Meet the Midwife

Joy Harris, BSN, RN, CPM-TN, LM

Professionally

I have been a registered nurse since 2005 and a licensed midwife since 2010. I've journeyed from working in a busy hospital Labor and Delivery unit to living and working internationally for 6 years where I did volunteer work as a midwife, trained and taught new midwives and midwifery students, and served the local communities doing primary healthcare and disaster relief work. Since 2014 I've been back in the States and involved in midwifery - primarily in home birth and occasionally in small birthing center settings.

As a midwife with a nursing background, I strive to provide holistic and individualized care without forgetting my nursing roots. I believe passionately in the beauty and power of women birthing outside of the hospital with healthy uncomplicated pregnancies, while also valuing the need for and the place of the medical system and hospital in complicated high risk pregnancies. 

I closed my home birth practice in NM the end of 2022 and moved to the Knoxville area with my family where I am now ready to start up my own small practice once again. I live and am based in Anderson county between Powell and Norris. I serve all surrounding areas/counties. 

Credentials/Current Certifications

  • BSN from the University of New Mexico in 2005. 
  • Close to 4 years of experience in a busy Labor and Delivery Unit as well as a on a Maternal Special Care Unit for high risk/complicated pregnancies.
  • Associates degree as a CPM/LM through the National College of Midwifery in 2010. 
  • Over 14 years of experience working as a midwife both in the States and Internationally.
  • Over 4 years experience training/teaching new midwives and midwife students. 
  • CPR Certified since 2003 - renewed every two years.
  • NRP (Neonatal Resuscitation Program) certified since 2004 and an NRP instructor/teacher since 2008.

Personally

In 2015 I married the man who had started chasing me and set his sights on me in 2008 - despite the many challenges of my international travels and my living for a large portion of those years overseas. 

In 2017 we welcomed our firstborn daughter who was born at home with two amazing midwives present. A beautiful water-birth after a long difficult labor and my husband got to catch her! 

In 2018 we were surprised to discover at my 20 week ultrasound that I was pregnant not with one baby as we'd expected, but with TWINS! Our boy/girl twin's birth stories were quite different than our eldest's. My plan transitioned from a home birth to a hospital birth - especially in light of them both being breech. They were born at the local hospital with an amazing doctor who researched with us and supported us in choosing to have a breech/breech vaginal birth rather than a c-section. While it was quite a different experience from a home birth; I think it was the best experience I could have hoped for having two babies inside me who had both been determined to not be head-down my entire pregnancy.

After our cross-country move in 2022 from NM, and the thriving home birth midwifery practice I had there, it has taken us a few years to settle and find our home here in the Knoxville area. During these two years I've been teaching Neonatal Resuscitation to a lot of midwives and birth assistants in the State and have been making a lot of connections.  At last, I am thankful and blessed to be able to once again incorporate my roots and love for midwifery into my life with the encouragement and support of my husband.

My practice is currently small because of my family life and I typically only accept 1-3 clients a month.