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Nicolle Gonzales is a Navajo certified midwife. She was born on March 15th, 1980 in Waterflow, New Mexico. She is currently in the process of opening the nations first Native American birthing center in her home state, New Mexico.

Personal Life
Gonzales is a survivor of sexual abuse. Her own birthing experience was in a chaotic hospital surrounded by nurses and doctors who would not answer her questions. She lost so much blood during delivery that she almost lost consciousness. Her personal traumatic story caused a lot of disconnect as a mother for Gonzales. Because of her own experiences she trained to be a midwife and gained a lot of knowledge about what happened to her during her first child’s birth. Her experiences led her to fund a foundation that bridge the gap between indigenous mothers and childbirth.

Gonzales lives with her husband and her three children.

Education
She studied at the University of New Mexico. She first received her bachelors in nursing. Then she earned a master level midwifery degree.She is a member of the American College of Nurse-Midwives and is certified with the American Midwifery Certification Board.

Work
Changing Woman Initiative (CWI)

Changing Woman Initiative is a non-profit organization with the mission to renew cultural birth knowledge to empower and reclaim indigenous sovereignty of women’s medicine and life way teachings to promote reproductive wellness, healing through holistic approaches. Gonzales is the founder of this organization and works alongside other Navajo midwives as well as non-indigenous women.Gonzalessaw Native American women having a hard time navigating through the western healthcare system. Her goal with this organization is to re-instill traditional birthing ceremonies. She brings a holistic and spiritual healing process to the birthing process. She related the pain of childbirth to the pain indigenous women feel in the month of August during the corn dance.

The price alone of child birth can range from $13,000 to $17,000, making it less available for rural, indigenous women. Gonzales plans to cut the costs of birth as well as providing other women’s health services to help with the cost of women’s health in general. While the ground has not been broken for the clinic yet, she has been providing at home health care as well as opening a free clinic once a week. The center will be able to cater to women with Medicaid insurance, or women with no insurance at all. Gonzales hopes to open the center on Native land. The birthing center will hopefully open in 2019 in Pojoaque Pueblo.

Goals
Gonzales has always had the goal of improving her community. She understands the inequality that is placed around Native American women. Native Americans must use Indian Health Services as their primary health care providers. Gonzales recognizes that these facilities are underfunded. Gonzales wants to re instill indigenous birthing practices and restore indigenous medicine. Gonzales wants to be the change for indigenous women and their health. She wants to re instill women roles in their communities as well as their relationship with the earth.