Dr. Liz Anderson-Peacock is an internationally known chiropractor in practice since 1986. She is a professional speaker and coach, is known for her involvement in clinical practice guidelines, regulatory and committee work, teaching postgraduate programs in pediatrics and pregnancy, and she continues to love seeing miracles in practice. She is the co-founder of Girls, Gals & Gurus Inc., a company motivating women and girls towards healthy lifestyle changes – naturally. She has published various papers from special needs care, infertility and children with headaches to name a few.
Dr. Liz is the recipient of the 1998 Canadian Chiropractor of the Year, the 2005 Ontario Chiropractic Association’s Heart and Hand award and the 2008 Women Congress of Women Chiropractors award. She has been featured in “Women with Vision” and on Rogers television. She is the president of the Academy of Chiropractic Family Practice.
Dr. Steve Ballouis a family doctor who worked twenty-five years in Val-d'Or, Quebec, and is now teaching family medicine at the University of Ottawa. He is originally from the US (South Carolina) but went to McGill Medical School, and has been in Canada for thirty years. Dr. Ballou practices an old-fashioned sort of medicine, which includes caring for pregnant women and delivering their babies. He looks after children, the elderly, and everyone in between
Lisa Barrettwas trained and began her career as a Midwife in England. In 2003 she emigrated to Australia. She was the Midwife in charge of the labour ward at South Australia's largest private hospital for 2 years before returning to Independent Midwifery. Lisa's blog published some of the first videos on the intenet of normalized breech birth.
Christie Craigie-Carteris a licensed mental health counselor who became involved with the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) after her first two children were born by cesarean for variations of breech. She is a Chapter Leader who supports women in preventing unnecessary cesareans, recovering from cesareans, and pursuing Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC). Her youngest child, also breech, was born at home with the assistance of two fantastic midwives. She joined the Coalition for Breech Birth to make women aware of their options about breech babies, and to encourage evidenced-based care in relation to breech birth.
Mary Cronk, MBE, RM, RGN, ADM, NCDN
A midwife in clinical practice for over 40 years, Mary has worked mainly in the community setting with over 1600 of her own cases. For the past twenty years she has been a member of the statutory bodies regulating midwifery, (ENB, UKCC, NMC) and is currently a Practitionhttp://www.homebirth.net.au/search/label/breecher Panelist on the ‘Fitness to Practice Committee’ of the NMC. She has practiced independently since 1990.
Betty-Anne Davissis a midwife of over 30 years, a researcher in the fields of epidemiology and social science, and a professor in Women's and Gender Studies at Carleton University. She has a long standing career in activism in organizing the community to support vaginal breech birth and has attended breech births as a primary practitioner in both home and hospital settings in Canada and internationally. She coined the term "breech squad" -- a group of obstetricians and midwives willing to be on call in any geographical location for women who have practitioners who feel less comfortable with what has become viewed in Canada as an extreme sport. Since she presented at the first International Breech Conference in 2006, she has travelled and worked with researchers and obstetricians conducting vaginal breech birth in Germany, France, Norway, England, and Ireland, creating a unique insight into the varying perceptions and practices surrounding breech birth. She has concluded the best way to do it is apparently the way she learned from Guatemalan traditional midwives in 1976. She is leading out in the creation of a database to collect observational data on vaginal breech birth in varying positions and is working with the Frankfurt team to propose a pilot randomised controlled trial comparing these modes of delivery.
Jane Evans SCM, SRN
Jane has been in clinical midwifery practice for over 30 years, mainly in the community, and has worked independently since 1991. She has developed extensive experience in helping women birth twins and babies presenting by the breech. She has cared for over 1000 women as their midwife. Jane is the author of the recently published AIMS booklet, 'Breech Birth, What are my options?'
Dr. Stuart J. Fischbein, MD FACOG, BAC (Birth Action Coalition) Medical Advisor, Attended University of Minnesota Medical School. He completed his residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in Los Angeles 1982-86. Dr. Fischbein has been in private practice of Obstetrics and Gynecology since 1986. He has a long history of support for Certified Nurse Midwives and Licensed Midwives. This interest began as a resident rotating through LA County-USC Medical Center where he had the good fortune to be exposed to the midwifery model of care. In the mid 80's he was approached by Nancy McNeese of the Natural Childbirth Institute, formerly in Culver City, to provide back-up support for women choosing alternatives to hospital based birthing. In 1995 he co-founded The Woman's Place, Inc., an innovative model of collaboration between Certified Nurse Midwives and Obstetricians in Camarillo. In 2004 he co-authored, "Fearless Pregnancy, Wisdom and Reassurance From a Doctor, a Midwife and a Mom" Fair Winds Press with long time associate, Joyce Weckl, CNM and writer, Victoria Clayton. He has twice been awarded Physician of the Year by the Doulas Association of Southern California. A long time outspoken advocate of womens' rights to informed consent and the right to refusal of treatment and exercise of their free will.
Dr. Rixa Freezehas a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa with an emphasis on childbirth and maternity care. Her dissertation examined the unassisted birth movement in North America. She worked as a doula and a midwife's assistant before the birth of her two children, both born at home. Dr. Freeze blogs at Stand and Deliver.
Dr. Robert Gagnonis one of the principal authors of the new SOGC guidelines, and Chair of the Society’s Maternal Fetal Medicine Committee. He graduated from University of Montreal in 1980.
Ina May Gaskin, MA, CPMis founder and director of the Farm Midwifery Center, located near Summertown, Tennessee. Founded in 1971, the Farm Midwifery Center had handled more than 2200 births by 1996, with remarkably good outcomes. Ms. Gaskin herself has attended more than 1200 births. She is author of Spiritual Midwifery, now in its fourth edition. For twenty-two years she published Birth Gazette, a quarterly covering health care, childbirth and midwifery issues. Her new book, Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth was released 4 March 2003 by Bantam/Dell, a division of Random House. She has lectured all over the world at midwifery conferences and at medical schools, both to students and to faculty. She was President of Midwives' Alliance of North America from 1996 to 2002. In 1997, she received the ASPO/Lamaze Irwin Chabon Award and the Tennessee Perinatal Association Recognition Award. In 2003 she was chosen as Visiting Fellow of Morse College, Yale University.
Ms. Gaskin has lectured widely to midwives and physicians throughout the world. Her promotion of a low-intervention but extremely effective method for dealing with one of the most-feared birth complications, shoulder dystocia, has resulted in that method being adopted by a growing number of practitioners. The Gaskin maneuver is the first obstetrical procedure to be named for a midwife. Her statistics for breech deliveries and her teaching video on the subject have helped to spark a reappraisal of the policy of automatically performing cesarean section for all breech babies. As the occurrence of vaginal breech births has declined over the last 25 years, the knowledge and skill required for such births have come close to extinction.
Ms. Gaskin’s center is noted for its low rates of intervention, morbidity and mortality despite the inclusion of many vaginally delivered breeches, twin and grand multiparas. Their statistics were published in “The Safety of Home Birth: The Farm Study,” authored by A. Mark Durand, American Journal of Public Health, March, 1992, Vol. 82, 450-452. She was featured in Salon magazine’s feature “Brilliant Careers” in the June 1, 1999 edition.
Dr. Marek Glezermanis the Emma Fein Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Tel Aviv University and Chairman of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Rabin Medical Centre in Israel. In the past he chaired the departments of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Medical Centres Soroka and Wolfson in Israel.
He is past-president of the Israel Fertility Association and current president of the Israel Society of Gender Medicine, chairman of the Israel National Maccabi Steering Committee of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and member of three National Councils at the Israel Ministry of Health.
He has written/edited 4 books and published more than 300 chapters and articles in obstetric and gynaecologic texts and in professional journals.
Robin Guyco-founded the Coalition For Breech Birth after unsuccessfully attempting to negotiate a vaginal breech birth for her second baby. Robin was given a c-section after reaching full dilation. As a multip with a perfectly positioned frank breech baby, Robin knows her surgery was unnecessary except for the lack of care providers with breech skills. She has since worked tirelessly to improve breech skills in Canada, including lobbying hospitals and the SOGC, and speaking to doula groups, midwifery students and consumers throughout Ontario.
Dr. Michael Hall, MDBorn and raised in Colorado, Dr. Hall attended medical school at the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center, did an obstetrics and gynecology internship and residency in Colorado, and is board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology. He continues to enjoy the art of vaginal breech birth and continues to offer the option in his private practice in Colorado. Dr. Hall's wife is a certified nurse midwife and he has consulted and backed up midwives for the past 28 years. Dr. Hall is an assistant clinical professor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and continues to teach interns, residents, and physician assistants on a routine basis.
Laureen Hudsonhas been the technical editor and online community advocate for java.sun.com and developers.sun.com at Sun Microsystems, and a freelance editor for Hunt Press. She served ICAN as Publications Director, editing Cesarean Voices, publishing the ICAN eNews, co-managing the relaunch of the website, and being the primary cheering section for the Clarion. She’s a blogger, a website manager, and an enthusiastic geek enabler.
Laureen has spoken before capacity crowds at engineering conferences, gatherings, and hackfests on the topics of new media, communications, and publication models. She’s a scuba instructor, a beginning sailor, a traveler, and an obsessive researcher, who’s chiefly focused on, and delighted with, her husband Jason, and her children Rowan, Kestrel, and Aurora. They live on a 47′ catamaran, s/v Excellent Adventure, in the San Francisco Bay.
Dr. Kenneth C. Johnson, PhDis a senior epidemiologist with the Public Health Agency of Canada. He has worked in chronic disease epidemiology for more than 25 years. His interest in perinatal epidemiology has continued since he ran the Canadian birth defects registry in the late 1980s, and he obtained a WHO fellowship in 1991 at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, original home of the Cochrane Collaboration. He has written on limitations of randomized controlled trials in perinatal research and was co-author of the large prospective cohort study on more than 5,400 intended home births published in the BMJ in 2005. He is co-author of a new article on breech birth just accepted for publication in the JOGC. He holds adjunct professorships in epidemiology at the University of Ottawa and Queens . His cancer risk assessment work has recently focused on breast cancer risk related to secondhand smoke and active smoking with earlier work including cancer risk related to chlorination by-products in drinking water, physical activity and diet on which he has published extensively.
Elaine Kicknoswayis a Swampy Cree woman originally from Pelican Narrows Northern Saskatchewan. She is a member of Peter Ballantyne Cree nation. She is wolf clan, mother of one, step mother, and is presently the Sacred Child Coordinator at Minwaashin Lodge-Aboriginal Women’s Support Centre..
Dr. André B. Lalonde. Dr. André B. Lalonde has pursued excellence in the practice of obstetrics, gynaecology, and sexual and reproductive rights for over 25 years. Currently the Executive Vice-President of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) since 1991, Dr. Lalonde is recognized worldwide as a leader in women’s health and wellness, as well as a tireless advocate for safe motherhood worldwide.
Dr. Lalonde’s career accomplishments are extensive. A lifelong proponent of collaborative maternity care, Dr. Lalonde led the Multidisciplinary Collaborative Primary Maternity Care Project (MCP2). The work of this ground-breaking initiative led to the development of collaborative practice models in which nurses, midwives, family physicians and obstetricians work together to ensure appropriate maternity care.
Dr. Lalonde pioneered a maternal risk management program to address maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity, both in Canada and around the world. The ALARM International program has been piloted and used in over 20 lower resource countries with great success.
Since 1999 Dr. Lalonde has been Co-Chair of the Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health Committee of FIGO, supervising projects in 10 lower resource countries to reduce maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity. For the past six years, Dr. Lalonde has been active in FIGO’s worldwide campaign to prevent postpartum hemorrhage, and been a leader in the promotion of non-invasive treatments to prevent this devastating condition. In 2007, Dr. Lalonde co-authored Postpartum Hemorrhage Today, the definitive textbook on PPH now used throughout the world. Dr. Lalonde has collaborated with WHO, UNFPA, POPPHI, and USAID in a diverse array of maternal and newborn health projects around the world. Due to this expertise, Dr. Lalonde is frequently invited to lecture at international congresses on safe motherhood, postpartum hemorrhage prevention and treatment, as well as sexual and reproductive health.
Dr. Lalonde is also FIGO’s representative on the Partnership for Motherhood and Newborn Child Health. The mandate of the Partnership is to support the achievement of Millennium Development Goals 4 & 5, reducing maternal, newborn and child mortality through the strengthening of coordinated action at global, regional, national, sub-national and community levels. The Partnership’s work has also led to the development of capacity-building tools to support the evolution of strong professional societies. Dr. Lalonde has directed the work of the Partnership under the auspices of the SOGC’s International Women’s Health Program (IWHP), which he established in 1998. IWHP missions targeting Haiti, Uganda, Guatemala and Burkina Faso are currently underway, a testament to the effectiveness and influence of this SOGC mandate which is celebrating a decade of commitment this year.
Dr. Lalonde is a member of ACOG, ABOG, ACS, CMA, RCPSC, RCOG, and CNGOF. Dr. Lalonde’s contributions to women’s health have been recognized with many honours during his distinguished career, including the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal awarded to Canadians who have made outstanding and exemplary contributions. The LaSalle General Hospital in Montreal, where Dr. Lalonde practiced and was Head of Obstetrics, recognized his dedication to maternity care and women’s health by naming the obstetrical wing the “Lalonde Birthing Unit”. Dr. Lalonde has received honorary fellowships from RCOG, CNGOF, and the Obstetrics and Gynecology Societies of Hungary, Chile, Japan and Guatemala, as well as from Valparaiso University in Chile.
Dr. Frank Louwenis a Professor of Obstetrics and Perinatology and the Division Chief of Obstetrics and Fetomaternal Medicine at the University of Frankfurt, Germany. He studied at Westfaelischen Wilhelms-University Muenster from 1983-89. He has served as Chief of the perinatl Centre (III) at the J.W. Goethe-University since 2002. He also serves on several executive boards. Five years ago Dr. Louwen started delivering breech babies with the mother in the upright position (on her knees or all-fours) and is in the process of compiling data regarding this technique and its benefits.
Jay MacGillivray began work as a midwife in the early ‘80s. She is one of the senior midwives in the province. Jay has trained in Canada and the United States. She has worked as a midwife in different countries worldwide and continues to have a passion for birth. She is currently working on a Masters of Midwifery degree. Jay has been deeply involved in the social justice movement for years and is committed to improving access to midwifery for all women, regardless of circumstance. Jay has two children, a son, Jeremy, who is 30 years old and a firefighter in Whistler, BC and a daughter, Lita, who is 3 years old. She also has a dog named “Jim the Dog”.
Dr. Savas M. Menticoglou, OBGYN has been Head of Obstetrics at the Women’s Hospital in Winnipeg , Manitoba, Canada from 1996 to 2008. He continued to deliver breeches vaginally, despite the Term Breech Trial and its affect upon standard practice across the country. Dr. Menticoglou is one of the principal authors of new 2009 SOGC guidelines on breech birth.
Dr. J. Peter O'Neillis an Assistant Professor of OB/GYN at Queen's University
in Kingston, Ontario. He is an ALARM Instructor and currently is chair of the Alarm
Committee at the SOGC. Having worked in primary, secondary and tertiary centers
he has an understanding of the different venues for birth in Canada and
enjoys teaching all practitioners how to care for women in labour and
achieve optimal outcomes for mothers and babies.
Dr. Anke Reitterwas born in 1967 in Frankfurt, Germany. During her medical studies, she worked in both India and the United States. Dr. Reitter got her first working experience as a doctor in England, where she worked for 4 years before returning to Germany to complete her training in obstetrics and gynaecology, becoming a specialist in perinatal medicine. Since 2003, she has worked in the Obstetric and Gynaecology Department at the University Hospital of Frankfurt, where she is currently a senior OBGYN in clinical practice. Her special interests lie in breech and multiple pregnancies, as well as prenatal ultrasound. Her work with Dr. Frank Louwen in compiling the last four years of data regarding outcomes of breech births with the mother in the upright position will soon be published.
Julie Searcyis a PhD candidate at Indiana University's Department of Communication and Culture. Her research focuses on media representations and discussions about birth. She works as a doula and volunteers at the Bloomington Area Birth Services (a non profit organization).
Dr. Tanya Smithis a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Clinic Director at Lifecycles Wellness in Toronto. Her practice focuses on women`s reproductive health, particularly in the childbearing years. Using acupuncture, herbal medicine and lifestyle counseling, she supports women throughout their pregnancies to manage and ease common discomforts and complications including breech presentation.
Michelle Webbattempted to find a care provider to support her in a trial of labour in 2002 in Toronto, Ontario. Despite looking for 3 weeks she ended up with a planned c-section for her breech baby, deciding that a skilled surgeon was safer for her and her baby than an unskilled breech attendant. She then trained to be a doula and birth activist. Notably, she helped found a Community Advisory Board supporting Midwifery Practice in 2004, and has since founded a birth support group and works as a doula with clients seeking vaginal birth after c-section.
