I’m able to live my values and to be an activist; to be of service to my community, to be an alternative to a broken system, and to experience human connection every day.