Tema Mercado is a Xicana Midwife (LM, CPM), mother to five children and a grandmother. She believes that birth work can change the world and has dedicated the last 10 years to birth and reproductive justice on the U.S Mexico Border serving families on both sides of the border. Tema was born and raised in San Jose, California and spent her adolescence in Mexicali, Baja California.

Spinning Babies^® as a concept and practice came to Tema early on in her student midwife journey. She connected with Nicole Morales, and through her mentorship, Tema began to view birth through a different lens. Spinning Babies^® is a paradigm shift in how we understand and assist different forms of pregnancy discomfort. One of the fundamental approaches in this practice asks, “Where is the baby?” in relation to the levels of the pelvis. It decentralizes questions about cervix dilation, which expands our capacity to support complications in births like labor dystocia, shoulder dystocia, and breech birth. The expansiveness of Spinning Babies® and its commitment to restoring balance in pregnancy aligned with Tema’s ancestral midwifery knowledge that was passed down from her Partera ancestors.