Shani Van Patten | LM, CPM

A woman, wearing green scrubs and a black headband, holding a fragile newborn baby with curly hair, inside Katy Birth Center.

Shani is a Certified Professional Midwife through the North American Registry of Midwives and a Licensed Midwife in the state of Texas. She has been part of the birth, postpartum, and parenting community since 2014–the year she attended her first home birth and was instantly drawn to the sacred work of supporting families.

While serving as a birth and postpartum doula, Shani felt the Lord calling her into midwifery. She pursued her midwifery education through the National College of Midwifery, and beyond academics, she is deeply grateful for the wisdom passed down through her apprenticeships with experienced midwives. She became a Licensed Midwife in early 2021. Since then, she has had the privilege of walking alongside families in both high-volume birth center settings and the intimate home birth space. These experiences have shaped her heart for unhurried, relationship-based care that honors informed choice, evidence-informed care, intuition, and the deep wisdom of birthing mothers and their families.

Shani’s midwifery is also deeply informed by her own motherhood journey. Having experienced both an unplanned cesarean birth and a healing homebirth after cesarean (HBAC), she carries deep compassion for mothers and a strong desire for families to feel supported, empowered, and well-held throughout pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum season–whatever their journey may look like.Shani is honored to serve families at Katy Birth Center, a place that has been formative in her growth as a midwife. With the blessing and support of the founding owners, Shani and her family are in the process of transitioning into ownership of the birth center. This next season is rooted in calling and a desire to be faithful stewards–preserving the legacy of compassionate, community-centered birth care while thoughtfully strengthening the center to serve families for generations to come.

Shani is married to her husband, Russell, a musician and educator, and is privileged to be called mama–and, on occasion, “bruh”–by the two sweetest boys. Outside of birth work and motherhood, she finds joy in a hot morning cup of coffee, no matter the season, getting lost in a good book (likely an audiobook on the way to a birth), and indulging in a little “bedtime revenge procrastination” once the house is quiet. She also loves wandering local favorites like Katy Asian Town, vintage bookstores, and exploring new coffee shops.

A woman with dark hair is laboring in a birth pool, smiling with her eyes closed, while a midwife rinses her hair. The background shows a counter with lit candles and cozy decor.
A Katy midwife, wearing blue gloves and a black headband, tending to a newborn baby lying on a bed. In the background, a woman is sitting, observing the baby.