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Naolí Vinaver
 Midwife

Naolí has been an active Midwife since 1986 and has accompanied nearly 1800  births. She continues to have an active home birth practice in Brazil today.

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Midwife history

Naoli Vinaver handling a placenta
Naoli Vinaver with newborn baby
Naoli Vinaver attending a local homebirth in Mexico.
Natividad at the age of 15, days after she became a mother. In Rancho Viejo. Mexico. 1990.

Naolí grew up and lived in the rural area of San Andrés Tlalnelhuayocan, state of Veracruz, México, surrounded by the indigenous community of Rancho Viejo, made up of people, who largely lived from working the land and having their babies at home. Naolí and her family (mother, father, brother and sister) moved from Mexico City when she was 6 months old, she never knew any other place and grew up playing in the nature of rivers, mountains, rain, trees and sugar cane, as well as the numerous mixes of domestic and undomesticated animals that lived even within their home. Nature became Naoli's physical and spiritual connection to the universe.  Naolí's parents, Rocío Sagaón (artist name) and Georges Vinaver were undoubtedly hers but also many people's best friends.  They were a Mexican and multi-cultural family where Spanish, French and English were often spoken in the home, which was always filled with gregarious artists of all sorts, allowing Naoli to grow up in a rich blend of traditional Mexican culture combined with culture of people of the world. Since babyhood, Naolí remembers the home animals choosing her lap and bed to give birth, and from age 4 her father invited her to midwive together the farm's cows in the most respectful of ways, accompanying them quietly and respectfully for hours to see them to a safe birth giving

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When Naolí was 21 years old in 1986, finishing her degree in Anthropology and having done field work in remote areas of The Congo, she began having a series of birth dreams -every single night- for 3 straight months. Dreams about birth and needing to solve birth complications.

Solving these birth situations in her dreams led her to read all the midwifery books she could get her hands on, learning midwifery techniques and in a matter of a short time, met various midwives and pursued apprenticeships with different midwives. She honours Sylvia Bortin and Iris Moore as two of the first midwives she mentored with (1986). Naoli deeply honours Mexican elder midwives Doña Reina, Doña Flor, Doña Francisca, Doña Lucre, Doña Margarita, Doña Esperanza and Doña Irma, with whom she learned traditional midwifery and shared the great love for women and babies. She honours Doña Hermila, Doña Queta, Doña Irene, Doña Angelina Martinez and numerous other traditional midwives from different regions of Mexico whom she admires and respects immensely as midwife colleagues. 

Naolí attended Sage Femme midwifery program and had Patricia Craig and Karen Erlich as mentors. She attended the midwifery program at Maternidad La Luz midwifery school, becoming a licensed Texas midwife as well as gaining her Certified Professional Midwifery certification through NARM (North America Registry of Midwives). She honours midwives Debora Kaley, Diane Holzer, Karen Strange, Ina May Gaskin, and the many others with whom she has learned beautiful midwifery and whom became her peers and dearest friends.

In 1989 she began her independent midwifery practice in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico weaving together traditional Mexican midwifery wisdom with professional midwifery knowledge in her uniquely creative approach.

From 1993-1999 she worked actively as MANA's (Midwives Alliance of North America) National Mexican Representative. Naoli organised 8 Midwifery Conferences in Mexico bringing for Traditional and Professional midwives from all regions of Mexico, Guatemala, USA, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Perú, Italia, England, France and Germany in an ideological, professional and social setting.
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​From her powerful and respectful homage paid to traditional midwifery came her need to share knowledge between the different types of Midwiferies, and she has offered intensive workshops both in Mexico, Brazil and in more than 40 countries around the world. She offers many workshops within which the use of the rebozo for pregnancy, labor, birth and postpartum as well as the combining of Traditional and Professional Midwifery, and Sexuality in birth are some of her specialty topics.

Current midwife work

Naoli Vinaver holding Cadú & Tomé, twins of Maristela Sens. Florianópolis, Brazil. 2018
(AMA Nascer Team) Gabriela Zanella, Maristela Sens, Ana Paula Roberti, Naoli Vinaver, Marcela Flueti & Mayra Calvette

Naolí currently resides in Florianópolis, Brazil and is an advisor and mentor with the birth team Ama Nascer, which she co-founded in 2014.  The group consists of 6 active interdisciplinary birth professionals offering wholistic care for women who come from around the world in: pregnancy, home birth and accompanied hospital birth, as well as all home postpartum care.  The group also offers weekly birth classes to pregnant women and their families and specialized birth training for doulas and other birth professionals.

​Naolí has devotedly attended over 1800 births over her career, and she continues to learn and grow as a home birth advocate and practitioner.  Naolí dedicates a great part of her life to sharing her experiential wisdom with all people interested in birth and life.

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