Midwifery’s Ripple Effect: How Care Creates Change
In Episode 227 of the Plus Mommy Podcast, I sit down with Certified Nurse Midwife Elizabeth Muñoz for a powerful conversation about body image, midwifery care, and dismantling weight bias in maternity care.
Elizabeth shares her deeply personal journey—from overcoming harmful body messages to creating real change within healthcare systems. Together, we explore how compassionate, individualized care can spark a ripple effect of healing, not just for one pregnancy, but for families and communities for generations to come.
A Personal Journey to Midwifery
Before becoming a midwife, Elizabeth was deeply involved in theater and dance—moving her body joyfully at any size.
After a life-changing injury in college, her relationship with movement and her body shifted. She shares, “Before I was injured, I did not have a great relationship with my body and wasn’t compassionate to my own form.”
This personal evolution set the stage for her advocacy work in maternity care. Elizabeth fell in love with being an advocate for pregnant people and doulas, eventually leading her into midwifery school.
During her education, she did the deep work of unpacking harmful biases about body size and health that she had absorbed over the years.
Healing Through Birth
When Elizabeth became pregnant with her first child, she sought midwifery care that honored her body as it was.
She recalls, “I had a midwife with me that never once made me question my ability to give birth.” That experience—free from shame, judgment, or weight bias—was transformational.
She gave birth at home and describes her midwife’s focus on quality nutrition and individualized care rather than numbers on a scale.
This healing experience helped Elizabeth not only during her own pregnancy but shaped the compassionate care she now provides to others.
Challenging Weight Bias in Maternity Care
Elizabeth faced weight discrimination firsthand during her second pregnancy when she was told by a colleague, “Midwives don’t take care of people like you and me.”
At that moment, she realized how deeply rooted weight bias was—even within midwifery care.
She shares, “I was shocked like you just were, and immediately went back to a place of shame.” But she didn’t stay frozen for long. Instead, Elizabeth used that experience to fuel major change.
Her doctoral project helped eliminate BMI restrictions at her facility—a shift that continues to create ripple effects today.
Elizabeth reminds us that weight bias can lead to misdiagnoses and harm during pregnancy simply because of inaccurate practices, like using the wrong size blood pressure cuff or inadequate seating.
“We can risk someone out of midwifery care who should have never been risked out, just simply because the way we took their blood pressure was incorrect.”
The Ripple Effect of Compassionate Care
Midwifery care, when practiced without bias, can truly change lives.
Elizabeth reflects, “There is something about having a pregnancy and wellness care provider who sees you when you have spent so much of your life trying to be invisible.”
This type of care not only changes how people experience pregnancy—it transforms how they see themselves, their bodies, and even how they raise their children.
“I have found that the language I use is already repeated, and it’s natural for them [my kids] to say things like, I need nourishment.”
We also talk about the importance of questioning guidelines, advocating for policy change, and the collective effort needed to build more inclusive, evidence-based maternity care. “If we say we care for the whole person, then that has to mean the whole of every person.”
Midwifery: A Call for Change
Elizabeth shares that change in maternity care requires a multifaceted approach—from midwives practicing to the full extent of their scope, to consumers demanding better care, to institutions rewriting outdated, biased guidelines.
Her message is clear: Midwifery care should be accessible to all pregnant people who desire it, regardless of size or background. And for those navigating maternity care today, Elizabeth encourages you to remember that you are worthy of individualized, compassionate care.
Recording & Show Notes: Plus Mommy Podcast Episode 225
Transcript happily provided upon request.
Elizabeth Muñoz, DNP, CNM, FACNM (she/her) is a Certified Nurse-Midwife with experience in midwifery education, scholarship, and clinical practice. She is a Fellow of the American College of Nurse-Midwives and received her Master’s and Doctoral degrees from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, TN. Her scholarship activities include preventing size bias in midwives and clinicians providing reproductive healthcare and promoting the midwifery model as a solution to the maternal mortality crisis in the United States. Liz is passionate about improving access to full-scope midwifery care, including deepening the understanding that midwives can lead the charge for practice change in various settings.
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