Meet Our Team
Monica Daniel, RN, CNM, LAc
Nurse Midwife/Acupuncturist
Owner Gently Borne Midwifery
Monica graduated from Cornell University with a BS degree in Nutrition focusing on Maternal/Child Nutrition. She then pursued a BS degree in Nursing from Creighton University and then a MS degree in Midwifery from the University of Minnesota.
She worked overseas in St Lucia, West Indies for a year as a clinical midwife and then moved to Sarasota,FL to become the Director/Midwife at the Florida West Coast Birth Center. After four years there she moved to Montour Falls, NY to help open September Hill Birth Center as Director/Midwife. When expecting her first baby, Taina, she saw the lack of legal options for home birth and opened the first legal home birth practice, Full Circle Midwifery with Linda Schutt, in Ithaca NY in 1998. A few years later she started her own home birth practice, Gently Borne Midwifery.
Now, over 2,000 births later she continues to find such joy in sharing the journey through pregnancy and birth with many families in the Ithaca/Finger Lakes area.
After the birth of her second child, Antonio, she went back to school at the New York Chiropractic College for a Master’s in Chinese Medicine/Acupuncture and has enjoyed providing alternative medicine in areas of women's health, fertility and pregnancy.
Melody Ramsey
Birth Assistant
Melody Ramsey has been a doula/birth assistant on the Gently Borne team since early 2013. Her passion is supporting women and families during pregnancy, birth and postpartum. Her entry into birth work started almost 20 years ago at Oregon School of Midwifery. After a short time there, she took a break to have her daughter. Over the course of the next decade she had 3 boys, apprenticed, and provided doula services all over Alaska, Hawaii and New York. Finally, Melody settled in the hills of West Danby with her husband to raise her 4 kids on an off-grid farm as she continues to pursue her midwifery education.
Dani Bartholomew
Doula
Dani has been a certified birth doula since 2016. She began her career by attending births in NYC at hospitals, birth centers and homes. She moved to Ithaca in 2019 to start nursing school, and in 2021 gave birth to her son, Micah, with Gently Borne serving as her birth team. In 2022 Dani returned to doula work, and she now attends local hospital births, supports families in their homes during the postpartum period, and is a home birth doula for Gently Borne. It is the greatest privilege to support families through the process of welcoming in babies before, during, and after birth. Dani also holds a B.S in nutrition, is a certified lactation counselor, and has been a certified yoga instructor since 2011, specializing in prenatal and postnatal yoga.
Victoria Benson
Doula
Originally from NYC, I have been a transplant in the area for over 25 years. I was a public school science teacher for nearly a decade but now homeschool our kids on our homestead. While I had six wonderful hospital midwife births, my experiences during my two home births with Gently Borne Midwifery were incredible and ultimately what lead me to become a doula after six years of contemplation. As a Latina, I am a native Spanish speaker and happy to provide culturally competent doula services that draw from my own children’s births as well as best practices. I am honored to support families physically and emotionally but especially spiritually as in birth we witness the awe inducing strength women possess.
Rebecca Lesser
Office Manager
Like many Ithacans, Rebecca first came to the area as a college student, studying music at Ithaca College and education at Elmira College. She spent several years teaching in the public schools, at the Ithaca Waldorf School, and giving piano lessons at her home. After having children, Rebecca became active in La Leche League. Receiving (and later providing) help with breastfeeding inspired her desire to support new mothers. She became a moderator with Mama’s Comfort Camp on Facebook, whose motto is “Mothers don’t need more advice, they need more support!” and whose judgment-free forums empower mothers at all stages of their parenting journeys.
At Gently Borne, Rebecca combines her organizational skills and her love of supporting families to help the practice run smoothly behind the scenes. You can find Rebecca at the desk, over email, on the phone, or occasionally sneaking a peek at the babies– a favorite job perk! In her spare time Rebecca enjoys her family, nature, arts and crafts of all kinds, and playing music.