About Your Midwife
My name is Marvelys Lopez. I was born in Caracas, Venezuela on December 21, 1975. I am the oldest of three daughters. I was raised there and did all of my schooling in Venezuela and graduated in 1993 from high school. Shortly after, I came to Las Vegas, Nevada for one year as an exchange student and graduated senior year at Western High School. This gave me the opportunity to learn English and to be in touch with different cultures and beliefs, which enriched and changed my life in so many positive ways. I now live in Las Vegas with my husband, and two children Diego and Paola.
In 1994, I went back to Venezuela and started Medical School in the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas. In 1995, while I was a medical student, I became a volunteer fire fighter for the Central University of Venezuela Fire Department.
During my eight years of service, I became an instructor for the medical division, where I taught CPR classes, obstetric emergencies and other classes.
I also assumed the responsibility of the medical department in the fire station, where I was in charge of the administration, ordering supplies, and organizing personnel of the ambulances in the fire department for 1 year. From 1999 until 2003, I worked as a paramedic for a private ambulance service in Venezuela.
I also assumed the responsibility of the medical department in the fire station, where I was in charge of the administration, ordering supplies, and organizing personnel of the ambulances in the fire department for 1 year. From 1999 until 2003, I worked as a paramedic for a private ambulance service in Venezuela.
In 2000, I went to the Venezuelan Amazon and lived with a Yanomami tribe (Venezuelan native indians), as one of only two rural doctors for three months, as part of my medical internship.
This experience allowed me again, to gain the opportunity to be immersed in a totally different culture, which enriched my life and gave me the wonderful insight of completely different ways of seeing and living life. I learned even more to respect other people’s point of view and value human beings for what they are and not for what they have. 
The Yanomami women birth their babies on their own without much need for medical assistance and this showed me how truly normal and natural birth is and should be.
Since 1998 I started to deliver babies as part of my medical training, accomplishing over 200 births that were required in the obstetrics rotations. In 2001, I received my medical degree, and started practicing as a rural family doctor in Higuerote, Venezuela where I delivered over 300 babies in a hospital.
As a Medical student and during my practice as a doctor, I found the medical system to be very invasive, impersonal, and disrespectful of the patients in a lot of ways. For instance, the obstetrics patients did not allow the father in the hospital while his baby was being born, and he had to wait in the street until somebody gave him news about the baby and the mom. On the inside of the hospital, the laboring mother did not have much emotional support at all and there were no informed choices about how to birth or even options for them to make. Usually, moms had synthetic Oxytocin in their IV, and episiotomy was not even a question to make, every first and second time mom got one. If that is not enough to make one unhappy, there were always students that needed to practice and learn how to do pelvic exams, uterine revisions, etc. All of these moms had to put up with the students practicing on them even without their consent. Babies were always rushed to the nursery, not allowed bonding time, and always got their shots and eye drops as a routine protocol.
All these experiences with-in the hospital and the emergency medical response system, helped me to realize that I did not want to birth my babies in a hospital. I decided to look for more gentle and natural options to have my baby when the time arrived to birth my first son.
In November 2001, I gave birth to Diego Andres; it was a nice natural water birth at a birthing center, with my family around me. A wonderful experience until few hours after his birth, He did not want to nurse, and the doctor decided to put a gastric tube to give him some glucose solution as a preventative measurement. This procedure turned into an emergency when Diego stopped breathing, needing respiratory assistance, and one of his lungs collapsed, ending up in the NICU for 8 days. This experience was an eye opening in my life. Today, we are thankful to have a perfectly healthy boy.
In 2005, I gave birth to my second child, a very healthy baby girl, Paola Valentina, this time a beautiful, home birth in a labor tub, with my family at my side. My daughter never left my side and our family did not have to experience another NICU stay because of a preventative intervention.
The birth of my children changed my life. It empowered me to help other parents to be informed and to know that there are always choices, especially in such important moments, like the birth of a child. I am a member of Birth Year Network (BYN) , which is a non-profit organization that educates our community in everything related to pregnancy, birth, postpartum and parenting. During my practice as a doctor and as a midwife, I had the opportunity to handle and overcome the following: VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean), failure to progress, CPD ( pelvis to small for baby), prolapsed cord, maternal hemorrhage, retained placenta, cord wrapped around baby’s neck, meconium stained amniotic fluid, twins, posterior presentation, frank breech presentation, depressed infants, various perineal, vaginal and labial tears, prolapsed pelvic floor including cervix, shoulder dystocia (stuck shoulders during birth), caput (hematoma of baby head) and hemotoma
of mothers perineum. Of course, any progressive midwife knows that there is no end to learning and broadening midwifery skills.
Since the summer of 2006 I started to work with Jill Colin, CPM who introduced me to the spectacular world of midwifery, and to whom I will always be grateful. I join her practice as a primary midwife, and since summer of 2007 I started my own practice. In February 2009 I got my certification by NARM (North America Registry of Midwives) , and became a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) . As a midwife I am living my passion and enjoying a 100% what I do. I am helping my clients to bring their babies into the world in a gentler, peaceful and intimate way.
I believe that every person carries the ultimate responsibility for his or her own physical, spiritual, and mental health and well-being. The key to making responsible, informed decisions is by self-education through reading, taking classes, learning and thinking.
By not educating yourself on how to make informed decisions you are avoiding the possibility to have optimal care and, the best experience for you and your baby.
Statistics and my own experiences hold that over 90% of all births are uncomplicated and another 5% to 8% involve minor complications that can be readily handled by a skilled birth attendant. The remaining small percentage of women who may have complications requiring medical care may be detected during pregnancy with excellent prenatal care or during labor with skillful observation. A very small number of pregnancies will result in the death of a precious baby. Whether in early or late pregnancy, the family still grieves and a caring midwife can be an invaluable support for that family. My own personal and private commitments to midwifery are mirrors of my own feelings that the family is sacred and has the right and responsibility of maintaining a spiritual aspect during the most intense and exciting experience the family will ever encounter.
For a Free Consult
Phone: (702) 349-2135 Fax: (702) 202-1884
