10/28/2026
I am so excited to share this interview with you! And what perfect timing, because Midwife Christina is planning to share monthly Homebirth 101 posts!
I hope this interview encourages you, teaches you something new, and helps you feel more informed as you prepare for birth. Be sure to follow along for more from Midwife Christina and her upcoming Homebirth 101 series!
Midwife Christina was not only my trusted midwife during pregnancy and birth, but I am also honored to call her a friend. Throughout my pregnancy, she was someone I could turn to with questions, and she has continued to be a trusted resource for me as a birth educator. I am so grateful for her willingness to share her knowledge and take the time to answer my questions. She is a Godly woman I deeply respect and admire, and I feel truly blessed to have had her walk alongside me during my own birth journey and to now call her a friend.
This post is a little longer than usual, but I promise it’s well worth the read!
Who and where do you serve?
“My name is Christina Winton, and I’m a Certified Professional Midwife and Licensed Midwife serving families in Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma through Agape Homebirth Services. I primarily serve families within about a two-hour radius of my offices in De Queen, Arkansas, and Texarkana, Texas. But I really believe I serve more than a geographical area. I serve women and families during one of the most vulnerable, powerful, and sacred seasons of their lives. I have the privilege of walking beside them through pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and those first precious days with their babies. I have had the owner of serving many families who have chosen to drive closer to my service area and rent properties where I am able to serve them.
For me, midwifery is not simply my profession. It is ministry."
Why midwifery?
“Midwifery is a calling God placed on my heart when I was a teenager.
I knew very young that I was supposed to work with mothers and babies, although I could never have understood then everything God would use to prepare me for this work. Through becoming a mother myself, experiencing birth, loss, prematurity, the NICU, and raising children with very different needs, God has continually shaped both the midwife and the woman I have become. There have been seasons when I questioned whether I could continue, particularly after losing my son Logan and later walking through an extremely premature birth with Samuel. But even in those places, God kept bringing me back to the calling He had given me. Midwifery allows me to combine my love for women, babies, education, advocacy, and faith. I get to remind women that their bodies were wonderfully designed, while also respecting the importance of good clinical judgment and knowing when additional medical care is needed.”
Why homebirth?
“I love homebirth because, for an appropriately screened low-risk mother and baby, birth does not automatically have to be treated as an emergency waiting to happen. At home, a woman is in her own environment. She can move, eat, drink, pray, worship, get into her own shower or birth pool, and labor surrounded by the people she chooses. Instead of entering someone else’s environment to give birth, her birth team enters hers.
Homebirth also allows me to practice the kind of individualized care that drew me to midwifery in the first place. I know my clients. I know their histories, their families, their fears, and often even the names of their other children. But supporting homebirth does not mean being against hospitals. Hospitals and obstetric care are incredibly important when they are needed. A good homebirth midwife has tremendous respect for complications and understands that part of protecting physiologic birth is recognizing when something is no longer physiologic. Sometimes the very best thing I can do as a homebirth midwife is recognize that we need more help and facilitate a respectful transfer of care.”
Many believe that homebirth is dangerous and best left in the past. Is that true?
"No. Modern homebirth is not about going backward in time or rejecting medicine. Responsible homebirth midwifery combines the traditional art of being “with woman” with modern clinical education, risk assessment, monitoring, emergency skills, equipment, medications within our scope, and established plans for consultation or transfer when necessary.
Homebirth is also not appropriate for every pregnancy. Safety begins with appropriate risk screening and continues throughout pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum. Circumstances can change, and a responsible midwife has to be willing to change the plan when they do. There are risks in birth regardless of location, which is why informed consent matters so much. My responsibility isn’t to convince every woman to have a homebirth. It is to give families accurate information, help them understand their individual circumstances and options, and provide safe, respectful care within my scope. Homebirth isn’t “birth without medical knowledge.” Good homebirth midwifery is knowing normal extremely well, watching carefully for abnormal, and knowing when intervention or a higher level of care is necessary.”
Can you share a time when God revealed Himself or taught you something while serving as a midwife?
“There have been so many.
Birth has repeatedly reminded me that I am not ultimately in control. As midwives, we prepare. We study. We carry equipment and medications. We monitor mothers and babies. We learn emergency skills and practice them over and over. We make plans and backup plans. But birth has humbled me enough times to know that I am still only human.
There have been births where I have quietly prayed, “Lord, I need You to show me what to do.” And there have been moments when the wisdom, peace, or clarity I needed came exactly when I needed it. God has taught me that being called does not mean being fearless. It means being faithful. He has also taught me that my ministry isn’t measured only by the babies I catch. Sometimes serving a family means sitting beside a woman when her plans change. Sometimes it means transferring to the hospital. Sometimes it means praying with someone who is terrified. Sometimes it means grieving with a family.
My own life has taught me this in a deeply personal way. I have buried a son. I have stood beside a tiny premature baby in the NICU. I know what it is like to pray for the outcome you desperately want and still have to trust God when the story looks nothing like you imagined. Those experiences changed the way I serve women. I don’t believe God called me to midwifery because I can control birth. I believe He called me to be present—to use the knowledge and skills He has allowed me to gain, to love families well, to advocate for them, and to remain faithful in whatever room He places me in. One of the greatest lessons midwifery has taught me is that I may be invited into some of the most sacred moments of another person’s life, but those moments never belong to me. They belong to the family—and ultimately, they belong to God.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.” — Jeremiah 1:5 "
A huge thank you Christina Winton, CPM, LLM Agape Homebirth Services
Birth Restored
