The Convergence of Rebellious Midwives

Ina May is the OG of modern midwifery. She is an American midwife who has been described as "the mother of authentic midwifery." She helped found the self-sustaining community on The Farm with her husband Stephen in 1971. It is here that she launched her career in midwifery. She is known for the Gaskin Maneuver, has written several books and joined the American Women's Hall of Fame in 2013. Ina May is coming out of retirement to provide a recorded session that will be viewed at The Convergence 2025.

Hello! it's me Mel! I am one of the hosts of The Great Birth Rebellion podcast, run The Assembly of Rebellious Midwives and I'm your hostess for this convergence of rebellious midwives. 

Since 2009 I have been a private midwife practicing in the Blue Mountains. My PhD looked at "Birthing Outside the System: wanting the best and safest" (why women choose to birth at home with no medical care). And I am an a mission to help establish more privately practicing midwives in Australia through my mentorship.

I am a researcher at Western Sydney University, where I previously lectured, I have reviewed academic journals and was a project officer at the Australian College of Midwives.

I also have a degree in Naturopathy and, although I don't work as a Naturopath anymore, I  incorporate alternative therapies and nutritional guidance into the care that I give my clients.

I am married with two children born at home. Our family maintains a permaculture homestead in the Blue Mountains where we grow food, keep goats for milk and chickens for eggs.  

Instagram: @melaniethemidwife

Hannah Dahlen is the Professor of Midwifery, Associate Dean Research and HDR and Midwifery Discipline Leader in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Western Sydney University. She has been a midwife for 30 years.

Hannah has spoken at over 100 national and international conferences and is a regular keynote speaker.

Hannah has represented midwifery and women through interviews in print, on the radio and TV hundreds of times and is featured in four documentaries. Hannah is a past President of the Australian College of Midwives and received Life Membership in 2008 for outstanding contributions to the profession of Midwifery.

In 2019 Hannah was awarded a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia (General Division) in the Queen’s birthday honours list for her significant services to midwifery, nursing and medical education and research. In November 2012 she was named in the Sydney Morning Herald’s list of 100 “people who change our city for the better”. She has been described as “the leading force promoting natural birth and midwife-led care in Australia.”

Instagram: @hannah.dahlen

​Dr Bashi Hazard is an Australian lawyer and the principal of B W Law, a legal practice established to support and assist women and children, and the Legal Director of the ANZ arm of the Human Rights in Childbirth (HRiC) International Lawyers Network.

Bashi’s focus in law expanded soon after she had her first child. From her own experiences, Bashi became aware of the widespread impact of current obstetric models of care on the emotional health and wellbeing of mothers. That awareness took her back to working with fundamental ethical principles and human rights law, and forming networks with human rights lawyers in the USA, Netherlands, UK and Europe, with whom she now works closely to develop a legal discourse about the human rights of women in pregnancy and childbirth. Since then, Bashi has presented papers and keynote speeches at many significant conferences on the topic of human rights in childbirth.

LinkedIn: Bashi Hazard

X: @bashazard

Dr. Hazel Keedle is a Senior Lecturer of Midwifery at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University. She has over two decades of experience as a clinician in nursing and midwifery, education, and research. Her research interests are vaginal birth after caesarean, birth trauma, and maternity experiences, which she explores primarily using feminist mixed methodologies.

Dr. Keedle's work is recognised internationally. She is a regular conference presenter, and her research has been widely published in academic journals and books.

She is the author of the book "Birth after Caesarean: Your Journey to a Better Birth," which is based on her PhD findings. Dr. Keedle is also the lead researcher on the largest maternity experiences survey, The Birth Experience Study.

Dr Keedle is passionate about improving the experiences of women during childbirth. She is committed to using her research to advocate for women's rights and to ensure that all women have access to respectful, supportive maternity care.

Instagram: @hazelkeedle

Dr Freeze is the founder and president of Breech Without Borders, a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to breech training, education, and advocacy. She blogs at Stand and Deliver.

Dr Rixa Freeze has a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. Her doctoral studies focused on the history of healthcare and medicine with specialization in pregnancy, childbirth, and maternity care. Her dissertation examined why women in North America choose unassisted home births. She worked as a visiting assistant professor for 9 years at Wabash college. Her current research interests include human rights in childbirth, autonomy and informed consent, and vaginal breech birth.

She has published two articles about home birth: “Staying Home to Give Birth: Why Women in the United States Choose Home Birth” (JMWH 2009) and “Attitudes Towards Home Birth in the USA” (Expert Review of Obstetrics & Gynecology 2010). She has also published about outcomes of planned breech and twin home births (Fischbein & Freeze 2018 in BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth, Fischbein & Freeze 2024 in PLOS One). In 2019 she published an article about outcomes of breech at home, birth centres, and hospitals in Midwifery Today and a book chapter “Freebirth in the United States” in the 2020 book Birthing Outside the System: The Canary in the Coal Mine. She is the lead author of the textbook A Guide to Physiological Breech Birth, now in its 2nd edition.

LinkedIn: Rixa Freeze

Instagram: @breechwithoutborders

breechwithoutborders.org

Marina Weckend works as a midwifery professor and director of the midwifery science department at the University of Lübeck in North Germany. Additionally, Marina holds an Adjunct position at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. Her research specializes in the areas of physiological birth, individualised maternity care, and midwifery support for vulnerable populations. Her current program of research focuses on natural pauses during childbirth, so-called physiological plateaus, where she runs multiple studies in Australia and Germany.

As a midwife with experience in practice, research, and education, Marina is interested in ways to improve our health services, through individualised support for women and families, improved working conditions for midwives, and a de-medicalisation of maternity care. Marina is also passionate about improving midwifery education and continuously developing and enhancing midwifery training programs. As the head of a direct-entry Midwifery Bachelor’s degree at the Unviersity of Lübeck, with consecutive Master’s and Doctoral programs, Marina is closely involved in supporting midwifery students on their personal learning journeys.

Instagram: @dr.marina.weckend

LinkedIn: Marina Weckend 

Anna is passionate about supporting students, midwives and maternity workers to access evidence to inform practice and care.

She is the founding Director/CEO of the award winning All4Maternity.com supporting the learning, sharing and caring needs for all midwives and maternity workers. She is a publisher of the important practice-focused journal, The Practising Midwife, The Student Midwife journal, and The Practising Midwife Australia edition.

She has worked in a variety of roles across midwifery services, education, and research, throughout the UK, including caseload, continuity models of care, providing midwifery care in all areas of clinical practice and leading infant feeding services in community and hospital settings.

She completed her PhD, in 2019, with the Maternal and Infant Nutrition and Nurture Unit (MAINN) at the University of Central Lancashire, England. Her thesis explored the influences of the Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative upon midwives and service-users. Passionate about supporting authentic, relational and social midwifery education she was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship, in 2019, from Advance HE acknowledging her contributions to midwifery education since 2010.

She have also worked with national, regional and local teams to support Internationally Recruited Midwives with their transition to practice across NHS England.

LinkedIn: Anna Byrom

Instagram: @acbmidwife

www.all4maternity.com

www.byromandbyrom.com

Athena is a midwife and psychotherapist who lives and works on Bundjalung country in the beautiful Northern Rivers. Combining her midwifery background and therapist training, she has found a kind of natural synergy working with women, midwives, doulas and obstetricians who are impacted by trauma.

She's the Director of The Birth Counsel, a Lecturer in Counselling at Southern Cross University, and has many years experience supporting women and families. She's terrible at maths, is a lifelong feminist, and can be surprisingly ruthless in a game of backgammon.

LinkedIn: Dr Athena Hammond

Instagram: @thebirthcounsel

Dr Kate Levett is a practitioner and researcher, with over 20 years of experience as an acupuncturist, researcher, birth educator and teacher. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Medicine Sydney, at the University of Notre Dame Australia. Kate is a specialist in pregnancy and birth, and completed her PhD investigating the use of complementary therapies for pain relief in labour. Kate is a Mentor for the MAMPs program (Maternity Acupuncture Mentoring and Peer Support) and has completed the ‘Labour and Delivery Clinical Intensive’ training for maternity acupuncturists at NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn. She is a consultant for the BUB App, Hypnobirthing Australia™, CalmBirth™, Lamaze International and the Obstetrical Acupuncture Association in Canada. She has produced an online video course on acupressure and massage techniques for labour for parents and practitioners to access. Along with Heidi Williams, Kate runs courses in Acuneedling for midwives and other health professionals.

LinkedIn: Kate Levett

Instagram: @dr_kate_levett

www.drkatelevett.com

Heidi is a privately practising endorsed midwife on the Central Coast, NSW. She has completed a Master of Midwifery in acupuncture research and is currently a PhD candidate at Edith Cowan University investigating Acuneedling for posterior, deflexed and/or asynclitic babies. She is also an academic at the University of Newcastle. Heidi is a board member of the Obstetrical Acupuncture Association, on the editorial and advisory board of the Practising Midwife Journal Australia and contributes as an editor for the Australian Midwifery News magazine. Along with Kate Levett, Heidi runs courses in Acuneedling for midwives and other health professionals. 

Instagram: @central.coast.homebirth

centralcoasthomebirth.com

Dr Pamela Douglas is passionate about helping to grow joy in early life, by contributing to paradigm shift in evidence-based care for families with babies.

She has created the Possums (or Neuroprotective Developmental Care) programs over the past 25 years, using the frames of evolutionary biology, complexity science, and holistic generalist care. Her work has been changing clinical practice in the areas of breastfeeding, baby cry-fuss problems, sleep, sensory motor needs, and perinatal mental health internationally.

Pam is a GP-researcher, Fellow of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, and author of a bestselling book, The Discontented Little Baby Book (now also available in Dutch and undergoing translation into Italian).

Pam has published about 30 research papers laying out the evidence base for the Possums or NDC programs, including 9 positive evaluation studies. The Possums Baby and Toddler Sleep Program is found at possumssleepprogram.com and health professional education at The NDC Institute. Possums Breastfeeding & Lactation is due to be released in early 2025.

LinkedIn: Dr Pamela Douglas

Instagram: @drpameladouglas

www.pameladouglas.com.au

Sarah is a global travelling midwife dedicated to reclaiming midwifery as the holistic healing art it has always been. Traditionally, midwives are pillars of their communities, guiding women and families through their reproductive, health, and healing journeys. Sarah supports women with plants, nutrition, bodywork, and spiritual guidance from menstruation through conception, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and parenting. Her mission is to reconnect with ancient women’s wisdom and provide truly holistic care.

Sarah's journey involves integrating practices often seen as alternatives to modern medical systems, reclaiming the essence of true midwifery. This holistic approach grounds her practice in the timeless principles of nurturing both physical and spiritual well-being.

Sarah's diverse experience spans various countries and settings, from rural hospitals in Australia, to birth centres in India and learning with traditional Maya midwives in Guatemala. She specialises in home births, which has taken her to remote communities in Australia.

For over a decade, Sarah has been passionate about learning from women, midwives, and traditional cultures surrounding birth. She is passionate about sharing this wisdom with other women and birth workers through her events and mentoring.

Instagram: @bridging_worlds_midwifery

www.bwmidwife.com

Lynnelle is a midwife and midwifery lecturer, and is currently undertaking a PhD exploring the impact of professional connections and relationships on midwives' wellbeing and career sustainability. Midwifery connection and community is her jam!

In 2016, Lynnelle formed the Va Journal Club, a midwifery journal club with spice, bringing together midwives from a variety of practice settings to discuss and debate emerging midwifery research, share knowledge and experiences, and explore ways we can individually and collectively mobilise to reclaim midwifery, all while building and strengthening relationships & community within our profession.

Lynnelle has worked in multiple practice settings and models of care, most recently practicing as a Clinical Midwifery Specialist in Midwifery Group Practice providing both hospital and home birth midwifery care to families. She is passionate about midwifery and working in partnership with birthing women & people to provide care that reflects their individual hopes and needs, and is committed to supporting midwifery students on their journey towards this extraordinary profession.

Lynnelle recently joined The Assembly of Rebellious Midwives team to co-present Va Journal Club in an online setting. The community is growing!

LinkedIn: Lynnelle Moran

Instagram: @lynnellemoran and @vajournalclub