Ruth is a Certified Professional Midwife and Registered Traditional Midwife from South Africa. Originally born in Switzerland, she moved to South Africa with her South African-born mother and younger sister when she was eight years old and has lived there ever since. Her mother Carol bought a protea flower farm an hour outside of Ceres ( a small town, approximately 2 1/2 hours from Cape Town) and accidentally ‘fell’ into catching the babies of the local farm labourers who called for her because she had ‘healing hands.’ Ruth's mother was the midwife for her first birth. She has studied with Michel Odent and Liliana Lammers, as well as Ina May Gaskin and the Farm midwives. With doula and traditional midwife Lana Petersen, Ruth started Home Birth South Africa in 2010, a web database for those seeking information and advice on home birth in South Africa. Together, they also run the Cape Town Home Birth Gatherings, a quarterly gathering for those seeking information and support on home birth in Cape Town and surrounds. She is the author of The Basic Needs of a Woman in Labour, a book based on the work of Dr Michel Odent and which explores the hormone oxytocin and the environmental factors that affect it. The book is currently available in 6 languages, with more on their way. Ruth is one of the directors of The Compassionate Birth Project, a project aimed at addressing the abuse being experienced in South Africa’s labour wards. Ruth is part of a midwifery care practice called 'Circle of Elephants; with midwife Caitlyn Collins. Together, they attend births at home in Cape Town and surrounds. They also teach workshops for aspiring and student midwives and aim to open a traditional midwifery school one day. Ruth is the mother of four home birthed children and lives in Scarborough a small seaside village near Cape Town, South Africa.