Nisha Grice, IBCLC 

Nisha's interest in health grew out of experiences with providing kinship care and observing the healthcare careers of family which drew her to midwifery at a young age. At 19, she completed a Doulas of North America training which introduced to homebirth via a CPM in New Orleans, LA.

Nisha then spent a lot of time learning about birth and traveling the United States, eventually settling in the Seattle area. In 2007 she began postpartum nursing assistant work in the first WHO "Baby Friendly" hospital in the United States, where she received a thorough introduction to lactation, and absolutely fell in love with the field. By 2010 she'd qualified as an IBCLC and saw lactation clients in private practice, in addition to postpartum work in a small community hospital birth center. 

In 2013 Nisha transitioned to a level IV NICU, which was a profoundly educational experience. It taught her the myriad of ways birth can impact people's lives in a sociocultural context. In 2015 she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Washington Seattle in Social Science with a minor in Medical Anthropology.

Nisha loves to travel, and in 2016 she moved to Norway, where she lived for seven years. After a short assignment working with the deaf elderly (where she learned Norwegian Sign Language in order to communicate with residents) she settled in for a five year period at Oslo University Hospital in the pediatrics department, focusing on infant feeding and non-invasive respiratory support. She had the pleasure of caring for infants with tracheostomies from the time of initial procedure until she helped train the care teams that followed them home when they were stable enough to leave the hospital.

Being the unit's go-to person for babies helped Nisha realize that it had been wonderful to gain a wealth of other clinical knowledge and experience, but new families were her "hjertebarn" as the Norwegians say. It was finally time to answer midwifery's call.

In 2023 she returned to her home state of Michigan and enrolled in Southwest Wisconsin Technical College's direct entry midwifery program. She believes that CPMs are critical to the future of better birth outcomes in the United States and is excited to join the effort.

Nisha checks out too many books from the library at once and is passionate about music and all the ways it connects and heals people.  She loves yin yoga, and lifting weights, and things covered in sequins. If she's not traveling, or reading, or singing at the top of her lungs, she is probably writing speculative fiction.