History

Amy Leland, the primary midwife and owner of Blessed Births, began her early college education in Virginia and spent several years of clinical apprenticeship under senior midwives in two Pennsylvania-Amish birth centers. As the Amish rely on their midwives for a wide range of healthcare needs, her studies in Pennsylvania included midwifery, natural women’s wellness care, neonatal care, early pediatric care, and emergency triage care.

After completing her studies in traditional Amish midwifery, she went on to obtain a nursing degree at the University of South Carolina as well as dual masters degrees in Nurse Midwifery and Women’s Health at Georgetown University in Washington DC.

She originally founded Blessed Births as a home-birth practice in 1995 before establishing it as South Carolina’s first, independent birth center in 2000. Based in Greenwood, the opening of this facility was warmly welcomed with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by the Mayor, the Chamber of Commerce, TV stations from around the state, officials from the SC Department of Health, and Dr. Marsden Wagner, accomplished childbirth author and Director of Women's and Children's Health for the World Health Organization.

After quickly outgrowing its Greenwood location, in 2004, Blessed Births relocated to its current location in downtown Greenville, South Carolina. The grand opening of the new facility was officiated by Dr. Michel Odent, a world-renowned French obstetrician, author and water birth pioneer.

As the practice has grown, its scope of care has expanded to include Women’s Wellness and holistic, preventative healthcare. The Blessed Births team has now served 1000s of women with their unique combination of modern medical practice and traditional Amish expertise. Amy believes that quality midwifery care should be accessible to women everywhere and is proud to have played an integral role in impacting state legislation that protects women’s rights in childbirth.