Best Colorado Springs OB, Midwife & Doula Nominations of 2024

The results are in! We had fantastic participation in our first annual Best Colorado Springs Birth Providers & Doula Nominations, with 86 participants in total, and 135 nominations for OBGYN’s, Midwives & Doulas here in Colorado Springs. Participants shared a wide range of birth experiences, including VBAC’s, birthing at home, Beginnings Birth Center, hospitals with and without epidurals, unexpected and planned c-sections. We also had a lot of our local doulas and birth photographers participate, sharing their experiences working with many providers throughout their careers.

Some Background

Who’s running these nominations? Why?

For new faces here, hello! I’m Kaitlyn, a birth & motherhood photographer, videographer and doula. My family and I are newer residents of Colorado Springs, and experienced movers (6 times in the last 6 years!). With so many frequent moves, I know what it’s like to restart in new places. I’m particularly familiar with the emotional work involved to find new providers in a new area – especially when you’re newly pregnant and looking for someone to support you! Google and even insurance lists of in-network providers can be overwhelming and entirely unhelpful (how are you to decide on an OB, pediatrician, or dentist when there’s 130+ options to choose from??). 

This is when I’ve always turned to my communities to help me narrow down the massive pool of options to something manageable. In the past, that’s looked like spending hours digging through Google results, forums and Facebook groups to see whose names come up often, or asking myself if I need specific recommendations. Usually there’s a lot to work with here! I regularly see these kinds of posts in mom Facebook groups I’m in: “I’m newly pregnant, who’s a good OB to see?” “We just moved here and I’m pregnant; who are the good doulas and midwives in town?” (A quick search in one of my mom facebook groups for “OB recommendations” pulls up 10+ of these posts in the past 5 months!)

You know what would be helpful? If there was a list already collected of who everyone loves. The best OB’s, the best midwives, the best doulas here in Colorado Springs. You know what would be extra helpful? Knowing where those recommendations come from so you can know if the recommendations make sense for you: is it from a mom who wanted an unmedicated birth? Is it from someone who wanted an epidural? A home-birth parent who transferred to the hospital? Someone who needed extra support through infertility, previous losses, or a high risk birth? A birther from the LGBTQ+ community? Someone can love their OBGYN or midwife or doula, but that doesn’t mean they’re a good fit for you unless their values align closely with yours.

So, I decided to start the Annual OB, Midwife, and Doula Nominations! A place to collect the best of the best, and to hear the experiences behind those nominations, a place to share. To help you narrow down your options, and help you and your pregnant friends get excellent care and support throughout pregnancy.

The 2024 Nomination Results

And the 2024 nomination results are in! Look for some more in-depth feedback and details from those nominations here in the coming weeks with our Best OBGYN’s in Colorado Springs, Best Midwives in Colorado Springs, and Best Doulas in Colorado Springs posts.

Most Recommended OBGYNs

First up, our fantastic OBGYN’s! The top 5 nominated OBs here in Colorado Springs are:

1. Dr. Danielle Frock-Welnak at UC Health, Memorial Central Hospital
2. Dr. Maria Weise-Fleckenstein at UC Health, Memorial Central Hospital
3. Dr. Caroline Hedges at UC Health, Memorial Central Hospital
4. Dr. Autumn Stowe-Quain at UC Health, Memorial North Hospital
5. Dr. Abigail Brubaker at Exceptional Care for Women, St. Francis Hospital

I often heard that these OBs listened intentionally to their patients (“I felt heard and supported”), helping support them through ideal and non-ideal birth scenarios, even sharing decision-making with their patients (aka let’s make a decision together vs I’m going to tell you what to do or just do this to you because I know best – this is a midwifery model of care element that I’ve noticed distinguishes an excellent OBGYN from the typical or even abusive ones).

Most Recommended Midwives

Our top 5 recommended midwives in Colorado Springs are:

1. Megan Munson, CNM at Beginnings Birth Center
2. Jessica Nipp, CPM of Holistic Home Birth
3. Kim Osterholzer, CPM of Born for This Midwifery
4. Emily Thompson, CPM with Organic Home Birth
5. The midwives at Mountain Miracles Midwifery

I heard over and over again how these midwives create supportive birth spaces for their clients, full of kindness, compassion, and providing birthing families with a wealth of knowledge. Interesting note: every recommended midwife in this year’s nomination was an out-of-hospital midwife (aka they work at a birth center or support home births). This makes a lot of sense; neither of the UC Health hospital locations nor St. Francis has a dedicated midwife group that attends births there like the one up in Castle Rock.

Most Recommended Doulas

Our top 5 recommended doulas in Colorado Springs are:

1. Morgan Archuleta with Embraced Generations
2. Jamie Dibble with Sweetness and Hope Birth Doula
3. Brittany Miller with Joyful Journey Birth Services
4. Hope Ezell with Into Loving Arms Hypnobirthing
5. Jill Thompson with Doula Baby

I’ve met most of these doulas, and can attest that they’re wonderful souls! Their nominations included details like: supporting their clients feel prepared and educated walking into their births, comforting them and advocating for them when they needed it most, and helping create that needed sense of emotional safety as they birthed. “I instantly relaxed when I saw [my doula walk into my birth space],” and, “[my doula] was the best support I could have asked for,” are just two quotes from the many kind words shared.

Thanks & What’s Next

A huge thanks to all the participants of this year’s provider & doula nominations! I’m excited to share more details behind these recommendations (as well as the runners-up) in our more in-depth “best of” posts in the coming weeks.

We’ll be continuing these nominations each year in February, and I’m excited for that, too! Who will stay on our list? Who will change? If you’d like to be notified (by email) when we launch next year’s nominations, add yourself to our list below!