Kelly Pickerill (she/her)
3rd Year midwifery student - September 2024 to March 2025
My name is Kelly Pickerill and I am in my 3rd year of the Midwifery Programme at UBC. I was born and grew up in Penticton, and in the time since, life has taken me to Vancouver Island, the East Coast, the North, and finally, Vancouver. It’s such a privilege to have my clinical placement in Penticton, on the unceded lands of the Syilx Nation, this year.
Prior to beginning midwifery studies, my background was in women’s health and rights research, and most recently, I worked with a global maternal health research initiative at BC Children’s Hospital. My greatest passion in my work was, and remains, around the importance of access to high quality, person-centred, and respectful maternity care— and it was this passion that drew me to feel called to midwifery.
I am grateful for the learning opportunity with everyone at Willow Midwives, and for the opportunity to be a part of your experience. I look forward to working together with you, and to helping you feel well supported in your pregnancy care.
Daeshel Heidelbach (she/her)
2nd year midwifery student - February + March 2025
Hi! I'm Daeshel (pronounced Day-shell) I am thrilled to be entering my second year in the Midwifery Program. Since becoming a parent over a decade ago, I have felt inspired to support new parents through shared stories and knowledge of parenting, particularly in the context of the postpartum period. I feel incredibly privileged and blessed to be a Midwifery student, and I can hardly wait to begin clinical placement and learn hands-on skills alongside practicing Midwives.
I have given birth to my two beautiful children, who are now 7 and 10 years old. My personal birth stories are, I believe, relatively unique, and both of my children were born via c-section. Being in the Midwifery program has afforded me the valuable opportunity to acknowledge and explore my own personal biases regarding pregnancy, birth and parenting and I'm very grateful for this! Since giving birth myself, I have attended one birth which I was invited to by a family member, and I truly loved every minute of the experience.
I have a BSc. in Kinesiology (2008) and am a Clinical Exercise Physiologist, with most of my professional background being in cardiac rehabilitation... I can take blood pressures on a dime! I was born and raised in Prince George, I did my undergrad at the U of A a lifetime ago, and I have been living in Peachland for the past 5 years. While I currently love living and raising my kids in the Okanagan, my heart is in the north and I look forward to working rurally/remotely in some capacity in the future. At this stage of life I tend prioritize spending whatever free time I have outdoors, and snuggling with my kids. If I had more free time, I imagine I would spend it hiking, doing yoga, dancing, baking, making art, skiing, reading, resting, travelling, spending time with friends and family, and at the beach or on the lake.