Frontier Nursing University (FNU) Alumni, Mychal Pilia, CNM, first became familiar with midwifery when her sister decided to have a home birth.
“Of course, when I heard, I responded with all of the typical things midwives hear like that’s not going to be as safe, and what if something goes wrong?” Pilia laughs. “Then, through her pregnancy and delivery, I learned about midwives and the kind of care that they offer, and I quickly changed my perspective.”
Although Pilia’s sister’s first pregnancy did end up requiring an emergency C-section, she went on to have four more home births. By the time she had her most recent child, Pilia had become a certified nurse-midwife and caught her nephew herself. Pilia has also partnered with midwives for the births of all three of her own children.
Initially, Pilia had set her sights on being a personal chef and earned her first bachelor’s degree in nutrition. However, after working two years in a professional kitchen as part of her studies, she soon realized that was not her path. Following graduation, Pilia enrolled in an accelerated nursing school program where she received her second bachelor’s degree in 18 months and became a practicing pediatric ICU nurse in 2008.
In 2011, Pilia was ready to become a certified nurse-midwife but needed to earn her degree remotely so that she could continue caring for her family. That’s when she found Frontier and the tools she needed to open her own practice. Pilia is especially thankful for the emphasis that FNU places on business planning.
“The business plan portion was such an extremely beneficial part of the curriculum at FNU,” Pilia says. “It gave students an in-depth understanding of what being part of a practice or hospital really involves and where you fit in the bigger picture. Even if someone isn’t going to be an entrepreneur and start their own practice, it was a lot of really valuable information.”
Shortly after graduating from FNU, Pilia and her family moved from Texas to Maryland. She had originally based her business plan for a birth center around her Houston location and was faced with restructuring it around a whole new market. Luckily, Pilia had a firm grasp on her goal. In 2016, shortly after moving to the area, Pilia entered the Maryland Women’s Business Center Business Plan Competition. She won fourth place, behind already established businesses, and her commercial for a side competition, “Pick the Pitch,” won by a landslide. These wins brought awareness to her dream and helped her build a network of people who would help her bring her birth center to life.
The Frederick Birth Center opened its doors on May 31, 2018, and delivered its first baby on June 21 of the same year. It is currently the only birth center within hundreds of miles, so Pilia and her team often work with families from Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., and Delaware in addition to Maryland residents.
Due to COVID-19, the Frederick Birth Center has nearly tripled the number of clients they serve on an average month, and their bi-weekly online tours see between 10-15 families for each event.
“There has definitely been an increased interest in alternative birth methods since the pandemic,” Pilia says. “However, we are still screening prospective families to make sure that our birth center is the right fit for them and not just a fallback option.”
On top of online tours, the birth center also offers classes for clients on labor and birth, postpartum planning, early pregnancy, breastfeeding and more to make sure that their clients are confident and prepared when the baby arrives.
Pilia says that many changes have been made within the center over the past year, but that those changes have helped her realize the bigger picture of the industry.
“This is a fluid business that is constantly growing and adapting to keep up with the times,” Pilia says. “It’s never dull, and there is always more to learn. This job is also always pushing me to do what is right for my community, patients, and staff. At the end of the day, I feel that my career is making me a better person. I can’t imagine investing this much into any other field.”
Thank you, Mychal, for all of the great work you are doing to promote midwifery in an underserved community. We hope that your model of care and respect will continue to spread throughout the country.
To learn more about FNU’s nurse-midwifery program, click here.
Carrie Belin is an experienced board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and a graduate of the Johns Hopkins DNP program, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Georgetown University School of Nursing, and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She has also completed fellowships at Georgetown and the University of California Irvine.
Angie has been a full-scope midwife since 2009. She has experience in various birth settings including home, hospital, and birth centers. She is committed to integrating the midwifery model of care in the US. She completed her master’s degree in nurse-midwifery at Frontier Nursing University (FNU) and her Doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves as the midwifery clinical faculty at FNU. Angie is motivated by the desire to improve the quality of healthcare and has led quality improvement projects on skin-to-skin implementation, labor induction, and improving transfer of care practices between hospital and community midwives. In 2017, she created a short film on skin-to-skin called 
Justin C. Daily, BSN, RN, has ten years of experience in nursing. At the start of his nursing career, Justin worked as a floor nurse on the oncology floor at St. Francis. He then spent two years as the Director of Nursing in a small rural Kansas hospital before returning to St. Francis and the oncology unit. He has been in his current position as the Chemo Nurse Educator for the past four years. He earned an Associate in Nurse from Hutchinson Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Bethel College.
Brandy Jackson serves as the Director of Undergraduate Nursing Programs and Assistant Educator at Wichita State University and Co-Director of Access in Nursing. Brandy is a seasoned educator with over 15 years of experience. Before entering academia, Brandy served in Hospital-based leadership and Critical Care Staff nurse roles. Brandy is passionate about equity in nursing education with a focus on individuals with disabilities. Her current research interests include accommodations of nursing students with disabilities in clinical learning environments and breaking down barriers for historically unrepresented individuals to enter the nursing profession. Brandy is also actively engaged in Interprofessional Education development, creating IPE opportunities for faculty and students at Wichita State. Brandy is an active member of Wichita Women for Good and Soroptimist, with the goal to empower women and girls. Brandy is a TeamSTEPPS master trainer. She received the DASIY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty in 2019 at Wichita State University. 
Dr. Sabrina Ali Jamal-Eddine is an Arab-disabled queer woman of color with a PhD in Nursing and an interdisciplinary certificate in Disability Ethics from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Dr. Jamal-Eddine’s doctoral research explored spoken word poetry as a form of critical narrative pedagogy to educate nursing students about disability, ableism, and disability justice. Dr. Jamal-Eddine now serves as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in UIC’s Department of Disability and Human Development and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND). During her doctoral program, Sabrina served as a Summer Fellow at a residential National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute at Arizona State University (2023), a summer fellow at Andrew W. Mellon’s National Humanities Without Walls program at University of Michigan (2022), a Summer Research Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute (2021), and an Illinois Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) trainee (2019-2020).
Vanessa Cameron works for Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nursing Education & Professional Development. She is also attending George Washington University and progressing towards a PhD in Nursing with an emphasis on ableism in nursing. After becoming disabled in April 2021, Vanessa’s worldview and perspective changed, and a recognition of the ableism present within healthcare and within the culture of nursing was apparent. She has been working since that time to provide educational foundations for nurses about disability and ableism, provide support for fellow disabled nursing colleagues, and advocate for the disabled community within healthcare settings to reduce disparities.
Dr. Lucinda Canty is a certified nurse-midwife, Associate Professor of Nursing, and Director of the Seedworks Health Equity in Nursing Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Columbia University, a master’s degree from Yale University, specializing in nurse-midwifery, and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Canty has provided reproductive health care for over 29 years. Her research interests include the prevention of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity, reducing racial and ethnic health disparities in reproductive health, promoting diversity in nursing, and eliminating racism in nursing and midwifery.
Dr. Lisa Meeks is a distinguished scholar and leader whose unwavering commitment to inclusivity and excellence has significantly influenced the landscape of health professions education and accessibility. She is the founder and executive director of the DocsWithDisabilities Initiative and holds appointments as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Learning Health Sciences and Family Medicine at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Nikia Grayson, DNP, MSN, MPH, MA, CNM, FNP-C, FACNM (she/her) is a trailblazing force in reproductive justice, blending her expertise as a public health activist, anthropologist, and family nurse-midwife to champion the rights and health of underserved communities. Graduating with distinction from Howard University, Nikia holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in public health. Her academic journey also led her to the University of Memphis, where she earned a master’s in medical anthropology, and the University of Tennessee, where she achieved both a master’s in nursing and a doctorate in nursing practice. Complementing her extensive education, she completed a post-master’s certificate in midwifery at Frontier Nursing University.
Dr. Tia Brown McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success. McNair directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, and TRHT Campus Centers and serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives, including the development of a TRHT-focused campus climate toolkit. She is the lead author of From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education (January 2020) and Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016 and August 2022 Second edition).