SPEAKERS

ICAN is excited to announce the following speakers for the 2009 conference:

Keynote Speakers

Sarah Buckley	Sarah J Buckley is a trained GP/family physician, an internationally-acclaimed writer on gentle choices in pregnancy, birth, and parenting, and mother to Emma, Zoe, Jacob and Maia, all born gently at home, 1990 to 2000. Sarah's Australian book Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering is available in the US from Jan 2009. She has presented at numerous conferences and has been interviewed on issues related to birth and mothering for TV, radio, and for educational and birth-related DVDs. Sarah is also a member of Mothering magazine's website expert panel.
Steve Buonaugurio	Steve Buonaugurio was trained as a sociologist and teacher. In his personal and professional life, Buonaugurio's favorite question is, "If you knew you couldn't fail, what would you do?" When Steve's wife Mandy became pregnant, Steve immediately saw that something was wrong with the way women were being treated in the American maternity system. He thought a movie would help create a better environment for women in the US. But since he had never made a movie before and knew nothing about filmmaking, he thought maybe he'd just send an email to Michael Moore about the problem. Then Buonaugurio realized that one-day he may ask his own child his favorite question, "If you knew you couldn't fail, what would you do?" Buonaugurio knew he would have to walk the talk. The answer to his own question: write, direct and produce Pregnant in America.
Eugene Declercq	Eugene R. Declercq is professor of maternal and child health and Assistant Dean for Doctoral Education at Boston University School of Public Health. He combines formal training in political science with his almost twenty years of experience as a certified childbirth educator to examine policy and practice around childbirth in the US and abroad. He has served as lead author of two national studies of women's experiences in childbirth entitled Listening to Mothers. He's published numerous research articles and is (very gradually) working on a book on cesarean childbirth. He was a technical advisor to the film documentary, The Business of Being Born.
Susan Jenkins	Susan M. Jenkins, a partner in The Sanchez Law Firm, is also Legal Counsel for The Big Push for Midwives Campaign. She is a graduate of Columbia University School of Law, and has practiced in the field of health care law for over twenty years, specializing in legal issues that affect midwives and other health professionals, and representing state and national professional societies and non-profit organizations as well as individuals. Ms. Jenkins recently joined ICAN, following the successful vbac delivery of her youngest grandchild.
Shafia Monroe	Shafia M. Monroe is the Founder and President of International Center for Traditional Childbearing (ICTC) and community activist devoted to infant mortality prevention, breastfeeding promotion, and increasing the number of midwives of color. In addition to being a Certified Midwife by the Massachusetts Midwives Alliance, she is also a Childbirth Educator, a Doula Trainer, and mother of seven children. She is a health activist, organizer, and international speaker. She holds a BA in sociology, with a concentration in medical sociology, from the University of Massachusetts.
Joni Nichols	Joni Nichols is a midwife, doula, and childbirth educator.  She has helped create Plenitude, a special birthing community in Guadalajara, Mexico. She is married and mother to three young adult children.

Breakout Speakers

Alyce Adams	Alyce Adams, RN is the Kegel Queen. She offers women her original, comprehensive, research-based pelvic floor muscle training program through her website. Alyce is a longtime advocate for home birth and midwifery. In addition to women's health, Alyce's passions include home cooking, homeschooling, poetry, and politics.  Alyce lives with her family in Rochester, New York, USA.
Ruth Ancheta	Ruth Ancheta has been a childbirth educator and advocate since 1981.  She earned a Master's degree in Public Service/Medical Administration, focusing on people's responses to change in medical settings.  Her most eye-opening job so far involved interviewing 2250 women who were pregnant again after previously giving birth by cesarean. She wrote the original VBAC Source Book (later turned into a teaching kit in collaboration with Nicette Jukelevics), and the Childbirth Skills Teaching Kit.  She is working with Penny Simkin now on the third edition of their Labor Progress Handbook.  The Anchetas have two independent adult daughters.
Pam Chubbuck	Pamela L Chubbuck PhD, is a former midwife and La Leche League Leader who has worked with birth and parenting for over 35 years. A psychotherapist with over three decades of experience in Mind/Body Medicine, Pam is the director of Core Energetics Institute South and is an International Trainer and speaker, who trains and supervises therapists. Pam is a published author of numerous articles, and five books including the internationally acclaimed Passages Into Womanhood: Empowering Girls to Love Themselves. Mother of 3, grandmother of 9, Pam has a private therapy practice in Metro Atlanta.
Christie Craigie-Carter	Christie Craigie-Carter MA, is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, ICAN Mental Health Chair, public speaker, and an HBA2C mother.
Jennifer Griebenow	Jennifer Jamison Griebenow, MA, Phi Beta Kappa, is a psychology minor and mother of three—one born by cesarean, two at home. A former chapter leader and board member of ICAN, she is currently homeschooling her children.
Susan Hodges	Susan Hodges, an activist for midwifery since 1985, is a founder and the current president of Citizens for Midwifery, a national grassroots organization promoting the Midwives Model of Care. She is a member of the Consumer Panel of the Cochrane Collaboration's Pregnancy and Childbirth Group, a member of the Evidence and Action Committee of the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services, and she was a consumer member (1994-1996) of NARM's Certification Task Force that created the Certified Professional Midwife credential. Her two children were born at home with midwives. Susan has presented many workshops and talks; publications include: A consumer viewpoint: Challenges for Birth-Related Research. (BIRTH 27:4 Dec 2000).
Teresa Howard	Teresa Howard is a certified labor and postpartum doula, certified lactation educator, certified childbirth educator, and retired La Leche League leader. She is a mother of three and grandmother of four. The owner of a group of doulas and educators in Atlanta. She is most recently also a breast cancer survivor.
Gretchen Humphries	Gretchen Humphries is the Advocacy Director for ICAN, the ICAN email list administrator, and co-leader of the ICAN of Ann Arbor Chapter. She is also a Veterinarian, working in emergency and critical care at the Animal ER Center in Southeastern Michigan. She has written extensively on birth topics and many of her essays can be found at Birth Matters. She’s the mother of 4 wonderful children and the wife of a man who realized how much they’d both lost with the cesarean, after his third child was born at home. She’s had one cesarean for breech twins and then 2 wonderful HBACs.
Sandy Jones	Sandy Jones, M.A., is the author of 12 books and hundreds of articles on pregnancy, childbirth, baby care and baby gear, including Great Expectations: Your All-in-One Resource for Pregnancy & Childbirth. She has a Master's Degree in Psychology and is the mother of one daughter, Marcie, the co-author with her of the Great Expectations book series from Sterling Publishing. She has led "Mothers' Empowerment" workshops in the U.S. and Europe as well as "Healing from the Trauma of Birth" sharing groups for moms.
Stacy Kerr	Stacey Marie Kerr, M.D. graduated from the University of California Davis Medical School in 1989 and is currently a board certified family physician. Until recently, she had an active private practice in all aspects of clinical medicine that included adult medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics, surgery, and general preventive care. In 2004, she retired from her business of family practice.  Dr. Kerr is a member of the California and American Academy of Family Physicians. She holds a B.S. in Education/Special Education from the University of Missouri, Columbia Missouri. She has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, currently writes a monthly newspaper column, and is the author of Homebirth in the Hospital.
Polly Perez	Polly Perez is a perinatal nurse, lecturer, childbirth educator, doula/monitrice and has been involved in maternity care for over 40 years.
Rose St. John	Rose St. John is a doula, childbirth educator, yoga instructor and most recently, author. She brings over 25 years of experience guiding couples towards the birth they desire to her new passion, preparing fathers for the work of supporting their partner in birth and beyond. Rose is the creator of the St John Birthing Method (tm) which combines her trademark approach: straightforward and practical while at the same time conceptual and transcendent.
Debbie Schneider	Debbie Schneider is a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM), a Maya Abdominal Massage Certified Practitioner, and has attended over 400 homebirths. Debbie has been interested in alternative therapies for many years, she has studied herbology formally and informally for 18 years, and is currently formally studying homeopathy in relation to midwifery.
Sharon Storton	Sharon Storton is a Licensed Psychotherapist and a Certified Hypnotherapist in private practice in Campbell, California, specializing in women’s wellness.   She is an active member the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services, as well as a participating member of several leading women’s health and advocacy organizations.
Eileen Sullivan	Eileen Sullivan is a Certified EFT Practitioner and holistic doula/doula trainer.  She has worked with expectant and new mothers and families as a childbirth educator, birth and postpartum doula, La Leche League Leader and ICAN Chapter Leader, and with birth professionals as a mentor, doula trainer and birth advocate for over 20 years.  She now specializes in Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) for the childbearing year, including preparing for labor and birth, VBAC, and resolving PTSD/traumatic birth experiences.  Eileen works with women, families, and birth professionals in her local area of Charlotte, NC, and has an international practice via EFT phone sessions, teleclasses, and webinars.  She is also the author of numerous articles including the classic, “VBAC: Relative Risks of Uterine Rupture.”

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Continuing Education credits offered: please see our registration information for further information.

International Cesarean Awareness Network, Inc. (ICAN) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1982. ICAN's mission is to improve maternal-child health by preventing unnecessary cesareans through education, providing support for cesarean recovery, and promoting Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC).

Contact ICAN at 1-800-686-ICAN or conference@ican-online.org

The International Cesarean Awareness Network, Inc. © 2008

Website by Christine Strain
Last updated November 30, 2008