Portland, Maine October 16-18, 2009
Pre-conference workshops October 15, 2009
Birth Works Childbirth Educator Workshop October 19-21, 2009

Workshop Presenters

Cathy Daub, PT, CD
Cathy is a physical therapist working with handicapped children, a childbirth educator and doula. She is founder, designer, and president of Birth Works International a non-profit organization with childbirth education and doula certification programs. She is author of Birthing in the Spirit, a human values approach to childbirth and doula education and co-author of Doulas of Love. She has taught childbirth, doula, human values, and parenting workshops nationwide over the last 20 years, is a composer of original birthing songs on the CD Believe, and has written numerous articles on childbirth. Cathy brings together her many talents when working with women, helping them to integrate the mind, body, and spirit when giving birth and helping them to have more trust and faith in their bodies’ innate ability to give birth. She is the mother of two children.

Valerie Fagin
Valerie Fagin brings her professional dance experience (Ballet Hispanico of New York) and study of personal development together to promote self-awareness and inner peace. Valerie is a Kripalu certified restorative yoga instructor and currently assists at many workshops held at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. She also leads many programs and workshops for Portsmouth School Department and is an instructor for Yoga East studio. Her experience spans over 20-years of balancing dedication to her family, leading workshops and being a community advocate.

Aimee Gerbi
Aimée Gerbi is an Empty Arms Peer Companion at Eastern Maine Medical Center and a La Leche League Leader in Greater Bangor, ME. She is a mom to three daughters, Erin (6), Megan (4), Sophie (Stillborn, 2007) and an infant son, Evan.

Cathy Moore, CNM
Cathy Moore is a certified nurse midwife and belly dancer. She practices midwifery in Boston and attends hospital births at Brigham & Women's Hospital. She has been belly dancing for 13 years and is owner of "In The Belly Of The Goddess", teaching belly dance to pregnant women, and birth professionals as a tool childbirth preparation, labor, self -empowerment and creative expression.

Michelle Maniaci, PT, RYT, CIIM
Michelle Maniaci is a licensed physical therapist, yoga therapist, belly dance teacher, and infant massage instructor practicing for over 13 years. She has created Nurturing Moves, a pioneering approach to injury prevention, wellness, rehabilitation, childbirth preparation, and performance enhancement that blends the science of physical therapy with the ancient wisdom and empowered femininity of yoga and belly dance. Visit her at www.nurturingmoves.com.

Maya Shetreat-Klein, MD
Dr. Maya Shetreat-Klein is a holistic pediatric neurologist, board-certified in Adult and Child Neurology as well as in Pediatrics. She received her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she was awarded the Edward Padow Award for Excellence in Pediatrics and graduated with a Special Distinction in Research in Child Neurology for her work in autism. She is currently on faculty at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and lectures widely about food and neurological health. A “foodie” and lifelong environmental activist, Dr. Shetreat-Klein’s passion is to understand the connection between food, environmental exposures and health. In 2007, she began University of Arizona's accredited fellowship in Integrative Medicine under the direction of Drs. Andrew Weil and Tierona Low Dog. That same year, she started Mitzvah Meat and Mindful Meat, a co-op bringing local, grass-fed, humanely-raised and -slaughtered meat and chicken to both kosher, halal, and non-kosher communities. Dr. Shetreat-Klein also sits on the Expert Advisory Board for Better School Foods. She also collaborates with other practitioners to assist families in preparing for mindful conception, delivery and parenthood because she believes strongly in the lifelong health impact of the primal period. She now practices in NY.

Jennifer Tow, IBCLC
Jennifer's passion for working with women and babies was catalyzed by her own home births and her experiences in raising her children (born in 1988, 1992, 1998). Jennifer is a Board Certified Lactation Consultant in private practice in Connecticut, prior to which she coordinated a hospital-based breastfeeding peer counselor program. Through her companies, Intuitive Parenting Network, LLC and Intuitive Health Network she provides holistic lactation consulting, parent education and mentoring as well as workshops for families, individuals and health care providers on topics related to birth, infant feeding, attachment and development. Her areas of focus in infant feeding are the healing of infant trauma through the restoration of normal function, the inter-dependent relationship between maternal gut health, hormones and milk supply and the synergy of maternal-infant physiology, form and function. She is committed to the protection and promotion of physiologic birth and breastfeeding, conscious parenting and holistic choices in healthcare and education. Jennifer is a certified energy healer (the Reconnection and Reconnective Healing), and has extensive education and experience in a range of holistic practices including homeopathy, herbalism, Bach Flowers, EFT, pranic healing, nutrition, intuition and home remedies and is certified in Past Life Regression. She is currently writing a book on the use of holistic practices in lactation.

Giselle Whitwell, MT-BC, CCE, Birth Doula
Since 1989 Giselle E. Whitwell has presented prenatal music themes at conferences world wide in Europe, South and North America, Asia and Russia. She has articles published in several journals and magazines. She was active as a music educator for over 20 years before receiving accreditation as a Music Therapist in 1997. Giselle is one of the few graduates in the USA that is trained in Therapeutic Healing with the Voice. Therapeutic Singing works with the understanding that archetypal forces are found in the elements of song and music. In singing, the human being brings these forces into activity and causes them to work on the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of the individual.