About Us
Biography
Dianne Bjarnson, B.S. Ed, M.S.M., CPM, LDEM
Founder of Sunstone Formulas. A Master Herbalist and creator of all Sunstone Formulas Formulas
Dianne Bjarnson, otherwise known as The Traditional Midwife, has practiced as a midwife for over 40 years assisting over 1,400 births. She has a Masters Degree in Midwifery, is a Certified Professional Midwife, and is licensed in Utah as a Direct-Entry Midwife. Information about her current midwifery practice is found at SunstoneMaternity.com.
Midwifery education has been Dianne’s focus for many decades. She founded the Midwives College of Utah and was President of the College for the first 20 years. During that time period, she wrote a great deal of the midwifery curriculum and assisted the College in becoming accredited by the national Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC) in the first round. For three years, Dianne served as a member of the MEAC Board and was Secretary for one of those years. She also acted as an Accreditation Site Visitor.
For many years, Dianne has been teaching emergency childbirth classes at various preparedness fairs and for various organizations. At this time she is shifting her time and attention into preparing emergency childbirth education materials. See EmergencyChildbirth.com
Dianne is naturally oriented in her approach to midwifery, first getting educated in herbology before midwifery studies. Over the years, she has developed many herbal formulas, which she has used in her midwifery practice, and which now are being sold online at SunstoneFormulas.com. She is a Master Herbalist, and is CEO and the Director of R&D of Sunstone, Inc., Pleasant Grove, UT. She also has been a faculty member of The School of Natural Healing, Springville, UT, The College of Herbs and Natural Healing, Great Britain, and the University of Natural Medicine, Santa Fe, NM.
Other education includes certification in hypnotherapy, NLP, iridology, reflexology, and magnetic therapy, EMT training and graduate classes in educational psychology and family therapy, as well as training in many other alternative health modalities, including various energy therapy models.
Her activities in professional organizations have included giving six lectures at national MANA conventions, being a founding member and President of the Utah Midwives Association, sitting on the Utah Health Forum Board, state chairperson of NAPSAC, chairing many conferences including UMA, DMU, and MANA region.
Dianne was born and raised in Moscow, Idaho. She graduated with a B.S. Ed from the University of Idaho. While at the U of I she was selected as an Outstanding Senior Graduate, was Executive Secretary of the Associated Students and on the Executive Board. She also was a member of Mortar Board, was president of CUP Political Party and Chairperson of the Committee on Reform in Student Government.
In spite of her impressive list of professional and educational accomplishments, she readily tells everyone that what makes life most worthwhile is family — her husband, her ten children, and her numerous grandchildren. This love for family is exemplified in her midwifery practice as she compassionately assists families during pregnancy and childbirth.
What makes Sunstone Formulas unique among the myriad herbal formulation companies around the world?
Many of our products are unique.
Simply put, we offer many products that do not have counterparts in the herbal industry. For instance, many of our formulas making up our line of pregnancy/labor/delivery products are unparalleled, and that is why they are so popular among direct-entry midwives, health care professionals, and those who desire to take more ownership of all that is entailed in preparing for a baby’s birth.
Our formulas are handmade.
While there are many very small herbal companies that hand-make a small number of products, there are no mid-sized companies like Sunstone Formulas that hand-make such large quantities and such a large number of formulations. We have over 70 products that we prepare right in our own facilities, with our own hands. The contents of each and every bottle of syrup, salve, glycerite, and tincture, and each bag of tea or powder is carefully measured and inspected against our quality standards. If something does not meet our expectations, we fix it.
Our herbs are the highest quality.
All our herbal formulas that we sell originate from either organically grown or wild-harvested herbs. We use only the freshest and most potent ingredients that we can get our hands on. Some of the herbs we use are harvested right out of the local Uintah Mountains in Utah by herbologists and their trained assistants. Others we get from various high-quality herb providers all across the country. In the event that we acquire an herb that does not meet our expectations, we reorder from another source rather than use the subpar plant in our formulas.
Our extraction methods and formulation processes are superior.
We have developed over the last 10 years a unique extraction methodology that allows us to extract a greater amount of the nutrients and healing properties from the herbs than common processes allow. We also insist on extracting from the appropriate parts of the entire plant, thus enabling us to acquire a full array of the plant’s properties for maximum healing benefits. Thus our formulas tend to be more powerful and effective than our competition’s.
Disclaimer: Our whole-plant extraction methodology confirms and ensures that we are not playing the conventional pharmaceutical game of isolating particular nutritional properties in certain amounts from the herbs in order to promote a prescribed physiological response. That is the realm of synthesized drugs and supplements, and we are not in that business! And that is why throughout our eStore and other websites we refer to our products as exclusively “whole-food,” “whole-plant,” or “whole-herb.” Moreover, in order to avoid associating our products with even the very appearance of conventional drugs or supplements, we deliberately refrain as much as possible from utilizing nomenclature specific to the practice of medicine, and we do not specify particular medical outcomes as a result of taking our products.