Sheila Kitzinger

Social anthropologist, researcher, author and campaigner for nurtured evidence-based childbirth, Sheila lectures internationally and at various universities and hospitals in midwifery.

She has written over 26 books on pregnancy and childbirth including the well known Politics of Birth. She now works with women who have had damaging birth experiences and campaigns for women to have the information they need to make choices about childbirth.

She says: “The term 'choice' has been co-opted by the medical system to mean that women can, if they wish, shop around a bit and take what they fancy, provided that this in line with hospital policies and protocols - including an elective Caesarean section. The side effects, short and long-term, are rarely explained or explored.”

Michel Odent

Michel Odent MD initially trained as a surgeon. He was in charge of the surgical and maternity units at the state hospital in Pithiviers, France (1962-1985) where, he introduced the first birthing centres and water births during the 1970s. Now he is a midwife, educator, researcher and author of 12 books.

Following his hospital career he founded the Primal Health Research Centre in London (UK), whose objective is to study the long-term consequences of early life experiences.

“We try to give a birthing woman freedom to find the right position for her own needs and comfort. Unfortunately, in our society we think of birthing as something done while lying down.”

Richard Porter

Richard Porter MA MSc BM BCh FRCOG is the Director of Maternity Services at the Royal United Hospital (RUH) in Bath, England.

He has been the Lead Uro-gynaecologist/Pelvic Floor Surgeon since 2001.

He was an adviser on Maternity Services (in the former USSR) to the World Health Organisation, UK Department of International Development, and other NGOs. He was Adviser on Maternity Services to Ministry of Health, Uzbekistan from 1992 to 2003.

Royal United Hosptial, Bath is one of the largest District General Hospitals in the UK. The Maternity department is in the top 15 (by size) in the UK.
It has one of the best safety records, while also having the highest number of deliveries outside Consultant Obstetric care in the UK (less than 40 per cent). 35 per cent of all deliveries take place in sites other than the main hospital.

The catchment population for the Gynaecology department is 450,000.  This generates a considerable workload.

Hannah Dahlen

Hannah Dahlen is the Associate Professor of Midwifery at the University of Western Sydney.

Hannah has published numerous papers in peer reviewed journals and book chapters. She has presented papers at over 100 conferences since 2000. She is currently on the Australian College of Midwives NSW Executive committee and was nominated in 2008 as a life member for outstanding contributions to the profession of Midwifery.

Hannah was part of the NHMRC committee producing the recently released National Guidance on Collaborative Maternity Care (2010). She has also been a member of the NSW Health Department’s, Maternal and Perinatal Health Priority Taskforce since 2005 and the NSW Maternal and Perinatal Committee since 2002.

Professor Euan Wallace

Professor Euan Wallace MBChB, MD, FRCOG, FRANZCOG graduated with a degree in Medicine from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where he completed his research and clinical training. He  joined Monash University, Melbourne Australia in 1996.

He established and leads a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Research Group within Monash Institute for Medical Resarch's (MIMR) Centre for Women’s Health Research. In 2010 he set up a pilot home birth program.

Rhea Dempsey

Rhea Dempsey T.P.T.C. Dip. C.B.E., N.A.C.E., Trainer, Grad. Dip, Counseling and Human Services is childbirth educator with over 28 years' experience and is the mother of three daughters.

She works with women in home and hospital settings.
 She is a regular presenter at conferences, seminars and workshops on birth and counselling issues as well as running her own classes through the Birthing Wisdom.

Jan Ireland

Jan Ireland B App Sc, IBCLC, RN, RM is a midwife and lactation consultant of rare skill and vast experience. She has been involved in hospital births, birth centre establishment and home births for more than 30 years.

She still supports women's choices, wherever they choose to give birth and follows through with the vital areas of breastfeeding advice and establishing parenting. She set up South Eastern Midwifery Service, in Melbourne, Australia in 2011.

Justine Caines

Justine is a maternity lobbyist. She was the National President of the Maternity Coalition, the national umbrella organisation for maternity lobbying in Australia from 2003 to 2005 and again in 2009. She was the National Co-ordinator of Homebirth Australia from 2001 to 2006 and its Secretary from 2006 to 2010. She was also National Advocacy Adviser for the Maternity Coalition.

In 2007 she founded What Women Want - a political party that aims to give Australian women a greater voice in decision making and putting a broad social policy framework back on the agenda.

Patrice Hickey

Patrice  a midwife with many years experience is now the  Midwifery group practice mentor at Sunshine Hospital, Melbourne and a former Victorian President of the Australian College of Midwives. She was the winner of the 2008 Midwifery Practice award. She set up the case load midwifery and home birth pilot program at Sunshine Hospital.

Lesley Page

Professor Lesley Page was expert adviser to the The King’s Fund Independent Inquiry into the safety of maternity services in England, which reported in Safe Births: Everybody’s Business (2008).

Lesley has had many years of experience working as a senior manager in the National Health Service (NHS) and in midwifery practice, leadership and academia in the UK and Canada. Lesley is a visiting professor at King's College London and UTS Sydney and University of Sydney, clinical appointment Radcliff Hospital Trust.  She has published widely and has lectured in many parts of the world. She was a member of the Expert Maternity Group that wrote Changing Childbirth, published in 1993.