
Hannah Kopp-Yates
Nurse-Midwife
CNM, MSN
Hannah has been a midwife since 2016, and a birth worker in the Bay Area for over a decade. She is honored to be with new parents and growing families during some of the most intense, life-altering, intimate, and joyful moments of their lives.
She has experience delivering in hospitals as well as in an out-of-hospital birthing center. She herself was born at Alta Bates and is delighted to get to attend births there!
Hannah also enjoys providing well-person and gynecologic care within the midwifery scope of practice. Her special interests include medical herbalism, working with LGBTQ+ families, global maternal health issues, and contraceptive technology.
In her free time, she likes to knit, dance, soak in hot springs and explore the beautiful landscapes of Northern California and beyond.

Johanna Jetton
Nurse-Midwife
CNM
Johanna has been part of the Bay Area birth world for over a decade, as a doula and childbirth educator and then midwife. Prior to joining Millie, she spent six years at Kaiser Santa Rosa practicing midwifery as part of an interdisciplinary team.
Johanna is honored to serve families during these intense transitional periods when so much of how we relate to ourselves, our partners, our families, and communities is brought to the fore. She strives to provide care that is both thorough and evidence-based, that places great trust in the knowledge each individual possesses about their own body, and that holds space for the sacred nature of this time.
Johanna received her Masters of Science in Nursing at UCSF where she trained as a Certified Nurse Midwife and Women's Health Nurse Practitioner. She lives in a small co-op in South Berkeley with her husband, baby, a few roommates, a few chickens, and a dog named Olive. In her free time you can find her hiking in the East Bay hills with Olive and making too many trips to Berkeley Bowl.

Sonja Cahoon
Nurse-Midwife
CNM
Sonja has provided midwifery care across the life span in hospitals and clinics around the Bay Area She has also provided care to families choosing to give birth outside of hospitals, at home and at the freestanding birth center she dreamed into reality. For the better part of a decade Sonja has worked with families who are giving birth at Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa. No matter the setting, she aspires to provide care that honors the life experiences and knowledge of the individual to best support that person in making decisions for themselves.
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Carly Bravo
Nurse-Midwife
CNM, MSN
Carly is from the Bay Area and a mother to two active toddlers. She recognizes that the transformation to parenthood is much more than simply the birth alone. She enjoys working with women, birthing people, and their families to have an integrated and empowered pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience. Carly believes in shared decision making, recognizing that while she has formal training in Midwifery, the people she cares for are the experts in their own bodies and their own specific physical, emotional, and informational needs.
Carly received her Masters in Nursing from Yale University and has over 8 years of experience in maternal health.

Aqueelah Tillman
Nurse-Midwife
APRN, MSN, CNM, WHNP
Born in Oakland, Aqueelah has been actively involved in community efforts to support postpartum and lactation care for marginalized individuals. Aqueelah wants her patients to know that their care will be personalized, their views supported, and their voices heard.
Aqueelah brings almost 10 years of clinical experience, specializing in providing care for the most vulnerable newborns in a level four intensive care nursery. Aqueelah was previously at UCLA, UCSF, and Stanford Children’s Health.
Her passion for maternal health stems from her desire to assist individuals holistically as they welcome new life as well as her commitment to alleviating healthcare disparities in maternal and neonatal care through advocacy for policy change.
Aqueelah received her BSN in Nursing from Drexel University, and her Masters in Midwifery and Women’s Health from Georgetown University.
The idea of meeting individuals where they are in their communities enables us as healthcare providers to better understand their unique needs and involve them in their care. This allows us to treat the whole person. I joined Millie because I wanted to be part of a community-focused healthcare team. A team that is committed to empowering individuals, providing accessible care, and improving maternity care outcomes.

Cynthia Banks
Nurse-Midwife
CNM, MSN, RN
Cynthia loves stepping into the intimate, transformative space of birth. Her trauma-informed approach centers the birthing person, so that they can feel safe, seen, and supported. She considers it a deep honor to do this work, and her passion and love shine through in every interaction.
With 20+ years of experience, Cynthia has caught over 1200 babies in a wide range of settings, including busy hospitals in Chicago and San Francisco and a birth center in Texas. Prior to joining Millie, Cynthia spent 8 years leading a successful home birth practice in the Bay Area. She sees the Millie Clinic as a place where she can bring the best of all she’s learned on her midwifery journey.
Cynthia actively participates in local and state initiatives to expand access to high-quality, and ideally, racially-concordant, midwifery care across all birth settings to address the health disparities which result from structural racism. In her spare time she enjoys hiking, gardening, cooking, and traveling with her daughter.
Cynthia received her Masters degree in Nursing and Midwifery from the Yale University School of Nursing.
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Rachel Willey
Nurse-Midwife
CNM, WHNP, RN
Rachel was born and raised in California’s Central Valley and has been living in the Bay Area for the past five years. They are passionate about queer and trans health, both in times of family-building and not, and believe we all have a right to quality care, no matter our gender, presentation, or sexuality.
Rachel brings 10 years of clinical experience spanning birth work, postpartum, and fertility care. Prior to Millie, Rachel was at Kaiser catching babies and providing perinatal services to birthing people in the Central Valley for the last 2 years. They also have experience as a fertility and postpartum nurse at Kindbody here in the Bay Area and NYU Langone Medical Center in New York.
Rachel believes that patients are the experts on their bodies and applies collective / collaborative decision-making based on the most up-to-date clinical research. They approach care from a reproductive justice foundation, applying trauma-informed approaches to create empowering and effective care experiences.
Rachel received their BSN at New York University, and got their Masters in Nurse Midwifery at University of California San Francisco (UCSF). When not at work, Rachel can be found at the dog park with their puppy Scully or sipping natural wine with friends. They love to run, sweat in a sauna, and dance to disco.
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Madeleine Belizaire
Nurse-Midwife
CNM, WHNP
Madeleine is originally from New York City, but is happy to now call the East Bay home. She loves helping families through the major transition from giving birth into parenthood. She believes in shared decision-making and providing culturally sensitive and inclusive care.
Madeline brings 10 years of experience in maternal health, including at Kaiser, Marin Health, and Planned Parenthood. She has also worked as a doula and birth instructor.
She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from Johns Hopkins University and a Master’s Degree in Midwifery from Yale University.
In her spare time, she loves to visit new restaurants, take group exercise classes, do yoga, travel and explore the beautiful Bay Area.
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Vanessa Garcia
Nurse-Midwife
CNM, WHNP, IBCLC
Originally from the Southwest and mom of two, Vanessa loves partnering with her patients to provide holistic, empathic support to promote their healthiest pregnancy with an empowered birth and postpartum experience. She is particularly passionate about supporting mental and emotional well-being during the postpartum period.
Vanessa brings 20 years of experience working with birthing families in a variety of settings. Before joining the Millie team, Vanessa worked at a hospital-based midwifery practice in Chico, where she helped to increase access to midwifery care for Spanish-speaking clients. In the Bay Area, she has worked as a labor and delivery nurse and as a board certified lactation consultant (IBCLC) at Kaiser Oakland and at Alta Bates. She also has experience as a doula in a freestanding birth center and as a prenatal yoga instructor.
Vanessa believes in the body’s innate wisdom and ability to birth. She is passionate about using research and connection with clients to bolster trust in their bodies and to improve emotional well-being during pregnancy, birth, and in parenting. She has published work on birth practices in the U.S. and around the world, as well as on the infant microbiome.
Vanessa trained at UCSF, where she received her Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner (WHNP) degrees.

Amy Kane
Medical Director & OB-GYN
MD
Amy is a board certified OB/GYN with 15+ years of experience as an attending physician. She was born at Alta Bates Hospital, raised in Berkeley, and loves this community!
In addition to caring for pregnant families, Amy’s professional interests include minimally invasive gynecologic surgery, family planning and health equity. She has extensive experience working with several major Bay Area health systems including Sutter Health and Kaiser, as well as at a federally qualified health center (FQHC) serving the Medicaid patient community.
Amy received her MD from the University of Pittsburgh and completed her residency at the University of California, San Diego in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
“I became involved with Millie because I believe in the mission of delivering high quality collaborative care with midwives to patients of all backgrounds and income levels.”

Ellen Schwerin
Lactation Consultant
MPH, IBCLC
Ellen Schwerin came to the world of lactation care because of the fantastic support she received while having her own issues feeding her baby. She loves working with all types of families to give them the information and support they need to feed their babies in ways that work for them.
Ellen takes a non-judgmental, evidence-based approach to care while also providing preventative and crisis management support.

Talia Borgo
Clinical Director & Nurse-Midwife
MS, CNM, WHNP, RN
Talia believes that by holistically supporting her patients, she can help them to affirm the innate wisdom and power they have in their bodies and minds. Her life’s work is to help all birthing people have a healthy and empowering pregnancy and birth.
She has been working in maternal health since 2011. Before joining Millie, Talia was on the faculty of University of California San Francisco (UCSF) as a Nurse Midwife and Assistant Clinical Professor. In 2018, she completed a High Risk Obstetric Midwifery Fellowship also at UCSF. She has previously worked at Planned Parenthood as a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner, and also has experience as a doula.
Talia trained at UCSF where she received her Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner (WHNP) degrees, after receiving her Nursing degree from Columbia University.
"It's no secret that maternity care in the U.S. has some of the worst outcomes in the high-income world because it's incomplete, reactive, and often over-medicalized. I joined Millie to provide more complete and compassionate care that all birthing parents and their babies deserve."

Shalini Shah
Millie Guide
CBD, CPpD, IBCLC
Shalini was born and raised in Queens, New York and has been happily living in the Bay Area for the past 8 years. They are down-to-earth and compassionate in their care, bringing a steady sense of peace, joy, and humor to the process.
Shalini has spent the past 13 years working as a reproductive wellness practitioner. They have supported over 2,000 families in navigating their pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience as a full spectrum doula and perinatal educator. Shalini is also a board certified lactation consultant (IBCLC).
They are committed to uplifting and affirming QTBIPOC families and are proud to work with people of all identities, experiences, and family structures.