Debbie Hull and Jackie Griggs: The Scope of Practice of Midwives and Doulas

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Debbie Hull and Jackie Griggs: The Scope of Practice of Midwives and Doulas

Debbie Hull has been serving expectant Houston families as a doula and childbirth educator for over 21 years. She is a frequent guest host of Whole Mother and is proud to serve on the faculty of Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association as both a Labor Doula and Childbirth Educator Trainer, training the next generation of professional birth workers. Debbie is the mother of two adult formerly breastfed and homeschooled children, Emily and Isaac.

Jackie Griggs, CNM, has been a Nurse Midwife in the Houston area for the past 30 years. She is a mom of five sons, three born at home with the help of midwives. She owns two birth centers, one in the Houston Heights and one in Beaumont. She helps with babies at home and birth center. She is also on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Birth Centers.

Marya Axner, Talking to Children About Racism

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Marya Axner, Talking to Children About Racism

Marya Axner has spent the past 30 years as an activist working against oppression of all kinds and also working as parent educator. She speaks and leads workshops on the topic of anti-Semitism and racism on college campuses, at social justices organizations, and at worker organizations. Fifteen years ago she was the director of a parents’ program in the Somerville Public Schools, supporting parents to be involved in their children’s education. She has worked as a multicultural consultant for collaborative of schools near Boston. She has also worked for the nonprofit Everyday Democracy, which encourages people to have small group discussions that lead to lasting change. More recently, she was the director of the New England Jewish Labor Committee, where she organized the Jewish Community to stand up with workers for their rights.

Marya Axner has taught listening skills through Re-evaluation Counseling for many years. Axner has also been active in United to End Racism (UER), a project of Re-valuation Counseling. United to End Racism is group of people of all backgrounds in many countries who are dedicated to eliminating racism in the world. UER does this by teaching people to listen to each other, thereby undoing the damage done to people through racism and thus enabling people to speak out about racism, interrupt it when it happens, make deep friendships with people of different races, and take leadership in removing racism from society’s institutions.

Debby Fischer-Kocinski

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Debby Fischer-Kocinski

Debby Fischer-Kocinski is a 37-year-old first-time mom, a boy mom to 5-month-old Isaac. She is happily married, entertained, supported, and challenged by husband Jim. An outside salesperson supporting builders and designers on construction projects via plumbing, lighting, and appliance products, Debby went from maternity leave directly into working from home due to COVID.

Laura Minnigerode

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Laura Minnigerode

Laura Minnigerode is an educational researcher and parent-teacher. Her trainings focus on supporting early brain development: emotions and language. She is a certified Hand in Hand instructor who has been working with the Parenting by Connection approach for many years. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her family which includes three teenagers, a husband, and rescued dogs. 

Kim Jones, Parenting in the COVID Crisis

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Kim Jones, Parenting in the COVID Crisis

Kim Jones is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist practicing in Houston, Texas. She received her Master of Arts degree in Family Therapy from the University of Houston-Clear Lake in 2013. Kim is currently Associate Director of the Center for Postpartum Family Health, where she provides both individual and couples counseling. In individual psychotherapy and counseling, Kim helps people to work through a variety of presenting problems, including pregnancy and postpartum-related issues, depression, anxiety, relationship difficulties, grief, trauma, and family of origin issues. In her work with couples, Kim uses a combination of Emotion-Focused Couples Counseling and Gottman principles to work toward positive and lasting change. Kim is also a Certified Gottman Bringing Baby Home Workshop Facilitator. Kim does public speaking in the Houston area on topics including self-care, addiction recovery, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and relationships. She has been featured on Houston KHOU news, and has presented on the topic of relationship health after children at Postpartum Support International conferences.

Ashley Musil, CPM

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Ashley Musil, CPM

Ashley Musil, CPM, tells us about COVID-19 and the changes in the way we handle birth and postpartum in hospitals, birthing centers, and home birth or community birth.

She will also tell us about the document COVID-19—Current L&D Policies: Houston Area Hospitals, Birth Centers and Home Birth Midwives prepared by TLC Doula Group posted on Facebook.

Camellia May, LPM

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Camellia May, LPM

Camellia May, LPM, shares the Strong Start Study of birthing centers – advantages of using a birthing center for reduced cesarean, lower cost to the public, fewer maternal deaths, and higher consumer satisfaction.
Camellia May is a licensed midwife (since 1993) who lived in Houston for 30 years. Last summer she relocated to northwest Arkansas and recently got her license. She worked for over 13 years at birth centers in the Houston area. She is the mother of five delightful children and grandmother of a wonderful 3-year-old. She has been baking bread and growing a garden during the quarantine.

Devin English, PhD: Part 2

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Devin English, PhD: Part 2

Dr. Devin English tells us about Black teenage racial discrimination – information of which we should all be aware and working to make changes.

Dr. English earned his BA in psychology from Macalester College and his PhD in clinical/community psychology from the George Washington University. His predoctoral research was partially funded by a three-year NIDA F31 grant examining daily racial discrimination measurement and modelling its longitudinal effects on psychosocial outcomes among Black U.S. American adolescents and adults. He subsequently completed his postdoctoral research at Hunter College of the City University of New York where his research focused on examining the health effects of intersectional racial and sexual identity discrimination among Black queer men.

Devin English, PhD: Part 1

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Devin English, PhD: Part 1

Dr. Devin English tells us about Black teenage racial discrimination – information of which we should all be aware and working to make changes.

Dr. English earned his BA in psychology from Macalester College and his PhD in clinical/community psychology from the George Washington University. His predoctoral research was partially funded by a three-year NIDA F31 grant examining daily racial discrimination measurement and modelling its longitudinal effects on psychosocial outcomes among Black U.S. American adolescents and adults. He subsequently completed his postdoctoral research at Hunter College of the City University of New York where his research focused on examining the health effects of intersectional racial and sexual identity discrimination among Black queer men.

Patricia Perkins, RN, CNM, and Bliss Birthing Center

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Patricia Perkins, RN, CNM, and Bliss Birthing Center

Patricia “Trish” Perkins is a Certified Nurse Midwife who began her career as a labor and delivery nurse working with the Baylor midwives at Jefferson Davis Hospital. After raising her own family, she realized her lifelong dream of studying midwifery. She worked at a freestanding birth center as a full-scope midwife. She was recruited by Baylor College of Medicine to be a part of opening The Center for Children and Women at Greenspoint, where she did prenatal care including high-risk prenatal care, well-woman care, and centering pregnancy. Her experiences also include working as a lactation consultant at St. Joseph’s Hospital, helping them achieve Texas Ten Step status. She has realized her dream of opening a beautiful freestanding birth center just north of The Woodlands, Bliss Birth Center. Trish is passionate about providing quality, woman-centered, compassionate care and has the unique knowledge, skills, and experience to provide comprehensive, evidence-based midwifery care that women deserve.