2015 Home Birth Conference and Hui
“Connections & Community”
Brought to you by CHOICEbaby Nelson and Homebirth Motueka.
This year we present a very special conference half an hour from Nelson at the Riverside Cultural & Community Centre in Lower Moutere on August 29.
Come and be inspired at this years National Home Birth conference and hui hosted by Nelson/Tasman home birthers at the vibrant Riverside Community.
Come revel in the joy of meeting up with kindred spirits, sharing your life stories and being inspired by dynamic speakers.
There is accommodation available on-site.
Delicious meals with a local flair will be provided.
A fully staffed crèche will be available next door to the conference room.
Amongst the line-up of speakers is midwife, author and birth trauma support worker Carla Sargent; current Ministry of Health Senior Maternity Advisor with over 30 years experience in maternity services including as a domiciliary midwife, Bronwen Pelvin; and Kass Ozturk, a home birth midwife who recently compiled her Masters thesis on “Becoming a homebirther…” and now also works as a Senior Maternity Advisor with the Ministry of Health. Final additions will be confirmed in coming weeks. The conference will be MC’d by local hypnobirth teacher and EFT practitioner, Anna Wilde.
Come enjoy the ambience of New Zealand’s oldest living community, meet the amazing locals and prepare to immerse yourself in a happening like none other!
On 30 August, following on from the conference at Riverside Cultural & Community Centre will be our annual national hui, also organised by the wonderful women of CHOICE BABY -Nelsons Natural Parenting and Home Birth Group and Motueka Home Birth. All are invited to attend however numbers are limited so registrations will be essential. Use the form above to register.
The annual chance to connect, take stock, breathe in all that is Home Birth in Aotearoa.
We invite representatives and members of Regional Home Birth Groups, Home Birth Midwives and anyone identifying positively with home birth in Aotearoa to gather with us for some in-depth korero.
As always we look forward to our time sharing and connecting with each other and it is our hope that we will all leave refreshed and re-energised.
Home Birth Aotearoa has funding available for regional representatives to travel to hui and other members are encouraged to come along under their own steam. Please apply to admin@homebirth.org.nz as soon as possible if funding is required.
This is a free, catered event but we welcome any contribution you are able to make towards the costs involved. Any koha can be made online or onsite. Our bank account number for koha or donations is Home Birth Aotearoa Trust 03-1540-0512132-000
The final line up of speakers has now been confirmed and the programme set for our 2015 conference, “Connections & Community”, taking place on August 29th at the beautiful Riverside community in Moutere. Tickets can be purchased using the widget above. Info on our speakers is directly below; Click here to go straight to our programme for the day, or scroll to the bottom of the page.
Our speakers:
MC – Anna Wilde.
As the daughter of a busy midwife, Anna Wilde developed a positive attitude to birth early on. In her early twenties she completed a three-year Shiatsu training (Japanese Acupressure Massage) and spent many years as a full-time Shiatsu practitioner and teacher. Anna taught both midwives and couples acupressure techniques for birth.
Anna further trained in modalities that prepare women mentally and emotionally for birth, and that help them recover from childbirth related trauma. These include Mindfulness meditation, HypnoBirthing, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and Matrix reimprinting. She has extensive experience in supporting women to reframe painful memories, so they can move on to embrace new births with a fresh perspective. Anna has attended births as a support person and has over 15 years experience in working with women and couples.
On a personal level, Anna has experienced infertility and post-natal depression and has a compassionate attitude in working with women to ease their journey to motherhood. She is currently developing her new online project, The Birth Whisperer.com, a resource for women who want a better birth after a bad one.
As part of her whole-life commitment to supporting wellness, Anna has also co-authored two successful cookbooks. Real Fresh Food and Real Fresh Gluten-free Food have sold over 7000 copies.
Anna lives in Nelson, New Zealand with her husband Roger and two sons.
Carla Sargent
Carla is mother to three home-born children aged 14, 6 and 5. She has a background in midwifery and although she hasn’t practiced in over a decade, she has maintained a fierce passion for supporting birthing women. In 2013 Carla published a book of New Zealand home birth stories, titled Where the Heart Is. Since that time she has spread her energies between mothering, her involvement in the Waikato Home Birth Association, blogging for her Birth Rite site, her part-time relief-teaching work and starting up a birth trauma support organisation called Voice For Parents. She is very excited and honoured to be presenting at this year’s Home Birth Aotearoa Conference.
Bronwen Pelvin
Bronwen Pelvin is a midwife with nearly 40 years experience. After working as a core midwife in Palmerston North, she set up her practice as a domiciliary midwife in Nelson in 1978 and worked for 18 years throughout the Nelson district with occasional trips to the West Coast and Marlborough. After the changes to the law in 1990, she worked as a community-based Lead Maternity Carer. She worked as a maternity manager in Timaru and as the national Midwifery Advisor for the New Zealand College of Midwives. For five years she was the Professional Midwifery Advisor for Nelson Marlborough DHB and is now the Ministry of Health’s Principal Advisor, Maternity.
Joanne Rama-manga
Joanne Rama-manga, is Ngati- Apakura and a Mother to 11, and Nanny Jo to 11, 6 who were born at home. She is a recovering Home-birth midwife. Joanne was mentored by the late Great Joan Donley and became a Home-birth only midwife, covering the greater Auckland area and occasionally having to go as far as Te Awamutu for whanau births. She had her second child at home two weeks after completing her Midwifery training; because she couldn’t get a job in the hospital, she began teaching Ante-natal classes to teen parents in 1992. In 1993 she was one of the first Maori Midwives to provide LMC services to Maori whanau across ADHB, WDHB, & CMDHB. She also developed the first Marae based Pregnancy and childbirth and parenting programme in 1993, which was named Hapu oranga, and has continued to provide this programme for 22 years, in a variety of settings for a variety of providers. Most recently Joanne has been a contractor for Thrive to deliver Ante-natal classes to teen parents and has provided Hapu Ora wananga throughout Tamaki-Makaurau.
Joanne was a founding Trustee for Turuki Health care and has been a trustee for Te Kaha o te Rangatahi a teen parent support service in Counties-Manukau and was a trustee for Nga Maia O Aotearoa me te Waipounamu, the national Maori Midwives and consumers body. She is passionate about empowering Whanau through wananga and sharing traditional birth knowledge and wisdom.
She has participated over the years at a variety of levels from providing flaxroot, midwifery care to whanau and providing Hapu Oranga wananga and being a Nga Maia representative on MOH committees e.g. RHA; Coopers and Lybrand review of maternity services. Maternal and Newborn Information committee.
Sharon Robinson
Sharon formed her perspectives about birth and breastfeeding as a child while living in Tonga. When having her own babies, homebirth was illegal where she lived in the US. Fortunately, she found midwives, 2 ½ hours away, who supported her to birth in a small, rural community hospital.
After having her own babies and being a physio for 10 years, she decided to pursue a “calling” to become a midwife. She received a Masters of Midwifery degree from State University of New York where she did her clinical training in 2 big city hospitals in the Bronx.
After graduating, she and her husband served as consultants to a community based rehabilitation project in Cambodia. She also worked alongside a Khmer midwife caring for very poor women. The experiences were invaluable.
She emigrated to New Zealand believing the system here would support her to practice midwifery in a way that was compatible with her heart.
Kass Ozturk
Kass is a direct-entry midwife who qualified in 2000. She has spent most of her midwifery life working in the community and is affiliated with Domino Midwives in Wellington. Kass has a passion for home birth and wrote a Master’s thesis in 2010 about what supports and what challenges women planning the home birth of their first baby. Kass was a lecturer in the midwifery programme at Massey University for 6 years after which she returned to full time midwifery. Kass currently works at the Ministry of Health and is a PhD candidate. She also maintains a small home birth practice.
View Kass’ thesis: “Becoming a homebirther…smooth sailing or rocky road? An exploration of Pakeha women’s experiences on the path to homebirth.”
Our Programme:
9am – Informal muka tie workshop with midwifery student, morning tea.
10am – Introduction & welcome by Anna Wilde – event MC, Emotional Freedom Technique & Hypnobirthing practitioner.
10.15 – Carla Sargent – The Transformative Nature of Shared Birth Stories. Incorporating narratives from her own birth work and experiences, Carla explores the informative, inspirational and healing properties of shared stories.
11.15 – Joanne Rama – Whanau ki whanau whenua ki whenua. Reclaiming traditional birthing.
12.15 – Lunch – opportunity to check out trade tables on display, and open invitation to talk to speakers, continue muka ties.
1.00 – Bronwen Pelvin – From the Periphery to the Centre: taking home birth values with you wherever you go !!
2.00- Sharon Robinson – maker of the documentary “Born at Home: New Zealand Dads Advocate for Homebirth”. Speaking about homebirth from a dad’s perspective, and ways to support womens’ choices.
2.30 – Afternoon tea – opportunity to check out trade tables, talk with speakers, continue muka ties.
2.45 – Kass Ozturk – Becoming a homebirther: finding the connections with the support of community
3.45 – Summary and farewell by Anna Wilde