EMBLA ÝR GUÐMUNDSDÓTTIR, RN, RM, PhD

MIDWIFE

Embla Guðmundsdóttir has been a midwife since 2008 and has over 11 years of experience in obstetrics at Landspítali Hospital, the largest birthplace in the country, and is a specialist in the field. In her work at Landspítali’s labor and delivery ward, she has been involved in various special projects, supervising the practical training of midwifery and medical students, as well as directing and implementing innovations in family care at the ward with the aim of increasing midwives’ skills in communication with families.

Embla is an assistant professor in the midwifery program at the University of Iceland, where she supervises the teaching and guidance of midwifery students. Her research focuses on childbirth services for migrant women in Iceland, preparation for childbirth and midwifery studies. She completed her doctoral studies in midwifery at the University of Iceland in 2023.

Embla has extensive experience in midwifery. In addition to her work as a midwife on Landspítali’s labor and delivery ward, Embla has worked part-time in antenatal care at the Primary Care Clinics of the Capital Area (Icelandic: Heilsugæsla Höfuðborgarsvæðisins) in addition to working in post partum home care. She has completed a course in acupuncture, has a teaching license in Hypnobirthing and has completed a diploma in pedagogy at the university level at the University of Iceland. She has taught childbirth preparation courses in Icelandic and English under the auspices of the Primary Care Clinics for many years.

Embla works as a midwife at the Reykjavík Birth Center but is also the chairman 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..”