GOLD Learning Speakers

Andrea Dixon, CNM

Avril Bowens, RN, CPM

• Speaker Type: Be at Your BEST During Birth Emergencies Lecture Pack
• Country: USA

Biography:

Avril is the founder of the Midwife Method - a midwife-led, supportive and educational online program dedicated to empowering all birthing people who want to experience a conscientious and connected pregnancy, birth and transition into parenthood. Who want to learn to thrive in body, mind and spirit and not only feel prepared and informed every step of the way...but loved, supported and guided throughout. This incredible resource is available for busy midwives to count on, to provide for all the educational needs of their clients to have a healthy, joyful and empowering pregnancy, birth and smooth transition into parenthood.

For the past four years, she has loved being an instructor and office manager with Birth Emergency Skills Training® (B.E.S.T.), as well as co-developer of the Online and Hybrid programs. B.E.S.T. is dedicated to improving maternal and fetal outcomes by helping midwives effectively, efficiently, competently and confidently manage emergencies when they arise.

She has been intimately woven into the fabric of serving birthing families since 1998 working at home and in birth centers. Together with her partner, she has home-birthed, home-schooled and raised 3 incredible human beings (18, 24 and 26)!

With an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and desire to support a broader population in attaining their health goals, she returned to school, completing a Bachelor of Science in nursing in 2016, then pursued a Family Nurse Practitioner degree at Georgetown University which she was unable to complete due to unforeseen circumstances.

Andrea Dixon, CNM, reveled in birth from an early age, a maternal great aunt (a London homebirth midwife) her inspiration. From NAPSAC in Ann Arbor, MI, apprenticeship in Boulder, CO and graduating CNM from UCSF in 1987, Andrea covered all the bases in midwifery. The sole proprietor of Family Way Educational Services, Weed, CA 1988-Present she has home-birthed families in the largest geographical county in northern California, managed a midwife service for Redding Birth Center, served a hospital-based population in the USVI, WomanCare, in MO and homebirth, birth centers (3) and hospital practices throughout Indiana. Andrea is a long-time instructor of out-of-hospital specific NRP. She developed live B.E.S.T. (Birth Emergency Skills Training) workshops for out of hospital providers, and subsequently, in partnership with Avril Bowens, CPM, HYBRID and ONLINE BEST courses based on Bonnie Urguhart Gruenberg's award winning publication. Homebirth, homeschooling her daughter (now 33 and presently at the CDC), and a midwifery friendly partner of 38 years, have enhanced her life.