Conference Faculty
Marcy Axness
Katy Bowman—Katy Bowman, M.S., is an internationally recognized biomechanical scientist and the director of the Restorative Exercise Institute. She is an authority of the physics of the pelvic floor and is the author of Every Woman’s Guide To Foot Pain Relief: The New Science of Healthy Feet, and the creator of the Aligned and Well DVD series.
Dr. Tiffany (Jeffries) Fernandez is a Virginia Beach native and Norfolk Collegiate graduate. She obtained her BS in Psychology from Mary Washington College, and later went on to complete her doctorate at New York Chiropractic College in 2002.
She received her first chiropractic adjustment at the age of three. She experienced dramatic health changes and relief from her life threatening asthma and allergies.
Dr. Tiffany loves to see the power of chiropractic care at work in all her patients and has a special place in her heart for those who are expecting. She is certified in Webster Technique,a specific chiropractic analysis and adjustment that reduces interference to the nervous system and facilitates biomechanical balance in pelvic structures, muscles and ligaments. This has been shown to reduce the effects of intrauterine constraint, allowing the baby to get into the best possible position for birth. During her second pregnancy, she experienced first hand the difference Webster Technique can make in general comfort, baby positioning and ease of labor. Dr. Tiffany is a member of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association. She loves to teach families about the role of chiropractic care and pregnancy as well as pediatrics, at her bi-monthly pregnancy health classes She was a panel member of the Birth After Cesarean Panel at the Trust Birth 2010 conference. and she is a regular guest speaker on pelvic anatomy and chiropractic during pregnancy at the Birth Insight Pregnancy Class. Dr. Tiffany is married to Dr. Lou Fernandez, co-owner of In Good Hands Chiropractic. Together they have two children. Joey was born via emergency cesarean after being found in the Frank breech position at 8 cms dilation; and, Sadie was born via a lovely and safe home birth after cesarean in the water.
Tracy Freeman—After graduating from the University of Georgia with a B.A. in psychology, my love for the outdoors took me to Colorado. It was in Boulder that I studied massage therapy and now have had the fortunate opportunity to provide massage and bodywork to others for eleven years. After doing bodywork for a few years I learned of the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy. From there I traveled to Belize and later New England to further study with Rosita Arvigo. I then began to see how truly powerful these traditional healing techniques were for my clients. I now live in Chattanooga Tennessee where I have enjoyed instructing massage therapy and continue to see clients in my private practice. My husband and I have one daughter, born at home, and I am currently studying to also be a RN. I hope to combine the complementary therapies I so value with the knowledge of modern medicine to assist women along their path to health and wellness.
Laureen Hudson—Laureen Hudson is Madam Editor at Hunt Press, and manages the Birth Action imprint. She served ICAN as Publications Director, where amongst other things, she helped edit Cesarean Voices. She’s a blogger, a website manager, and an enthusiastic geek enabler. She’s spoken before capacity crowds at engineering conferences, gatherings, and hackfests on the topics of new media, communications, and publication models. She’s also spent the last few years combining her passions for technology, information security, and birth advocacy, and taking her show on the road to venues as diverse as the AABC Conference in Georgia, and the Breech Birth Conference in Ottawa, not to mention Trust Birth conferences from coast to coast. Laureen has a BS degree in Environmental Studies, and all but a thesis of an MS in the same thing. She’s a scuba instructor, a sailor, a sea kayaker, a live aboard mom, a traveler, and an obsessive researcher, who’s chiefly focused on, and delighted with, her husband Jason her sons Rowan and Kestrel, and daughter Aurora. They live on a 47 foot catamaran, s/v Excellent Adventure, in San Diego.
Terri LaPoint is the founder of Birth Freedom Network. She is an AAMI student who has been involved with midwifery for many years. She is the mother of four wonderful children and wife of an amazing firefighter/carpenter. She is a breastfeeding educator and Bible teacher, with a degree in World Missions from Toccoa Falls Bible College. She has taught workshops ministering to women who have had emotionally traumatizing birth experiences, and has seen many people set free from the bondage of emotional wounds.
Jill McDanal—Jill McDanal is a classically trained midwife and a recent graduate from nursing school where she maintained a 3.0 grade point average while working full time for FedEx as a courier. She is a single mother of 4 children – Drew 15, Hannah 14, Noah 13, and Rowan 5. Drew & Hannah were both born in a traditional hospital setting with a Certified Nurse Midwife. Noah & Rowan were unassisted home births. Rowan had an 8 minute shoulder dystocia resulting in resuscitation at birth (oxygen was not used before or during resuscitation.) Since 1999, Jill has served mothers in her community seeking alternative birthing options including educator, labor support assistant, midwife, birth and postpartum/breastfeeding care. She is descended though a line of midwives including her paternal grandmother, Vivian Butler, and great – grandmother Dicey Butler.
Sherry Rothwell is a registered holistic nutritionist whose practice is primarily focused on children’s and women’s health during the childbearing years. Sherry has a background in both birth and nutrition, holding certificates from the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition, the Edison Institute and the Matrona School of Quantum Midwifery, to name a few. She developed a strong interest in digestive issues after healing her son of food sensitivities and severe eczema without drugs or supplements. For more information about Sherry’s work, please visit www.DomesticDiva.ca
Laura Shanley—Laura Kaplan Shanley is an author, freelance writer, speaker, and childbirth consultant widely recognized as one of the leading voices in the natural-birth movement. Her expertise is frequently sought out by television and movie production companies, as well as media outlets around the globe. Her published work includes articles for an array of news outlets. Laura maintains a website dedicated to natural childbirth at www.unassistedchildbirth.com.
Bettie Sheets—Bettie Sheets is the mother of 7 living children, only one of whom was born at home. She has a passion for helping women to make the transition from hospital to home seamlessly. She also particularly enjoys caring for women who are pregnant for the first time. She writes a blog about midwifery and natural childbirth and enjoys reading when she has a chance, but always makes time for Karaoke!. She has been married to her husband, Scott for over 19 years, they are both originally from Southern California and have resided in South Eastern Virginia for the past 15 years.
Karen Strange–Karen Strange is a midwife and the creator of The Midwifery Management of Neonatal Resuscitation. Karen lectures on the baby’s experience of birth its journey and the impact of when things do not go as planned. She shares tools for the family, therapist and birth attendant to help babies integrate what happens at birth and beyond. She has taught throughout the US and internationally. Her website is www.newbornbreath.com.
Sheila Stubbs—Sheila Stubbs is a nurse, doula, childbirth educator, and writer. She is a mother of 6, foster mother to children with special needs, and host mother to international students. She has a background in psychiatric nursing and over 25 years’ experience as a La Leche League Leader.
Her personal experience with birth includes an “unnecessarian” followed by a difficult hospital VBAC; a 13 week miscarriage followed by a D&C which was done while she was awake and talking to the doctor; and four surprisingly easy home births. Her self- published book, Birthing The Easy Way was written simply to share with other women how she learned the hard way to birth the easy way. Without doing any advertising, Birthing The Easy Way has sold by word-of-mouth in eleven countries. Sheila is convinced that most of the difficulty women have giving birth in hospitals today is caused by giving birth in hospitals!
Jessica Tiderman—Jessica Tiderman is a wife, mom of 4 girls and 1 boy and a student midwife. She is the President and one of the founding members of Special Scars ~ Special Women, www.specialscars.org. After her third child was born via inverted T c- section, she was told that she would never be able to vaginally birth another child. She believed that until she was confronted during her next pregnancy by women who had VBAC’d after other unusual incisions. Since that moment she has spent countless hours reading and re-reading the available studies, trying unsuccessfully to find more studies, wanting to get those studies done. She did birth that baby vaginally and the next one too!
Kristi Zittle–Kristi has been joined for the past 22 years with the love of her life, Steve Zittle. Together they have been blessed with 13 children, 7 of which are girls and 6 are boys. Her oldest daughter is married and has made Kristi a very proud Grammy of her first grandson as well. Her oldest son is attending Life University in GA to become a chiropractor, and the rest of her children are at home with her. Kristi was fortunate to be able to serve at a Crisis Pregnancy Center in Baltimore, MD where she was asked to be a “childbirth coach” for several young mothers. This experience was the catalyst to her recognizing she had a great passion and love for helping women while they give birth. She enjoyed many years of service to women in four states on the East Coast and upon realizing her current state no longer supported the rights of a mother to choose how and with whom she gives birth, she retired from midwifery. She now enjoys teaching her children more and occasionally uses her skills to teach student midwives at AAMI’s Midwifery SkillsLabs. She loves and believes in the Trust Birth Initiative and is honored to have been among the speakers for the past two Trust Birth Conferences as well as this one. She is also quite honored to be able to help many parents find their way to family birthing and loves to support, encourage and empower families as they pursue this option for pregnancy, birth and postpartum periods.