Maternity Healthcare Models and Midwifery Care

Blyss Young, LM CPM, is a home birth midwife, childbirth educator, placenta encapsulator and natural birth and family consultant. Through her guidance and love centered approach she supports families to birth in the ways that they feel most empowered. She is a firm believer in intuition, the sacredness and ritual of birth and the power of autonomy in birth. She has studied with both Dr. Stu Fischbein (LA's only home birth obstetrician) and many skilled midwives. She has been fortunate to learn the art of midwifery in addition to the unique skills of delivering Breech, Twins and VBACs. At the heart of all of her work is a deeply rooted belief in the brilliant design of the human body and the symbiotic relationship between baby and parent. She continues to strive to support the sacredness of birth as a rite of passage, in the hopes to resurrect lost traditions that can bring connection to our high tech low touch lives.

How Prenatal Yoga can Help you have an Easier Birth

Deb Flashenberg is the founder and director of the Prenatal Yoga Center in NYC. Along with being a prenatal yoga teacher, she is also a labor support doula, Lamaze childbirth educator, mother of two and self proclaimed "birth and anatomy geek”. For the past 7 years, Deb has also greatly enjoyed being the host of the podcast, Yoga | Birth | Babies, where she speaks with some of the world’s leading experts in pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and parenthood. Currently, Deb is knee deep in Dr. Sarah Duvall’s Pregnancy and Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist program and pursuing the Spinning Babies Parent Educator certification and loving every minute of it!

Birth Physiology IS under Your Control

Adriana Lozada (she, her) is a bestselling author, speaker, and the creator and host of the acclaimed Birthful podcast, where she has interviewed hundreds of birth professionals and parents to give her listeners multifaceted tools to inform their intuition. As one listener put it, “Birthful is my weekly dose of I can do this.”

Venezuelan-born Adriana believes in, and advocates for, the transformational power of giving birth, and is gifted at helping others take ownership of their perinatal journeys through her work as an advanced birth doula and childbirth and postpartum educator.

Adriana brings her deep knowledge, practical expertise, curiosity, and respect for inclusivity into all aspects of her work. Her ultimate goal is to support and uplift parents to have wonderful births and nourishing postpartum experiences, as they define them.

Essential Oils for Maternal Wellness

Stephanie McBride is a passionate advocate for the use of Essential Oils as a form of natural self-care and in clinical practice, from the moment of conception on. Her 30 years of botanical medicine study, coupled with practical experience as a certified clinical herbalist, professional aromatherapist, and functional nutritionist, qualify her to provide the in-depth knowledge necessary to simplify this ancient health modality for others.

Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Stephanie is dedicated to her work as a health care professional, published author, and professional public speaker. Prior to her current occupation she spent seven years in clinical practice providing natural health support to women during maternity and in postpartum. She has led case studies related to the efficacy of essential oils during maternity. She has written two guidebooks and an e-course on the topic of aromatherapy in childbearing. She has been a keynote speaker at wellness events throughout the United States and in Europe.

How to get your Needs Met in Labor and Birth

HeHe Stewart is the Founder of Tranquility by HeHe Maternity Concierge, the creator of The Birth Lounge membership and podcast. With a Master’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies and 10 years in the Family Life Education field, HeHe helps people prepare for childbirth with research-backed education and data-driven support to have a confident birth experience while feeling informed and in control of labor (without fear or coercion). She is also a pro with preparing for postpartum, helping you master feeding your tiny human and understanding newborn sleep! HeHe hosts The Birth Lounge Podcast which features leading experts in pregnancy, women's health, and newborn development so parents can understand how to have an informed and confident birth!

Nourish Women Now! The importance of daily organic nutrition prenatally and especially postpartum

Stephanie Dawn is a Radiant Living Priestess, Mentor and Coach, supporting the spiritual, emotional, physical and financial transformation of healthy women living in a toxic world. She has healed a Stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis naturally, is the mother of two teenage boys and is the founder of Sacred Birth Work, a teaching that supports expectant parents to create a sacred walk towards parenthood, beginning prenatally. 

Pain to Pleasure, Tips for an Orgasmic Birth 

Debra Pascali-Bonaro is a world-renowned inspirational speaker, podcaster, filmmaker, doula trainer, childbirth educator, and author. Debra’s latest book, an Amazon #1 New Release, The Ultimate Guide To Sex After Baby: Secrets to Love and Intimacy brings together her passion for pleasure in every aspect of life with her Jersey-Girl attitude of talking about what no one is talking about! Debra is a mother, grandmother and featured expert in parenting journals and media around the world.

Debra Pascali-Bonaro is also Co-Chair of the International Childbirth Initiative and Chair of the International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative both of which promote safe, respectful childbirth maternity care. She is a Lamaze International childbirth educator, birth and postpartum doula trainer with DONA International, Director of the award-winning documentary Orgasmic Birth: The Best-Kept Secret and co-writer of “Orgasmic Birth: Your Guide to a Safe, Satisfying and Pleasurable Birth” and the Founder & President of the revolutionary online childbirth class Pleasurable Birth Essentials which prepares expectant mothers, fathers, and partners to be positively prepared for birth and focuses on the intimate and sacred nature of birth. Her newly launched podcast, Orgasmic Birth: The Podcast has opened to rave reviews. Join her as she breaks down, heals barriers, and opens the door to share secrets to more love and intimacy in birth and parenting.

Debra’s passion comes from her over 30 years of working with women, men, midwives, doulas, physicians and nurses in over 40 countries bringing comfort, love, and pleasure to birth and life!

Incorporating Acupressure into Labor for

Optimal Results 

Dr. Deb Davies, DACM, L.Ac. is passionately following her calling by supporting 1000's of families naturally throughout their pregnancy, birth, and postpartum journeys. She’s a Chinese medicine doctor, an educator, a mentor, a Best Selling author, a birth doula, and a mother. Deb created PUSH Professional’s online mentorship program for licensed acupuncturists that teaches them everything they’d want to know about pregnancy, birth & postpartum. Her mission statement is to empower pregnant couples to have safe and healthy pregnancies, births, and recoveries by offering natural options in healthcare. Dr. Deb’s goal would be to have an acupuncturist at every Labor & Delivery in hospitals around the world.

Breathing in Beauty

Dr. Amanda Ramirez, Doctor of Physical Therapy, specializes in all things breath, body and beauty. She uses physical therapy-based principles to support you as you optimize your function, fertility, beauty, appearance, and performance.

She received her doctorate degree from the University of Southern California and currently practices in Los Angeles. Fluent in both English and Spanish, in-person, she serves the Inglewood and Manhattan Beach communities and, virtually, her online courses are available to people worldwide. She specializes in orthopedics, pelvic health, feminine wellness, postpartum care, the lymphatic system and restorative reproductive medicine.

Everyone wants to Hold the Baby: Who will hold

the Mother?

Jabina Coleman is a United States Breastfeeding Committee Cultural Change Maker awardee, dynamic speaker, and leader and educator of maternal health. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Jabina has dedicated over a decade to serving women, children, and families locally and nationally. As the owner of Life House Lactation & Perinatal Services, she provides psychotherapy and lactation consultation services.

Jabina is the co-founder and president of Perinatal Mental Health Alliance for People of Color, providing resources and support to professionals and communities of color who are treating and dealing with the complications of perinatal mood disorders.

Jabina is the co-founder of Breastfeeding Awareness & Empowerment (BAE) an organization created in response to the public outcry surrounding adverse perinatal health outcomes for Black families in the United States and the founding member of the Maternal Wellness Village, whose mission is to function as an action-oriented task force provided support services to empower communities throughout the African Diaspora. Her professional experiences in hospital social work, community organizing and engagement, and private practice has drawn many to her for mentorship and leadership.

Jabina is the creator of “Everyone wants to hold the baby, who will hold the mother?®” A call to action highlighting the lack of support Black women and birthing folx are receiving before, during, and after pregnancy. This call to action addresses the maternal mortality crisis that is affecting Black women. It is educating medical professionals, birth workers, families, and communities on the importance of advocacy for equitable and safe maternal health practices. It is addressing breastfeeding and infant feeding choices and disparities. Lastly, it is holding legislators accountable for holding Black, Indigenous, and People of Color at the center of policymaking. Her work is grounded in reproductive justice and trauma-informed care.

Make no mistake, it is not just what she does, it is who she is! Guided by her lived and professional experiences she is committed to being a social change agent, and a leader on the frontlines closing the gaps in maternal health care.

To register for weekly BAE support groups, go to @BAE_hood

Communication Navigation: Active Decision Making in Prenatal Care 

Brittany Sharpe McCollum, CCE(BWI), CD(DONA), CLC is a Perinatal Pelvic Biomechanics Educator and the owner of Blossoming Bellies Wholistic Birth Services based out of the greater Philadelphia PA area, providing childbirth education classes, birth doula services, and dynamic labor support and pelvic biomechanics training workshops for birth professionals and expectant parents. She has offered birth-related support for expectant parents since 2007 through in person and virtual group and self-paced childbirth education and birth doula support. Her approach focuses on developing advocacy skills for effective communication, utilizing movement in all labors to support progress, and understanding the importance of an individualized person-centered approach to childbirth.

Brittany also creates and facilitates continuing education workshops for clinical and non-clinical labor support providers on evidence-based fetal positioning and pelvic biomechanics and is honored to be a sought after speaker at international childbirth related conferences, including the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association Summit in 2018, the Evidence Based Birth conference in 2019, the Midwifery Forward 2020 Conference, the ICEA 2020 and 2022 Virtual Conferences, the Utah Doula Association Mini Conference, the ACNM Midwifery Day conference, and more. She is also a contributing author to the book “Baby Got VBAC: An Inspiring Collection of Wisdom for Better Births After Cesarean.”

Brittany lives in South Jersey with her partner and their four children. Check out her website for upcoming webinars, classes, workshops, conference events, and more at www.blossomingbelliesbirth.com and follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @blossomingbelliesbirth.

Trusting Birth: A Real discussion about VBAC, Breech and Twins

Stuart J. Fischbein MD is a community-based practicing obstetrician and an associate of the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology, published author of the book “Fearless Pregnancy, Wisdom & Reassurance from a Doctor, A Midwife and A Mom” and peer-reviewed papers Homebirth with an Obstetrician, A Series of 135 Out of Hospital Births and Breech birth at home: outcomes of 60 breech and 109 cephalic planned home and birth center births. Dr. Stu spent 24 years assisting women with hospital birthing and, for the last 12 years, has been a homebirth obstetrician who works directly with midwives. His website is www.birthinginstincts.com.

Dr. Stu travels around the world as a lecturer and advocate for reteaching breech & twin birth, respect for the normalcy of birth and honoring informed consent. Follow him on Instagram @birthinginstincts and at The Birthing Instincts Podcast with midwife Blyss Young on your smartphone app as he offers hope, reassurance and safe, evidence supported choices for those women who understand pregnancy is a normal bodily function not to be feared, simply desire common sense and who cannot find supportive practitioners for VBAC, twin and breech deliveries.

Disentangling Fear in the Nervous System: the Deeper Preparation for Birth 

Nicole Morales is a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a midwife, a doula, a friend, and a mentor. Empowered by her own very different births of her three children at home, Nicole is drawn to assisting families in birthing and parenting in awareness and to appreciating the sacred relationships throughout the childbearing years and beyond. She has worked as a doula for many years and has benefited from the apprenticeship model of midwifery.

Nicole is an Approved Spinning Babies Trainer and a Certified Birthing from Within Mentor. She blends these tools in her midwifery practice as well in instruction from both perspectives of the mind and body. She also is an instructor for Nizhoni Institute of Midwifery and is part of breechbirthsd.com which helps breech families navigate the systems as best as possible by being an online resource center.

Radical Responsibility, Love and Oxytocin!

Hi, I’m Nathan, and I’m a recovering conventional doctor.

I was in school for most of life, trained in two medical specialties, then looked back and found myself disillusioned with the conventional maternity care model. Now, instead of serving the medical industrial complex, I serve women and their partners in achieving vitality. I have done extensive study in holistic lifestyle medicine, and my practice is based on the midwifery model. I also utilize quite a variety of very helpful modalities that most OBGYNs don’t consider: functional medicine testing like DUTCH, directed supplementation, yoni/vaginal/pelvic steaming, and herbal remedies. I am currently studying Anthroposophical Medicine, which will be my third board certification, and sometimes I recommend potentized homeopathic remedies. I provide holistic support to fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, and menopause long before I recommend surgery, hormonal contraception, or other pharmaceuticals.

I have a background in Ironman distance triathlon, rock climbing, Crossfit, and olympic weightlifting. I am also a deep ecologist, herbalist, psychonaut, and perennial Burner.

I live with my wife, Stephanie, in Louisville, KY. Stephanie is an artist and incredible cook. I also happen to think she might be an angel in disguise. We met when we were 16, and we have two daughters, Penélope-Luz and Everly-Rosa, the latter of whom was born at home. (Girl dads unite!)

Building Your Village! 

Amanda Gorman is a wife, mother of two, a certified Birthing From Within childbirth educator and the creator of Finding Your Village. Amanda creates online content in the form of courses, videos, and podcast episodes that focus on birth, postpartum and parent mental health with the goal of helping parents find their village.

Self-Empowerment and Nourishing the Whole Self

Heng is author of The First Forty Days and Awakening Fertility, and the founder of MotherBees, which was conceived after Heng delivered her third child. During her recovery, she practiced zuo yuezi, a traditional Chinese approach to postpartum care that was handed down to her by a beloved Aunt. 

Heng was so moved by the restorative power of this practice that she felt called to make this ritual accessible on a broader scale. Driven by her belief that nourishment goes far beyond the foods we eat, Heng’s idea of care nourishes your soul, your wellbeing, and your heart. And with some practical, modern updates to zuo yuezi, Heng started a meal-delivery service in Los Angeles for mindful mamas and developed MotherBees. 

Heng is a graduate of The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

Amely Greeven is a meditation teacher and a writer whose topics include preventive healthcare, mind-body balance, and the search for peace in modern life. Based in Los Angeles, she teaches Vedic meditation, a thousands-of-years old practice from the same ancient Indian source as yoga and ayurvedic medicine. This effortless technique delivers clarity of thought, lower incidence of disease, greater adaptability and creativity, and increased happiness and joy.

Amely is the only female teacher of Vedic meditation in the US. She writes about meditation, life, and wellbeing.

As a writer, Amely has completed several books in collaboration with some leading voices in the health and wellness fields. Her latest project is Clean: Restoring your Body’s Natural Ability to Heal Itself, (Harper Collins, May 2009). It is a Lenox Hill Hospital cardiologist’s program for detoxifying the body with a three-week cleanse, to help everyman and woman survive and thrive in a toxic world. Her previous book collaboration, Mariel Hemingway’s Healthy Living from the Inside Out (Harper Collins), showed how to create a balanced life through a program of food, exercise, meditation, and environmental changes. Earlier projects had a slightly different spin: she helped Kimora Lee Simmons create the gold-leafed tome, Fabulosity, and worked with skateboard-art entrepreneur Andy Howell to create his eclectic monogram, Art, Skateboarding & Life.

In addition to focusing on the area of mind-body-spirit health, Amely has extensive experience writing and creating magazines for several of the world’s biggest fashion and lifestyle brands, such as Gucci and Nike. In 2007 she created and edited a magazine about sustainability and personal health for Wal Mart, which was distributed to its million-plus employees nationwide. She continues to do specialized writing projects for select clients in the fashion world. 

History of Birth and Midwifery and

YOUR Legal Right to Informed Consent  

Amanda Gorman is a wife, mother of two, a certified Birthing From Within childbirth educator and the creator of Finding Your Village. Amanda creates online content in the form of courses, videos, and podcast episodes that focus on birth, postpartum and parent mental health with the goal of helping parents find their village.

Waves of Beauty and Bliss...Kundalini and the Secret Power of Birth

Brooke Sullivan, C-IAYT, ERYT-500 is a tantric herbalist, yoga therapist, spiritual midwife and director of The Wild Temple School of Yoga + Herbal Wisdom. A devotee of Mother Nature and practitioner of the Himalayan Tradition of Sri Vidya Tantra, she has been running apprenticeships, retreats, and professional programs since 2009. Based out of the beautiful mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, Brooke is a pilgrim of many lands with love for travel, plants, yoga, and ancient, mystical sciences.