Celebrate Birth is an independent midwifery practice specializing in natural childbirth. It is owned and operated by Melissa Conord-Morrow, LM, and is the only birth center in Polk County, FL. Our staff is honored to serve women in pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period.
The birth center was opened in 1985 and named “Labor of Love” by midwife CharLynn Daughtrey. It was here that Melissa came for two of her pregnancies and where she began her own journey towards midwifery. In 2013, she and her husband James took over and renamed the center “Celebrate Birth.” For over 30 years this home-like setting has been a welcoming place for mothers and their families in the childbearing years.
We offer women a variety of options for prenatal care, all designed to best meet their needs and preferences while maintaining the health and safety of their baby. Our clients can feel empowered through being an active participant in their pregnancy and childbirth experience. We are honored to be a part of this beautiful season of a woman’s life.
Our midwives
Melissa Conord-Morrow, LM, IBCLC, RN
“It is refreshing to see that you can do what you want – with your own body, your own baby, your own birth.”
Melissa has been working with women and families in the Central Florida since 1995, fifteen of those years at Labor of Love. She began as a mother reaching out to others, then as a Breastfeeding Peer Counselor at WIC and a Perinatal Educator and Doula, before completing her midwifery education at Miami Dade College. Licensed in 2004, Melissa has since enjoyed serving others in her calling and is very excited about her return to the former Labor of Love as the new owner of Celebrate Birth. In 2017 she earned her IBCLC certification (license L-127181) and now also acts as the lead lactation counselor at The Nest, a nonprofit organization she and her husband, James, founded with the goal of meeting our community’s needs regarding education and support for growing families.
Personally, Melissa is a native of Florida happily married with six beautiful children, three sweet grandsons and three precious granddaughters. She is very involved with her church family, enjoys great food, and local historical natural spaces.
Michelle Hannah, LM
“I want to encourage our clients to realize that they are capable and made for this. You can do it well and in your own way, so trust your instincts. We will be here right beside you, all the way.”
Michelle Hannah, Licensed Midwife, was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She moved to Lakeland, FL in 1993 when she began attending Southeastern University from which she is an alumna. It was at SEU where she met her husband, Greg, and they have four girls. Michelle enjoys being active in her church community and homeschooling her daughters, and she secretly hopes to one day be on the Amazing Race.
Her passion for the natural process of birth began during her first pregnancy more than 11 years ago. She knew that freedom and choices in birth were possible and began pursuing options. Michelle became a client of Celebrate Birth (formerly Labor of Love). Her birth experiences include hospital, water birth, and home birth; in which her fellow midwife, Melissa Conord-Morrow, was the attending midwife at her last two deliveries. Michelle continued to foster her love for natural birth as a doula before becoming a birth assistant at Celebrate Birth. Here her love for Midwifery took wings and with the support from staff and family she began attending CommonSense Childbirth School of Midwifery in Winter Garden, FL and graduated in April 2015. We are happy to have Michelle as a bilingual midwife and we know she will continue to be an exciting asset to the future and growth of Celebrate Birth. Hablo español.
Kat Mena, CNM, APRN
Kat became interested in midwifery as a child, often playing “OB clinic” with her dolls, and her love of OBGYN and midwifery took off from there. After having a somewhat traumatic birth with her first child, nothing like the peaceful birth center birth she had wanted, she became even more determined to become a midwife. Kat completed nursing school right before the birth of her third baby and worked as a NICU RN and then L&D RN from 2006 to 2016. Kat graduated midwifery school in 2016 and over the years has worked at a birth center, private practice, and as a hospitalist.
Kat has 7 kids and has had a mix of hospital, birth center, and home births. She had her first child at 18 and the last when she was in her 40’s, so she has experienced pregnancy and parenting in many phases of life. In her free time Kat enjoys growing her food forest, working her farm, visiting the beach, camping, backpacking, hiking, traveling, kayaking, sewing, and home improvement projects.
Meredith Fisher, LM
Hello! I am Meredith Fisher. I have been with Celebrate Birth since November of 2015. I was originally hired on as a massage therapist, certified in prenatal massage, but within 2 months I began working as one of their birth assistants as well. While on this wonderful journey, I have discovered just how much I love to serve and encourage mothers and their growing families. Also, the desire to become a midwife was rekindled inside me, an interest that had begun to grow in my heart while I was pregnant with our youngest child over 20 years ago. After graduating from CommonSense Childbirth School of Midwifery in 2024, I am ready to embark upon the next leg of my journey as a midwife. I am blessed to have the opportunity to serve our local families and invest in our community in this way. Thank you for letting me be a small part of this special time in your life!
Our midwives
Melissa Conord-Morrow, LM, IBCLC, RN
“It is refreshing to see that you can do what you want – with your own body, your own baby, your own birth.”
Melissa has been working with women and families in the Central Florida area since 1995, fifteen of those years at Labor of Love. She began as a mother reaching out to others, then as a Breastfeeding Peer Counselor at WIC and a Perinatal Educator and Doula, before completing her midwifery education at Miami Dade College. Licensed in 2004, Melissa has since enjoyed serving others in her calling and is very excited about her return to the former Labor of Love as the new owner of Celebrate Birth. In 2017 she earned her IBCLC certification (license L-127181) and now also acts as the lead lactation counselor at The Nest, a nonprofit organization she and her husband, James, founded with the goal of meeting our community’s needs regarding education and support for growing families.
Personally, Melissa is a native of Florida happily married with six beautiful children, three sweet grandsons and three precious granddaughters. She is very involved with her church family, enjoys great food, and local historical natural spaces.
Michelle Hannah, LM
“I want to encourage our clients to realize that they are capable and made for this. You can do it well and in your own way, so trust your instincts. We will be here right beside you, all the way.”
Michelle Hannah, Licensed Midwife, was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She moved to Lakeland, FL in 1993 when she began attending Southeastern University from which she is an alumna. It was at SEU where she met her husband, Greg, and they have four girls. Michelle enjoys being active in her church community and homeschooling her daughters, and she secretly hopes to one day be on the Amazing Race.
Her passion for the natural process of birth began during her first pregnancy more than 11 years ago. She knew that freedom and choices in birth were possible and began pursuing options. Michelle became a client of Celebrate Birth (formerly Labor of Love). Her birth experiences include hospital, water birth, and home birth; in which her fellow midwife, Melissa Conord-Morrow, was the attending midwife at her last two deliveries. Michelle continued to foster her love for natural birth as a doula before becoming a birth assistant at Celebrate Birth. Here her love for Midwifery took wings and with the support from staff and family she began attending CommonSense Childbirth School of Midwifery in Winter Garden, FL and graduated in April 2015. We are happy to have Michelle as a bilingual midwife and we know she will continue to be an exciting asset to the future and growth of Celebrate Birth.
Kat Mena, CNM, APRN
Kat has 7 kids and has had a mix of hospital, birth center, and home births. She had her first child at 18 and the last when she was in her 40’s, so she has experienced pregnancy and parenting in many phases of life. In her free time Kat enjoys growing her food forest, working her farm, visiting the beach, camping, backpacking, hiking, traveling, kayaking, sewing, and home improvement projects.
Meredith Fisher, LM
Hello! I am Meredith Fisher. I have been with Celebrate Birth since November of 2015. I was originally hired on as a massage therapist, certified in prenatal massage, but within 2 months I began working as one of their birth assistants as well. While on this wonderful journey, I have discovered just how much I love to serve and encourage mothers and their growing families. Also, the desire to become a midwife was rekindled inside me, an interest that had begun to grow in my heart while I was pregnant with our youngest child over 20 years ago. After graduating from CommonSense Childbirth School of Midwifery in 2024, I am ready to embark upon the next leg of my journey as a midwife. I am blessed to have the opportunity to serve our local families and invest in our community in this way. Thank you for letting me be a small part of this special time in your life!
Our Support Staff
James Morrow, co-owner, LMT
“Supporting my wife in her passion to help expectant and new mothers is the greatest feeling, and the group of women she has brought together will only improve the community.”
James has been in the medical field for almost 20 years. In 2011, he decided to return to school for massage therapy with the support of his wife. Since graduating in 2012, James has actively grown his own practice specializing in injury prevention and pain management. In 2013, he knew the time had come to continue the dream of midwifery with his wife, so they took the plunge to acquire the birth center. With Melissa handling the clinical side, James turned his attention to the administrative areas of the birth center. Their goal is simply to offer the community the choice in the prenatal care that they receive and to support the educational needs of all mothers and mothers to be.
James is a Florida native, married to Melissa the Co-Owner of Celebrate Birth with six beautiful children, three grandsons and three granddaughters. He is very involved with the community and enjoys traveling with his wife, visiting family, or even just a simple day trip.
Karen Cobb, Education Coordinator
“I am passionate about helping women empower themselves through education. Each of our classes offers an opportunity to broaden your understanding, strengthen your skills, and bond with our local community of mothers. It is my sincere pleasure to be a resource to our clients as they proceed on their journey from conception to birth and into motherhood.”
Karen has been a Childbirth Educator since 2013 and is the Education Coordinator at Celebrate Birth. In the past, she has served as one of our birth assistants and she still enjoys occasionally serving in this capacity on clinic days. Karen is also the Assistant Director of The Nest, our non-profit partner, helping to connect local families to resources for pregnancy, lactation, and postpartum support.
Karen and her husband have been married for over 20 years and have 6 children together. After four hospital births, Melissa and Michelle attended her fifth and sixth births at home and at the birth center, respectively.
Whitney Filippone, IBCLC, Birth Assistant
“I consider it a privilege to work with this team of women who have an absolute passion to raise up and empower every family all the way, through every turn, shining a light on the strength they already had long before we came on the scene.”
Whitney was a birth assistant in 1999/2000 with Melissa back when the birth center was known as Labor of Love, and in 2015 she returned to continue the work that she loves. In 2017 she became a Certified Breastfeeding Specialist, then in 2023 she passed her boards with flying colors to become an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). She plays an integral role at The Nest, overseeing their lactation program.
Whitney and her husband are high school sweethearts and have four active boys together. She loves to spend time with her family, travel, and entertain friends.
Kate Hill, Birth Assistant
“The body was created to do amazing things! It is my honor to be able to assist mamas and their families as they journey through this exciting time.”
Prior to working at Celebrate Birth, Kate was a client advocate at Options for Women for five years. She enjoyed connecting with moms as they navigated the early stages of pregnancy and learned about the options available to them. This led to an interest in helping families throughout the entire prenatal, birth, and postpartum experience. She became certified as a birth doula through the Birth Boot Camp training program in early 2024 and joined our team shortly afterwards as one of our birth assistants.
Kate is a Florida native and has lived in Lakeland for more than 20 years with her husband and 5 children. Kate loves to travel, read, explore the outdoors and spend as much time with her family as possible.
Erin Sullivan, Office Manager
Erin first became a part of our Celebrate Birth family as a client in 2020. Later that year, she joined our team as our Office Manager. Erin has a 15 year background in retail management and pharmacy and she uses her management and customer service skills to ensure everything in our office runs smoothly.
Erin and her partner Mark have been together for almost 15 years and they have 2 daughters. They were both born and raised in Chicago and decided to trade the cold weather for the Florida sunshine in 2016. In her free time, Erin loves to spend time outdoors with her family. She also enjoys reading and doing crafts with her oldest daughter.
Arianny Alfonso, Office Assistant
“Working at Celebrate Birth has brought me a tremendous amount of peace and overwhelming sense of joy. I am grateful to work alongside the incredible women on our team to offer this kind of care to our community.”
Arianny is a Florida native who spent 10 years living in both Texas and Washington State. She moved back to her hometown Lakeland in 2023 with her two girls. She had a midwife for both pregnancies, laboring at home with her first, and had a birth center delivery with her second. She worked in the oil fields of West Texas for 5 years, but has always had a passion for midwifery care, the special kind of support it offers, and the community centered around womanhood, which led her here to Celebrate Birth. While the oil field and midwifery care are opposites, Arianny’s extensive leadership experience in the field facilitated a seamless transition into her office assistant role. Now she spends her free time reading books, going to the Springs with her girls, or grabbing an iced latte at Black and Brew.