Dianne Bjarnson

Dianne Gwen Green Bjarnson

I am a great advocate of midwifery education.  Since
many students have families, I feel that midwives
should be able to get an education from where ever
they live.  I also feel that students should go for
the best credentials they can possibly get in the
field.  If you are going to do the work of developing
technical excellence in the field, then you should
pick a route that gives you the best credentials.  The
degrees given by MCU are an added plus.
I began my midwifery training in about 1979 after my
first home birth. At that time, I had an  insatiable
desire to learn everything I could about home birth.
It was like I had a fire under me and I was driven to
learn, discover, research, etc. I felt that the Lord
has guided me to this profession.  I have found in my
association with midwives throughout the countries of
many different denominations and faiths that they also
have been guided by the Lord to this great work of
midwifery.  I feel the Lord is definitely watching
over this work.  At the time, I went through all the
training that I could find at the time and felt that
it was inadequate.  For that reason I founded the Utah
School of Midwifery in 1980 which has developed into
the Midwives College of Utah.
Many thanks to those people who have contributed so
greatly to MCU through the years --  Joyce Ward, Coral
Hicks, Cyndee Holland, Lisa Heimberger, Renee
Mounteer, Suzanne Smith, Marilyn Skousen,  Holly
Richardson, David Jensen, and many others.  Jodie
Palmer and Sonia Ochea are presently working so hard
to get the systems in the college to work quickly.
May many blessings be given to all those who have
helped and are helping.
I look forward to there being many birthing centers
in Utah, and one connected to the College so that
students can come here for clinical experience.  This
is an important project, which will hopefully occur,
in the next five to ten years.
Originally I apprenticed with Ronna Hand, who moved
to Utah from Southern California.  Due to a
disagreement, I did not finish my apprenticeship with
her.  I started my practice, Rural Maternity Care in
1980.  Cyndee Holland and I worked together for the
first few years.  My birth experience is over 1,000.
The most wonderful part of midwifery practice is the
wonderful women and families that you are able to work
with.  Natural birth empowers a woman and gives
strength to the family unit.
My herbal background has shaped the style of my
midwifery practice.  I consider myself to be a natural
practitioner.  I received a Master Herbalist from the
School of Natural Healing.  I have taught for them and
also taught in Great Britain. We now have a health
business - midwivesconnection.com, and I am enjoying
developing products and expanding the business.
I have apprenticed a great many midwives over the
years.  It has been a real joy to me to see them
develop into competent midwives and many of them are
the best midwives that can be found (of course all to
their own credit).
Through the years I have been active in the
development of the midwifery profession in the United
States.  I have taught at a number of MANA conferences
and been part of the education committee.  I received
the Certified Professional Midwife credentials from
NARM and also have acted as a Qualified Evaluator for
NARM.  I also served on the MEAC board and was
Secretary for a time.
I have been active in midwifery in the state of Utah.
I chaired the first home birth conference in the state
of Utah, at least in the last 80 years.  I am a
founding member of the Utah Midwives Association and
am past President.  I devised the first certification
program for the UMA.  I also served for the first
couple of years on the Legislative Committee, chaired
by Holly Richardson.  I believe my help was in the
developing of the bill and the foundation that
midwives who do not carry drugs, except oxygen, should
be able to practice without a license.  I think that
that principle is so essential in any midwifery
legislation.  Holly, Suzanne Smith, and Heather
Johnston, very skillfully have directed the bill to
its finish.
I was born naturally in the Gritman Memorial Hospital
in Moscow, Idaho, on February 13, 1944, during a snow
storm. My parents were educators.  I graduated from
the University of Idaho with a Bachelor degree in
Education in 1966.  I was selected as an outstanding
senior of my class.  I also was a member of Mortor
Board and served as Executive Secretary of the student
body during my senior year.  I attended graduate
school at the University of Minnesota for a year in
educational psychology before being called on a
mission for the L.D.S. Church to Finland.  I met my
husband in Finland, where he was a missionary also. 
My husband, Eric, and I have had ten children.  They
are our greatest joy.  We now have a bunch of
grandchildren. I enjoy organic gardening and
genealogy.  My Myers-Briggs personality type is INTJ.
I am a rational and strategist.
I am very thankful for the midwives who have given
service through the many centuries.  My grandmother
Nellie Gittins Green was a midwife in McCammon, Idaho,
for years.  We need many midwives for the future who
will be able to help birth coming generations.  Emily
H. Woodmansee (1836 -1906) explains our work as
sisters together in the following poem:

As sisters in Zion, we'll all work together;
The blessings of God on our labors we'll seek.
We'll build up his kingdom with earnest endeavor;
We'll comfort the weary and strengthen the weak.

The errand of angels is given to women;
And this is a gift that, as sisters, we claim:
To do whatsoever is gentle and human,
To cheer and to bless in humanity's name.

How vast is our purpose, how board is our mission,
If we but fulfill it in spirit and deed.
Oh, naught but the Spirit's divinest tuition
Can give us the wisdom to truly succeed.