About Us
| | The mission of St. Croix Birth & Parenting is to enable couples to experience the childbearing experience as God intended it to be--an ennobling and enriching experience--and to find joy and satisfaction in your vocation as parents. It is not our intent to condemn or criticize those who have not had "natural" childbirths. However, it is our experience that a pregnancy and birth free of drugs and interventions helps ease the transition to parenting and provides a joyful start for the new family. We hope and pray that those couples awaiting the birth of their own precious gift from God will be abundantly blessed by their contact with us. We are named "St. Croix" Birth & Parenting not simply because we are located in this beautiful river valley. "St. Croix" means "Holy Cross" in French. Birth and parenting are for many a "cross," but "holy" for only a few. We believe that these pivotal moments in your life can indeed be enriched with the touch of God--can be a sacred time of drawing on His great riches and strength. If we can bear our crosses with patience and fortitude, God gives us the grace to become better parents and better people. May God bless you. |
Christelle J. K. Hagen, BA, CCE
Most importantly, Christelle is a wife and the mother of three daughters and one son--born in May 2008. The births of her three daughters were all radically different. Birth #1 was a 34-hour hospital birth with "The Works." Birth #2 was a "Run-Away Train" 2-1/2 hour home "shower"birth, and Birth #3 was also a homebirth, this time a waterbirth that occurred after a labor of 4-7 hours, depending on how you count the beginning of labor. The Hagens' son was also a homebirthed waterbaby; his birth consisted of the easiest dilating stage of the four births, but the hardest pushing stage! Christelle is also a fertility educator and certified Christian childbirth educator. She has been breastfeeding at least once every day since the end of September 2000. She has been involved with childbirth and Natural Family Planning classes since 1999. Christelle was an ICEA-certified childbirth educator until 2005; she decided to become re-certified with Apple Tree Family Ministries, a group that is in line with her views on marriage, birth and family life.
Christopher Hagen, BA
Chris met Christelle when they were both students at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. The two have been married for ten years. Chris is the father of their six children, including two children who died before birth. Chris taught Natural Family Planning classes with Christelle from 1999 to 2007, when he began graduate studies for a master's degree in Pastoral Theology. Besides occasionally helping to teach fertility education classes, he occasionally makes a guest appearance in childbirth classes as the best birth coach who ever lived on Stillwater Avenue, having missed his chance to "catch" Daughter #2 by a mere 2 pushes when the midwife rushed in. In his "other" life, he is the manager of and a bookseller at a renowned theological bookstore near downtown Stillwater. (Chris also plays a mean acoustic guitar!)
Chris & Christelle have a great desire to become adoptive parents. And they can be silly, too.
