Contributors
May 8th, 2013
 Sharon Muza – Community Manager |
Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA) BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE has been an active childbirth professional since 2004, teaching Lamaze classes and providing doula services to hundreds of couples through her private practice in Seattle, Washington. She is an instructor at the Simkin Center, Bastyr University where she is a birth doula trainer. Sharon is also a trainer with Passion for Birth, a Lamaze-Accredited Childbirth Educator Program. Sharon is on the board of REACHE, an annual conference on current childbirth topics in the Puget Sound area, a co-leader of the International Cesarean Awareness Network’s (ICAN) Seattle Chapter, and a former board member of PALS Doulas. In September 2011, Sharon was admitted as a Fellow to the Academy of Certified Childbirth Educators. Sharon enjoys active online engagement and facilitating discussion around best practice, current research and its practical application to community standards and actions by health care providers, and how that affects families in the childbearing year. Sharon has been a speaker at international conferences on topics of interest to birth professionals and enjoys collaborating with others to share ideas and information that benefit birth professionals and families. To learn more about Sharon, you are invited to visit her website, New Moon Birth. |
 Kimmelin Hull |
Kimmelin Hull, PA, LCCE, has been a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator since 2005, is trained as a physician assistant and is the author of A Dozen Invisible Pieces and Other Confessions of Motherhood. Kimmelin has also written freelance articles for regional and international parenting magazines, and maintained her own blog site, Writing My Way Through Motherhood and Beyond since 2008. A member of Montana Childbirth Collective, Kimmelin has participated in numerous community education, normal birth and gentle parenting advocacy events. Ms. Hull joined Lamaze International’s research blog, Science & Sensibility, in early 2010 as a contributing writer, and now operates the site as the Community Manager, editor and chief contributor. A mother of three, Kimmelin and her husband raise their family in the beautiful Rocky Mountain town of Bozeman, Montana. |
 Amy Romano, MSN, CNM |
Amy Romano is a regular contributor to Science & Sensibility and the former managing editor. She has analyzed, summarized, and critiqued research for the Lamaze International community since 2004 as a columnist for The Journal of Perinatal Education. She co-authored with Henci Goer, Optimal Care in Childbirth: The Case for a Physiologic Approach and was on the editorial team for the 9th edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves. She has practiced as a nurse-midwife in hospitals, birth centers, and at home and taught on the nurse-midwifery faculty at the Yale School of Nursing. She currently directs the Transforming Maternity Care Partnership for Childbirth Connection. |
 Henci Goer |
Henci Goer, award-winning medical writer and internationally known speaker, is the author of The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth and Optimal Care in Childbirth: The Case for a Physiologic Approach, her highly-acclaimed resource for childbirth professionals. An independent scholar, she is an acknowledged expert on evidence-based maternity care. In addition to contributing to Science & Sensibility, Henci guides childbearing women and those caring for them through evidence-based decision-making in the Ask Henci Forum. |
 Andrea Lythgoe |
Andrea Lythgoe is a DONA-certified doula, hospital-based Lamaze childbirth educator, and instructor at the Midwives College of Utah. She is the author of the website UnderstandingResearch.com where she aims to help those just beginning to read research to understand the language of research. Her interest in research started while attending the University of Utah, where she made ends meet by working on a large randomized controlled trial and earned a degree in community health. Andrea has served on the Board of Directors for the Utah Doula Association for 10 years. She lives and practices in the Salt Lake City, Utah area. |
 Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, Ph.D., IBCLC |
Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, Ph.D., IBCLC, FAPA is a health psychologist, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and Fellow of the American Psychologial Association in both the divisions of Health and Trauma Psychology. Dr. Kendall-Tackett is President-Elect of the Division of Trauma Psychology, Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Lactation, clinical associate professor of pediatrics at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, and Owner/Editor-in-Chief of Praeclarus Press, a small press specializing in women’s health. Dr. Kendall-Tackett has authored more than 310 articles or chapters and is the author or editor of 22 books on women’s health, maternal depression, family violence and breastfeeding. Dr. Kendall-Tackett and Dr. Tom Hale received the 2011 John Kennell and Marshall Klaus Award for Research Excellence from DONA International. You can find more from her at Uppity Science Chick |
 Walker Karraa, MFA, MA, CD(DONA) |
Walker Karraa, PhDc, is a doctoral student at Sofia University where she is conducting a study on the transformational dimensions of postpartum depression. Walker is perinatal mental health contributor for Lamaze International’s Science and Sensibility, Giving Birth With Confidence, and the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) Midwives Connection. She is currently working on co-authoring a book regarding PTSD following childbirth with Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, Ph.D., IBCLC, FAPA. Walker is the Social Media Manager for Integral Leadership Review, and lives in Sherman Oaks, CA with her two children and husband. |
 Christine H. Morton, PhD |
Christine H. Morton, PhD, is a medical sociologist, and briefly worked as a certified doula through the Pacific Association for Labor Support (PALS) in Seattle, WA. Her research and publications have focused on women’s reproductive experiences and maternity care advocacy roles, including doulas and childbirth educators. With her colleague, Clarissa Hsu, she received funding from Lamaze International to do an ethnographic study of childbirth education from 2005-2007. She is the founder of an online listserv for social scientists studying reproduction, ReproNetwork.org, with more than 200 subscribers. Her current projects include a qualitative research project interviewing women and clinicians about their experiences with adverse obstetrical events, and working with collaborator Elayne Clift, on a book based on her dissertation research entitled, Birth Ambassadors: Doulas and the Re-emergence of Woman Supported Childbirth in the United States. Since 2008, she has been employed at California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (www.cmqcc.org), an organization working to improve maternal quality care and eliminate preventable maternal death and injury and associated racial disparities. She lives with her husband, two school age children, and two dogs in the San Francisco Bay Area. |
 Michael Klein, M.D., C.C.F.P., F.C.F.P., F.A.A.P. (Neonatal/Perinatal), F.C.P.S. |
Michael Klein , M.D., C.C.F.P., F.C.F.P., F.A.A.P. (Neonatal/Perinatal), F.C.P.S.,is a pediatrician/neonatologist and family physician researcher and educator based at Children’s & Women’s Hospital and the Centre for Developmental Neurosciences & Child Health of the Child and Family Research Institute in Vancouver British Columbia Canada. He is best known for his Canadian randomized controlled trial of routine episiotomy, which demonstrated that it caused the very trauma it was supposed to prevent and has contributed to a dramatic reduction in episiotomy use. He is the principal investigator on a Canadian National Study of the beliefs and attitudes of all maternity care providers and women approaching their first birth as well as the development of methods of providing women with accurate evidence-based information on birth. Dr. Klein has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Morris Wood Award for Lifetime Contributions to Primary Care Research from the North American Primary Care Research Group, a similar award from the College of Family Physicians of Canada, and research awards from DONA and Lamaze. |
 Penny Simkin, PT |
Penny Simkin PT, is a physical therapist who has specialized in childbirth education and labor support since 1968. She estimates she has prepared over 12,000 women, couples and siblings for childbirth. She has assisted hundreds of women or couples through childbirth as a doula. She is the author of many books and articles on birth for parents and professionals, including the brand new edition of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn: the Complete Guide (4th Edition, 2010); The Birth Partner: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, and All Other Labor Companions, and many more. Her latest products for birth educators and doulas are The Road Map of Labor, a PowerPoint Presentation of Pain Medications for Childbirth; and her new DVD, Comfort Measures for Childbirth.Co-founder of DONA International, and member of the editorial staff of the journal, Birth, she recently was honored to be made the namesake for Bastyr University’s Simkin Center for Allied Birth Vocations, which provides training for Birth and Postpartum Doulas, Childbirth Educators, Lactation Educators, and Perinatal Massage Therapists, with other programs in development. Today her practice consists of childbirth education, birth counseling, and labor support, combined with a busy schedule of conferences and workshops.She is married, the mother of four, and grandmother of eight. |
 Jacqueline Levine, LCCE, FACCE, CD(DONA), CLC |
Jacqueline (Jackie) Levine, LCCE, FACCE, CD(DONA), CLC is committed to providing a continuum of care for underserved women at Planned Parenthood, on Long Island, NY, where she has provided free Lamaze education, birth and breastfeeding support to all the women in her classes for the last 9 years. She is a guest lecturer on Childbirth in the US at CW Post, has worked for CIMS, contributed to the Lamaze e-newsletter Building Confidence Week-by-Week , all after her 30-year career as a designer in the garment center. Jackie is a recipient of the Lamaze Community Outreach Award, mother of three and Grandmother of five. |
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Deena Blumenfeld RYT, RPYT, LCCE is a certified Yoga instructor at the 200 hr level, a certified Khalsa Way™ Prenatal Yoga instructor and a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator. She is also a mom of two – a son, born via c-section and a daughter, her VBAC. She is an active member of the local ICAN chapter and a member of the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services. Deena is also the owner of Shining Light Prenatal Education, where she teaches prenatal yoga, childbirth education, breastfeeding and much more. |
 Lisa Baker, BSc (Hon), BEd, LCCE |
Lisa Baker, BSc (Hon), BEd, LCCE, is a hospital-based childbirth educator and founder of Labour and Love Childbirth and Early Parenting Education. She is also an active blogger on her own site, labourandlove.ca. An award-winning educator, Lisa has been empowering and educating people from a very early age. Lisa is also mom to two little boys and currently resides with her husband and children in Alberta, Canada. |
 Kathy Morelli |
Kathy is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Wayne, NJ and the Director of BirthTouch®, LLC. She provides Marriage and Family counseling in Wayne, New Jersey with a special interest in perinatal mood disorders, sexual abuse and its impact on parenting. EMDR is one of the mindbody therapies she uses to address trauma. Private childbirth education is available for those suffering from depression, anxiety or trauma, who need some special attention to their emotions. Kathy supports women & families in all safe birth & parenting choices, as she believes loving parenting occurs on a continuum of good-enough, normal behaviors.At her BirthTouch® website, she offers a private online support group for those suffering from perinatal mood disorders, BirthTouch® Social Connect. She blogs about the emotions of pregnancy, birth, postpartum and couples. Kathy is the author of BirthTouch® for Parents-To-Be and BirthTouch® Healing for Parents in the NICU. Kathy has lectured on BirthTouch® at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey’s Semmelweis Conference for Midwifery and at birth conferences. She presents trainings to allied health/birth organizations about maternal mental health, family systems and good-enough parenting and is found on web media, such as PBS’ This Emotional Life, writing and speaking about this subject. She is a CEU provider for DONA International and volunteers on Postpartum Support International’s warmline. Kathy co-moderates #MHON , a psycho-educational and supportive Twitter chat led by credentialed Mental Health professionals around mental health issues, working to reduce the stigma around mental illness.Contact information: kathymorelli.com or birthtouch.com or mentalhealthsupportonline.com Twitter id = @KathyAMorelli |
