SOME OF MY FAVORITE BIRTH ACTIVISTS
I know the following women and their businesses personally and can highly recommend their work. The following entries are in alphabetical order as I could not put every one of them at the top of the list!
Suzanne Arms has been a birth activist, teacher, author, photojournalist and international speaker for over 35 years. Her 2nd book, Immaculate Deception: A New Look At Women & Childbirth (1975), is considered by many to have ignited the “birth and midwifery revolution.”
Suzanne founded Birthing the Future (BTF) to inform, inspire and raise consciousness about natural, normal birth, breastfeeding, bonding, home birth, birthing centers and midwifery and to transform how we bring babies into the world and care for every mother- baby pair. BTF’s website offers a wealth of information on such topics as VBAC, doulas, epidurals, cesarean surgery, the politics and economics of birth and male circumcision. BTF offers a series of inspiring and informative products including beautifully designed bookmarks, cards, two brochures (on the mother-baby bond, and on birth trauma). In addition, the site has an extensive resource list.
Suzanne founded Birthing the Future (BTF) to inform, inspire and raise consciousness about natural, normal birth, breastfeeding, bonding, home birth, birthing centers and midwifery and to transform how we bring babies into the world and care for every mother- baby pair. BTF’s website offers a wealth of information on such topics as VBAC, doulas, epidurals, cesarean surgery, the politics and economics of birth and male circumcision. BTF offers a series of inspiring and informative products including beautifully designed bookmarks, cards, two brochures (on the mother-baby bond, and on birth trauma). In addition, the site has an extensive resource list.
Suzanne has also produced a much-loved midwife-centered educational film, Giving Birth, showing the difference between the medical-hospital and the midwife/ physiological model for birth.
Suzanne has created a DVD film series addressing Birth and the Primal Period (pre-conception to age one) from a wide variety of perspectives, weaving ancient wisdom, intuition and modern science to use in educating social service professionals, healers, students and prospective parents. Suzanne is a widely sought-after speaker/teacher and grassroots organizer and continues to train birth activists. Visit the BTF website at www.BirthingTheFuture.org. Phone: 970-946-6994.
Suzanne has created a DVD film series addressing Birth and the Primal Period (pre-conception to age one) from a wide variety of perspectives, weaving ancient wisdom, intuition and modern science to use in educating social service professionals, healers, students and prospective parents. Suzanne is a widely sought-after speaker/teacher and grassroots organizer and continues to train birth activists. Visit the BTF website at www.BirthingTheFuture.org. Phone: 970-946-6994.
Elizabeth Davis is a world-renowned expert on women’s issues who has been a midwife, women’s healthcare specialist, educator and consultant for over 30 years. She is internationally active in promoting motherbaby-centered birth and is widely sought after for her expertise in midwifery education and organizational development. She offers Heart and Hands Midwifery Intensives in the Bay area of California. This coursework is a prerequisite for a three-year midwifery training program with The National Midwifery Institute.
Elizabeth has authored several books, the best known of which is her now classic beginning midwifery text entitled Heart & Hands: A Midwife’s Guide to Pregnancy & Birth. She also wrote Orgasmic Birth: Your Guide to a Safe, Satisfying and Pleasurable Birth Experience, The Women’s Wheel of Life and The Rhythms of Women’s Desire: How Female Sexuality Unfolds at Every Stage of Life.
Her mission is to help women embrace an integrated view of birth, sexuality, family and ecology. She travels widely, lecturing and presenting workshops on women’s health, sexuality, intuition, and midwifery. She can design a workshop or keynote to meet your group’s needs—references on request. For information on workshops, lectures, video and other presentations for your group, visit her website at www.elizabethdavis.com.
Elizabeth has authored several books, the best known of which is her now classic beginning midwifery text entitled Heart & Hands: A Midwife’s Guide to Pregnancy & Birth. She also wrote Orgasmic Birth: Your Guide to a Safe, Satisfying and Pleasurable Birth Experience, The Women’s Wheel of Life and The Rhythms of Women’s Desire: How Female Sexuality Unfolds at Every Stage of Life.
Her mission is to help women embrace an integrated view of birth, sexuality, family and ecology. She travels widely, lecturing and presenting workshops on women’s health, sexuality, intuition, and midwifery. She can design a workshop or keynote to meet your group’s needs—references on request. For information on workshops, lectures, video and other presentations for your group, visit her website at www.elizabethdavis.com.
|
Robbie Davis-Floyd is an internationally recognized anthropologist who has spent the majority of her career studying, writing and teaching about birth in the Western world and the development of recent historical trends among midwives in North America and around the world. She has authored and co-authored many books on various aspects of childbirth, midwifery care and medical care in general from an anthropological point-of-view. Her website can be found at www.Davis-Floyd.com.
|
|
Hermine Hayes-Klein is a mother, a lawyer and a passionate advocate for human rights related to childbirth. These rights include the right of women to be able to make meaningful choices to consent to as well as refuse care; the rights of midwives to practice; the rights of women to have access to real place-of-birth and provider options; and the rights of babies to be treated as sensitive and sentient beings. She is a full-time attorney in Portland Oregon advocating for childbearing families and midwives. You can find out more about her practice by visiting her website at HayesKleinLaw.com.
Penny Simkin died in April of 2024. She was my friend and I will miss her. Penny was a physical therapist who specialized in serving birthing families since 1968. She was an internationally recognized childbirth educator, doula, speaker and author. Along with Ruth Ancheta, she co-authored the indispensable manual entitled The Labor Progress Handbook (2011), which is a goldmine of information and one of the best things you can carry to a birth. Her other books include The Birth Partner (2013), and When Survivors Give Birth: Understanding and Healing the Effects of Early Sexual Abuse of Childbearing Women (2004), with Phyllis Klaus, and Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn: The Complete Guide, with 4 co-authors (2010). Penny also produced several birth-related films, including Comfort Measures for Childbirth and her last film, There’s a Baby! -- A Children’s Film About a New Baby. Her career encompassed childbirth education, birth counseling, and labor support, combined with a busy schedule of courses, conferences and workshops. Her website can be found at www.pennysimkin.com, where many of her papers, class handouts, and PowerPoint presentations area available for download.
Karen Strange worked in a supervisory capacity training midwives at Maternidad La Luz in El Paso TX. She is one of the very few homebirth-based NRP teachers in the US. Her classes on neonatal resuscitation encompass a midwifery-model of care and a physiologic approach to stabilizing newborns while allowing a gentle transition with a focus on the baby's experience. Her classes go far beyond basic NRP as taught in the United States by incorporating theories, skills and techniques that have been recognized internationally as important components of the process. Find out about upcoming workshops by visiting her website at karenstrange.com.
Gail Tully, midwife, author and teacher, has much to share at her website: www.spinningbabies.com. Starting with the simple, creative concepts in her most widely known work to date, The Belly Mapping Book, pregnant women, doulas and other childbirth professionals can become more aware of the baby's position without needing palpation skills.
Once the fetal position is determined, Gail's Spinning Babies concepts help to reduce the rates of cesareans and other birth interventions with practical techniques for physiological birth. Useful for parents as well as professionals, Spinning Babies addresses the effect of fetal positioning on labor progress and includes much valuable information such as how to flip a breech or transverse baby to head down; how to turn a baby from posterior to anterior; and how to help a baby engage for a shorter labor. Gail's insights into the cause and prevention of shoulder dystocia and other sorts of labor dystocias are indispensable tools for your birthbag. She is an excellent educator and is available for teaching engagements in your area. She has been a featured instructor at Midwifery Today conferences.
Once the fetal position is determined, Gail's Spinning Babies concepts help to reduce the rates of cesareans and other birth interventions with practical techniques for physiological birth. Useful for parents as well as professionals, Spinning Babies addresses the effect of fetal positioning on labor progress and includes much valuable information such as how to flip a breech or transverse baby to head down; how to turn a baby from posterior to anterior; and how to help a baby engage for a shorter labor. Gail's insights into the cause and prevention of shoulder dystocia and other sorts of labor dystocias are indispensable tools for your birthbag. She is an excellent educator and is available for teaching engagements in your area. She has been a featured instructor at Midwifery Today conferences.
Www.sarawickham.com is the website and blog of Sara Wickham, a British midwife, author, speaker and researcher. Sara has lived and worked in the UK, the US and New Zealand and practiced midwifery in a variety of settings before also getting involved in education, speaking, publishing and research. As a researcher and thinker, her interests are diverse. Previous research topics include anti-D (Rhogam), Vitamin K, physiological placental birth and so-called post-term pregnancy, which was the subject of her PhD research. Sara’s website offers free access to many of the articles that she has published in midwifery and birth-related journals, as well as details of her books, speaking engagements and workshops. It is also the site of her popular and regularly-updated blog, in which she shares current midwifery thinking, research studies of interest, the latest uploads to her own site and birth-related resources.