Our Midwives
Heather Hilton, LM
Clinical Director, Staff Midwife
Heather has been serving the birthing families of Central Texas since moving back to her childhood home of Austin in 2002. She began her work in the birth field in 2001 by certifying as a HypnoBirthing Childbirth Educator. Shortly thereafter she began attending the births of her students as their doula. Heather founded HypnoBirthing of Central Texas in 2003, which has provided childbirth education to over 450 families in the communities of Central Texas, from Waco to San Antonio. After the birth of her third child, she felt led to a career in midwifery and in 2004 she applied and was accepted in to the Association of Texas Midwives Midwifery Training Program. Her apprenticeship began at Juneau Family Birth Center, a nonprofit birth center in Juneau, Alaska. She was hired there as the staff doula for the Young Families program, which offered free prenatal education and birth doula services to teenage parents. After returning to Austin in late 2005, Heather continued an apprenticeship at a birth center/homebirth practice for the next 15 months. Heather graduated from ATM and was licensed as a midwife in 2007. She then began her private homebirth practice, Genesis Midwifery, where she practiced until opening Central Texas Birth Center. Heather has five children between the ages of 14 and 4, has been married for 15 years, and is an active member of her church. She continues to work as a birth doula and childbirth educator, in addition to her roles at Central Texas Birth Center.
Sandra TallBear, RN, CNM, BSN, MSN
Staff MidwifeSandra Tallbear, Certified Nurse Midwife, has 21 years of birth experience with high risk and low risk women both in and out of the hospital. She has served the birthing community in the surrounding Austin area and Williamson & Bell County since 2004. With 7 years of home birth experience and 15 years of hospital experience combined with her spiritual philosophy Sandra is there to support your desire for a natural, loving, and blessed birth in the comfort of your home. Sandra has published several articles in Midwifery Today since 1990. She holds a Master of Science in Nursing/ Midwifery from the University of California San Francisco/ San Diego ( 1993) and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Harding University (1986). She studied under Nan Koehler Traditional Birth Attendant and author of Artemis Speaks and attended the 1988 Summer Artemis College. Keeping birth normal, and helping women have wonderful birth experiences, such as water births are her passion. Sandra has been a member of the American College of Nurse Midwives since 1992. She founded the Nacogdoches Doula registry in Nacogdoches, TX and was the editor of their small publication. She remains up to date with CPR, ACLS and Neonatal Ressucitation. She has been licensed through the state of Texas as an advanced practice nurse- Nurse Midwife since 1993.
Heather Hilton, LM
Sandra TallBear, RN, CNM, BSN, MSN