Webinar: Perspectives on Birth and Perinatal Care

Shawn Walker is a midwife who researches how to make vaginal breech birth safer, how to nurture competence and expertise and the philosophy of physiological breech birth methods.

She is a Senior Research Fellow at King’s College London and a Consultant Breech Specialist Midwife at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Hospitals Trust.

Hazel is a Lecturer and Academic Course Advisor of the Bachelor of Midwifery and has completed her PhD in 2021 in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Western Sydney University. Hazel has more than two decades of experience as a clinician in nursing and midwifery, educator and researcher. Her research focusses on midwifery practice/education and women’s experience of maternity care. Hazel's work is recognised nationally and internationally, with more than 20 conference and seminar presentations including 10 as an invited speaker. Hazel has a developing publication track record as an early career researcher, with 7 peer reviewed publications and has been awarded the ACM NSW Pat Brodie research scholarship to develop a smartphone application in her PhD research. Hazel is passionate about improving support for women during pregnancy, birth and the early transition to mothering.

Matthew Appleton is a psychotherapist, craniosacral therapist and founder of Integrative Baby Therapy. He has more than 20 years experience of international teaching and workshop facilitation. His primary focus in on how our early prenatal, birth and early child hood experiences inform our sense of ourselves and the world we live in. He is the author of two books: A Free- Range Childhood. Self Regulation at Summerhill School and Transitions to Wholeness. Integrating Prenatal, Somatic and Transpersonal Psychology.

Kristy Benson is a final year midwifery student from Queensland, Australia. Kristy has a strong woman-centred philosophy in which pregnancy, birth and the postpartum are viewed as elements of a rite of passage. Kristy has experienced coercion in midwifery care as a woman herself and now sees this in her practice as a student midwife.

These experiences have Kristy to speak up about this human rights injustice and shine light on a way of providing care to women that ushers them into.

Julie Brill is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. In addition to her holistic lactation practice, she also teaches childbirth classes, and mentors childbirth educators and labour doulas as a Childbirth and Postpartum Professionals Association (CAPPA) faculty member.

Julie is the author of the doula anthology Round the Circle: Doulas Share their Experiences and the mother of two grown daughters.

Claire is a registered midwife specialising in homebirth and a Spinning babies® approved trainer and educator with the New Zealand college of midwives.

She is a practicing craniosacral therapist - integrating bodywork and birth work. She teaches and presents nationally, in New Zealand, and internationally.

Dr Deborah Fox is Senior Lecturer in Midwifery, Coordinator of the Bachelor of Midwifery degree and a core member of the Centre for Midwifery, Child and Family Health at University of Technology Sydney.

She is an Associate Editor of the Elsevier journal ‘Midwifery’ and supervises Masters and PhD research students in midwifery and public health.

Nicki has been a midwife for over 30 years. She became a lactation consultant in 1997, maintaining this credential until 2016. At this time, her midwifery educator role in a large regional teaching hospital eventually led her to academia, when she began her role as a lecturer and course director in Midwifery at Deakin University. She continues to draw on her lactation skills and knowledge inspiring the next generation of midwives in this current role.

Jen Kamel is the Founder & CEO of VBAC Facts® and an internationally recognized consumer advocate, her mission is to increase VBAC access through education, legislation, and amplifying the consumer voice.

She helps perinatal professionals, and caesarean parents, achieve clarity on the VBAC evidence through her educational courses, continuing education training programs, and consulting services.

Dr. Elizabeth Newnham is a midwife academic whose research interests centre on cultural and political analysis of birthing practice, and the role of midwives in promoting physiological and humanised birth. She has presented nationally and internationally.

Her doctoral research findings led to the implementation of new statewide perinatal practice guidelines on analgesia in labour and the publication of the book Towards the humanisation of birth: A study of epidural analgesia and hospital birth culture by Palgrave MacMillan.

Dr. Neel Shah is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School, and founding Director of the Delivery Decisions Initiative at Harvard’s Ariadne Labs.

He is an obstetrician-gynecologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. As a scientist and social entrepreneur, he is a globally recognised expert in designing solutions that improve health care.

Karen Strange is a Certified Professional Midwife and Neonatal Resuscitation Program Instructor. Karen is creator and instructor of the Integrative Resuscitation of the Newborn workshop, which includes the physiology of newborn transition, evidence-based studies on neonatal resuscitation, and the “When, Why and How” to provide neonatal resuscitation in the least traumatic way.

Her specialty is in debriefing after resuscitation with birth professionals.

Mark Williams is a writer, speaker and international campaigner. After suffering in silence from depression after the birth of his child, he founded International Fathers Mental Health Day and #Howareyoudad campaign to advocate for support for all parents,. Mark was awarded Inspirational Father of the year and local hero at the Pride of Britain Awards and awarded the Point of Light Award in 2019 from the Prime Minister.

Hannah is a Registered Midwife, Midwifery Educator and master’s student at the University of Central Lancashire, she has previously worked with All4Maternity.com and was the Editor-In-Chief of the Student Midwife Journal in 2018-2019.

Hannah founded the BloodtoBaby campaign to raise global awareness about optimal cord clamping through dissemination of materials and education. She has had materials for Optimal Cord Clamping endorsed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK and because of this work won the Royal College of Midwives Evidence into Practice Award in 2016.