Biographies

Tine Aaserud

Tine Aaserud is a Danish midwife who was educated in Norway ten years ago. She was instrumental in starting the first breastfeeding clinic in Norway in 2000. Currently she works with prenatal care, including breastfeeding classes for pregnant women. She is a skilled counsellor.

Marina Alzugaray

Marina Alzugaray, MS, LM, CNM, is an international midwifery consultant and speaker with more than 30 years of experience in women’s health care. She received her Master of Science degree from the University of California, San Francisco, where she focused her research on homebirths and birth positions and related maternal-infant outcomes. Marina has facilitated sacred births in homes, hospitals and birth centers. She now offers homebirths and waterbirths in the Florida Keys, where she develops courses and facilitates educational retreats as director of Comadres Institute. Marina is known as a provider of holistic midwifery care; pioneer of water births; developer of the American AquaNatal method, a prenatal water exercise program; and producer of continuing education courses on sacred birthing, women’s health and care that empowers clients. She serves as regional representative to Midwives’ Alliance of North America (MANA).

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Tricia Anderson

Tricia Anderson trained as a midwife in Dorset and worked in both hospital and community settings. She was part of the original team that established MIDIRS in the 1980s and served as editor of the MIDIRS Midwifery Digest from 1995–1997. She had her own homebirth practice and was a course leader for the MA in Advanced Midwifery Practice at Bournemouth University. Tricia led workshops throughout Europe on midwifery and childbirth emergencies for settings where there are no doctors. Tricia passed away in 2007. We really miss her dynamic presence.

Shannon Anton

Shannon Anton was honored to receive the Brazen Woman Award from the California Association of Midwives (CAM) in June 2004. She is cofounder of National Midwifery Institute, Inc. She served on the CAM Board and was representative to the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) Certification Task Force. She currently serves on the NARM board as Director of Accountability. Shannon lives in rural Vermont with her life partner of 17 years.

Birthe Ariansen

Birthe Ariansen, a Norwegian midwife, works at the ABC unit in Oslo, Norway. She has expertise on waterbirth.

Colleen Bak

Colleen Bak, MA, CD (DONA), has a BA in anthropology from NYU. She also earned her Masters in their Gallatin program, concentrating on modern birth politics in the US with a focus on the homebirth movement and the legality of midwifery. She currently works as a doula and a birth assistant with a homebirth midwifery practice. She was a founding member of the board of directors of Friends of the Birth Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to aiding in the establishment of an independent birth center in Manhattan. She is the mother of three daughters, lovingly born at home into the hands of midwives. For more information on Colleen please visit www.fullmoonbelly.com.

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Diane Barnes

Diane Barnes, a midwife who moved through the lateral stages of lay midwife to DEM to RNM to CNM, began to midwife in 1974. She currently owns and operates a free standing birth center and attends 120 births a year. Diane is a past president of Midwives’ Alliance of North America (MANA), active supporter of all midwives, mother of ten (four recently adopted from Russia) and is expecting her 21st grandchild. She has published many articles regarding statistics and various childbirth situations. Diane is currently writing about her experiences, particularly the benefits/disadvantages of becoming a CNM.

Alison Bastien

Alison Bastien, CPM, (previously Alison Parra) was an independent homebirth midwife in Mexico for 12 years. She now teaches classes in midwifery, childbirth education and herbalism, and together with her family runs a natural products dispensary and store. She has lived in Mexico over 30 years, and was one of the founders of the MANA Mexican region.

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Nils Bergman

Nils Bergman graduated at the University of Cape Town, and has worked in South Africa, Ciskei and, Sweden, before working seven years as Medical Superintendent and District Medical Officer at Manama Mission, Zimbabwe. Here he, together with Midwife Agneta Jurisoo, developed and implemented Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) for premature infants right from birth. This resulted in a five-fold improvement in survival of Very Low Birth Weight babies.

He introduced KMC to South Africa in 1995, and after 5 years, KMC became official policy for care of prematures in the hospitals of the Western Cape province. He has given keynote addresses on KMC at International Conferences in six continents, and published articles on a variety of subjects in medical journals. He continues to research and promote KMC.

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Mary Bernabe

Mary Bernabe is a wife and mom who helps catch babies at home. She has attended births in teepees, in buses, in her van, after traveling in the night through two feet of fresh snow, outside in the woods and in homes with no running water or electricity. Mary says, “I figured that my job was to help you have your babies the way you wanted to have them and it worked!” Mary has 11 kids at home—ten boys, one girl. Her husband is a pastor.

Andrea Bolz

Andrea Bolz is executive secretary of the Association of Independent Midwives of Germany.

Lillian Bondo

Lillian Bondo has been the President of the Danish Association of Midwives since 2001. After qualifying as a midwife in 1984, Lillian worked as a Midwifery Centre midwife, attending pregnant women and their families in antenatal clinic and birth preparation as well as attending births.

Jana Borino

Jana Borino was the Founding Mother Executive Director of the Florida School of Traditional Midwifery, a position she grew for 13 years. She served as Executive Director of the Birth Center of Gainesville, the oldest birth center on the east coast of the United States, for three years. Jana attended births as a midwife assistant for 20 years and served on numerous boards and committees of national, state and community based midwifery organizations. Jana was very involved in legislative action during key political years that resulted in successful passage of Florida Statue 467, The Midwifery Practice Act.

Jana passed away in February, 2009, after a 10-year battle with breast cancer. We will miss her very much. Jana is survived by her husband, Keith, and daughters, Chelsea, Emma and Tessie.

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Sue Brailey

Sue Brailey, BA (HONS), RN, RM, is an English midwife currently living in Switzerland. She has a background in Social Science and completed her midwifery training in 1993. After qualifying she worked for many years as an independent midwife in London where she offered complete maternity care to women, attending births at home and in hospital. In 2001 she moved to Switzerland where she worked for over 2 years in a free standing birthing centre. Currently she is back attending home births and also teaches part time at the Berne School of Midwifery. Sue has lectured internationally on subjects such as optimal foetal positioning, midwifery led care, informed choice, and physiological third stage. Sue has also published a wide range of articles on subjects such as episiotomy, home birth, optimal foetal positioning, prevention of tears. She has just completed a chapter on promoting normal birth for a book that will be published next year. She speaks English and German, and has two children both of whom were born at home.

Susanne Rose Brønnum

Susanne Rose Brønnum is a Danish midwife with 14 years experience. She is an organic psychotherapist, who offers therapy and personal development in both single and group sessions. She works with midwives and has clients dealing with postpartum trauma and depression.

Vanessa Brooks

Vanessa Brooks has practiced traditional midwifery in the stunning hills of southern Spain for 15 years. She is an artist and published writer. As the director of Da-a-luz, a project to change the face of birth in Europe, Vanessa is currently touring with workshops for midwives and pregnant families.

Rudite Bruvere

Rudite Bruvere started the first independent midwifery practice in Latvia, offering pregnancy care and breastfeeding support, as well as attending homebirths. Since 2000, she has been on the board of the Association of Midwives of Latvia, working on the politics of and for the profession. In 2003 she founded The Family Cradle, a non-profit organization that will include a maternity center, midwifery training and a shelter house for neglected pregnant women.

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Sarah J. Buckley

Sarah J. Buckley, a GP (family physician), has been writing and lecturing on pregnancy, birth and parenting since 1997. Born in 1960 in New Zealand, Sarah inherited her interest in medicine and birth from her father and grandfather, who both worked as small-town GP-obstetricians, and her passion has been fueled by her experiences with her own children. Sarah has deepened her understanding of birth and mothering as a journey of transformation through her participation, ongoing since 1992, in women’s circles with Shivam Rachana and the Melbourne-based International College of Spiritual Midwifery, of which she is a founding member. [ PHOTO BY DEIRDRE CULLEN ]

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Vanessa Calderon

Vanessa Calderon is a native Costa Rican midwife. She lives and practices on the Caribbean side of the country.

Katherine Camacho Carr

Katherine Camacho Carr, PhD, ARNP, CNM, FACNM, is associate professor at Seattle University College of Nursing in the Master of Science in Nursing program. She also works as a nurse-midwife at Highline Midwifery and Women’s Health, providing care to a diverse and primarily low-income group of women. Katherine will assume the presidency of the American College of Nurse-Midwives in June 2004 for a three-year term.

Igor Charkovsky

Igor Charkovsky, famous researcher, birth assistant and water trainer, has assisted in more than 2000 underwater births. Igor is the founder of the "Russian Method" of birth, in which mothers birth their babies into the water. In the 1960s he devised this birth method and the healing of infants and sick or weak children by means of swimming or lengthy dunking in the water.

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Demetria Clark

Demetria Clark is the Global Director of Birth Arts International (www.birtharts.com), Heart of Herbs Herbal School (www.heartofherbs.com) and a midwife assistant and doula living and working in Basel, Switzerland, and the tri-country region of Switzerland, Germany and France.

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Justine Clegg

Justine Clegg, MS, LM, CPM, is a Florida Licensed Midwife and Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Involved in maternal and child health since 1973 as a La Leche League leader, childbirth educator, founding member of the Midwives Association of Florida, homebirth midwife and political activist, she earned her M.S. in counseling in 1991 and has served as Director of the Midwifery Program at Miami Dade College since 1994. She was a founding Board member of MEAC and helped develop the NARM certification process. She is proud to be a real "granny" midwife, having attended the births of grandbabies Spencer and Nya.

Jill Cohen

Jill Cohen lives in Gates, Oregon, with her husband and two of her four children. After practicing as a lay midwife for 20 years, she has now returned to school to get a nursing degree. She has been with Midwifery Today since 1990, where she is associate editor of Midwifery Today magazine.

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Suzanne Colson

Suzanne Colson is a senior lecturer and research midwife at Canterbury Christ Church University College, Canterbury, England. She worked as lactation consultant at Pithiviers State Hospital in France and has been involved in breastfeeding counseling and research since the 1970s. She has introduced a new approach to breastfeeding called biological nurturing and is currently examining the mechanisms for PhD research.

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Mary L. Cooper

Mary L. Cooper was a community/direct entry midwife for over 20 years with 2000+ babies. Mary believes in all aspects of the birthing process, birthing women and the full circle of birth (which at times includes death). At workshops, Mary shares this "Sacred Ground" which includes: VBACs, Twins, Breeches, Uterine Death, Birth Anomalies and Healing Births. Mary shares what God, Birthing Women, Babies and life have shared with her. Mary has been and is now a "caretaker" for the elderly as their lives come to an end.

Ansu Coto

Ansu Coto is a doula trained in body work and holistic therapies. She is co-founder of Acompañando Mamás al Nacimiento (AMAN) and teaches a prenatal class in hypnobirthing.

Patricia Couch

Patricia Couch is a mother, midwife, doula and educator whose passion for pregnancy and the birthing process was inspired by the birth of her first son. She has been working in her birthing community since 1996 and practicing midwifery since 2006. She currently practices in a freestanding waterbirth center in Oregon as well as in the home. She is also a Birth Arts International doula and instructor and attends births in hospital and in a CNM birth center in the doula role. Patricia is fascinated by the healing power of the placenta and has been offering placenta encapsulation to her clients for the last couple of years with remarkable results. She is currently certified as a Placenta Encapsulation Specialist with PlacentaBenefits.info.

Sharon Craig

Sharon Craig, CPM, is a Midwife Trainer and Advisor working in Afghanistan. Sharon has worked as a midwife in Russia, the Philippines, California and Afghanistan. In 2005, Sharon opened the Maternity Ward in Kabul’s CURE International Hospital, and opened the Maternity Service in the Family Health Center in the summer of 2006. Her current focus is on community-based health education on healthy pregnancy, birth and newborns.

Hilde Curinckx

Hilde Curinckx has been a midwife in Belgium since 1993. She worked in a local hospital in Mol, Belgium, for more than 10 years. Since January 2004 she has taught in the midwifery education programme in Hasselt, Belgium, and is currently responsible for teaching second year students, as well as the high risk unit in the third year. She is currently interested in giving students more knowledge about physiological births to prevent pathological or high-risk births; receiving an IBCLC in July 2008; and participating in international midwifery programmes.

Cathy Daub

Cathy Daub designed and taught the first Birth Works® classes in New Jersey in 1981. Birth Works joined The International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) in 1982. Cathy served as chairperson of the education committee to develop Birth Works into a certification program. The program was completed in 1988 and the first childbirth educator training workshop was held. In 1994 Birth Works incorporated, becoming a non-profit organization with a full Board of Directors and Board of Advisors.

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Lorna Davies

Lorna Davies, RM, PGCEA, MA, is a UK qualified midwife who has worked in midwifery education since 1995. Her particular interests lie in examination of the newborn, parent education, breastfeeding, birth art, normal birth and e-Learning. She is also co-director of www.withwoman.co.uk. [ PHOTO BY ANDREA NOLL ]

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Elizabeth Davis

Elizabeth Davis, CPM, is a renowned expert on women’s issues. She has been a midwife, women’s health care specialist, educator and consultant since 1977. She is internationally active in women’s rights and lectures widely on midwifery, sexuality and women’s spirituality. She served as regional representative to the Midwives Alliance of North America for five years and as president of the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC). She is co-founder of the National Midwifery Institute, Inc., a three-year, MEAC accredited, apprenticeship-based midwifery program, leading to licensure in California. She holds a degree in Holistic Maternity Care from Antioch University and is certified by the North American Registry of Midwives. She is the author of the classic Heart and Hands: A Midwife’s Guide to Pregnancy and Birth, in addition to several other books. Elizabeth lives in Sebastopol, California, and is the mother of three children. [ PHOTO BY JENNIFER ROSENBERG ]

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Robbie Davis-Floyd

Robbie Davis-Floyd, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Texas Austin, and Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology, is a medical anthropologist specializing in the anthropology of reproduction. Robbie lectures at childbirth, midwifery and obstetrical conferences around the world. Robbie has written over 80 articles and the book Birth as an American Rite of Passage (2004). Her research on global trends and transformations in childbirth, obstetrics, and midwifery is ongoing.

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Betty-Anne Daviss

Betty-Anne Daviss is a registered midwife, social activist, researcher and preceptor working in Ottawa, Canada. She is an adjunct professor in Women’s Studies at Carleton University. A midwife since 1976, she has caught babies on five continents. Her research has included ethnographic study on traditional midwives, social science research on changes in midwifery in North America and epidemiological investigation of clinical data. The Chair of the International Bureau of the Canadian Association of Midwives, her most recent international work was in Afghanistan. She is co-investigator of the CPM2000 Project, the largest prospective homebirth study in North America. She holds a Bachelor of Journalism degree and an MA in Women’s/Canadian Studies.

Martine De Nardi

Martine De Nardi is a nurse and a physiotherapist. She is the teaching supervisor of the Perinatal Sensorial Gymnastics (PSG) diploma in Fernando Pessoa University, Porto (Portugal). She teaches fasciatherapy and somatic-psychoeducation. Martine has been attending mothers, babies and parents for more than 20 years, and for 13 years has taught PSG to midwives. Her Web site is: www.gymnastiquesensorielleperinatale.org

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Debbie A. Díaz Ortiz

Debbie A. Díaz Ortiz, CPM, MPH, began her midwifery career as an apprentice to Rully Delgado, a Puerto Rican traditional midwife, in 1986. Today they are colleagues. In 1992 she went to Maternidad La Luz, and from 1993 on worked as a primary caregiver at homebirths in Puerto Rico. She is a member of the Latin-American and Caribbean Network for the Humanization of Childbirth.

Marina Dadasheva Campbell Drown

Marina Dadasheva Campbell Drown, midwife, was born in 1951 and grew up in and around Baku in the then-Soviet Union. Marina is a licensed military nurse. She holds university degrees in literature, philology and journalism. She has worked as a university lecturer, journalist, university counselor, educational innovator, dance instructor, yoga practitioner and teacher.

Madeline L. Dusky

Madeline L. Dusky, president and director of the Touch Learning Center, graduated from Ohio College of Massotherapy in 1988, relocated shortly thereafter to Antrim, New Hampshire. She opened her private practice with a focus on pre- and postpartum care and women suffering from fibromyalgia. In 1991 she volunteered as a massage therapist at the Iron Man Triathalon in Kona, Hawaii. It was during this visit that she was blessed to have met the Kahuna Healer, LomiLomi Master Aunty Margaret Machado who intorduced her to the ways of the Kahuna healers and the spiritual practice of LomiLomi Hawaiian massage. This spiritual journey with traditional healers has been an ongoing passion and includes a BS in alternative healing with a focus on maternal-fetal health. Madeline moved back to Ohio in 2002 and became part of the integrative medical department of the world renowned Cleveland Clinic. She also volunteers as part of the team for hisk risk pregnant women at MacDonald House, University Hospitals/Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. Madeline offers her workshops/seminars in LomiLomi, prenatal and fibromyalgia at schools and hospitals around the country. LomiLomi is the foundation of all her work—it integrates body, mind, and spirit. It will benefit all those that receive from the premature infant to medically frail clients and to those patients preparing for their soul’s journey.

Mabel Dzata

Mabel Dzata, RN, CNM, is a midwife who lived and trained in Ghana, where she attended over 2,000 births. She has practiced as a homebirth midwife in the US since 1988. Mabel has attended many twin and breech births. She now works as a CNM.