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 Peggy Franklin, CPM
Peggy is a RN, (registered nurse), a ND (Naturopathic doctor), and a CPM, (Certified Professional Midwife). She went to a hospital based school of nursing directly out of high school and worked as an RN in the hospital and in birth centers. She studied Naturopathic Medicine to augment her interest in natural health and as a foundation for midwifery practice. She is a graduate of Seattle Midwifery School. Peggy has trained several midwives, most of whom have successfully
completed their training and have gone on to pass the NARM exam and
become CPMs.
Peggy moved to Virginia from Washington State in 2003 where she had her own homebirth midwifery practice for 10 years. She has been practicing in Virginia since 2005, and has a thriving practice. She represents the Virginia midwifery community by serving on the Midwifery Advisory Board for the Commonwealth and the Board of Medicine.
Peggy has attended around 2000 births, including her work as an RN in the hospital and in several birth centers; about 700 births have been midwife attended home births. She has worked with childbearing families in many ways; teaching childbirth classes, as a La Leche League leader, homebirth midwife assistant, as a friend and counselor. She has eight children of her own that give her an additional unique perspective from her personal experiences with birth as well.
Peggy has seen childbirth practices change and evolve over 35 years, always loving natural birth and concerned about the medical practices that interrupted this fragile physical miracle. She was a pioneer in promoting the early move from the sterile delivery rooms to the more homelike labor/birth rooms many hospitals now have. Her hospital was one of the first in the nation to implement this change and she had her second baby on one of the first labor/delivery beds. She has always encouraged those things that strengthen the mother/child bond; breastfeeding, rooming in, and natural health for the entire family throughout the lifespan.
 Kim Pekin, CPM
Kim graduated from Pacific Lutheran University with a Bachelor of Business
Administration with an emphasis in Accounting in 1995. She did tax and
accounting work for several years before starting her own natural
parenting business (Natural Family Boutique) in 2002. She became a La
Leche League Leader in 2001, and was appointed the Coordinator of
Leader Accreditation for Virginia and West Virginia in 2002. She is a
graduate of National Midwifery Institute, a MEAC-accredited school of
midwifery. In 2009, Kim received her CPM credential and became Virginia's 52nd licensed midwife.
As part of her midwifery training, Kim had the good fortune to apprentice
with Peggy Franklin, helping her to serve many families with their home
births. Peggy was Kim's midwife for her last home birth, and as Peggy's student, Peggy has been both her mentor and good friend. Now, as a licensed midwife, Kim is honored to have the opportunity to continue to serve Birth by Design clients as Peggy's business partner.
Kim is the mother of seven children, two by marriage and five by birth. Her oldest children are in college, and her youngest child is just three years old. She had three of her babies in the hospital, and her last two babies were born at home with midwives. She and her husband have lived in western Loudoun County for over ten years now, but Kim has lived all over the United States. She grew up mainly in South Dakota, Colorado, and Wyoming, and moved to Virginia in 1995.
Helping mothers with birth and breastfeeding has been something Kim has wanted to do all her life. Even as a child, she was fascinated with birth, babies, and breastfeeding. The first birth she attended was in 1982, when she helped her friend with her hospital birth. Back then, moms gave birth in a delivery room, which was basically an operating room – very cold and sterile. Helping her friend with her birth sparked a fire in Kim to seek out knowledge about natural childbirth and a more family-centered experience. Over the years, through her involvement in La Leche League, childbirth education, and her midwifery training, she has been blessed to help many friends, La Leche League members, and midwifery clients get their families off to the best possible start.
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