THE MIDWIFERY WISDOMexperience
YOUR PATHWAY HOME
Let's Learn together
CONNECT WITH SOME OF THE NATIONS LEADING EXPERTS ON EVERYTHING MIDWIFERY, CLINICAL, BUSINESS, & BEYOND.
Short heartwarming, inviting description of what this experience is, “welcome home” vibe. Touch on inclusive, fun, relaxing. Nations leading experts. Located at the Tremont House. November 2022. **Disclaimer: Speaker list and topics subject to change. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril nulla facilisi.
Jamarah Amani
LM
Jamarah Amani is a community midwife who believes in the power of birth and that every baby has a human right to be breastfed/chestfed. Her mission is to do her part to build a movement for Birth Justice locally, nationally and globally. Biography A community organizer from the age of sixteen, Jamarah has worked with several organizations across the United States, the Caribbean and in Africa on various public health issues, including HIV prevention, infant mortality risk reduction, access to emergency contraception and access to midwifery care. She is currently the director of Southern Birth Justice Network, a 501(c)3 non- profit organization. Jamarah studied Africana Studies, Women’s Studies and Midwifery at centers of learning such as University of Pennsylvania, Clark Atlanta University and, most recently, International School of Midwifery. Jamarah is also a Certified Lactation Consultant. In addition to raising four lively children (who are also raising her), Jamarah offers midwifery care, breastfeeding consultations and childbirth education to families and communities across the state of Florida.
Website:
southernbirthjustice.org
blackmidwivesalliance.org
legacypowervoice.org
Wantina Brooks-Roach
CPM, LCPM
Wantina Brooks-Roach CPM, LCPM (she/her) is a traditional midwife located in Florence, Kentucky USA. Wantina became a midwife through traditional apprenticeship models in Indiana and became a CPM through the PEP in 2003. However, licensing was not available until 2020 when the law changed in Kentucky. Wantina worked with the other midwives and the consumer based organizations in KY to change the law to support midwives and parents choices. Wantina has had 23 students fully complete their CPM through her practice and are in practices around the world. There are 13 more students who are in apprenticeship or waiting to pass the NARM exam currently. Wantina has a busy practice with 150-200 families a year doing homebirths and has successfully balanced short term and long term apprenticeships for students who can not find apprenticeships in their area and are willing to travel. She has a full house of teenagers and an amazing husband and a lazy dog that everyone loves.
You can find her on IG @mamasmidwife and her website MamasMidwife.com
Wendi Cleckner
CPM, JD, LM
Wendi Cleckner LM, CPM, JD Wendi is a midwife, herbalist, and women’s rights activist. In 1993 she helped a friend in the birth of her first child and felt a passion to devote her life to moms and babies. The calling of midwifery has led her across the world, taking her all over Asia and Africa. Wendi has been involved with solo and partnering homebirth and birth center practices in Arizona over the last 22 years. She has held in every position on the Arizona Association of Midwives (current Vice President) serving her local midwifery community and Wendi is the current Director of Policy and Advocacy on the MANA Board. She has actively run legislation and lobbied for and against many bills in the Arizona House and Senate. She believes in the intrinsic knowledge women hold in the ability to bring forth life and will continue to work both individually and with the community, rallying for women to give birth as they choose.
Augustine Colebrook
CPM, MA-MCHS
Augustine is the owner and principal of the Midwifery Widsom Collective! She’s an internationally recognized midwifery educator, experienced business executive, and certified professional midwife with 25 + years of experience. Her life’s mission is to mainstream midwifery and deconstruct the culture of fear and misinformation that surrounds maternity care in the world. To that end, Augustine ‘midwife’s the midwife’ through her many public education programs, consulting services for maternity practice & birth center administrators, and private coaching services for new midwives. Invited to serve in a mentorship role, Augustine has traveled worldwide and her view of midwifery is informed not only by her extensive experience in the USA, but by a global perspective.
Augustine discerned that there was a need in 2022 for an amazing midwifery conference for the hearts, heads and hands of midwives across the US. She is offering a place of deep renewal that is so needed in the culture of midwives today that comes with a fantastic opportunity to level up hands-on skills and evidence-based practice. Many of the teachers and instructors present at the conference have personally been mentored by Augustine at some point in their midwifery journey.
Website:
midwiferywisdom.com
Amariee S. Collins
MPA, BS, RDMS
(Abd, Ob/Gyn), RVT
Amariee (she/hers, non-gender role confirming) is a Registered Sonographer with American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) in Abdomen/General, Obstetric/Gynecology (RDMS-Ab/Ob/Gyn) and Vascular (RVT) from San Jacinto College with an Associates of Applied Science in Diagnostic Medical Sonography. She completed over 1100 clinical hours at three different hospitals in the greater Houston area starting in 2017. She started her sonography career at University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX in 2019 after graduation and upon passing three registries. Amariee was challenged to correlate MRI/CT/PET/X-ray/NM exams to find the smallest abnormality in the body. The systems that were examined were integumentary, breasts/lymph nodes, chest wall, female and male sexual reproductive organs, all abdominal organs and cavities, thyroid and all related glands and nodes in the face and neck, vessels from those from the brain to the neck, neck to wrist, abdominal vessels to pelvic region to the ankles, muscles and other locations where cancer to be found but not in the bone. The population of cancer is vast from infants to the elderly. Amariee has also worked in the clinical setting at an Endocrinologist office, at Baylor, Scott & White hospital, Children’s Health and outpatient centers. Her experience is vast with procedures, inpatient/outpatient/OR/ER, protocols and standards set by Joint Commission Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
As she entered midwifery school and networked with the birth community, there was an expressed need for mobile ultrasound technologists. She decided to expand her ability to work outside of the medical industrial complex by starting her mobile sonography business. The exams are ordered by licensed professionals and read by a teleradiology group contracted with Amariee. This has allowed for many families to be served in a greater capacity with the restrictions of COVID-19 in the hospitals and outpatient centers. Many midwives that have multiple needs for learning how to use their Point-Of-Care US (POCUS) transducers and decoding diagnostic ultrasound reports have contacted Amariee for training. She has identified a great need to train midwives in the basics of sonography, for safety of all parties involved. As a student midwife, Amariee currently provides hands on ultrasound training for midwives and other student midwives in the greater Cincinnati area.
In her other endeavors, Amariee is a veteran of the United States Air Force, holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Health and Human Performance and Masters of Public Administration. A few positions she has held are budget analyst with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Secondary Science educator at Houston Independent School District and an AmeriCorps VISTA/VISTA Leader for Texas Impact. Amariee is a community member and builder no matter her location and has a passion for equity for all in the world which keeps her busy as she resides in Ontario, Canada.
Leslie Ann Cornwell
CNM
Leslie Cornwell is a Certified Nurse Midwife with a drive to empower midwives in their own businesses. She started Midwifery Business Consultation in 2017 because she saw the value and the need for midwifery practices across the country to have a business resource. Through personal experiences, she realized that she didn’t have the business education she needed for her own practice, so she decided to not just get the education, but also create products and services to give other midwives access to the same knowledge. She is passionate about creating automated products and services that can help midwives with questions including creating policies and information on common tax deductions, as well as many other midwifery business related information. The mission and vision for Midwifery Business Consultation is to increase access to midwifery services, to empower midwives to start businesses serving their communities, and to provide educational opportunities for the midwifery profession. Leslie believes midwives should be able to serve more families and not have to work a lot harder.
Mari-Carmen Farmer
CNM
A first-generation Afro-Latinx midwife and educator, Mari-Carmen has been engaged in social justice work and reproductive health for over 20 years. Prior to midwifery, Mari-Carmen completed a degree in sociology & anthropology and became engaged in activism and community organizing in Philadelphia. She is an Americorps alum, a seasoned doula and childbirth educator, and an experienced facilitator with a strong background in designing and leading trainings, retreats, workshops, and healing circles. She has also used these facilitation skills in the Centering Pregnancy model to care for diverse client populations and to lead workshops focused on equity and antiracism for clinicians around the country. Since graduating from the CNM/WHNP program at the University of Pennsylvania in 2016, Mari-Carmen has been providing full-scope care for families from a wide range of cultures in Philadelphia. She is currently the President of Philly Metro Midwives, the Philadelphia Chapter of the PA Affiliate of the ACNM and the founder/creative leader of Midwife y Maestra, a consulting collaborative focused on building capacity and community among midwives and other healthcare providers, particularly around antiracism, health equity, and addressing trauma we experience in our work. Mari-Carmen is committed to centering the narratives of the people she serves, as she believes that stories create connections between individuals and communities that can catalyze powerful social change. Outside of her professional activities, Mari-Carmen enjoys hiking in the woods, gardening, photographing natural landscapes, and traveling with her family.
Sarah Foster
MA-CHS, CPM, CM
Sarah is a Certified Professional Midwife and Owner of Tulsa Birth Center. She is a licensed midwife (LM) in Oklahoma, as well as in Texas. She also holds a master’s degree in Maternal-Child Health Systems. Sarah is the current president of the Midwives Alliance of North America and serves on Oklahoma’s Midwifery Advisory Committee.
Rixa Freeze
PhD
Dr. Rixa Freeze, PhD studied at the U of Iowa and is a researcher, professor, and mother of 4 children. Her current research specialization is vaginal breech birth. She is president of Breech Without Borders, a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Medium: Dr. Rixa Freeze has a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. Her doctoral studies focused on the history of healthcare and medicine with specialization in pregnancy, childbirth, and maternity care. Her dissertation examined why women in North America choose unassisted home births. She worked as a visiting assistant professor for 9 years at Wabash College. Her current research interests include human rights in childbirth, autonomy and informed consent, and vaginal breech birth. She has published two articles about home birth: “Staying Home to Give Birth: Why Women in the United States Choose Home Birth” (JMWH 2009) and “Attitudes Towards Home Birth in the USA” (Expert Review of Obstetrics & Gynecology 2010). She c-authored the 2018 article “Breech birth at home: Outcomes of 60 breech and 109 cephalic planned home and birth center births” with Dr. Stuart Fischbein. In 2019 she published an article about outcomes of breech at home, birth centers, and hospitals (Midwifery Today) and a book chapter “Freebirth in the United States” in the 2020 book Birthing Outside the System: The Canary in the Coal Mine. Rixa is the founder and president of Breech Without Borders, a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to breech training, education, and advocacy.
Jennifer Justice Gallardo
CPM, LM
Jennifer Justice Gallardo was born at home in Puerto Rico into the hands of a midwife. She was raised in Latin America and has been married for 32 years to her sweet heart, Fernando Gallardo. They have nine children and six grandchildren. She has been a midwife since 1994 and has attended approximately 2,000 births. She and her husband opened their first birth center in Guatemala and went on to open five more birth centers, including three in Oregon and two in Haiti. They are co-founders of MamaBaby Haiti, a non-profit with birth centers in Haiti where Haitian midwives provide free prenatal and postpartum care to over 7,000 women a year and attend over 1,000 births per year. Jennifer is passionate about an abundant mindset and sustainable midwifery. She is a master at scheduling midwifery in a way that provides continuity of care AND time off for self care. She loves to incorporate easy side hustles into midwifery that create more income to create contribution in the life of the midwife, the midwife’s family, and the world. Jennifer loves traveling to warm sunny beaches and riding her horses on the Oregon coast.
Zul Ruiz Gines
LM, CPM
“Zul” As her loved ones know her is a CPM/Licensed Midwife in California and Florida and mother of to wonderful daughters .
She was born and raised on the magical island of Puerto Rico . Her midwifery education journey started in Temixco , Mexico with a community indigenous midwife that opened her vision , spirit and heart to the world of midwives. She continue to enrolled as a student in Los Angeles, CA and Orlando , FL. She attended National College of Midwifery and Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery .
Zul is passionate about providing safe midwifery care from a cultural appropriate perspective. Since 2009 she has been serving and been an advocate for low income families, specially within the African American and spanish speaking communities .
Currently Zul have establish her practice in St.Petersburg , FL.
UMA Midwifery and UMA Easy Access Clinic™where she provides midwifery care based in the JJ Way ® .The goal of The JJ Way® is to eliminate racial and class disparities in perinatal health and improve birth outcomes for all.
Zul is also the Founder /CEO of KIBI ( Kolibrí International Birth Institute ) a continuing education platform for birth workers including midwives , nurse midwives, doulas and IBCLC .Offering continuing education clases with a wide selection of topics and in multiple languages.
Kimberly Haines
CPM, LM
Kimberly is a second generation midwife with a passion for student education. She began attending births in 2004 and quickly recognized the vast shortcomings in women’s healthcare. She graduated from the Florida School of Traditional Midwifery in 2012 with a goal to offer a more empowering approach to prenatal, antenatal and postpartum care in her community. She has since been dedicated to raising the community standard of out-of-hospital care while precepting student midwives to provide exceptional birth options to the expecting families of the Shenandoah Valley. Kimberly has also thrived in the chaos of raising five crazy kids with her equally passionate partner of 22 years.
Mary Harris
LM
Mary Harris, LM, CPM My journey to midwifery started because of extreme motion sickness. I thought I was going to be a marine biologist but the inability to even stand on a floating dock without queasiness, ended that path two years into my undergraduate degree. I regrouped, rethought my life path, graduated with a biology degree in therapeutic recreation, and began my career working in traumatic brain injury. I imagined continuing with that path until old age but with the birth of my children, my path changed again. I had two hospital births that were not terrible. And then I had a home birth with my third. It was so different. My baby didn’t leave me, natural light shone through the window, the post birth shower was delightful, and I felt safe surrounded by my midwives and family. I knew immediately that I wanted to be a midwife. My midwife knew how I parented and suggested I wait until they were older and that was the best advice ever. I graduated from midwifery school in May 2000 and have never regretted my decision to turn my life and career upside down once again. I spend my days in Florida attracting my ideal client and thoughtfully balancing clinic, births, family, and personal care
Caitlyn Hartigan
Patient Advocate
Coming Soon!
Kristen Hosaka
DC
Dr. Kristen Hosaka has been a Chiropractor since 2002, Spinning Babies Aware Practitioner since 2017, and Dynamic Body Balancing instructor since 2021. Kristen is passionate about helping pregnant people balance their bodies to create an easier passage for babies into this world. She strives to make birth better for the dyad and to help prevent birth trauma through balanced, physiological births. She is passionate about biomechanics and preventing nuchal hand presentations in the pregnant person. Her chiropractic practice is primarily focused on the perinatal period and pediatrics. As such, she sees the effects of the biomechanics of the pregnant body resulting in the presentation of normal or aberrant biomechanics of the baby. Since 2008, she has attended over 200 births and countless labors while in private practice in the suburbs of Fort Worth, TX.
Presentation Topic: Birth Biomechanics
Jessica Johnston
CPM, LM
Jessica Johnston is a Certified Professional Midwife and the Director of Development for the Pacific Birth Institute. Jessica has an uncanny sense of humor and a sharp, brilliant mind for alternative systems approaches that utilize regenerative economics, vitalism, and evidence based data. She is on the leading edge of shaping community birth infrastructure nationwide, working at the Pacific Birth Institute to strengthen student midwifery and birth assistant education and training access that honors culture, students learning in place, and the payment of midwives nationwide for their service as preceptors to the next generation. She is NSFW/NSFC and will be cussing if she’s talking.
Kristine LauriA
CPM
Kristine Lauria is an international midwife and has been involved in women’s health for over 32 years.
She is an expert in high-risk maternity care in low-resource environments. She has attended over 5000 births in more than 25 countries around the world. A specialist in breech birth, she has written depositions and given expert testimony in court on the subject.
She is passionate in her support of bodily autonomy in medical decision making and is a staunch advocate for undisturbed, physiologic birth. When not on assignment with MSF (Doctors Without Borders), Kristine can be found kayaking, gardening or hiking with her dog.
Angela Love
CNM
Angela Love, CNM has been attending births since 1999, first as an RN in L&D for 5 years. She attended University of Miami and graduated as a nurse midwife and nurse practitioner in 2004. She has worked in community birth since then. She worked for 5 years in a busy birth center in Miami. In 2009, she started a home birth practice in Vero Beach, FL where she continues working. In 2017, Angela founded Midwife RX, the first ever telehealth company staffed entirely by midwives. She created this multi-state telehealth company to bridge the gap of providing necessary medications for community birth families. She has organized CNMs in multiple states to provide care in this way. Angela has served as clinical preceptor since 2004 for midwife students and other practitioners. She has served as faculty educator for CPM students from 2004-2009. Angela has 2 daughters, 1 dog, and a bunny. She has experienced hospital birth, home water birth, and 5 years of breastfeeding. She loves traveling and has been to over 38 countries. Her life passions include: providing evidence-based, family centered midwifery care, training the future generations of midwives, making community birth safer and more accessible, respecting client autonomy and choice, caring for perinatal mental health needs, breast/chest feeding support, and reproductive justice.
Kristen Mantell
Designer
Kristen is a professional graphic designer and website developer with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication. She currently has over 12 years of experience in the professional design & business world. After birthing her own children and becoming aware firsthand of the maternity care crisis in America she felt an overwhelming need to help contribute to a solution! While already running her own graphic design business with a baby & a toddler in tow in 2017, she focused on getting certified to teach childbirth classes and professionally trained as a birth doula, birthing what is now Wild World Mama, LLC.
After immersing herself in the birth world, she quickly became aware that her abilities in business and design could greatly benefit birth workers. So she pivoted her business to focus on supporting the birth workers themselves.
From behind the scenes she serves those already in the arena of improving birth! The birth workers, organizations, & activists are the ones who are already shifting the tides in the birth world. She now provides custom branding, websites design and ongoing support, marketing guidance, and more for those in the business of improving birth. Her goal is to help birth workers move forward with clarity and confidence to make more of an impact and attract more of their favorite types of clients. All while feeling less stressed and feeling heard and supported. She believes compassionate midwifery care with doula support to be the standard for all birthing people. Kristen wants the good birth workers and the change drivers to be able to have more of an impact by leveling up their professional presentation to the world. This will help more birth workers to be able to compete with the current high-budget hospital brands and ultimately reach more everyday families.
Since the spring of 2020, Kristen has been serving as Brand Manager for our very own Midwifery Wisdom Collective.
Midwives, doulas, birth workers, birth entrepreneurs she knows your message. She knows the mountains midwives face. Let’s do this, together.
Website:
wildworldmama.com
Moriah Melin
CPM, RM
Every day Moriah Melin RM, CPM is humbled by parenthood, partnership, physical health, and the ways she witnesses those around her rise to their challenges. She has been supporting families in childbirth since 1996, and is currently registered as a Midwife in Colorado and with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland. Moriah is also a Death Midwife, and is currently writing a book titled “How To Show Up for the Dying and Their Loved Ones: What to Do, What to Say.” In addition to midwifery Moriah is personally and professionally passionate about the field of pre- and perinatal psychology (PPN). Her family began receiving support from the BEBA (Building & Enhansing Bonding and Attachment) family clinic in 2012, and she joined the BEBA Board of Directors in 2016 (www.beba.org). In 2018 she completed the Castellino Foundation training, and prenatal and postpartum PPN sessions have complimented her midwifery practice since 2012. She is currently developing curriculum for supporting the dying and their loved ones through the PPN lens. Walking with individuals and families at every stage along the Rainbow Bridge continuum of birth, life and death is her jam.
JayVon Muhammad
BS, CPM, MA-MCHS, LM
JayVon Muhammad, a licensed and certified midwife, has been a community health leader for more than 20 years. She currently serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Richmond Area Multi Services (RAMS), a large and innovative mental health provider in the San Francisco Bay Area and Adjunct Faculty for Bastyr University’s Midwifery Program. From 2019-2021, JayVon served as the Chief Executive Officer of SWLA Center for Health Services (SWLA), a five-site Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Lake Charles, Louisiana. In October 2020, she was one of five global health leaders to receive the Bob and Leila Macauley Humanitarian Spirit Award from Americares. Her experiences also include serving as the Chief Executive Officer of the Marin City Health and Wellness Center (MCHWC), a six-site FQHC focused on African American health equity. While at the MCHWC she developed a number of innovative programs, including Marin County’s first freestanding, state-licensed and nationally accredited birth center; a maternal health program for underserved women in one of the poorest communities in the county, a Medication-Assisted Treatment Program for opioid/alcohol addiction, and an alternative high school to address behavioral health challenges, focused on African American culture, leadership, and role models.
Melissa Nealy
IBCLC
Melissa has been helping with lactation for 10 years through La Leche League as a volunteer and professionally as an IBCLC for 3 years. She has been a student midwife, midwife’s birth assistant, and a doula for 4 years. As a former certified teacher it is important to her to educate clients and other professionals in order to achieve optimal health outcomes. Melissa has worked with over 100 families each year assessing lactating dyads experiencing difficulties. She addresses problems the dyad has encountered through assessment, education, counseling, exercises and appropriate referral where needed. Melissa has seen varying approaches to breastfeeding difficulties and would like to suggest an evidence based approach to having informed consent conversations for all new families by teaching other care providers the things she’s learned in practice as an IBCLC. Melissa is also a wife, and a home schooling mom of 3 children, 2 dogs, 4 cats and a bearded dragon.
Jennifer Nelson
RN, DEM
Coming Soon!
Crystal Pena
CPM, LM
Crystal Pena, CPM LM has been practicing midwifery in community birth settings in Arizona since 2014. Prior to answering the call to midwifery Crystal had a whole career in “corporate America” which prepared her to feel equally comfortable navigating the business side of midwifery along with the art and science of it. Immediately upon earning her CPM and LM she actively sought out ways to practice sustainably, breaking out of the old rut of midwifery = martyrdom. Crystal focuses on providing midwifery care that is inclusive and that fully involves the client in decision making. She utilizes evidence-informed practices while providing respectful individualized care. Crystal is active in Arizona’s robust home birth and midwifery communities. She has served on the board of the Arizona Association of Midwives (AAM) continuously since 2015 and is the current treasurer. She has been co-chair of AAM’s conference committee for most of her time on the board and enjoys working to create educational opportunities as well as space for midwives to come together. Crystal has been married for 17 years and shares four sons and a granddaughter with her husband. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family – most nights are family game night at her house! She is a podcast junkie and still enjoys curling up with a paperback.
Whitney Pinger
CNM, MSN, FACNM
Whitney Pinger is the Founder of WISDOM Midwifery and The WISDOM Pilot Project for Normal Birth and Cesarean Prevention (2007-2010), the Founder and past Director of GW Midwifery (2010-2020), and is currently working with BirthCare and Women’s Health providing home and Birth Center prenatal and delivery services. A California native, she graduated from UC Berkeley in 1983 and completed her midwifery training at Yale University in 1986. Whitney has practiced in Washington DC for the past 32 years, where she established several private and academic practices, as well as directed the Prenatal and Pediatrics Programs at The Washington Free Clinic. She has served on the faculty at Yale University, Georgetown University, Medstar Washington Hospital Center, and The George Washington University.
In 2020, Whitney left GW Midwifery to reestablish WISDOM Midwifery and join BirthCare and Women’s Health. At BirthCare, she provides Community Birth Services and focuses on educating the next generation of midwives in evidence-based maternity care, natural childbirth, optimal nourishment, movement, and lifestyle during pregnancy, primary cesarean prevention., and collaborative practice. She is committed to, and passionate about, the education of the next generation of midwives, nurses, physicians, and students of all backgrounds who want to support birthing people optimize their chances of normal birth. Her strong advocacy for evidence-based, innovative care and collaborative practice infuses her teaching and her midwifery practice.
Whitney provides consultation about The WISDOM Midwifery Model of Care, provides counseling and birth trauma services, and leads rituals and celebrations. She is currently working with a group of visionary providers to create The WISDOM Midwifery Collaborative to serve the DMV Community.
Lisa Rawson
LM
Lisa Rawson is a Licensed Midwife of CA and CPM and has been working with families for 25 years – educating, empowering, catching babies, and enabling equal access. Her specialty is infusing humor and joy while addressing the hard topics. Her dream is to make various modalities of midwifery care accessible to all. She seeks to restore informed consent and choice thru education, social justice and solidarity toward equitable human rights. Outside of Midwifery she enjoys~taking time off, growing her multigenerational family, dancing, cooking, eating, playing games and spending time with her people~some of her favorite things to do. Look her up at Mountain Valley Midwifery in beautiful rural Mendocino County, CA – she loves meeting and connecting with new people in the birth world.
Nathan Riley
MD, FACOG
Nathan Riley, MD, is a board-certified OBGYN and hospice and palliative care physician living in Louisville, KY. Through his collaborator program, he backs up midwives in the home for difficult laceration repairs and any other scenarios in which having an OBGYN present is helpful. He also works with midwives in his collaborator program to provide information and counseling in order for his collaborators to facilitate optimal informed decision-making in service to their clients. More information about his practice and collaborator program can be found at www.BelovedHolistics.com. His podcast is The Holistic OBGYN Podcast. He is the father of two young girls, the youngest of whom was born happily at home
Ilka Fanni Szilágyi
SpBCPE
Doula, Childbirth Educator, Placenta Medicine Specialist, Spinning Babies Certified Parent Educator, Student Midwife Ilka was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary. After years of traveling around Europe, she settled in the SF Bay Area in 2004 where she lives with her husband and 2 children. Her background is in dance and movement. She is a Certified Massage Therapist, trained in Somatic Movement and Developmental Movement Therapy, certified in Radical Counseling and has been a dancer and dance teacher for the past 24 years. Her whole life, she was supporting people. Teaching, communicating, moving, touching, holding people in their learning, healing and transitions. For the past 11 years she has done that as a Doula, ChildBirth Educator, Placenta Medicine maker, Spinning Babies Parent Educator and now as a student midwife. She brings all this knowledge of the body and emotional process, to support mothers, birthing people and their families and babies on their journey through the birth process and parenting. Ilka is honored to be invited to share her knowledge and experience with the midwifery community.
Sarah Thompson
L.Ac. , CFMP
Sarah Thompson is a certified functional medicine practitioner, licensed acupuncturist, board-certified herbalist, birth doula, author, and educator with a passion for pregnancy care. She is also known as a leader in the practice and education of maternity functional medicine and published the first book on the subject, Functional Maternity – Using Functional Medicine and Nutrition to Improve Pregnancy and Childbirth Outcomes. Sarah brings together evidence-based research in prenatal and maternity nutrition with ideas of functional medicine, in 2021. Sarah’s clinical experience spans nearly 20 years. When she isn’t writing, lecturing, mentoring, or seeing patients in her private practice, she can be found on her small Colorado farm with her husband, two daughters, chickens, miniature cows, dogs, cats, and gardens.
Brittany Thornton
CPM, LM
Brittany Thornton is a licensed midwife, entrepreneur, strategic thinker and planner, and professional educator, mentor, and leader with over 10 years of experience. She works to advance out-of-hospital midwifery, respectful unbiased healthcare, and effective social change through her work as Clinical Director at Lunaria Birth & Wellness in Belton, TX, serving as National President of Omega Phi Alpha National Service Sorority, and as a preceptor/educator with Spark Midwifery and the Midwifery Wisdom Collective and School. She lives in Central Texas with her two kids and four dachshunds. As a surrogate to six babies, she has helped grow families of many different dynamics, to include same-sex couple and single parents. In her off-time, you can find her hoarding all things dachshund, boating on the lake, and traveling the world.
Jessica Weed
MS, LMHC-A
Jessica Weed, MS, LMHC-A, is a trauma-focused therapist for Charmed Counseling, a private practice in Spokane, Washington. She is a former home birth midwife and former doula trainer with 20 years of birth-related experience. In here second career as a therapist, she is an EMDRIA-trained EMDR therapist with a passion for helping people heal from traumatic situations. One of Jessica’s passions is the prevention of compassion fatigue, burn out, and unprocessed trauma through the use of evidence-based self care techniques. As a provider for two different high-compassion careers, she’s knows both intimately and professionally the importance of maintaining preventive practices as well as supportive techniques following lived traumatic experiences. Jessica lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her three children and husband. She enjoys swimming, hiking, camping with her family, deep and meaningful friendships, and is a huge proponent of female empowerment.
Tanya Wills
CNM
Tanya Wills is a Certified Nurse Midwife and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. She is the owner of Manhattan Birth in New York City, where she and her team have helped thousands of expectant and new parents with “heartfelt, down-to-earth, no-purple-crystals” classes, support, and midwifery care in the childbearing year. Her techniques produce confident new parents, who birth, feed, and parent their babies with gusto and pride – tackling anything that comes their way.
Tanya is a graduate of the midwifery program at Yale University. Known for her accessible, no-nonsense approach to childbirth and women’s health, she is a featured expert on Yahoo Lifestyle’s Know your Body series, CYCLES+SEX and has appeared on expert panels at the Wing, CYCLES+SEX, and Choices in Childbirth. She has been featured in The New York Times, Fatherly, and interviewed on the podcasts Wild Womb, and Yoga/Birth/Babies. A former actor and musician, Tanya was called to midwifery after the birth of her first child in 2008. She lives with husband and two kids in Manhattan.
Tanya practices as a home birth midwife and also provides annual gyn care, primary care, and lactation consultations through Manhattan Birth Midwifery.
Kesha Zaffino
JD, IBCLC
Kesha attended New York Law School and graduated in 2009. Afterwards, she served in the United States Air Force as a JAG officer. As a JAG officer, Kesha performed a variety of tasks such: as drafting wills and powers of attorney, legal assistance to veterans, and litigation. She also has experience from courts-martial sexual assault cases where she learned in-depth knowledge about the military’s sexual assault response program, the victim witness advocacy program, and retaliation against victims. After Kesha’s military career, she became a consultant to a women-owned business in Washington D.C. and helped revise a sexual assault bystander intervention training to be USAF complaint. In addition, she is a mother who labored with a midwife. These experiences have inspired her to evolve her civilian practice in law that is focused on helping others. Kesha’s practice areas include: personal injury, petitions to seal/expungements, and uncontested guardianship and adoptions.
Website:
zaffinolaw.com
Jessica Weed
MS, LMHC-A
Jessica Weed, MS, LMHC-A, is a trauma-focused therapist for Charmed Counseling, a private practice in Spokane, Washington. She is a former home birth midwife and former doula trainer with 20 years of birth-related experience. In here second career as a therapist, she is an EMDRIA-trained EMDR therapist with a passion for helping people heal from traumatic situations. One of Jessica’s passions is the prevention of compassion fatigue, burn out, and unprocessed trauma through the use of evidence-based self care techniques. As a provider for two different high-compassion careers, she’s knows both intimately and professionally the importance of maintaining preventive practices as well as supportive techniques following lived traumatic experiences. Jessica lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her three children and husband. She enjoys swimming, hiking, camping with her family, deep and meaningful friendships, and is a huge proponent of female empowerment.
Tanya Wills
CNM
Tanya Wills is a Certified Nurse Midwife and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. She is the owner of Manhattan Birth in New York City, where she and her team have helped thousands of expectant and new parents with “heartfelt, down-to-earth, no-purple-crystals” classes, support, and midwifery care in the childbearing year. Her techniques produce confident new parents, who birth, feed, and parent their babies with gusto and pride – tackling anything that comes their way.
Tanya is a graduate of the midwifery program at Yale University. Known for her accessible, no-nonsense approach to childbirth and women’s health, she is a featured expert on Yahoo Lifestyle’s Know your Body series, CYCLES+SEX and has appeared on expert panels at the Wing, CYCLES+SEX, and Choices in Childbirth. She has been featured in The New York Times, Fatherly, and interviewed on the podcasts Wild Womb, and Yoga/Birth/Babies. A former actor and musician, Tanya was called to midwifery after the birth of her first child in 2008. She lives with husband and two kids in Manhattan.
Tanya practices as a home birth midwife and also provides annual gyn care, primary care, and lactation consultations through Manhattan Birth Midwifery.
