Minister, Farmer, Juris Doctor Student, Licensed Midwife and Licensed Telehealth Midwife, Community Midwife, Doula, Clinical Hypnotherapy & HypnoBirthing, Womb Centering & Bone Closing, Herbalist,  Midwife Policy, Personal Trainer/Fitness/Yoga/Bellydance, Community Health Worker

Corrinna began her career in women’s health in 1998. She trained to become a doula and HypnoBirthing Practitioner in 2007, moved to Georgia, and began studying to be a midwife attending her first home births in 2008.  She also worked for 3 Obstetric offices that covered call for eachother and created a virtual midwifery platform to help them collaborate  which offered midwife services and water birth in the hospital from 2008 until 2019 as a childbirth educator and patient liaison. Corrinna solely began working for Nile Women’s Healthcare in 2014, one of the collaborative Obstetric and midwife offices where she was part of the management team helping to establish a  more welcoming environment for the natural birth culture with standing operating procedures to also support people choosing doulas, home births, and complimentary care. After only a year of teaching community childbirth classes for Nile who had the highest volume of patients at North Fulton Hospital, connecting mothers with chiropractors, doulas, and other resources, not only did the classes have little standing room (they had to move from the office to a hotel space) but the hospital c-section rate dropped from 26% to 11% and was published in the Atlanta Parent Magazine that rated hospitals at the time. Corrinna created a model of care to support families in better outcomes and called it the “Community Midwife Model of Care,” and is still formulating it today for integration and infrastructure changes. Corrinna attended over 1000 births as a doula, licensed apprentice midwife, and community midwife in various settings in Georgia, South Carolina, Canada, Uganda, and Dominican Republic. She apprenticed in traditional home birth practices under well-seasoned traditional and licensed midwives for 7 years while simultaneously studying through a South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control and State approved midwife program. Corrinna partnered with grand midwife UmmSalamaah “Sondra” Abdullah-Zaimah (the eldest practicing midwife in the US) in 2014 as an advanced Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) candidate while earning her Health Sciences Degree from Georgia State University and implementing midwife policy in Georgia legislation. She was the first  Afro Indigenous Aboriginal (Ontario/Woodland Metis and Iorquois/French )  (identifies as Black),  to ever earn the North American Registry of Midwives CPM credential in Georgia. Corrinna is a midwife preceptor for Federally Accredited midwifery school, Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery. Corrinna helped to co-author with Jennie Joseph, the resolution passed by the National Black Caucus of State Legislators general body and health committee to legalize and reimburse community midwives and community health workers. She additionally helped co-create the Community Midwives Act Bill in Georgia, which has currently had the most progress in the Georgia Senate, introduced by Senator Lester Jackson and continued each year thereafter, now carried by Senator Donzella James, and Representative Viola Davis, registered nurse, in the House Bill. Corrinna is the former fellow for Commonsense Childbirth National Perinatal Task Force, developing the Perinatal Safe Spot US map. Corrinna has spent the last 6 years working on midwife policy and consulting with organizations such as Black Mamas Matter Alliance as Midwifery Care Policy and Advocacy Consultant in 2020, and a partner of SisterSong Birth Justice program. Corrinna is the founder Bellies to Babies Foundation, offering free training for doulas, birth assistants, and community midwives, and a founding sister with grand midwives UmmSalaamah, Mama Nasrah, Mama Sarahn, and others, of Community Midwives National Alliance. Corrinna worked for the Georgia State Senate 3 years as a executive legislative administrator and on the Senate Task Force. She worked for 7 different Senators and currently working closely with legislators independently to advance midwifery laws in Georgia.  Corrinna currently works as a licensed telehealth midwife at The Birth Place/Easy Access Clinic and Commonsense Childbirth Inc. Community Health Worker Lead and co-created Your Mama Coach – The JJ Way®, an online telehealth program that has had exceptional results utilizing The JJ Way® model of care in the program.  Additionally she volunteers and serves as a Midwife Minister attending home births in her midwife ministry partner UmmSalaamah, while training, and mentoring midwife students, birth attendants, and doulas through Bellies to Babies Foundation 3 Tier Certified Community Midwife Trainings. She additionally assists elder midwife Marsha Ford, CNM for home birth coverage and assistance. Corrinna recently graduated and earned a second health sciences degree in Tennessee, specific in midwifery and recognized by the Department of Education and is currently a law student in a Juris Doctor program working towards eligibility for an attorney’s license. 

Fun Facts about Corrinna:

She went to school initially for Electrical Engineering before discovering midwifery only to find out after her midwifery training that her paternal grandmother’s paternal and maternal grandmothers were midwives as well as her biological father’s sister, and her first cousin on her mother’s side who is a CNM in Minnesota. 

She bought her first house at 20 as a single mother mother, tattoo and piercing artist and part-time Fitness Instructor/Personal Trainer, before beginning her journey as a doula which is what prompted her to quit her last year of Engineering school (and working for Sears Canada as an electrical technician. Prior to that at 17 years old with a new baby, she also worked for ScotiaBank as a Bank Teller and Retail Lending Administrator! 

In 2008, she moved to Georgia and married her 2nd and 3rd Baby’s Daddy and wonderful human being,  former NFL Player Kalimba Edwards. 

Corrinna loves being a mother and has 3 adult children, but as fostered and reared other children over the years in addition to her biological children. Struggling as a teenager and then experiencing teen pregnancy herself, she is most passionate about best outcomes and growing more midwives to improve access, build an alliance, and taking action!