About Kate
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In March 2002 I became a mother to Arthur who was born at the Piedmont Women's Health Center in Chapel Hill (now called Women's Birth and Wellness Center).
In 2003 I started to became aware of my dream - to help pregnant women be more relaxed and in their bodies; to ease some of the discomforts of pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum; as well as to help women avoid the downward spiral of pitocin, epidural, and c-section. In 2004 when my son was two years old, I entered massage school at Body Therapy Institute, Siler City, NC. In March 2005 I became a Licensed Massage and Bodywork Therapist (NC #5345) and got my long awaited 2nd positive pregnancy test. Gradually as my family has gotten older, I've added doula work and parent-infant massage. I look forward to being part of your families transformation and growth.
Continuing Education
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The Magic of Hot Stone Massage: Integrating an Ancient Healing Tradition into your Practice with Eric Stephenson,LMT, Body Therapy Institute, Siler City, NC - March 2005 - 16 CEUs
Nurturing the Mother® Workshops with Claire Marie Miller, LMBT, Body Therapy Institute, Siler City, NC - August 2005 - 27 CEUs (training in pregnancy, labor, postpartum, infant, fertility, reflexology and more)
DONA Childbirth Class for Doula's with Ann Tumblin - July 2008 - 7 CEUs
DONA Doula Training with Ann Tumblin - July 2008 - 16 hours CEUs
Certified Pre- & Perinatal Massage Therapy with Carole Osborne Sheets, Miller-Motte College, Cary, NC - October 2008 - 32 CEUs
Certified International Loving Touch Parent-Infant Massage Foundation Infant Massage Instructor Training with Diane Moore - March 2009 - 21 CEUs
Working with Women in Recovery, UNC Birth Partners, March 2009 with Laura Louison, MSW, MSPH, Perinatal Substance Use Specialist
Local Sponsor ALACE/toLabor Labor Assistant Training June 2009 - Through and application process, brought a training to the NC and serve as the local sponsor for toLabor from June 2009 - June 2010
Homeopathy for Birth Professionals with Hart Mathews, Peace Tree Village, Raleigh, NC - June 2009 - 2 CEUs
ALACE/toLabor Labor Assistant Training with Thérèse Hak-Kuhn June 2009 - 24 CEUs
Acupressure for Birth Professionals with Tamara Cox, LaC, Peace Tree Village, Raleigh, NC - August 2009 - 2 CEUs
Event Registrar A Day with Ina May Gaskin - December 5, 2009
Ina May Gaskin Shoulder Dystocia and Breech Birth Workshop - December 5, 2009 - 4 CEUs
Essential Oils for Pregnancy, Birth and Postpartum with Christinia Hagan, LMBT, Peace Tree Village, Raleigh, NC, January 2010 - 2 CEUs
Ina May's Lecture - Midwives: The Key to Reducing Infant Mortality in North Carolina and Safe Motherhood Across Ethnic Lines focused on Infant Mortality, as well as, the somber reality that mother's still die in this country as the result of childbirth in her Safe Motherhood Quilt Project. 30 other countries have better maternal mortality rates than the US. Maternal death rates are greatly under reported. - December 5, 2009 - 2 CEUs
Bamboo-fusion with Ivy Jo Staton, North Pointe Body Therapies, Durham, NC - March 2010 - 16 CEUs
Mamma Primitiva: Traditional Midwifery Education with Clare Loprinzi, Traditional Midwife, CPM, MCH, September 2010 - Present
Breech Birth Workshop with Abby J. Kinne, October 13, 2010 - 8 CEUs
Midwives Alliance of North America Conference 2010: Returning to our Roots, Sowing Seeds for our Future - October 14 - 17
Choosing a new family name
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Katahdin is the name that my husband and I chose to represent us in our life together. Our namesake, Mt. Katahdin 
is the highest point in Maine and the Northern most point of the Appalachian trail. When my future husband and I climbed Mt. Katahdin in July 1999, we had become engaged only two weeks before at our home in Durham, NC. We hadn't even told anyone about our engagement. I wanted my family to be the first to know and they were on vacation.
We started our assent from the Abel campground at approximately 1700 feet and carefully made our way up to the summit at 5200 feet. No roads will take you to the summit. The only way to get there is on foot climbing over boulders and up steep terrain. When we got to the top I remember thinking I didn't know we had anything like this in America. It is quite a view looking down at the surrounding terrain. Someday when our children are older we plan to take our son and daughter to Mt. Katahdin, so they can experience Mt. Katahdin for themselves and see why we choose Katahdin as our family name.
When my husband Don and I got married in 2000, we announced that we planned to choose a new family name. In July 2002 we officially changed our names to Katahdin after the birth of our son who incidentally was conceived in July of the previous year. Choosing names for a baby is a little trickier when you're trying to decide what the family name will be also. We wanted to be united under one family name, but our names seemed too long to hyphenate. We'd heard of people playing scrabble with the letters of their names, or taking part of their names and making a new combined name. Combining Sheppard and Weber to become Weppard or Sheber just didn't sound appealing. A couple of weeks before our son was born the idea of becoming the Katahdin's came to mind. I remember well how I felt the day we climbed Mt. Katahdin. Why not take that as our family name. 
The next hurdle was to find out what the word "Katahdin" meant. We were having difficulties getting that information. For all we knew it might mean “great pile of buffalo dung". Luckily it means “highest mountain” in one of the Native American languages of Maine.
At the top of Mt. Katahdin I remember feeling a sense of awe and accomplishment. Doing chimney moves a rock climbing technique added to the challenge of getting to the top. My husband is a barefoot hiker. On the way back down several people asked me why I was wearing hiking boots when they saw my fiance with his bare feet. I just asked them the same question. Don was enjoying leaving foot prints in the mud and on the stones all along the path.
Choosing a mate and becoming and being a mother are high points in my life. I will always associate my family name "Katahdin" with this awesome transformation. May birth be a transformative and awe inspiring event for you too!
About Kate