Presenters
Amanda Lancaster
Amanda is a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) and licensed paramedic who has spent more than two decades serving women and families through home birth and community-based care.
Drawing from extensive experience in out-of-hospital birth and mentoring younger midwives, she is passionate about preserving the relational, physiological, and deeply human aspects of childbirth.
Amanda lives on a farm in Central Texas with her husband and children, where she also teaches, writes, and speaks on birth, family and community life.
Angelina Martínez Miranda
Angelina Martinez Miranda is a renowned traditional midwife living and practicing in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. She is the inheritor of three generations of midwifery knowledge; her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were all traditional midwives, practicing for around 40 years each.
She started attending births since she was 7 years old together with her grandmother and mother. At age of 13 she started attending births on her own. Angelina and her husband have 5 sons and many grandchildren.
Throughout her life she attended around 15,000 births. Angelina owns a birth center, located next to her house, where, for years, she and her apprentices have attended an average of 23 births per month, with excellent outcomes. She is highly respected in her community.
She is a long-time member of Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) Mexico and a founding member of a new state organization created by the traditional midwives of Morelos. An accomplished speaker, she has given talks and workshops at international conferences all over the world. She is a strong source of inspiration for the many traditional midwives in Mexico who are working to preserve and revitalize their profession for the future.
Angelina combines traditional Mexican wisdom with the many courses she has taken in midwifery and related subjects to keep up-to-date with evidence-based obstetrics.
Aravah Salatino
Aravah Salatino is a homebirth midwife living in central Ohio, serving over half a dozen Amish/Mennonite communities and countless other families in her rural practice. Aravah became passionate about midwifery after her first birth, a c-section over two decades ago.
Several countries and six homebirths later, five of which were unassisted, Aravah's family settled, as did her midwifery. Delivering her own children amidst hostile politics surrounding her vbacs was the catalyst that shaped her passion to provide autonomous care. Travelling and meeting midwives all over the world wove the fabric of tradition into her practice, giving respect for all aspects of a woman's childbearing experience. Serving traditional communities has led to supporting and becoming skilled in breeches, twins, and vbacs, while understanding how to support the vast range of physiology that birth encompasses. Aravah's passion for humane and respectful birth has recently brought her travelling abroad to South Asia where she has been engaging in education and training by integrating into the Obstetrical delivery team of a large hospital.
Carol Gautschi
Carol Gautschi CPM LM, has been serving women as a classical homebirth midwife since 1978. An internationally respected speaker, teacher and advocate for physiological birth, she is the founder of Classical Midwifery, a global initiative dedicated to preserving and restoring the heart, wisdom and craft of traditional midwifery through international conferences, mentorship and relationship-centered education. Carol is also a founding member and past president of the Washington Alliance for Responsible Midwifery (W.A.R.M.).
Passionate about preserving the autonomy of midwifery and the integrity of physiological homebirth, Carol's greatest joy is encouraging a new generation of midwives to serve women with both skillful hands and compassionate hearts.
Carol has been married to her husband, Paul Gautschi of Back to Eden fame, since 1974. Together they have seven children, eight grandchildren, and make their home on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula of Washington State.
Carol Wachniak
Carol Lynn Wachniak, Wife, Mother of 8, Grandmother of 31, is a legacy-driven birth professional. She is an educator, midwifery assistant and founder of Doula Family LLC, and Doula Family Certification Apprenticeship and JR Doula Program. She mentors the next generation of birth workers ages 8–18. She is also co-founder of the Fiji Foundation 501(c)(3) and has devoted over 46 years to strengthening families and communities.
Together with three generations of her family, Carol has served more than 4,000 families and participated in the birth of 1,200 babies, with special expertise in multiple births. She believes a baby's first experience of the world matters profoundly. A calm, respectful birth environment helps both mother and baby transition with greater peace, dignity, and connection.
For 20 years, Carol opened her home to an Unwed Mothers Ministry, walking alongside vulnerable women with compassion and practical support. She and her husband intentionally raised their eight homeschooled children to serve others, instilling the conviction that when someone calls for help, we respond. Their oldest daughter began supporting births at age eight and later became the family's midwife.
Celesta Rannisi
Celesta Rannisi is a California-licensed classical/traditional homebirth midwife, lactation specialist, and women’s health educator with more than 35 years of experience serving women and families. A graduate of UC San Diego in Lactation Education and a graduate of Casa de Nacimiento Midwifery School, she is registered with NARM and was one of California’s first licensed midwives.
Since beginning her primary care midwifery practice in 1990, Celesta has been a passionate advocate for the traditional midwifery model of care and women’s informed choices in healthcare. She has served on the board of the California Association of Midwives and has taught and spoken at conferences and workshops in the U.S. and abroad.
Her work has taken her around the world, including mission work in Baja California and Uganda, where she helped establish a maternity and health clinic. She continues to educate birthing families, student midwives, and the broader community, sharing her knowledge of women’s health from puberty through menopause.
Celesta lives in the foothills of East San Diego County with a deep commitment to faith, family, nature, organic living, travel, and the preservation of traditional midwifery and holistic women’s care.
Chavah BenZion
Meredith “Chavah” Benzion, LM, CPM, is a Licensed Midwife, Certified Professional Midwife, Birth Doula/Monitrice, Childbirth Educator, and IBCLC in training with 30 years of experience supporting women and families through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Assertive yet deeply compassionate, Chavah (pronounced HAH-vah) is a passionate advocate for accessible, woman-centered, evidence-based midwifery care rooted in the Classical Midwifery model.
Chavah is the mother of four remarkable children and maintains a private homebirth practice serving families in Los Angeles, California. She brings a holistic approach to care, integrating massage and bodywork, nutrition, emotional support, life coaching, spirituality, healthy boundaries, empathy, love, and authenticity into her work with clients. She has attended more than 1,500 births in homes, birth centers, and hospitals, with a strong commitment to protecting normal birth physiology and bodily autonomy.
David Hayes
Dr. Hayes, MD, OB/GYN has wide ranging experience, both geographically and in the focus of his practice. He has worked on four continents, in settings ranging from resource poor environments with Medecins Sans Frontieres to tertiary care medical centers in the US, as well as out of hospital environments, making full use of his obstetric and obstetric critical care training.
While he has continued clinical practice, since 2019 his focus has been on training (and learning from) physicians, midwives, and other adjacent and traditional practitioners in the management of complex vaginal birth. He was an early associate at Breech Without Borders and a co-author of “A Guide to Physiological Breech Birth” (1st and 2nd editions).
He currently lives in Oaxaca, Mexico where he is pursuing his most audacious project yet: Mi Lado de la Montaña Center for Physiologic Birth. This facility will offer birth support to women from around the world, training for midwives and physicians in complex vaginal birth and generate badly needed research, capitalizing on the high volume of breeches, multiples, and other pregnancies and presentations for which training and vaginal birth options are exceedingly difficult to access.
Dianne Garland
Dianne Garland, FRCM SRN RM ADM PGCEA MSC founder of MidwifeExpert, is a globally recognised authority on waterbirth.
Since 1989, she has pioneered education, research, and clinical practice in midwifery and waterbirth, training midwives worldwide.
Her career in midwifery began in 1983 when she qualified at Queen Charlotte's Hospital, London but her passion was ignited at Maidstone Hospital. Working as a midwife, she found a particular energy for developing and expanding the practice of waterbirths.
Despite initial resistance in some sectors, my unwavering determination to spread the word about this ‘cutting edge’ practice led me to pioneer waterbirth teaching sessions for other birth professionals as far back as 1989. Her aim was simple; to educate, inform and dispel misconceptions through research and data.
With over 40 years in midwifery, she has authored influential books and advises hospitals internationally, shaping best practices for safe, empowering waterbirth experiences.
Diane Goslin
Diane Goslin has been married for 52 years, is a mother of five, grandmother of 20 and great-grandmother of two—and has had the privilege of serving women and families as a midwife for the past 44 years.
Throughout her midwifery journey primarily in the plain community, Diane has assisted more than 10,000 women through birth, including many complex and challenging situations. Her experience includes twins, triplets and quadruplets, VBACs after multiple Cesareans and a wide range of presentations including breech, face and asynclitism, as well as births involving a variety of anomalies.
For Diane, midwifery has always been more than a profession—it has been a lifelong calling to walk alongside women and families through one of the most profound moments of their lives.
Over the past 25 years, she has had the privilege of teaching both in the United States and internationally. As a preceptor, she has helped train more than 350 midwives around the world, sharing not only what she has learned through decades of experience, but also the wisdom, confidence, discernment and compassion that can only come from walking alongside thousands of births.
Diane continues to teach because she believes deeply in passing the torch—honoring what has been learned, sharing what has been lived and equipping the next generation of midwives to serve women with skill, wisdom and heart.
Hollie Moyer
Hollie Moyer is mother to 6 children, and a midwife. She has given birth and attended births in four different countries.
Having seen birth in many places, she is passionate about promoting women's rights in childbirth globally, ending abuse in childbirth and improving the birth experience for women everywhere.
Childbirth is an experience that affects the whole woman. And the spiritual and emotional health of a woman directly influences the unfolding of her birth and mothering.
Hollie supports women throughout the childbearing year, teaching childbirth preparation classes, providing postpartum care and lactation support, and leading support groups for women in Tbilisi, Georgia where she lives with her husband and family.
Jacinta Lagos
Jacinta Lagos is an Argentinian-born filmmaker, director, birth photographer, videographer, and birth worker based in the United States. Her work is rooted in authentic human storytelling, with a particular focus on birth, motherhood, women’s experiences, and the profound moments that shape our lives.
Jacinta is the director of the feature documentary Allowed to Birth: The Journey of a Global Midwife, a film that explores maternal autonomy, physiological birth, and the global movement toward more respectful and evidence-based maternity care.
An award-winning birth filmmaker, Jacinta brings an intimate and compassionate perspective to her work. Through her lens, she captures stories with honesty, sensitivity, and emotional depth, using film to preserve powerful moments, amplify important voices, and inspire meaningful conversations.
Her mission is simple: to tell stories that matter and create films that leave a lasting human connection with audiences.
Jana Johnston
Jana is a Certified Professional Midwife based in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Her midwifery journey began in 2012 with extensive apprenticeship training with eight different seasoned midwives across five U.S. states and three countries over 8 years. She began her own holistic homebirth midwifery practice in October 2020.
Jana is a passionate advocate for growing midwifery worldwide and co-founded the Global Education of the Midwife (GEM) Midwifery Academy with fellow Kansas City midwife Rachel Schwepler in 2021. This initiative provides accessible, flexible, and affordable education to raise up doulas and midwives globally to nurture families through birth in all nations.
Jana’s teaching experience spans multiple states in the USA, Mexico, and Brazil. She is committed to building the next generation of birth professionals through education and mentorship.
Joella Folk
Dr. Joella Folk has been providing specialized holistic pregnancy and newborn care as well as childbirth support for 20 years. She earned degrees in Human Development (2000),
Chiropractic (2005), and Midwifery (2014). As a Doctor of Chiropractic, her care is sought after to assist with pain during the perinatal period, complications related to fetal positioning, and newborn care after traumatic births. As a midwife, her specialty is working with women who have had previous difficult births and cesareans move through their healing journey and go on to have healthier future pregnancies and births. Her practice is in Kitsap county, Washington State, USA.
Julie Miller
Julie Miller is an applied clinical nutritionist (ACN) in Southern California. She completed the Applied Clinical Nutrition Program with Southern California University of Health Sciences in April of 2014. She is proud to stand on the shoulders of the mentors that came before her including heros like Kerry Bone, Lee Carrol, Dustin Strong, Jo Boyd and many more.
Julie is a sought-after source for health and functional nutrition information, she has spoken to large corporations, organizations, senior centers and community groups and has been a resource for local wellness programs. In addition to the local community, Julie has developed a following of patients in the US Virgin Islands and often teaches about diet and natural health to the Island community.
Julie practices nutrition as part of Miller Family Health wellness practice. The practice has been established for over thirty-five years; as a result, they have a multi-generational family practice. She has also developed a close relationship with the local midwifery community and has a large family-oriented practice.
Julie’s long interest in natural healing and genuine love of nutrition shine through in her talks. Her love of learning and teaching is genuine and the research that goes into her presentations is evident.
Marianne LittleJohn
Marianne Litteljohn is a veteran midwife of 45 years and started attending homebirths in 1981 in South Africa. She has a wide range of experience, both as a homebirth midwife, birth centre and hospital midwife and endeavours to serve families everywhere.
She has a degree in psychology and was a co researcher with Dr Ann Bigelow and Dr Nils Bergman in Kangaroo Mother Care research. Marianne will present a research study at a round table on the importance of Early Skin to Skin Kangaroo Mother Care after birth, and why this can be a critically important intervention.
The research followed 12 mother-infant pairs in South Africa who participated in a random trial. They tracked hospital and home data, then recorded interactions at home during the baby's first year.
Morgan Crowson
Morgan Crowson, has spent the past 15 years serving women and families as a professional midwife and natural health practitioner. For the last decade, she has lived and practiced in developing countries, dedicating her work to compassionate, evidence-based care in underserved and low-resource communities. She is the founder of New Life Global Missions, a nonprofit organization focused on establishing and operating maternity clinics in low-resource countries, with a special emphasis on culturally respectful women’s and pediatric healthcare.
In addition to clinical work, her NGO operates a midwifery college in Mexico that trains professional midwives to safely and confidently serve women in rural and underserved settings. Her passion lies not only in caring for mothers and babies, but also in empowering future healthcare providers through education, mentorship, and community outreach.
Beyond her professional life, she is deeply grateful for a life filled with purpose, adventure, and family. Her husband and five children are at the center of her life filled with homeschooling, travel, births, pediatric care, emergency response, and serving communities in need. Her life is demanding yet deeply meaningful life—rooted in compassion, resilience, faith, and a commitment to improving healthcare access for women and children around the world.
Paul Golden
Paul Golden RM RN PGCE Mediator, BA Law is an independent midwife, neonatal specialist, and legal adviser who has worked with birth for over thirty years across the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Asia, and Europe. A New Zealand pharmacology prescriber, he brings expertise in midwifery, neonatal intensive care, and human rights advocacy.
His studies began in India with Tibetan natural medicine, then expanded into law, nursing, and midwifery. He holds a New Zealand law master’s focused on human rights and mediation in maternity care, has more than twenty years of litigation experience as an expert witness, and founded the Human Rights Action group to support families, clinicians, and governments. He lectures internationally and continues writing and filmmaking on childbirth rights and choices.
Guided by the principle that “we only have the rights we stand up for,” Paul works for greater fairness so women can exercise full autonomy over their bodies without coercion.
Ronit Kopelis
Ronit Kopelis is an Israeli certified nurse-midwife, homebirth midwife, childbirth educator and mentor. A practicing midwife since 1985, she has attended home births since 1994 and has trained doulas and childbirth educators since 2004.
Ronit is passionate about preserving the wisdom of traditional midwifery while building respectful bridges between ancient knowledge and contemporary practice. She believes that every woman deserves to be deeply seen, heard and supported throughout her birth journey.
