GOLD Midwifery Conference 2023

Sonia is an occupational therapist specializing in pelvic floor therapy with a focus on the perinatal population.  
In her practice, she uses awareness training, targeted exercise, breath work, yoga, manual therapy and lifestyle modification to help her clients find relief from conditions such as pelvic girdle pain, prolapse, dyspareunia, incontinence, constipation, diastasis recti and general deconditioning connected to pregnancy and postpartum.  Sonia is skilled in helping her clients navigate the psychological and social impact that pelvic floor issues have on relationships and day to day life. In addition to her work as a pelvic floor therapist, Sonia teaches pre/postnatal yoga classes and leads new parent support groups. She is also a part of the continuing education program at Ancient Song Doula Collective and teaches workshops on the pelvic floor for Doulas and pregnant and postpartum people.
Sonia graduated from SUNY Downstate with a Master’s of Science in Occupational Therapy and received a Bachelor of the Arts in Dance from Oberlin College. Sonia trained in pelvic floor rehabilitation with Herman & Wallace Institute and Lindsey Vestal of the Functional Pelvis.
Sonia lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and two children. 

Molly Dutton-Kenny is an American & Canadian midwife. Trained in the USA in community homebirth midwifery, she now makes Canada her home and practices as a Registered Midwife with her loving family & community. She supports education for midwifery students through National Midwifery Institute, and community education around full spectrum pregnancy loss and abortion, respectful pelvic exams, and midwifery-based management and support of these experiences, centering home and holistic medicine as options for most people. You can read more about her work at www.mollyduttonkenny.com.  

Sarah Mlambo is a registered Nurse and Midwife who has international and intercultural nursing and midwifery experience in both the public and private sector. She has several qualifications from Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. Sarah Mlambo is currently finalising her PhD  where she focusses on a model for midwives in the facilitation of childbirth-choices. She is a published author and Midwifery educator in Namibia.  

Marea Goodman (she/her) is a licensed midwife specializing in pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and conception care for the LGBTQ+ community. A graduate of the National Midwifery Institute, Marea got her license from the California Medical Board in 2015 and spent the following year and a half working at birth centers in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Vieja, Guatemala. She founded her midwifery practice, Restore Midwifery, in 2016 in the Bay Area, and is now serving the community in Santa Cruz, CA.
Aside from midwifery, Marea is also a writer whose work has been featured by the Huffington Post, Ms Magazine, and Mother.ly. She co-authored the book, Baby Making for Everybody—Family Building and Fertility for LGBTQ+ and Solo Parents, which is set to be published in April, 2023. She lives in Santa Cruz with her three children and her wife, Andrea Ruizquez, who is also a midwife.

Ray Rachlin (she/they) is a Licensed Midwife and Certified Professional Midwife providing home-birth midwifery care, fertility and home-IUI care, and community education throughout the greater Philadelphia area and South Jersey. Ray founded Refuge Midwifery in 2017 to create a home for families not served by our current healthcare system.
In addition to their midwifery practice, Ray has been immersed in promoting affirming reproductive care for transgender patients and has taught midwives, doctors, nurses, and birth professionals throughout the country on trans-inclusive fertility, birth, and postpartum care. In their private practice, Ray specializes in natural fertility support for individuals with prior hormone use. Ray is the co-author of the forthcoming book Baby Making for Everybody—a Guide for LGBTQ+ and Solo Parents, coming April 2023.
Ray earned their Bachelor of Science in midwifery at Birthingway College of Midwifery in Portland, Oregon, in 2016 and also holds a Bachelor of Science in political science, urban studies, and labor studies from Queens College. Ray is a member of the Queer and Transgender Midwives Association. Ray lives with their partner and child in Philadelphia, PA.

I studied Biology at the University of York (UK) before training as a midwife in Norwich (University of East Anglia, UK) I have been a stay at home parent for the past few years but continue to read on the physiology of birth which is my passion and have written for MIDIRS midwifery magazine. I am a member of AIMS (Association for the Improvements in the Maternity Services) UK and an Associate member of the Royal College of Midwives.

Rebecca Feldman is Certified Nurse Midwife, and Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner who practices in a dual role in the field of reproductive psychiatry. She is the founder and director of Brooklyn Parent Support, a group mental health practice providing group and individual therapy and medication management. Rebecca is a graduate of Frontier Nursing University in midwifery, and New York University with a Post Master’s in Psychiatric Nursing. She has practiced perinatal psychiatry at the Motherhood Center of New York, and Zucker Hillside Hospital. As a midwife, she created a mental health program housed within the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Woodhull Medical Center, a large public hospital in Brooklyn. She is currently an adjunct professor at New York University, providing lectures to the midwifery and psychiatric nurse practitioner programs. A frequent guest speaker on the topic of promoting access to parental mental health care, she has recently presented for the American College of Nurse-Midwives, the National Perinatal Association, and Postpartum Support International.

Dr. Andrew Dorough is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. He attended Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in biology. He then earned his Doctor of Chiropractic Degree from Logan College of Chiropractic in St. Louis, Missouri. He later earned a post-graduate certification from the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (CACCP). He is qualified to deliver highly skilled and safe treatment to pregnant and postnatal patients and to neonatal and infant patients. Dr. Dorough enjoys providing collaborative care. He currently works in a family medicine clinic which boasts a breastfeeding medicine physician IBCLC, along with other IBCLCs, two nurse practitioners and a physician assistant. He assesses and treats infants with various forms of structural issues, including but not limited to cranial bone deformation (plagiocephaly), torticollis, and tongue and neck dysfunction, as related to feeding difficulties and infant well-being.

Dr. Tanya Khemet Taiwo is an assistant professor in the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University. She also provides midwifery care on a part-time basis at CommuniCare Health Centers, a Federally Qualified Health Center with clinics in urban and rural communities around the Sacramento area. Dr. Taiwo is an epidemiologist whose research examines the role of maternal prenatal stress on child neurodevelopment, and how these stressors interact with environmental exposures. She serves as co-director of the Community Engagement Core at the UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center. She is also a research fellow at The Birth Place Lab at the University of British Columbia. At the Birth Place Lab she’s collaborating on the Giving Voice to Mothers Study, a community based participatory research project that examines how race, ethnicity and birthplace affect maternity care in the United States. Tanya comes from a family tradition of midwives, stretching back at least three generations, she received her midwifery training at Seattle Midwifery School, and apprenticed with midwives in Seattle, Senegal and Jamaica. She is committed to the revitalization of the tradition of midwifery within the African American community, and the eradication of the ethnic disparities in perinatal health outcomes.

Dr. Lesley A. Tarasoff is a Canadian Institutes of Health Research-funded Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Health and Society at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She is a leading scholar on the perinatal health of women with disabilities; Dr. Tarasoff is a co-author of the first known clinical practice guidelines on labour, delivery, and postpartum care for people with physical disabilities (see Berndl et al., 2021, JOGC) and of several systematic reviews and studies on the perinatal health outcomes and care experiences of women with disabilities in Canada. Primarily drawing on qualitative methodologies, her broader program of research aims to understand and address disparities and inequities in reproductive, perinatal, and mental health and health care experienced by often-stigmatized and marginalized groups, namely women with disabilities and sexual minority women. She holds a PhD in Public Health Sciences, with a Specialization in Women’s Health, from the University of Toronto. She is an advocate of midwifery care and even more so after the birth of her son in 2021.

Bernadette is a midwife with a Master in Public Health (MPH), core and pelvic floor specialist, published author and previous pant wetter. She has worked in midwifery across Australia from remote Aboriginal Communities to big city hospitals to publicly funded homebirth. She spent a year volunteering as a midwifery educator in the Solomon Islands and teaches midwifery emergency courses in rural and remote areas around Australia. She was awarded the Sidney Sax award for best overall performance in her MPH. She is also the Founder and Creator of Core and Floor Restore – online education and exercise programs, workshops, and consultations. Her passion is to enable people to use their bodies and minds to their greatest ability in all aspects of life. A big part of her work is centered around emotional and physical birth trauma and postpartum recovery. She offers free online antenatal classes and co-host's "The Great Birth Rebellion" an evidence-informed podcast. Bernadette’s life mission to bring the rate of birth trauma down to zero whilst simultaneously improving postpartum care. She has epically birthed two babes at home and recovered from incontinence and prolapse. When she isn’t working or studying you can find her out bush, camping and hiking or splashing in the bath at home with her boys.

I am an Independent midwife, freelance midwifery teacher. I completed a BsC in Midwifery and a Master Degree at King's College and City University of London. I have worked as a community midwife and a in a Birth center in London at University college and at st Thomas hospital .I am a certified acupuncturist specialized in obstetric acupuncture. I am teaching nationally and internationally workshop for midwives on the use of acupressure for labour preparation, induction of labour and for pain relief. I am using acupressure whiting my clinical practice, providing antenatal classes and facilitating home birth. I strongly advocate the use of acupressure internationally as it will allow midwives to expand their role, becoming more complete and independent practitioner. Acupressure being drug –free and therefore having not harmful teratogenic effect, provides a much safer and satisfying childbirth experience as well as facilitating a more natural and less medicalized childbirth.

A graduate of the London Film School, Toni Harman has produced and directed a number of internationally distributed documentary films including MICROBIRTH, about the origins of the human microbiome, FREEDOM FOR BIRTH, about the struggle for women's rights in childbirth and DOULA!, about the work of birth and postnatal doulas. Toni’s extensive research for MICROBIRTH led to her co-authoring the books THE MICROBIRTH EFFECT and YOUR BABY’s MICROBIOME. Toni is also a professional speaker at international conferences about the science of the microbiome and epigenetics. As Educational Leader of the MICROBIOME COURSES online school, with over 37,000 enrolled students, Toni combines knowledge gained from researching the subject for ten years with her extensive experience of running educational one-day and multiple-day workshops for adult learners. 

Patricia Díaz L., Woman passionate about accompanying Women and Families through their Conscious and Connected gestational, birthing and parenting journeys. She is a trained Pediatrician, IBCLC and Doula. Graduated as a Surgeon physician and Pediatric Specialist from the Central University of Venezuela, at the main Children’s Hospital of the country; JM de los Ríos. From her formative years, she fell in love with the dynamic process of Breastfeeding and the unique physical, nutritional, immunological, qualities of it, along with the transformative emotional and spiritual bond that formed between the new parents and their baby: "Being a witness to that first magical and intimate human contact, is one of the most wonderful sensations in the world; I have ever experienced”. Dr. Patricia Díaz graduated as Promoter and Consultant of the Lactation Center ""Mi Gota de Leche” ( “ My Drop of Milk” ) at the Hospital J.M. de los Ríos, with the endorsement of UNICEF. She was part of the First Cohort of Diplomats in Breastfeeding and Complementary Feeding Practices, of the Faculty of Medicine, at the Central University of Venezuela. Member of the American Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) and the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA). Trained as a Doula, at the Auroramadre Center in Venezuela. National and International speaker. With more than a decade of experience, Patricia, strongly advocates for Human Lactation Education, at her private practice in Venezuela, where she currently is the Chief of Pediatrics at La Trinidad Medical Teaching Center. At this center, she has co-designed the Respectful Birthing Protocol (to honor the Sacred Hour, Skin to Skin and Rooming in; most recently updated alongside Neonatology Department, to adjust it for COVID19 context). Also through her social media platform @PediatríaAutana (Tree of Life), she educates, advocates for Breastfeeding families and designs educational tools for Parents and Caregivers, Families and Teachers, in the most innovative formats, adjusted to their needs, concerning topics associated with Prenatal Prolactation Prep, Human Lactation, Parenting, Growth and Neurodevelopment, Pediatrics.

Renowned expert Elizabeth Davis has been a midwife, reproductive health care specialist, educator and consultant for over 40 years. She is internationally active in promoting physiologic, undisturbed birth and is widely sought after for her expertise in midwifery education, legislation, and organizational development. She is the author six widely translated books on birth, sexuality, and female psychology, including “Orgasmic Birth: Your Guide to a Safe, Satisfying, and Pleasurable Birth Experience,” “The Rhythms of Women’s Desire: How Female Sexuality Unfolds at Every Stage of Life,” and the textbook “Heart & Hands: A Midwife’s Guide to Pregnancy and Birth,” now in an updated 2019 5th edition (see https://elizabethdavis.com for details). She served as Regional Representative and Education Committee Chair for the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA), as President of Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC), and as midwife consultant to the State of California’s Alternative Birthing Methods Study. She is the recipient of the California Association of Midwives’ Brazen Woman Award, and Midwifery Today’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She is Co-founder of the MEAC accredited National Midwifery Institute, and author/instructor of Heart & Hands Coursework.

Renowned expert Elizabeth Davis has been a midwife, reproductive health care specialist, educator and consultant for over 40 years. She is internationally active in promoting physiologic, undisturbed birth and is widely sought after for her expertise in midwifery education, legislation, and organizational development. She is the author six widely translated books on birth, sexuality, and female psychology, including “Orgasmic Birth: Your Guide to a Safe, Satisfying, and Pleasurable Birth Experience,” “The Rhythms of Women’s Desire: How Female Sexuality Unfolds at Every Stage of Life,” and the textbook “Heart & Hands: A Midwife’s Guide to Pregnancy and Birth,” now in an updated 2019 5th edition (see https://elizabethdavis.com for details). She served as Regional Representative and Education Committee Chair for the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA), as President of Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC), and as midwife consultant to the State of California’s Alternative Birthing Methods Study. She is the recipient of the California Association of Midwives’ Brazen Woman Award, and Midwifery Today’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She is Co-founder of the MEAC accredited National Midwifery Institute, and author/instructor of Heart & Hands Coursework.

Sarah Mlambo is a registered Nurse and Midwife who has international and intercultural nursing and midwifery experience in both the public and private sector. She has several qualifications from Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. Sarah Mlambo is currently finalising her PhD where she focusses on a model for midwives in the facilitation of childbirth-choices. She is a published author and Midwifery educator in Namibia.

Loredana Zordan is an Independent midwife, freelance midwifery teacher. She completed a BsC in Midwifery and a Master Degree at King's College and City University of London. She has worked as a community midwife and a in a Birth center in London at University college and at St. Thomas hospital. She is a certified acupuncturist specialized in obstetric acupuncture.
She is teaching nationally and internationally workshop for midwives on the use of acupressure for labour preparation, induction of labour and for pain relief.
She is using acupressure whiting the clinical practice, providing antenatal classes and facilitating home birth. She strongly advocates the use of acupressure internationally as it will allow midwives to expand their role, becoming more complete and independent practitioner. Acupressure being drug –free and therefore having not harmful teratogenic effect, provides a much safer and satisfying childbirth experience as well as facilitating a more natural and less medicalized childbirth.