Meet The Contributors

Laura Pascoe (M.S., PhD, CD) is a certified childbirth doula and co-founder of the Doula Support Foundation. In addition to her contributions to the birth and perinatal field, Dr. Pascoe works as an internationally experienced researcher, practitioner, and educator advancing evidence-based solutions to prevent violence and advance gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights. Her work primarily focuses on engaging and mobilizing men and boys as co-beneficiaries, stakeholders, and allies in creating a caring, just, healthy, and equal world for all. She lives in Vermont with her partner and two children.

Josée, a birth doula CD(DONA) and French translator, is the creator of the Birth Story Writing Contest and Birth Sharing Circle. She is a DSF Board of Directors member. She felt the need for birth story sharing from her own clients, her own experiences, as well as the one from other doulas. Coming from the publishing world, she knows the power of words. She hopes that this book will contribute to a highly respectful birth environment everywhere and for all. She lives in Saint-Sauveur, Quebec.

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Dr. Klein is the author of Dissident Doctor: Catching Babies and Challenging the Medical Status Quo. His early experiences working with midwives in Ethiopia were formative, leading him to question many standards but unjustified procedures in Western maternity healthcare. Dr. Klein is best known for his landmark randomized controlled trial of episiotomy, which demonstrated that routine episiotomy caused the very problems it was supposed to prevent. He played an important role in placing maternity care in the heart of family medicine. Dr. Klein kindly accepted to be on the Birth Story Writing Contest 2020 jury. The Doula Support Foundation was honoured to have him participate in the Birth Sharing Circle 2020 as well.

Karen is a Professor at Queen’s University. Dr. Lawford is an Aboriginal midwife (Namegosibiing, Lac Seul First Nation, Treaty 3) and a registered Midwife (Ontario). Her research focuses on comprehensive, gender-inclusive sexual, and reproductive healthcare for Indigenous Peoples with a particular focus on the provision of maternity care for those who live on reserve. Karen kindly accepted to be on the Birth Story Writing Contest 2020 jury. The Doula Support Foundation was honoured to have her participate in the Birth Sharing Circle 2020 as well.

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Lauren Miller is a postpartum doula and educator with a history specializing in early childhood development. She has dabbled in freelance writing and enjoys any opportunity to combine the two. Lauren believes fiercely in the phrase “this too shall pass” as a humble guide for parenthood and a healthy reminder that the joyful moments pass just as the tough moments do. Lauren volunteers on the Board of Directors for DSF. She hopes that this collection of birth experiences gives a voice to birthers everywhere and shows the diversity and beauty found in birth.

Chandra Martini is a midwife and a descendant of the Black migration to Western Canada of 1910. She graduated from the Midwifery Program at Mount Royal University, where she worked with documents from the Black migration community to illuminate the history of Black midwives in Western Canada that had previously been eliminated from mainstream historical accounts. 

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Dr. Jack Newman is a world-renowned expert on breastfeeding. He founded the first hospital-based breastfeeding clinic in Canada in 1984, has been a consultant for UNICEF for the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative, evaluating the first candidate hospitals in Gabon, the Ivory Coast and Canada, and founded the International Breastfeeding Centre in Toronto, where he and his staff provide care for over 2,500 mothers and babies a year. Dr. Newman has published numerous books, including a help guide for professionals and mothers on breastfeeding called Dr. Jack Newman’s Guide to Breastfeeding (co-authored with Teresa Pitman) as well as The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers; Breastfeeding: Empowering Parents (co-authored with Andrea Polokova), and What Doctors Don’t Know about Breastfeeding (co-authored with Andrea Polokova). His website www.ibconline.ca has information and video clips.

Teresa Pitman has been a La Leche League Leader for more than 40 years. She is the author or co-author of 18 published books on birth, breastfeeding, parenting, and related topics, including Dr. Jack Newman’s Guide to Breastfeeding, the 8th edition of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, Preparing to Breastfeed: A Pregnant Woman’s Guide, and Baby-Led Weaning. She lives in Guelph, Ontario.  

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