TOSI MARCELINE, LM, CPM

Tosi’s experience with birth began in 1974 when she started teaching pregnant teens in a special high school setting. Soon she was receiving invitations to give labor support at her students's births. Since many had no partners, or had partners who also needed support, before long she was going to 2-4 births every month in all the hospitals in the Sacramento area, and within a few years was teaching prepared childbirth classes in two Yolo County Teen Parent programs.

In 1976 Tosi began taking midwifery classes at the Holistic Childbirth Institute in San Francisco and taught labor support classes there in 1980. By 1984, she had also become certified as a childbirth educator through the International Childbirth Education Association.

Tosi met Jan McNabb in 1979, when her and her husband Phil needed a midwife. Tosi gave birth at home to their son Miles with Jan's assistance. Two years later Jan asked Tosi to apprentice with her, and after seeing almost 200 hospital births, it was a welcome invitation to make a difference in the way women could experience their births. Tosi continued her work with pregnant teens until 1987, taught private childbirth classes until 1998, attends many conferences and workshops, spent years in self-study, and attended about 30-40 births per year with Jan until 1990, the first 50 as an apprentice and then assuming primary care partnership in 1984. Phil and Tosi gave birth to their daughter Molly Rose in 1984, with Jan's help and care. 

In 1988, Tosi was one of the first midwives to successfully complete the California Association of Midwives certification program. This certification involved documentation of experience, testing, peer review, and recognition by the International Confederation of Midwives. In 1996, after 6 years of work on passage and implementation of state legislation to license midwives, first as lobbyist and then as chair of the legislative committee of the California Association of Midwives, Tosi received her midwifery license from the Medical Board of California. California's Licensed Midwives (LM) have identical scopes of practice to Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM) and equivalent educational requirements mandated by law. Tosi is certified in neonatal resuscitation by the American Academy of Pediatrics and has IV certification. Additionally, Tosi has earned national certification (Certified Professional Midwife) through the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA).

Tosi has had experience with almost all of the common problems of pregnancy and birth, as well as a few of the not so common ones. She believes that careful attention and watchfulness prevent problems from turning into more dangerous situations in otherwise well-screened and healthy women. The needs of a laboring woman for privacy, supportive care, a sense of security, and the freedom to move and nourish herself are key elements in assuring a normal birth. Continuity of care, individualized care, and a personal relationship between a pregnant woman and her midwife all contribute to the safety of home birth.

Tosi currently only attends births on a part-time basis so she can attend to her immediate and extended family needs...as well as take long vacations with her husband of nearly 40 years!

California Midwifery License #10