Bernice L. Hausman is chair of the Department of Humanities at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania. She is author of the new book Anti-Vax: Reframing the Vaccination Controversy. She is also the author of Viral Mothers, Mother’s Milk and Changing Sex.
Dr. Yale Nogin
Dr. Nogin has been a perinatal educator for 17 years. His work focuses on preparing dads for birth and parenthood to strengthen marriages and improve, for everyone, the transition from couple to parents.
Dr. Whitley Jagnanan
Dr. Whitley Jagnanan on the immune system and protecting yourself from flu and colds – nutritional and other ways to prevent illness in your house.
Dr. Whitley Jagnanan is a family wellness chiropractor in Houston. Her office, Vital Family Chiropractic, is located in the Heights where she serves many women and children through family chiropractic care. She is Webster-certified through the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association. She also has advanced craniosacral therapy training with Dynamic Body Balancing with a special focus in tongue tie and plagiocephaly (flat head syndrome). Dr. Whitley is also a BIRTHFIT Regional Director and is dedicated to helping mom through the motherhood transition by using fitness, nutrition, connection and mindset. She helps moms prenatally and during their postpartum period with a variety of conditions such as diastasis recti, pelvic floor dysfunction and reestablishing their postpartum body. Her office hosts postpartum and prenatal classes for BIRTHFIT, breastfeeding meetups and childbirth education.
Savannah Woods
Birth story: first baby in the hospital and second baby in birthing center
Savannah Woods is a 36-year-old stay-at-home mom of a 4-year-old beautiful little girl and a 7-week-old handsome, big and strong boy! All the stay-at-home moms out there know what she means when she says how incredibly boring and yet wildly interesting life is!
Sarah Godwin
Sarah Godwin created and has owned and operated the Pure Parenting Shop in the Heights, Houston’s only natural parenting store, for over five years. Through the shop she helps new caregivers find the parenting supplies and products that will help them on their adventure in parenting. Sarah cloth-diapered her own children as well as ran a diaper service in Erie, PA for two years. She teaches Cloth Diapering 101 at her store and offers private consults through her shop. She is also a Certified Babywearing Educator and offers a variety of carriers at the shop, as well as fittings and consultations to help new caregivers find the best carrier for their needs.
Dr. Richelle Whittaker
Dr. Richelle Whittaker is an Educational Psychologist and a Licensed Professional Counselor-Supervisor. She has over 15 years’ experience providing counseling and assessment services in private practice, as well as developing and delivering training and workshops for agencies, schools, and transitional living facilities throughout the Greater Houston area. In her private practice, as a Certified Perinatal mental health therapist, Dr. Whittaker specializes in treating women of color suffering with postpartum depression, reproductive challenges, infertility, and infant loss. Her goal is to educate, equip, and empower moms to advocate for themselves and their children. She is the owner of Providential Counseling and Consulting Services, and author of Burps, Bibs, and Breakdowns: A 90-day Journal for Moms.
Dr. Whittaker earned a doctoral degree from Texas Tech University and a master’s degree from Sam Houston State University.
Jackie Griggs
Jackie Griggs is a certified nurse midwife in the Houston area since 1989. She attended The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston to obtain a master’s degree in nursing. She owned and operated Bay Area Birth Center in Pasadena from 2005-2017, and now owns Midwife in the Heights and Birth Center of Beaumont. She is on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Birth Centers since 2013. She is active with the Consortium of Texas Certified Nurse Midwives, and the Association of Texas. She is a writer and is currently working on a book about her experiences as a midwife. Jackie has precepted many nursing and midwifery students, and thinks it is very important to raise new midwives. Jackie is the mother of five sons, three of which were born at home with the assistance of midwives. She loves her work and has no plans to retire.
Rowan TwoSisters
Rowan TwoSisters, midwife, pelvic floor scar remediation, trauma-informed pelvic exams and STI testing, Arvigo Mayan abdominal massage, labor whispering, and pregnancy loss support.
She will tell us about the booth at B.I.R.T.H. Fair for Queers, the pregnancy loss support group, the afterbirth postpartum support group, Preggers Can Be Choosers.
Sarah Owens
Sarah Owens is a Certified Nurse-Midwife at Nativiti Family Birth Center and Women’s Health Associates in The Woodlands, Texas, where she provides newborn care and full-scope midwifery care for childbearing women. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2004. After the empowering birth of her first child in 2005, she began working in labor and delivery which included support of vaginal birth after cesarean. Later, her myriad of experiences as a travel nurse led her to pursue a career as a Certified Nurse-Midwife which came to fruition in 2018. Most recently, Sarah has completed a quality improvement project involving VBAC/TOLAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean/Trial of Labor After Cesarean) counseling and informed consent as she pursues her Doctorate of Nursing Practice, with an expected graduation date of Sept. 28, 2019. Sarah’s passion is to see the ACOG recommendation, that women with a history of cesarean birth be counseled about and offered a trial of labor after cesarean, become a reality for all women. Sarah, her husband, and three children recently relocated from Salem, Oregon, for her new position at Nativiti. They look forward to all the adventures Texas has to offer.
Afua Hassaine and Patricia Ghaly
Afua Hassaine and Patricia Ghaly
Afua Hassaine moved to Houston to pursue a career in midwifery. She graduated from the Houston School of Midwifery in 1984. Afua is the founder, owner and licensed midwife of The Birthing Place. The Birthing Place is the only free standing birth center that is owned by and operated by a black midwife in the city of Houston. Her business is located in the historically African American community of Third Ward. The best services are the homegrown mom and pop businesses and she is proud if it. She believes the mother is the captain, the partner is the co-captain and Afua is the advisor. Being a midwife with over 30 years of experience, she has seen a lot and that is why the client will always choose their path/journey when you are a client of The Birthing Place.
Patricia Ghaly has been a Licensed Midwife since 2014 and has been caring for women through their birth work since 2005. She believes women have the right to choose what care is best for them and their babies. Patty became a midwife because she strongly believes women should have the opportunity to birth the way they wish. She trained as a doula with Childbirth International after her second child was born. Upon completing her training, Patty attended births in Abu Dhabi and Egypt, and soon learned that, while doulas are certainly valuable to have at a birth, hospital rule trumps all. She went on to earn a degree in Midwifery from the Midwives College of Utah. Being a midwife allows her to provide a supportive, caring environment for all women. At Cy-Fair Birth Center, they offer a celebration of pregnancy, birth and postpartum that every mother/baby deserves. They believe every baby should come into the world celebrated and the midwives try to do that from the first visit all the way through the postpartum period by taking care of mom, pampering her, and ensuring she gets off to a good start in her parenting journey and her new identity as a mother.