Selina Boily, Lydia Pedri and Chloe Markgraf are Registered Midwives based in Duncan, BC.

We are delighted to welcome, Jenny Jackson as a full time midwife in our clinic starting spring 2023.

Meet our Office Manager : karen Edwards

Selina boily, rm

Jenny Jackson, rm

I was inspired to become a midwife after experiencing the benefits first-hand with the births of my own children prior to BC midwifery regulation.  The experience of being supported through my fears and guided through my births impacted me deeply and ignited a passion for the profession I would dedicate my life to.

For me, supporting families through one of the most profound experiences of their lives is the way I have chosen to make a difference in the world as the experience of childbirth is also the birthplace of love and attachment that shapes our relationships to each other and ultimately our communities.  It is when we learn to be responsible and care for someone more deeply than ourselves.  It is when we learn to trust at our most vulnerable state.  It is a honour to participate and witness this transformation. 

 I have attended over 2000 births over the last 20 years in a number of places (international, urban and rural) and locations (home and hospital).    As one of the earliest midwives to be registered in the newly regulated BC Midwifery profession in 2000, I have been delighted to witness and participate in the birth of a profession from a fringe movement to a fully accessible integrated option for birthing families. 

I am most proud of our own community having started the Cowichan Midwifery Group in 2001 co-creating the Matraea Centre in 2010 and now continuing to fulfill on a vision of personalized, quality care for families in our new location as Cowichan Midwifery Collective. 

— Selina

Lydia Pedri, RM

I love old skills. I loved the idea of having a trade. Something that was essential, practical and that would be a true service to others. A trade that was about community building through sharing and exchanging skills with other teachers and also about providing support to people as they go through profound and transformational experiences. A skill that needed courage, attention to detail and quick gentle hands; a skill that kept me curious and wanting to continually learn more. 

Long ago, pregnant and birthing people often had their sisters, aunt's, grandmothers or an experienced person in their community attend their birth. For millennia, birthing people have wanted someone who is familiar and comfortable to hold space for human metamorphosis. And throughout my life there were so many flags that kept directing me toward being a pregnancy and birth tour guide! 

Here I am, many midwife moons later, full of zeal to join the Cowichan Midwifery Collective. It’s a true privilege to live and work on Cowichan Tribes land doing a job that weaves together some of my favourite things: babies, awe for the mystery of life, sharing knowledge, supporting people to make choices that reflect their needs, geeking out on science and reproductive health, spirituality and its broad wings, navigating the realm of parenthood and building meaningful relationships.

I’ve been practicing midwifery in the Cowichan Valley since 2016. I look forward to seeing those of you I’ve cared for in the past and meeting those of you entering parenthood for the first time.

— Lydia

  I was drawn to midwifery because it felt like the perfect combination of practical skills, deep relationships, social justice, modern science, and traditional knowledge. 

The idea to become a midwife actually came to me in a fever dream, and when my fever broke I signed up for a local doula course running in a few weeks. It was attending births while I was studying to be a dietitian in Montreal where I discovered that there was nowhere else I would rather be than attending families alongside their journeys with fertility, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. 

After working as a dietitian in the areas of perinatal, geriatric, and palliative nutrition, I studied midwifery at the University of British Columbia. Through the course of my education I had the privilege of attending births in Victoria, Comox, Duncan, and Haida Gwaii. I started my career at The Midwives Collective in Victoria, and am now so excited to return home to be a part of Cowichan Midwifery Collective.

I am a settler of Irish, English, and Chinese ancestry living on the traditional and unceded lands of the Quw'utsun' people in what used to be the traditional village of Tl'lulpalus (Cowichan Bay).

When I am not midwifing, I can be found taking care of my many animals, sewing, crafting, swimming, or playing volleyball. I am passionate about reproductive justice, body liberation, and being a part of resilient, caring communities. 'Uy skweyul'!

 — Jenny

Chloe Markgraff, RM

I came to midwifery through a lens of wanting more. I came as a sister, a daughter, and a friend. I wanted our healthcare system to nurture. I came to midwifery because I wanted care that allowed for space to sit with choices, care that allowed for time to labour and time to transition into parenthood. I wanted care that could acknowledge there was no objective “right” answer, and consequently no wrong one. I was drawn to this work to be another pair of hands on the ground, doing the work, so more people can choose to birth with a midwife.

I came to midwifery because midwifery came to me. It came as an idea over several years. I was passionate about informed choice with respect to reproductive health and the evolution towards midwifery seemed natural. I had been living on Vancouver Island, yet in 2012 I chose to return home, to Québec, to do my schooling, as my family lived there, and my siblings were having babies! After training all across Québec, mostly in rural settings and than as part of a phenomenal team of midwives at Côte-des-Neiges birthing center in Montréal.

I love this work, and truly feel honoured to witness each person's profound transformation.  I continue to be filled with awe at the moments and process in which individuals become parents, kids become siblings, parents become grandparents and parents become parents again (and again)... Each experience leading to more profound transformation.

Although I loved working and living in Montréal, my partner and I decided to fulfill another dream of coming back to Vancouver Island. We  now live on cooperatively owned  land in North Cowichan, where my partner farms and we embrace shared living practices with our two kids. I feel blessed to call this my home, and to live and work on Cowichan Tribes land.         

-Chloe