MIDWIFE
EMBLA ÝR GUÐMUNDSDÓTTIR, RN, RM, PhD
Embla Ýr Guðmundsdóttir has been a midwife since 2008 and has nearly two decades of experience across maternity care, including labour and birth care, antenatal care, postnatal home care, childbirth education and midwifery-led birth services. She is a registered specialist in obstetrics and has over 11 years of experience from Landspítali, the National University Hospital of Iceland, the country’s largest maternity unit.
During her time at Landspítali’s Labour Ward, Embla was involved in quality improvement and development projects, supervised the clinical training of midwifery and medical students, and led initiatives aimed at strengthening family-centred care and communication between midwives and families.
Embla is an Assistant Professor of Midwifery at the University of Iceland, where she teaches and supervises midwifery students. She completed her PhD in Midwifery at the University of Iceland in 2023. Her research focuses on equity and respectful care in maternity services, with particular emphasis on migrant women’s experiences, autonomy in childbirth, birth experiences, childbirth preparation and midwifery education. She is also involved in research on midwifery-led models of care and women’s experiences of giving birth at Reykjavík Birth Center.
Embla is actively involved in the development of midwifery education in Iceland and is a member of a working group currently revising and restructuring the midwifery programme at the University of Iceland. She has also served on the editorial board of Ljósmæðrablaðið, the Icelandic Journal of Midwifery.
Embla’s clinical work has spanned hospital-based labour and birth care, antenatal care in primary healthcare, postnatal home care, childbirth preparation and midwifery-led care. She has completed training in acupuncture, is a certified Hypnobirthing instructor, and holds a postgraduate diploma in university pedagogy from the University of Iceland. For many years, she has taught childbirth preparation courses in both Icelandic and English.
Embla works as a midwife at Reykjavík Birth Center and is one of its founders, owners and Chair of the Board.
“If I were to be completely honest, I don’t know exactly how or when I decided to become a midwife. I regularly went to the library with my mother and sister, and I would always find a new book about the childbirth process and how children are born. We would also go swimming regularly, and I could not stop admiring the beautiful pregnant women in the shower. I just felt like everything in the maternity process had a lot of appeal. I always, somehow, wanted to be a midwife, and so, it turned out that I went into nursing to be able to study midwifery and become a midwife. During my years of nursing school, I worked as an assistant on the labor and delivery ward at Landspítali, and I will never forget the first time I assisted a midwife in childbirth. After my shift, I literally floated home in bliss and couldn‘t wait to get back to work.
Today, I am simply very grateful. I can hardly believe that my job is to support women so that they can experience the greatest moments of their lives, in their wonderful sensitivity and beauty towards themselves and their children yet at the same time being so big and strong.”
