Rooted in Plant Wisdom, Guided by Experience

My Story

I came to midwifery through a chance encounter. In 1979, I met a Rarámuri/Mestiza woman in Parral, Chihuahua, who invited me to her home for tea. We walked through the streets and down dirt roads until we reached her "home"—a large cardboard box. She was the best hostess I've ever met, serving herbal tea in a plastic cup.

I noticed a bundle by her side and asked what it was. "My instruments," she said. I didn't understand. "I'm a partera," she explained. My Spanish wasn't great, so through charades—her acting out catching a baby—I finally understood. A midwife. I told her we didn't have those anymore in the US. I went home inspired, happy to have met a woman carrying on this tradition.

A letter was waiting for me. A friend had just given birth at a birthing center in El Paso run by lay midwives. I was so moved that I returned to El Paso, started volunteering at the Maternity Center, and eventually got trained and licensed. That partera in Parral set me on my path without ever knowing it.

Over the years, I've attended more than 700 births—in East Africa in the 1980s, on the US/Mexico border in the 1990s and 2000s, and back in Mexico since 2015. As a midwife, I understood that my homebirth families were devoted to a natural way of doing things, so I learned the herbs that were safe in childbirth. That's how herbalism became part of my practice.

In 2015, I moved to Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, at the invitation of the Mennonite community. I built a birth center, a midwifery school, and an apothecary there. Today there are six birthing centers in the Cuauhtémoc area—a testament to what those early students have built.

In 2022, my husband Owen and I semi-retired to the Sierra Tarahumara mountains. We built a log cabin in El Nogal, and in May 2023, we acquired the land known as El Paraíso. Together we created gardens, brought in llamas, and built a 90-foot labyrinth planted with medicinal herbs. Owen passed in June 2024, but the work continues. This land holds our shared vision.

Now I teach full-time. Through Rosa Luna Herb School and Academia Tierra Sabia, I train herbalists, midwives, doulas, and birth assistants. I serve Mennonite women, Rarámuri families, and students from around the world. I run an active herbal clinic and apothecary—and I meet regularly with students online to talk about herbs.

I believe families can learn to care for themselves—especially when medical care is far away, the pharmacy is closed, or help is needed most. That's what I teach. That's why I'm here.