The Heart Behind Midwives Bay Area
Shannon Staloch, LM, CPM, IBCLC
Founder | Licensed Midwife | Lactation Consultant
Shannon Staloch is a Licensed Midwife (LM), Certified Professional Midwife (CPM), and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) offering holistic, heart-centered home birth care to families throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. As the founder of Midwives Bay Area, Shannon has built a trusted practice rooted in skilled clinical care, personalized attention, and a deep respect for the sacred nature of birth.
Shannon’s path to midwifery has taken her from the kitchens of Oakland to birth clinics in Senegal, serving families in diverse communities and a variety of settings. She earned her midwifery degree from the National Midwifery Institute and has been licensed by the California Medical Board since 2008. In 2010, she became a board-certified lactation consultant and has since supported hundreds of families in their breastfeeding and chestfeeding journeys.
Her commitment to comprehensive care is shaped by her own experience as a mother of three—each born at home with midwives—giving her an intimate understanding of the transformation that birth brings. Shannon integrates traditional midwifery skills with holistic health practices, informed by additional training in herbal medicine, functional nutrition, and breastfeeding physiology. She has studied with leaders including Aviva Romm, Dr. Elisa Song, Suzanne Colson, and the Weston A. Price Foundation.
Under Shannon’s guidance, Midwives Bay Area has become known for offering natural, low-intervention birth and personalized prenatal, birth, and postpartum care for families in Berkeley, Oakland, Piedmont, Kensington, and beyond. Her approach blends evidence-based care with intuition, reverence, and a deep trust in the body’s innate ability to birth.
Tara Mariquita Compehos, CPM, LM
Licensed Midwife | Educator | Birth Advocate
Tara Mariquita Compehos is a Licensed and Certified Professional Midwife whose approach to care is rooted in undisturbed, physiological birth and deep respect for each birthing person’s autonomy. Drawing on decades of experience, Tara brings grounded presence, skilled hands, and a belief that birth is the mother or birthing person’s dance with their baby—not about the midwife.
Raised in Oakland and Berkeley, Tara’s journey into birth work began after the home births of her two children in 2002 and 2005. She became a doula and began a ten-year apprenticeship with the revered Hawaiian birthkeeper Medrakanoeonapua, carrying forward her mentor’s unique midwifery legacy. She has trained with internationally respected teachers including Elizabeth Davis, Maggie Banks, and Whapio Bartlett, and completed an internship with Mercy in Action in the Philippines. Tara holds a Midwifery Arts degree from The Matrona.
In addition to attending births, Tara has served as Vice Chair of the Hawaii State Homebirth Task Force and was a founding member of the SHINE Sisterhood Initiative. She is licensed in both Hawai’i and Louisiana and is a committed advocate for birth activism, protecting cultural and traditional birth practices.
Tara’s practice is infused with her knowledge of plant medicine, lomilomi massage (studied under Auntie Margaret Machado), and an unwavering dedication to honoring the sacredness of birth. She also offers educational programs for midwives and birthing families at mariquitamidwife.com.
Eva Zazueta-Lara , LM
Eva is a Licensed Midwife (LM) offering compassionate, holistic home birth care to families across the San Francisco Bay Area. A descendant of a long line of midwives, Eva’s journey into birth work began when her great-grandmother Chuy—who served families along the Arizona–New Mexico border for decades—passed down her midwifery supplies and stories. That moment planted a seed that would later blossom into a lifelong calling.
After the empowering home births of her two children, Eva spent decades serving women as a dedicated Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner. Still, the dream of midwifery never left her heart. In 2016, she fulfilled that dream and became a California Licensed Midwife, bringing her career full circle and honoring the wisdom of her matriarchs.
Now a grandmother of six, Eva blends decades of clinical experience with a deep, unwavering trust in the natural process of birth. Her care is rooted in tradition, evidence-based practice, and respect for each family’s choices. Eva believes in the power of uninterrupted birth, honoring each woman’s innate ability to safely bring her baby into the world—surrounded by presence, patience, and reverence.
Eva proudly serves families throughout the Bay Area with personalized prenatal care, home birth midwifery, and postpartum support—continuing the legacy of her grandmothers with heart and skill.