Nicolette "Niki" Vallandigham was drawn to midwifery because of her experiences as a two-time Birth Center parent at a freestanding Birth Center in New Hampshire. "The care I received was exemplary. Our midwife, Chris, always included us in each decision-making process. I felt really in control of my life during the biggest transition we experience – parenthood! I wanted to share that sense of empowerment with other women and families."

Niki had no prior nursing training, so she began her formal nursing education at the New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord, New Hampshire. She graduated with honors in 1991 as an RN. Niki worked in local area hospitals for 3 years on medical/surgical, pediatric and women’s health floors, gaining broad nursing experiences, while working toward a desired position on Labor and Delivery. In January of 1994 she began providing nursing support to mothers and families in a small hospital Birth Center in New London, New Hampshire. During the next four years she was busy completing her Bachelor’s degree, working full time as a nurse, and being a full time mom, as she finalized all the prerequisites to make her dream of entering midwifery school a reality.

Niki graduated from the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing, Hyden, Kentucky in 2001. She earned her Master of Science in Nursing from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio in 2003. She realized her dream and began practice as a midwife at a small underserved community hospital in Upstate New York shortly afterwards. As the first and only midwife in town, she played a frontier role in teaching clients, staff, providers and administrators what midwifery care is all about, demonstrating how midwives could provide an unprecedented level of support to the women of the community. She was warmly welcomed and quickly acclaimed by her moms as being very "high touch, low tech." She was asked to create and administer a new hospital based midwifery practice, mentoring additional midwives in providing care to women from teens through menopause.

After years of hospital based practice, Niki joins Special Beginning’s staff with a deep sense of coming home to the place where she was always meant to be. "My journey into midwifery began at a freestanding Birth Center. We chose how and prepared as a family for the births we wanted. The freestanding Birth Center model gives women and families both real choices and positive outcomes. What could be more empowering?" Niki is thrilled to come home to her Birth Center roots.