Health, Inequality, Jobs, Reproduction In Northern California’s Maternity Desert, a Humboldt Midwife Offers Intimate Births Co-published by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and KQED. Between her two young toddlers, her work as a seaweed farmer on Humboldt County’s coast, and a third baby on the way, Leslie Booher doesn’t have a lot of spare time. But her prenatal appointments with her midwife, Laura Doyle, give Booher the opportunity to really focus on the pregnancy.