Welcome to the 32nd ICM Virtual Triennial Congress

Petra ten Hoope-Bender is the Technical Adviser for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights at the UNFPA Office of Geneva. She is a Dutch midwife and has an International Organisations BA, former Secretary General of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), Executive Officer of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and Director of the Dual Career and Staff Mobility programme at the United Nations. She coordinated the Lancet Series on Midwifery 2014 and was lead author of the international policy paper of this series. She co-authored the State of the World’s Midwifery reports 2011 and 2014, and is currently leading the SoWMy2021 development. She has practical, policy and programme experience in midwifery and sexual & reproductive health and rights, covering policy development, implementation and analysis, operational support to countries, organisational development, workforce assessment, advocacy and communications and capacity building.

Andrea Nove (PhD) is a researcher and demographer with a strong interest in sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health (SRMNAH) and the health workforce. She was the technical lead for the development of the 2021 State of the World’s Midwifery (SoWMy) report, was part of the technical team for the 2014 and 2011 SoWMy reports, and led the development of three regional SoWMy reports in 2015 (Arab States), 2017 (East and Southern Africa) and 2019 (Pacific islands). She was a member of the writing team for the State of the World’s Nursing 2020 report. Andrea was the lead author for a recent Lives Saved Tool modelling study which was published in the Lancet Global Health and which estimated the number of lives that could be saved by investing in midwives and midwifery.

Hilma is a Midwife, from Namibia. She is the Chairperson Independent Midwives Association of Namibia and the ICM Board member representing Anglophone Africa. She has experience of both Midwifery Practice, Education and Regulation. She holds a Masters Degree of Science in Nursing and a Postgraduate Diploma in Maternal and Child health. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Maternal and Child health.

Hilma has been involved in the development, planning, implementation, coordination, and monitoring of various national policies and strategies in Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and is also a trainer in Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care and Quality Improvements for Maternal and Child Health. She advocates for resources for midwifery, the importance of midwifery education and regulation as well as creating an enabling environment for Midwives.

Kate Somers leads initiatives that focus on distilling and applying strategic evidence to reduce vulnerability; collaborating with country teams to adopt and integrate life-saving interventions within government health strategies; and fostering partnerships with UN agencies and other institutions to accelerate reductions in maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths through technical assistance, financing, advocacy, and monitoring. She also oversees work on improving measurement of MNCH interventions, as well as supporting the development of decision-making tools for health policy, planning and programming.

Since joining the foundation in 2011, Kate has managed multiple investments in service delivery, health policy, quality of care, and measurement, and has co-authored publications on these topics. Currently, she serves on external technical groups including the Countdown to 2030 Steering Group, WHO Policy Reference Group and the Global Financing Facility Quality of Care Technical Advisory Group, as well as the Board for the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. Prior to joining the foundation, Kate served in the Peace Corps and worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the California Endowment, and IntraHealth International.

Kate holds a master’s in public health policy and administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master’s in English from North Carolina State University, and a juris doctorate from California Western.

Sally Pairman (DMid) is Chief Executive of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), a role she commenced in mid-January 2017 after more than 30 years of work in midwifery practice, education, and regulation in her home country of New Zealand. Previous roles include, Professor of Midwifery, Director of Learning and Teaching and Head of Midwifery at Otago Polytechnic.  

Before joining ICM she has also held several national and international midwifery leadership roles; five years as President of New Zealand College of Midwives, nine years as the first chairperson of the inaugural Midwifery Council of New Zealand, nine years as Co-Chair of ICM’s Regulation Standing Committee and six years  on ICM’s Scientific Professional Programme Committee. 

Sally has contributed to the midwifery academic field with numerous publications, including ‘Midwifery Partnership: a model for practice” and “Women’s Business: the history of the New Zealand College of Midwives 1986-2010” (co-authored with Karen Guilliland). She is co-editor for the Australasian midwifery textbook, “Midwifery: Preparation for Practice”, now in development for its 5^th edition. 

Throughout her career, Sally has maintained her commitment to promoting midwifery as a strong, autonomous profession and to maintaining choices for women in childbirth services as evidenced through her political and professional activities and through her research and publications. Her services to midwifery were recognised in 2008 when she was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.  

Franka Cadée is serving her second term as the President of the International Confederation of Midwives. Previously, she served on the ICM Board as treasurer (2002-2008) and on the ICM Council as a KNOV Delegate (2008 -2017). Franka is an expert on sexual and reproductive healthcare in general and midwifery in particular, with over 30 years of strategy and policy development, advocacy, leadership, research and project management experience. She is known to many for her PhD research into twinning, a cross-cultural reciprocal process to strengthening the agency of midwives. With her anthropological and midwifery background plus personal experience of living and working across a range of differently resourced countries, she is well aware of the realities of the field and a strong proponent of a human rights based approach to healthcare. Currently she is a member of the Executive Board of the Partnership for Maternal and Newborn Health (PMNCH) representing the Health Care Professional Associations, a Board member of the ICM WithWomen charity, and a member of the High-Level Commission on the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 Follow-up as well as a consultant on international collaboration to the Royal Dutch Association of Midwives (KNOV). 

Fran McConville is a midwife and has been the Midwifery Adviser at the World Health Organisation (WHO) headquarters in Geneva for the past 8 years. Fran’s work aims to support the 194 WHO Member States to improve evidence–based quality midwifery care for all women, newborns and their families everywhere. Prior to WHO, Fran was a health adviser for the UK Government  Department for International Development (DFID) and brings over three decades of international development and humanitarian experience in sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn health with UNICEF, IFRC, and a range of NGOs through living and working in countries including Bangladesh, India, Burma, Malawi, Kenya, Somalia and Iraq. Fran has a Master’s degree in Health Economics, a Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences, and in 2020 became Professor of Practice at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Rt. Hon. Helen Clark

Former Administrator of UNDP
Former Prime Minister of New Zealand

Helen Clark was Prime Minister of New Zealand for three successive terms from 1999–2008. She was the first woman to become Prime Minister following a General Election in New Zealand and the second woman to serve as Prime Minister.

Throughout her tenure as Prime Minister and as a Member of Parliament over 27 years, Helen Clark engaged widely in policy development and advocacy across the international affairs, economic, social, environmental, and cultural spheres. She advocated strongly for a comprehensive programme on sustainability for New Zealand and for tackling the challenges of climate change. She was an active leader of her country’s foreign relations, engaging in a wide range of international issues.

In April 2009, Helen Clark became Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. She was the first woman to lead the organisation, and served two terms there. At the same time, she was Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of all UN funds, programmes, agencies, and departments working on development issues. As Administrator, she led UNDP to be ranked the most transparent global development organisation. She completed her tenure in April 2017.

Helen Clark came to the role of Prime Minister after an extensive parliamentary and ministerial career. Prior to entering the New Zealand Parliament, Helen Clark taught in the Political Studies Department of the University of Auckland, from which she earlier graduated with her BA and MA (Hons) degrees.

Helen continues to speak widely and be a strong voice on sustainable development, climate action, gender equality and women’s leadership, peace and justice, and action on non-communicable diseases and on HIV.

She serves on a number of advisory boards and commissions, including in the capacity of Chair of the Advisory Board of UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report. In June 2019, she assumed the Chairpersonship of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

Neha Mankani is a public health practitioner and a midwife with 12 years of experience in maternal in reproductive health. She is the founder of the Mama Baby Fund; a financial emergency fund for maternal and neonatal health in Pakistan. She currently works at the Global Health Directorate of the Indus Health Network where she is setting up and managing midwifery schools and clinics and other maternal health programs at the network’s primary care sites. Neha is part of ICM’s Young Midwifery Leaders (YML) programme

Dr. Neel Shah, MD, MPP, FACOG, is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School, and director of the Delivery Decisions Initiative at Harvard’s Ariadne Labs. As an obstetrician-gynecologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Dr. Shah cares for patients at critical life moments that range from childbirth to primary care to surgery. As a scientist and social entrepreneur, he is a globally recognized expert in designing solutions that improve health care.

Dr. Shah is listed among the ” 40 smartest people in health care ” by the Becker’s Hospital Review, and has been profiled by the New York Times , CNN , and other outlets . He is written more than 50 peer-reviewed academic papers and contributed to four books, including as senior author of Understanding Value-Based Healthcare (McGraw-Hill), which Don Berwick has called “an instant classic” and Atul Gawande called “a masterful primer for all clinicians.”

Prior to joining the Harvard faculty, Dr. Shah founded Costs of Care, an NGO that curates insights from clinicians and patients to help delivery systems provide better care. In 2017, he co-founded the March for Moms Association, a coalition of more than 20 leading organizations, to increase public and private investment in the wellbeing of mothers. Dr. Shah currently serves on national advisory boards of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Office of Women’s Health Research at the National Institutes of Health.

Mandira Paul, Senior Programme Specialist in Health/ SRHR, PhD in Medicine and Public Health – International Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

Mandira Paul brings more than 10 years of experience in technical and programmatic work and research in the area of health and wellbeing, particularly sexual and reproductive health and rights, adolescent and youth health and wellbeing, and public health. In her current position as a Senior Programme Specialist at Sida, Mandira manages parts of Sida’s global health portfolio under the Global Social Development Strategy, and is the agency’s technical lead for comprehensive abortion care and midwifery, as well as  SRHR more broadly.

She previously worked at UNFPA, in different capacities. Most recently as Maternal Health & SRHR technical specialist, where she lead the agencies work on prevention of unsafe abortion and a comprehensive approach to SRHR. In my previous roles at UNFPA, she was the technical lead of Adolescent and Youth SRHR at UNFPA. Mandira also worked on issues including child marriage and young people in humanitarian settings. Prior to this, she worked for 2 years as a programme officer at UNFPA Lao PDR, with a focus on AY, M&E and pop. & development. She also designed and coordinated the Pamoja Zone at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 (2019).

Mandira is skilled in advocacy, policy dialogue, communication, programme management, monitoring and evaluation, research, knowledge- and methodology development and support and hold experience from working in international contexts including in grassroots organizations and at the UN, both at country and headquarter level.

Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent is the Chief Midwifery Officer for the NHS in England and has vast experience in healthcare provision. She is a registered nurse and midwife and is one of two National Maternity Safety Champions. Jacqueline is visiting Professor of Midwifery at Kings College London and London South Bank University. Jacqueline has held senior positions in clinical practice, education, leadership and management including: Consultant Midwife, Director of Midwifery, Head of Nursing, Senior Lecturer, Curriculum Leader, LME and Professor of Midwifery.

She is a member of Tommy’s Charity National Advisory Board as Midwifery advisor, Women of the Year management committee, Midwifery Ambassador for the ‘Saying Goodbye’ charity and trustee for the RCN Foundation.

In 2020, she was noted as one of the influential people in health by the HSJ. She was also noted as a Pioneer by the HSJ and selected from over 100 nominations for inclusion on the Nursing Times’ Leaders 2015 list, that celebrates nurses and midwives who are pioneers, entrepreneurs and inspirational role models in their profession.

Angela Nguku

BscN, MN, MAPPM

Founder and Executive Director, White Ribbon Alliance Kenya

Angela NGUKU is the Founder and Executive Director of the White Ribbon Alliance Kenya, a people-led movement for reproductive, maternal and newborn health and rights. A graduate midwife and an accomplished thought leader, Angela’s’ career spans over 16 years of dedicated work towards ending preventable maternal and newborn deaths globally and amplifying the voices of marginalized and vulnerable populations in Kenya, throughout Africa, and around the world. A passionate maternal, newborn and adolescent health champion, Angela combines her proven influencing and negotiation skills in advocating for the accountability for the health of mothers, newborns, adolescents and frontline health workers mainly nurses and midwives. She has extensive knowledge and hands-on experience managing and evaluating multi-donor, multi-year and multi-country programs, particularly in the field of  Global Health with a special focus on Maternal and Newborn Health, Adolescent, Sexual reproductive Health and Human Rights and Gender Mainstreaming. Angela serves as a member of the Peoples’ Advisory Board of the Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems in the SDGs Era, the Civil Society Advisory Group for the Global Action Plan for Healthier Lives and Well Being as well as the Deliver for Good Campaign Advisory group in Kenya. Angela, a  Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 2018 Goalkeeper is an ardent writer and speaker  on matters accountability in the Global health space and  has written varied  articles on  accountability for maternal,  newborn and  adolescent  health,  quality of  health care as defined by women and girls self-expressed needs,  citizen engagement in the UHC design and implementation, self-care as the root of health care, why we need to decolonize global health, philanthropy and its role in driving quality UHC implementation, why investing in frontline health workers is a best buy and  most recently why Covid19 response should not overshadow maternal newborn health care among others .In 2020, Angela was  selected to the  joint USAID and Bill and Melinda Gates Global Maternal and Newborn Health Align MNH Steering Committee that seeks to advance learning and investments towards a reduction of the high maternal and newborn health deaths  in low and middle income countries mainly in Africa and Asia and the steering committee for National Advocacy Funding that advocates for national CSOS funding for national level advocacy for health accountability.

 Angela serves as a member of the  Global Council Health and Merck for Mothers Global Boards respectively.

Claire Dion Fletcher (she/her) is an Indigenous (Lenape- Potawatomi) and mixed settler Registered Midwife practicing at Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto. She is presently co-chair of the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives and Assistant Professor at the Ryerson Midwifery Education Program in Toronto.

Her teaching focuses on Indigenous midwifery and social justice issues. Claire is deeply committed to increasing diversity in the midwifery profession through Indigenous-led education. She completed her Master of Arts in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies at York University where her research focused on decolonized health care and Indigenous midwifery. Claire is committed to reproductive justice and Indigenous feminisms and how these frameworks shape midwifery education and practice. She is an adoring Auntie to her niece and nephews.

I am an Arrernte Aboriginal woman from Alice Springs, Northern Territory and I am a midwife. I was the first student to graduate from the Australian Catholic University (ACU) Bachelor of Midwifery Indigenous course, a course delivered as an Away-from-Base model. This allowed me to continue to study in my community and travel for university for study blocks. I was employed as a student midwife at Alukura- the first Aboriginal birthing centre in Australia. I graduated in 2013 and I am the first in my family with a university degree.

I moved home to Alice Springs to continue to support women in my community and all visiting areas of Central Australia, near and far. I am also raising my family, 1yr old Angus and 6yr old twins Douglas and Dylan. I have a daughter Senna who was born too early for life in 2017. I documented the traumatic care that I received as an Aboriginal (Indigenous) woman. This led me to become an advocate for pregnancy/baby loss and miscarriage.

I sit on the National Scientific Advisory Group for Red Nose, leading the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Initiatives Working Group and the Bereavement Working Group. I was recently invited to join the national Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth (The Stillbirth CRE) Indigenous Advisory Group.

My experience varies from working in a large inner-city tertiary hospital to working in Alice Springs Hospital, a rural hospital where I spent over a year as an outreach midwife travelling to a remote community four hours drive from home. I have experience working in the areas of birthing, antenatal and postnatal education and, completed my women’s health training which allowed me to practice autonomously while in community.

Most recently, I was employed at the Australian College of Midwives working as the Project Officer for the Birthing on Country (BoC) Project, which included co-Chairing the Birthing on Country Strategic Committee. The BoC Project was established to support the Birthing on Country movements in two sites. The focus is improving maternity care delivery to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers and babies, working in collaboration with Aboriginal women to ensure the provision of culturally safe care to their women and families. The Birthing on Country movement is strong in Australia and will continue to grow through producing more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander midwives and health workers to provide culturally appropriate care to our Mobs.

In addition, I am the Chair of the Rhodanthe Lipsett Indigenous Midwifery Charitable Fund ensuring representation of the wider community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander midwives and students, improving access for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and equity in maternity care. We provide scholarships to student midwives and graduated midwives to support further education.

My focus in midwifery is supporting Aboriginal women and their babies to access equitable and culturally safe care. I also have a strong passion for Birthing on Country and want to see all women have the choice to birth where they choose, being supported by an Aboriginal midwife and surrounded by the support people who are closest to them. I also mentor and provide support to student midwives and people interested in midwifery as I see there is a higher demand for a ‘known’ midwife. Currently there is a huge shortage of Aboriginal midwives to provide care to the greater number of Aboriginal birthing women. I am currently the only Aboriginal midwife working at the hospital which supports over half of the Aboriginal birthing mothers that are transferred through this hospital for care, a hospital of approx. 800 births a year.

Dr. Neel Shah, MD, MPP, FACOG, is an Assistant Profe

Ofelia Pérez Ruiz is an Indigenous Tzotzil-Maya midwife from Chiapas, Mexico with 22 years of experience. She became a midwife to meet the needs of the Indigenous communities where she lived, realizing that there was no exclusive space for women of reproductive age, no knowledge of sexual and reproductive rights, and a lot of maternal and neonatal mortality. And so, starting as a local health worker, she later started practicing traditional midwifery, and then qualified at the CASA Midwifery School, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato.

Ofelia has now been the spokesperson for the Chiapas Midwives Movement, Nich Ixim for the past five years. In addition, she is the coordinator of the Integral Health and Gender training program in San Cristóbal de las Casas, and founder of the organization CAMATI “MUJERES CONSTRUYENDO DESDE ABAJO” (“Women Building from the Bottom”) A.C.

She now works with rural and urban Indigenous and Mestizo women and their children in Los Altos de Chiapas, advocates for the recognition and visibility of traditional midwifery at the local, state, and national levels, and is the liaison for the follow-up of emergency complications during pregnancy, childbirth, and puerperium. She also promotes the elimination of mistreatment and violence by health personnel towards poor, rural, and Indigenous women and midwives, facilitating workshops on sexual and reproductive health for Indigenous women and young people, as well as knowledge exchange meetings with traditional midwives in different municipalities.

Dr. Pandora Hardtman serves as Chief Nursing & Midwifery Officer of JHPIEGO. She has gained 20 plus years of nurse-midwifery experience working in the USA, Caribbean, South East Asia, the Middle East and Africa in varying capacities assisting women and families on 4 continents.  When not travelling and in the US, she continues to serve in socioeconomically and culturally diverse practices in the Atlanta Metro area. As an elected member of the International Confederation of Midwives Board Representing North Americas/ Caribbean , she continues to mix -global health administrative, advocacy and clinical duties, and is known for encouraging nurse-midwives to “push for change past the perineum”.

Janet Mbugua is a Kenyan Media Personality and Gender Equality Advocate with a focus on Menstrual Equality. She is a TV Host with experience as a News Anchor, Reporter and Producer both in her country, Kenya and in South Africa. Her experience in Broadcast has seen her cover the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the 2007 and 2013 Kenya elections and the 2012 U.S Elections.

Janet started out in Radio at the age of 19 on Nairobi’s Capital FM. Years later at 23, she became the host of the popular travel show Out and About on KTN and
later became a Prime Time News Anchor and Reporter, still on KTN. Janet was then headhunted for the position of News Anchor, Reporter and Producer by e TV in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2009. She then returned to Kenya in 2011, where she joined Citizen TV as a Prime Time News Anchor, Reporter and Producer until April 2017. In 2019 curated and hosted a TV Show called Here And Now on NTV, which focused on socio-economic and political issues affecting young people.

Janet is the founder of the Inua Dada Foundation, an organization whose mission is to create a supportive and accessible environment for primary school girls in
Kenya by conducting research to identify issues that hinder learning and working collaboratively with strategic partners to implement sustainable solutions
(http://www.inuadadafoundation.org). With a focus on Menstrual Health Management (MHM), the organization has empowered more than 12,000 girls
over the last few years and held various media and advocacy events that have reached thousands of people. The organization is moving towards being largely advocacy based and will be releasing a publication in 2019 to influence policy change and de-stigmatize conversations around MHM and SRH.

In July 2017 she began consulting for The Hive, a US Based organization seeking to amplify Gender Equality messaging in Kenya and other African countries. She
is the Project Lead for #Better4Kenya, their first campaign in Kenya. Some of her achievements include:

• Being named as one of the top three best News Anchors in Kenya by the
  Media Council of Kenya
•  Brand Ambassador for the Lifebuoy Help A Child Reach 5 campaign,
  representing Kenya globally
• Recipient of the Top 40 Under 40 Award by Business Daily Africa, 2015
• Being named one of the Top 25 Women In Digital Media in Kenya, in 2018
• MC/ Moderator for the opening and closing ceremony of the International Conference
  On Planning and Development (ICPD25) Summit 2019

In 2020, Janet released her first book, ‘My First Time’, a collection of short stories from women, girls and men on their first interaction with menstruation. The book is a tool for a much needed conversation around sexual and reproductive health and rights and a tool to influence policy change around Menstrual Hygiene and Management.

Instagram: @officialjanetmbugua (1 Million followers as of November 2019)

Janet Jarman works as a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker based in Mexico, where she focuses issues such as immigration and public health issues, water resource problems and solutions, and Mexico’s ongoing security issues.

Jarman’s work has been published in The New York Times, GEO, National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, Der Spiegel, 6Mois, The Wall Street Journal, amongst others. She has also worked for numerous international foundations. Her photographs have been featured at Visa Pour l’Image, Perpignan and have received awards in Pictures of the Year International, American Photography, PDN Photography Annual, POY Latam, Latin American Fotografia, Communication Arts, and Best of Photojournalism.

In addition to working on editorial assignments for magazines and newspapers, Jarman has produced various long-term photo and multimedia projects. Her most recent project, titled “Birth Wars” includes a feature-length documentary film and a forthcoming book.

Jarman began her career in South Florida after graduating from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She worked as a staff photographer at The Miami Herald, and later obtained a master’s degree in environmental issues at the University of London. She is represented by Redux Pictures.

For more on Jarman’s maternal health work, please see:

New York Times – December 22, 2020

In Mexico, Childbirth In Covid’s Shadow

National Geographic/EMC

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/maternal-health-guatemala-christy-turlington-burns-video

New York Times – August 31, 2015

https://www.nytimes.com/video/science/100000003884068/calling-the-midwife-in-chiapas.html?action=click&contentCollection=science&module=embedded&region=caption&pgtype=article

Twitter: @janetjarman

Instagram: @janetjarman

Janetjarman.com

Birthwarsfilm.com

Sarah Austin Jenness joined the staff at The Moth in 2005, and as Executive Producer, she has worked with hundreds of people to craft and hone their personal stories. She is a Peabody Award-winning director, one of the long-standing hosts of The Moth Radio Hour, and launched The Moth’s Global Community Program — coaching storytelling workshops in the US and Africa to elevate conversation around Human Rights. Moth stories she has directed in the past decade have been told on the floor of the United Nations as far afield as the Kenya National Theatre. She believes stories have power and can change the world by creating connection.

Lynzy Billing is an Investigative journalist and photographer living between Afghanistan and Iraq. She was previously based in the Philippines after several years on the new desk in London

Adrienne (Ady) Priday MHSc (Hons), RM, RCompN: 

I am a midwife with a passion for exploring the public health benefits implicit in the work of midwifery. I have worked and taught in the New Zealand health industry for over 40 years in both nursing and midwifery and currently a part-time educator at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Counties Manukau, New Zealand. I also enjoy research and have an interest in the maternity health needs and services for women and infants who reside in high deprivation communities along with the development of maternal immunizations and their uptake by pregnant women. 

I have been a Lead Maternity Care Midwife for the last 25 years, providing continuity of midwifery care in high deprivation communities. I now facilitate ‘Early Pregnancy Midwifery Clinics’ to promote early access to midwifery care for women disregarded by a health system that is neither designed for them or by them. I believe all midwifery health services must be accessible and engaging for all women, especially women who are challenged and marginalized by poverty.

Every Mother Counts (EMC) founder Christy Turlington Burns’ work in maternal health began after experiencing a childbirth related complication in 2003—an experience that would later inspire her to direct and produce the documentary feature film, No Woman, No Cry, about the challenges women face throughout pregnancy and childbirth around the world. Under Christy’s leadership, Every Mother Counts has invested nearly $15 million in programs in Africa, Latin America, South Asia and the United States focused on making pregnancy and childbirth safe for every mother, everywhere.

Before founding Every Mother Counts, Christy received international acclaim as a model representing the world’s biggest fashion and beauty brands. She was the Founder of Nuala, a yoga lifestyle brand in partnership with Puma, co-founder of Sundari, a skincare based on the principals of Ayurveda, and author of the bestselling book, Living Yoga: Creating a Life Practice.

Christy has been featured on thousands of magazine covers, was one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People, and Glamour Magazine’s 2013 Woman of the Year. In March 2016, EMC was recognized as one of Fast Company magazine’s Top 10 Most Innovative Not-For-Profit Companies.

Christy graduated Cum Laude from NYU’s Gallatin School of Independent Studies and studied Public Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She currently serves on the Yale Nursing School Dean’s Leadership Council and the Smithsonian Institute’s American Women’s History Initiative (AWHI) Advisory Committee. Previously, she has served on the Harvard Medical School Global Health Council, the Harvard School of Public Health Board of Dean’s Advisors and the advisory Board of New York University’s Nursing School. Christy lives in New York City with her husband, filmmaker Edward Burns, and their two children.

Jennie Joseph is a British-trained midwife who fights to ensure every person has their healthiest possible pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience with dignity and support.

Jennie created The JJ Way ® which is an evidence-based, maternity care model delivering readily-accessible, patient-centered, culturally-congruent care to women in areas that she terms ‘materno-toxic zones’. Her focus and drive is to ensure that Black women and other marginalized people remain safe and empowered inside broken and inequitable maternity
health systems that have become dangerous and all too often, lethal.

She is the Executive Director of her own non-profit corporation Commonsense Childbirth Inc. which operates a training institute, health clinics and a birthing center in Orlando, Florida, and is also the founder of the National Perinatal Task Force, a grassroots organization whose mission is the elimination of racial disparities in maternal child health in the USA. In July 2020 her school, Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery became the first and only privately-owned, nationally accredited midwifery school owned by a Black woman in the United States.

Jennie is the founder and a proud member of The Council of Midwifery Elders, she serves on the Advisory Council for the Congressional Black Maternal Health Caucus and is a Fellow of The Aspen Institute.

TOLU ADELEKE-AIRE – HEALTH EDUCATION. NURSE. MIDWIFE. HEALTH CONSULTANT

Tolu is an award winning, International trained, dual qualified, experienced and passionate healthcare professional working hard to drastically reduce Nigeria’s maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity rates by 2025 through health education, advocacy and empowering and supporting expectant couples as they transition to parenthood.

Tolu is an accomplished senior midwife and nurse with over 14 years clinical and management experience in both the private and public sectors. Tolu completed an MSc in Healthcare Management in 2015 and is currently studying Perinatal Mental Health (Master of Science) with the aim of creating solutions to support mothers holistically.

Tolu founded Tolu the Midwife Healthcare Solutions and The Maternity Hub Nigeria to educate, inform, empower and support expectant parents as they transition to parenthood through childbirth classes, birthing support and advocacy and a maternity helpline for mums and dads. #DadsAntenatalNg

Despite the pandemic, Tolu has continued to support pregnant women virtually and offers childbirth classes to employees of corporate organisations. The borderless classes have supported women across Nigeria, Australia, Canada, England and Denmark.
Recently Tolu created “Labour with Confidence” an on-demand childbirth preparation course to ensure all expectant parents have access to evidence-based maternal health information.

Tolu truly believes Nigeria is rich in resources and we owe it to ourselves to change the narrative from being “the most dangerous country in the world for maternal care” to a country who performs safe deliveries in line with the world.

And using a consistent health education approach, raising awareness of health deviations from the norm, empowering communities to take responsibility for their health while mapping out a clear pathway to access health services, our health outcomes will certainly improve to Save a mother, Save a baby, Save a community.

Email: info@toluthemidwife.com
Contact number: +234 (0) 818 806 4191
Website: www.toluthemidwife.com
Instagram/ Facebook/ Twitter