Jessica Gonzales, CLD, is a Queer Chicana from Houston working in the field of reproductive health for over 25 years. She is co-founder and program director at Heart of Houston Birth and Wellness Center, as well as a senior student midwife planning to sit for her boards in the next couple of months.

Jessica started her career as a medical assistant in a Title IX clinic in Texas where she witnessed the disparities in maternal and early childhood healthcare for people of the global community (PGC). In 2009 she began working with local organizations and individuals seeking to improve maternal mortality outcomes for PGC, abortion access across Texas and full spectrum doula services for all birthing bodies.

Jessica is also the creator of the Whole Heart Collective, a program with a strong focus on fostering community among new and expectant families. She has facilitated postpartum support circles and Queer parenting groups for over 10 years. As a doula and now student midwife, her ancestral gift of navigating the spaces between new life and death has afforded her the grand honor of welcoming close to 500 new souls into our world. Jessica is the mother to two incredible kiddos, ages 8 and 5 and enjoys camping, reading, live music, and naps.

Jackie Griggs, CNM, is a Certified Nurse Midwife who has been practicing in the Houston/Beaumont area for the past 35 years. She is a mom of 5 grown sons, 3 born at home with the help of midwives, two grandchildren and a new grand baby is expected in about two weeks. She has helped mainly with home and birth center births, but has worked in the hospital some as well. She is still actively involved with delivering babies and loves it as much as ever!

She is the owner of a birth center in Beaumont, Birth Center of Beaumont and also helps with home births in the Houston area. She has been on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Birth Centers, and still is a very big advocate for midwifery care at a birth center or home, for the women of this country. She is also focused on training new midwifery students and helping to increase the number of birth centers in Texas and the United States.

Jackie Griggs, RN, CNM, and Jessica Gonzales, CLD – Birth Centers