Midwifery / Childbirth Continuing Education Course Bundle #8 (16.5 Hours)

Dr. Kendall-Tackett is a health psychologist and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, and the Owner and Editor-in-Chief of Praeclarus Press, a small press specializing in women's health. Dr. Kendall-Tackett is Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Psychological Trauma and was Founding Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Lactation, a position she held for 11 years. She is Fellow of the American Psychological Association in Health and Trauma Psychology, Past President of the APA Division of Trauma Psychology, and a member of APA’s Publications and Communications Board.

Isabella is a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Nursing and Midwifery at Charles Darwin University in Australia. She has over 12 years’ experience as a midwife and has also been an educator and researcher in her home country Ghana. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s in nursing from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. Isabella is a foundation fellow of the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives and a member of the Ghana Registered Midwives Association. Isabella is currently undertaking her PhD focusing on improving midwifery care for women who develop preeclampsia in Ghana. She loves to engage in advocacy and is currently a member of Action on Preeclampsia Ghana (APEC-GH), the sole advocacy group concerned with preeclampsia in Ghana. She is a member of the APEC newsletter committee and occasionally facilitates their online webinars for pregnant women, their families, and midwives.

Debby Gould is a ‘BirthCare’ consultant providing education, support and counsel to women, partners, families and health professionals. Her goal is to provide transformational care to support education, empowerment and healing. She is an author of the book, ‘How to Heal a Bad Birth – Making Sense, Making Peace & Moving On’ and Co- Director of Birthtalk.org. Originally, a registered nurse she further trained and worked as a midwife, and is now a birth; educator, worker and counsellor, international author, speaker and mother of two children. For over twenty years she has supported women and men in the journey to healing after a traumatic birth, enabling women to make sense of their experience and its impact, offering hope for healing, and providing support and tools to process and make peace with what happened. She has shared in receiving the honour of a Lord Mayor’s Australia Day Community Achievement award for this work. Debby has been Birthtalk’s primary educator and facilitator of Healing From Birth meetings. She has presented for the ACM, Hypnobirthing Australia, Capers, Homebirth Australia, Australian Breastfeeding Association and various other maternal health and midwifery conferences. She guest lectures to Bachelor of Midwifery students at several Universities, and gives presentations for The Australian Doula College, Friends of the Birth Centre, Red Tent festival and other community groups. She also provides professional development for hospital midwives and doulas on the topic of Birth Trauma and how to support women to heal and have better births. She has co-written articles for Birthtalk’s blog “The Truth About Traumatic Birth” and has appeared in the media including radio, newspaper, birth and parenting magazines and podcasts and in the recent birth documentary ‘Birth Time’ as an experienced health professional’s voice to the issue of the importance of birth and traumatic birth.

Alixandra Bacon is a Registered Midwife and settler living and working in Vancouver, BC on the traditional and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-waututh and Tsawwassen nations. Alixandra is President of the Canadian Association of Midwives, Past President of the Midwives Association of BC, and clinical faculty at the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine. Alixandra is passionate about creating equitable access to excellent sexual, reproductive and newborn midwifery services for everyone. Alixandra is the recipient of the UBC Alumni Builder Award.

Dusty Chipura is a Master Certified and AACC accredited ADHD Coach, specializing in supporting pregnant people with ADHD. She is passionate about creating equitable access to ADHD support services, especially for people from marginalized communities, and has created the first pregnancy-specific resource for people with ADHD in conjunction with Alix Bacon, the ADHD and Pregnancy Journal. Dusty offers private and group coaching, runs various online courses, and curates a virtual ADHD support space called the ADHD Studio. You can find her salty op eds on Twitter and Tiktok, @dustychipura.

First and foremost I am a mother, wife and latterly grandmother, my personal life has always largely informed my practice and I am always careful to remember that the women I meet are also like me in that they belong to a family.

I am a freelance consultant midwife one of the first in the UK and formerly employed at 2 very large and diverse maternity units. My career started in the 1970’s in nursing however midwifery was always my ambition and particularly the nurturance of midwifery led care.

I am a practicing psychotherapist interested in the emotional impact of childbirth; in part due to my own mothering experiences and research. I have worked closely with women to understand this phenomenon and researched emotional transition to motherhood.

Raising awareness for maternal mental health and particularly women surviving sexual abuse, I co-founded Sanctum Midwives campaigning on maternity care and sexual abuse. I have worked for many years raising awareness around the issues of maternal mental health and supporting both women and all those who work in maternity care situations. I believe positive mental health is the cornerstone to mothering and self fulfilment.

I have published widely in peer review journals but also in many books. My latest publication is ‘Understanding Anxiety, Worry and Fear in Childbearing Women’ which I edited and wrote 4 chapters. I am currently writing on the issues of child and adult female sexual abuse and its implications.

I care very deeply about women and their babies that they may come through their pregnancy and birth unharmed. I will continue to do this for the sake of midwives everywhere.

Augustine is an internationally recognized midwifery educator, experienced business executive, and veteran midwife with a heart focused on the underserved, marginalized, and under-resourced. She respects the importance of being empowered and undisturbed during labor, and balances this attention to the sacred with 20+ years experience attending births in hospitals, birth centers, and homes in rural, urban and suburban environments in the US and abroad. Augustine’s focus is finely attuned to the process of letting go and opening to the unknown in labor and in life. Additionally, Augustine has a master’s degree from Bastyr University in Seattle, WA where she majored in Maternal/Child Health Systems.

Her life's mission is to mainstream midwifery and deconstruct the culture of fear and misinformation that surrounds the maternity world globally. To that end, Augustine 'midwife's the midwife' through her many education programs, consulting services, product development, podcasts and video production, business site visits, and with private coaching services for midwives, students, maternity practice owners, & birth center administrators through her consulting firm, The Midwifery Wisdom Collective. It is her profound honor to illuminate the sacred path to joyful and sustainable midwifery practice. She lives and works in India.

Fiona has been a midwife for 32 years. She is also a registered nurse and maternal & child health nurse, a birth educator and bodyworker. She has worked in Melbourne public and private birthing hospitals and has supported many families with the birth of their babies at home and in hospital. Interwoven throughout her midwifery practice has been an involvement in midwifery education and the teaching of Birthwork Workshops. The focus of all birth related teaching is on the dynamic pelvis and how to make space for the baby. Fiona is also a Spinning Babies® Approved Trainer. When not teaching workshops, Fiona offers bodywork sessions to women in a 1:1 capacity, with particular emphasis on internal pelvic release work. She has been instrumental in establishing the Internal Pelvic Release Work Mentoring Program in Australia. Fiona’s drive to teach is fuelled by a desire to see childbearing women hold birth knowledge, learn to honour their pelvic treasures and work with their innate power and in so doing, eradicate birth trauma. Fiona lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Heather is a Métis Midwife from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She studied midwifery at Laurentian University, focusing on rural and remote practice. Heather practiced midwifery at the Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto for two years before moving to Hay River, Northwest Territories to establish a Midwife practice and help return birthing services to the community. Heather is now living and working in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and is president of the Midwives Association of the Northwest Territories and is a Core Leader of the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives.

Maya Bolman was born and raised in Minsk, Belarus. She was certified as IBCLC in 2001 and currently works as a lactation consultant at Senders Pediatrics and Breastfeeding Medicine of Northeast Ohio.

Maya is well known internationally for her work promoting hand expression and breast massage to health professionals and parents. She recognizes that teaching these basic tools helps empower them to work through breastfeeding challenges including engorgement, plugged ducts, separation from the infant, and milk supply concerns. She has worked with Dr. Ann Witt to create an instructional video “The Basics of Breast Massage and Hand Expression” and conducts research on the effectiveness of Therapeutic Breast Massage in Lactation (TBML) both in the office and as a treatment at home for mothers.

Bonnie Urquhart Gruenberg, CNM, MSN, CRNP, is the award-winning author of Birth Emergency Skills Training; Manual for Out-of-Hospital Midwives, and co-developer of the workshop by the same name. In 2023, her long-awaited seminal work, Birth Emergencies for Community Midwives, will come to press. She has caught more than 2,100 babies to date in the home, in a free-standing birth center, and in the hospital. She currently works for Wellspan Health in Lancaster County, PA. Bonnie has written and illustrated 12 books on topics ranging from midwifery and maternity care to wild horse management. She enjoys painting, photography, and hobby farming.

Priyanka Idicula is a Certified professional International midwife (U.S.A) and a Lamaze certified childbirth educator(FACCE,LCCE). She is currently the director of Birthvillage the natural birthing centre one of India’s popular natural birth centres and is the managing trustee for birth for change (NGO) India. She also has extensive experience in working in maternity care with pregnant teenagers as part of the Tejus home project one of its kind in India.

She has presented various papers on holistic maternity care and has been the face of India at various international midwifery conferences. She has also been invited to speak as a guest speaker at various nursing colleges on midwifery education and human rights in childbirth in India. She has been honoured with one world birth hero runner up championship in 2011. She has been awarded the "Lifetime Achievement Award for Service to Mother Baby" by Midwifery Today recognising midwifery leadership and in the promotion of birth as normal life event in 2018 at Germany. She has also been awarded the best midwife of the year 2019 at the International breastfeeding conference, India. She is also one of the early pioneers for water birth in India in 2010. She is also the first Asian to win the dual scholarship from Lamaze International She also carries with her Bachelors and Masters in microbiology.

Barbara Harper is an internationally recognized expert on waterbirth and gentle birth, a published author of books and journal articles, who founded the non-profit organization, Waterbirth International, in 1988, with one goal in mind – to ensure that waterbirth is an “available option” for all women. During the past five decades Barbara has worked as an obstetric, pediatric, and critical care nurse, midwife, midwifery instructor, childbirth educator, and Blissborn Hypnosis teacher/trainer. She teaches unique seminars within hospitals, nursing schools, midwifery and medical schools and community groups worldwide. Her bestselling book, ‘Gentle Birth Choices,’ has been translated into 9 languages, including Chinese. Her latest collaborative book project was published in May 2021, called Bringing Birth Home. She is also working on a new book project called Gentle Birth Wisdom. She lives in Boca Raton, Florida teaching Blissborn Classes and attending occasional births.

Charlotte Sanchez is a childbirth educator and midwife. Supporting women and their families in the natural home birth process consecutively now for 30 years. As an Atlanta midwife, she believes in a woman’s right to determine her own choice of care during pregnancy and birth. Charlotte received her training through an extensive internship before becoming a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM), a program developed by the North American Registry of Midwives. She gained vast experience co-directed a free standing family birthing center in the state of Michigan. As well as founding Pregnancy Beat a national pregnancy website featuring expert articles, videos, birth stories and a community for mothers. It was after attending home births throughout the United States and Canada in places such as Windsor, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, California and Georgia that she now resides in Atlanta. Recently after completing 10 years serving as Vice President of the Georgia Midwife Association Charlotte decided to move forward to pursue her passion with teaching. She specializes in water birth, vbac, twins and breech birth. She has trained highly motivated students who have became practicing Midwives. Personally Charlotte is a mother of four children whom three were born gently into the hands of midwives, with the last a home water birth 25 years ago.

Cristen Pascucci is an advocate for human rights in childbirth. She is the founder of Birth Monopoly and working on a documentary film exposing the epidemic of obstetric violence and the state-sanctioned suppression of midwifery in the U.S. With a background in public affairs, Cristen has led multiple consumer-based advocacy campaigns to get birth trauma and institutional mistreatment in maternity care into the media. Today she teaches birth and healthcare workers about their patients' human rights.

Parijat Deshpande is the leading integrative high-risk pregnancy specialist, somatic stress & trauma professional and speaker and author who guides women to improve their pregnancy complications so they can reduce their risk of preterm birth. Her unique neurobiological approach has served hundreds of women to manage pregnancy complications and reclaim a safety and trust in their bodies that they thought was eroded forever. Parijat is the author of bestselling book Pregnancy Brain: A Mind-Body Approach to Stress Management During a High-Risk Pregnancy. She is also the host of the popular podcast Delivering Miracles®️, that discusses the real, raw side of family-building including infertility, loss, high-risk pregnancy, bed rest, prematurity and healing once baby comes home. Parijat professional training is in clinical psychology and she is a Certified Trauma Professional and Certified Clinical Trauma Specialist for individuals.

Angel Montfort, Psy.D., PMH-C is a licensed clinical psychologist, mother of four, and the founder of the Center for Maternal Mental Health, a therapy practice dedicated to serving women throughout all stages of motherhood. She has always gravitated toward treating women and became passionate about perinatal mental health while working in a Women's Clinic within a hospital setting. At first it was a way to meet the needs of her patients and it quickly led to an understanding of her own postpartum experiences, which deepened her connection to this work.

In her practice, Dr. Montfort addresses concerns such as postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, birth trauma, perinatal loss, infertility, and adjustment to motherhood. Dr. Montfort shares educational information on her Instagram account (@drangelmontfort) and her website (www.cfmmh.com) in an effort to validate and uplift moms who are struggling through a time that is expected to be the most joyous. Her expertise in perinatal mental health has been featured in a number of media outlets including Forbes, Healthline, and ScaryMommy. She believes that if we make space for both the highs and lows of motherhood, we set new moms up for a more balanced experience.

Alixandra Bacon is a Registered Midwife and settler living and working in Vancouver, BC on the traditional and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-waututh and Tsawwassen nations. Alixandra is President of the Canadian Association of Midwives, Past President of the Midwives Association of BC, and clinical faculty at the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine. Alixandra is passionate about creating equitable access to excellent sexual, reproductive and newborn midwifery services for everyone. Alixandra is the recipient of the UBC Alumni Builder Award.

Dr Kathryn Gutteridge - First and foremost I am a mother, wife and latterly grandmother, my personal life has always largely informed my practice and I am always careful to remember that the women I meet are also like me in that they belong to a family. I am a freelance consultant midwife one of the first in the UK and formerly employed at 2 very large and diverse maternity units. My career started in the 1970’s in nursing however midwifery was always my ambition and particularly the nurturance of midwifery led care. I am a practicing psychotherapist interested in the emotional impact of childbirth; in part due to my own mothering experiences and research. I have worked closely with women to understand this phenomenon and researched emotional transition to motherhood. Raising awareness for maternal mental health and particularly women surviving sexual abuse, I co-founded Sanctum Midwives campaigning on maternity care and sexual abuse. I have worked for many years raising awareness around the issues of maternal mental health and supporting both women and all those who work in maternity care situations. I believe positive mental health is the cornerstone to mothering and self fulfilment. I have published widely in peer review journals but also in many books. My latest publication is ‘Understanding Anxiety, Worry and Fear in Childbearing Women’ which I edited and wrote 4 chapters. I am currently writing on the issues of child and adult female sexual abuse and its implications. I care very deeply about women and their babies that they may come through their pregnancy and birth unharmed. I will continue to do this for the sake of midwives everywhere.

Angel Montfort, Psy.D., PMH-C is a licensed clinical psychologist, mother of four, and the founder of the Center for Maternal Mental Health, a therapy practice dedicated to serving women throughout all stages of motherhood. She has always gravitated toward treating women and became passionate about perinatal mental health while working in a Women's Clinic within a hospital setting. At first it was a way to meet the needs of her patients and it quickly led to an understanding of her own postpartum experiences, which deepened her connection to this work.

In her practice, Dr. Montfort addresses concerns such as postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, birth trauma, perinatal loss, infertility, and adjustment to motherhood.

Dr. Montfort shares educational information on her Instagram account (@drangelmontfort) and her website (www.cfmmh.com) in an effort to validate and uplift moms who are struggling through a time that is expected to be the most joyous. Her expertise in perinatal mental health has been featured in a number of media outlets including Forbes, Healthline, and ScaryMommy. She believes that if we make space for both the highs and lows of motherhood, we set new moms up for a more balanced experience.