About Us
| | · St Croix Birth & Parenting is the only Twin Cities/St. Croix Valley family-owned small business committed to baby-friendly, mother-friendly and family-friendly natural living that offers education, resources, and support from conception through parenthood. Having this broad perspective on women’s health allows us to understand the significant, often overlooked connections between normal fertility, normal pregnancy, normal birth, and normal breastfeeding. Instead of an “assume something’s going to go wrong" philosophy, we encourage a preventative approach to women’s (and men's!) health. We emphasize the basics: eating healthy foods, staying active, and supporting the normal functioning of our bodies. 
Photo Credit: Dave Hrbacek/The Catholic Spirit |
Christelle J. K. Hagen, BA, CCE, HCHD; Director of St. Croix Birth & Parenting, student midwife, certified doula, childbirth educator and fertility educator
Most importantly, Christelle is Chris's wife and the mother of three daughters and two sons. The births of her children 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' elder son was also a homebirthed waterbaby; his 5-hour birth consisted of the easiest dilating stage of the four births, but the hardest pushing stage! The baby of the family was born in the hospital due to complications that occurred late in the pregnancy. His birth was induced--an educational experience for Christelle that was quite unlike any of her spontaneous births. Christelle is also a fertility educator and a certified Christian childbirth educator. She has been teaching childbirth and Natural Family Planning classes since 1999. Chris & Christelle were certified Natural Family Planning instructors with the Couple to Couple League until 2008. Now Christelle is working to establish the Fertility MattersTM Method, a life-changing Christian fertility awareness/NFP method, designed to naturally support and/or enhance fertility. Christelle was an ICEA-certified childbirth educator from 2001 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. She was certified by Apple Tree in 2007. Christelle is a student midwife; her preceptor is Jane Kirby, CPM, a St. Paul-based midwife. Christelle became a Hypnobabies® Certified Doula in 2011.
Christopher Hagen, BA; Theology, fathering and birth coach advisor; assists with fertility education classes
Chris met Christelle when they were both students at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. The two have been married for 13 years. Chris & Christelle became certified Natural Family Planning instructors in 1999, and 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 also frequently 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 co-owner of and a bookseller at a renowned theological bookstore near downtown Stillwater: Loome Booksellers. (Chris also plays a mean acoustic guitar!)