Svea Oster died February 19 from complications of the flu. Svea was a legend in the Triangle as an advocate of women, midwives, and natural birth. She was a home birth attendant, a childbirth educator, a doula, and my dear friend! The circle of life has closed too soon.

I met Svea thirty-eight years ago, when I first moved to Chapel Hill, for my husband to go to school. I was a brand-new graduate of midwifery school with no job and no friends. When I attended a meeting about birth options at the Women’s Resource Center (now the Compass Center), I met this amazing woman who changed my life!

As our friendship developed, she taught me to trust my instincts and trust the process of birth. She encouraged me to start attending births of folks she knew through her friendships and with women who were getting care at the Chatham Family Birth Center (CFBC), the precursor to WBWC. Svea and I attended births for almost a year before I “got caught” – attending home births was illegal per state law.

Svea and her husband Arnie were instrumental in getting the midwifery law passed that opened the doors for CNMs to attend births in homes, birth centers, and hospitals. She helped me open WBWC twenty-two years ago when we met with people from the Carolina Association for the Advancement of Midwifery and were able to get a state grant. Svea continued to touch the lives of hundreds of families as she taught childbirth education classes in the community and at WBWC, until she retired a few years ago.

Our connections spanned the generations. Svea was the birth assistant at the birth of my own daughter thirty-six years ago, and I was the CNM at her daughter’s birth at home thirty-five years ago. Over the years, we have continued to travel in the same birth circle. I had the pleasure of catching both her son’s and daughter’s first children at the birth center. Her daughter-in-law was also born at the CFBC.

Thank you, Svea, for letting me freely participate in the “circle of life.” WBWC and I will never forget all you have done in the birth community over the years, your passion, and your smile, and your love!

~Maureen Darcey

Arnie has requested that donations be made in Svea’s honor to WBWC. Visit our donation page for more information.