Heart of Houston Birth Center

Heart of Houston Birth Center Meet the team of Heart of Houston Birth and Wellness Center Mary Love, APRN, CNM, NP-C Owner, co-founder, clinical director, nurse-midwife Mary Love’s first encounter with a midwife was on the night she was born … Continue reading →

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Heart of Houston Birth Center

Meet the team of Heart of Houston Birth and Wellness Center

Mary Love, APRN, CNM, NP-C

Owner, co-founder, clinical director, nurse-midwife

Mary Love’s first encounter with a midwife was on the night she was born as she slipped into her awaiting hands. It was in her early twenties that she heard the call and set out on her own path to become a midwife, first attending workshops and assisting Pamela Hunt and the other midwives at The Farm. She received a bachelor’s degree in nursing science from Tennessee State University and her master’s degree in nursing from Vanderbilt University. In addition to being a Certified Nurse-Midwife, she is also a Family Nurse Practitioner with experience in pediatric primary, urgent, and emergency care.

Mary believes in a person’s right to make their own decisions regarding their health and well-being and believes how a baby is born, whether it be an “natural” birth or one with all the bells and whistles, is not as important as the way the birthing person internalizes the experience. After giving birth a person should feel strong, proud, empowered, and confident, because this sets the tone for what comes after – the long hard task of parenthood.

Mary also believes collaboration between professionals and systems is vital. Developing collaborative relationships that optimize client care and strengthen professional relationships is key to improving maternal and neonatal outcomes. Building respectful relationships and bridges across professions at the heart of her work. When not catching babies or thinking of ways to fix a particular problem, Mary enjoys cooking, gardening, sewing, and folding laundry. She is married and shares four wonderful children with her husband.

Jessica Gonzales

Co-founder, director of operations and programming, birth assistant and certified doula

Jessica Gonzales has worked in the field of women’s health for over 20 years. The midwives who mentored her taught her that pregnancy and birth should not be treated as an illness, but embraced as a transformative life event. Her passion for birth has fueled her love for educating, supporting, and empowering families.

Her experience includes medical office and lab administration as well as medical business startups. She trained as a midwife’s assistant in Summertown, Tennessee, with the midwives at The Farm. Jessica founded Village Birth and Babies, a full-service doula service for families in the Houston area. Jessica has facilitated support groups for new and expectant people for over a decade and is passionate about creating lasting connections and strong communities.

Jessica and her wife Amanda are parents to two incredible little girls conceived via IVF and Reciprocal IVF. She is committed to reducing the maternal mortality rate in Houston by improving access to evidence based care for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities. Every family is unique and every family deserves support before, during, and after birth.

Bethany Horton, APRN, CNM

Certified Nurse-Midwife

Bethany Horton has been immersed in the birthing world from a young age. Growing up with a labor and delivery nurse mother, hearing birth stories at the dinner table and talks of “birth goo” and placentas were normal occurrences. But it was at the age of 16 that Bethany first felt the calling to be a midwife as she watched her best friend go through pregnancy and give birth for the first time. She received her Master of Science in Nursing from the George Washington University and her Post-Master’s Certificate in Nurse-Midwifery from Shenandoah University in 2019.

Bethany has a passion for family-centered care that focuses on empowering each person to be an active participant in their health care decisions. She believes that most pregnancies and births are normal life events and should be treated as such. She is excited to provide care in a place where birth is viewed as a natural process that is not unnecessarily interrupted. Bethany is a proud mom to one daughter, who was born in a birth center. Bethany and her family are new to Houston and looking forward to exploring all this great city has to offer.