Conference Faculty

Lisa Barrett–International birth advocate. A registered midwife for over 20 years, Lisa decided to give up Midwifery to advocate for every woman’s right to birth in her own environment. Lisa attends births as a birth worker.

Carla Hartley–Carla founded the original distance school for midwives in the U.S., Apprentice Academics, in 1981. Since 1994, known as Ancient Art Midwifery Institute. She founded the Trust Birth Initiative in 2005, after a melt down over the rising number of cesareans in the U.S. That is when she had her epiphany: doctors and medicine were not the enemy. Too many have been seduced by the lie that birth is a medical event. Actually birth is a normal function of biology and a private family matter. Birth is safer than not and interfering with the natural process adds risk. Mothers have sovereignty over their births and their babies and mothers should make ALL decisions concerning where and with whom they birth. Carla’s mission is to protect parents’ rights at all costs, to encourage mothers to assume authority and responsibility for their births, while she helps more birth trusting midwives attain a superior education!