2017 Summer Island Retreat
Guest Speakers
Find out a little more....
“Group B Strep” (1.5 CEU hours*)
David Hayes is a different sort of doctor. His first in-depth encounter with medicine came as his wife fought and ultimately lost a battle with breast cancer. Two years later, at the age of 41, Dr. Hayes entered the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He attributes his low intervention, high information philosophy to the age, life experience, and academic background with which he started medical school.
Following medical school he completed the first two years of an OB/Gyn residency at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, NY before transferring to the University of South Carolina residency program in Columbia, SC for the final two years in order to be closer to home as he prepared to go into practice. During residency he also undertook training in critical care obstetrics at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
He has attended thousands of births, including well over 100 home births in Western North Carolina since 2005. He is a faculty preceptor with the National College of Midwifery. In addition to his home birth practice he has worked with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) as an obstetrician/ gynecologist and as a Medical Team Leader in high risk obstetrics and vesico-vaginal fistula repair programs in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Sri Lanka. When not catching babies, he is passionate about growing food and playing music.
VBAC Panelist
Marcia has been a Certified Nurse Midwife since 2005, working in many settings from high risk hospital settings to low risk birth center settings. Currently, she is a co-owner of Natural Beginnings Birth and Wellness Center in Statesville, NC. With a goal to support a mom's choice in her birth journey, she assists in hopes of avoiding a traumatic experience for the laboring mother and her family. As a VBAC mom, one of her passions is supporting a woman's right to a trial of labor after a cesarean section. She feels like this is a scarce practice in our community and her hope is that through education and support, that can be changed.
“Aligned and Ready for birth: Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy” (2.5 CEU hours*)
Danica's calling to serve started in 2002 when she started massage school, growing and transitioning deeper into fertility and birth work over the past decade. She has worked within the parameters of the childbearing year as a Certified Nurturing the Mother massage therapist since 2007 focusing her massage career in fertility, prenatal, birth prep, labor, and postpartum massage. Continuing her transformation, she added yoga, pilates, and doula education to her resume between 2007 and 2013. Her largest investment and training to date is incorporating the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy® into every aspect of her services, as she transforms from practitioner to teacher trainer over the next couple years.
VBAC Panelist
Jennifer began her path as a birth-worker after the birth of her first daughter. Though her life was filled with joy at her arrival, she became fascinated at the prospect of birth remaining a natural process rather than the highly interventative medical procedure she underwent. She soon became a doula and started researching her paths to becoming a midwife. Her second child was born at home and she knew it was her life's calling to provide the same service to others.
She trained through Childbirth and Postpartum Professionals Association, (CAPPA) and attended midwifery school in Spartanburg, SC studying with Ms. Susan Smart. She also worked at Covenant Birth Center while it served the Midlands. She founded O'Baby Birth Services offering physical, emotional, and lactation support to women and their newborns as a labor doula. She still provides this service along with birth photography and placenta encapsulation. Jennifer has also been an activist for birth rights in South Carolina. She was Vice President of the South Carolina Birth Coalition protecting the right of women to have access to quality care providers and facilities. She studied as an apprentice and student for six years while also working as a doula, birth assistant, activist, and having their second and third child at home. She attended over 100 births before completing her apprenticeship.
She took her national board exam, the NARM, in March 2016 and obtained the credential of Certified Professional Midwife. In May of that year, she was granted a license by the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control to serve the women of South Carolina as a licensed midwife. She is looking forward to building her new practice and serving even more South Carolinian families.
Stephanie Flowers
VBAC Panelist
Stephanie Flowers is a stay at home mom of three under three with a "nap time career" as a freelance print & web graphics designer, photographer and small business branding consultant (Stephanie designed our Birth Junkies logos!). She and her husband Joshua were introduced to midwifery practices and holistic health through the birth center in Fort Mill, SC for the prenatal care of their firstborn, Madelyn in 2013. Though Madelyn's birth was via emergency cesarean, the births of John in 2015 and Caden in 2016 were at home.
"Breastfeeding Facts and Fiction" (1.5 CEU hours*)
Jennifer Moss Corbin provides home visit lactation consultations through Birth and
Breastfeeding Connection, a company she started for that purpose in 2009. Jennifer has
been an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) since 2002. She interned
at Carolinas Medical Center beginning in 2000 and worked there as a Lactation Consultant
from 2002-2007. Also, she has been an accredited La Leche League Leader since 2001 and
currently leads the South Charlotte Group. She received a BS degree from Guilford College
in Greensboro, NC in 1994 and worked for Wachovia Bank from 1994-1999. While she does
not provide doula services at this time, she has attended many home, maternity center and
hospital births as a Certified Doula (CD).
Jennifer and her husband John are the parents of four children ages 30, 19, 17 and 10.
“Acupuncture and Acupressure for Pregnancy and Birth” (1.5 CEU hours*)
Marston St John, L.Ac., DAOM graduated from Five Branches University in Santa Cruz, Ca for Acupuncture, Herbs and Traditional Chinese Medicine and received her undergraduate degree from Brown University in Providence, RI. She is a licensed acupuncturist in the state of North Carolina.
Marston went on to take a year off of school travelling around the world observing different healing modalities. While studying Tibetan medicine in Kathmandu, Nepal she witnessed the beneficial effects of acupuncture on the Tibetan refugees who were crossing the Himalayas and in need of healthcare. Seeing is believing and Marston was able to overcome her skepticism and go on to become an acupuncturist and herbalist herself.
When Marston founded St John Acupuncture in 2009 it was her priority to give result-oriented treatments that would improve the lives of her patients. As her private practice grew, she realized that it could deliver much more than pain relief and freedom from anxiety, digestive disorders and even hormonal imbalances.
Today, St John Acupuncture is a family and community oriented clinic that not only seeks to continue dish out amazing results, but also to cultivate a holistic lifestyle and a few pearls of wisdom along the way.
"Trauma Healing for Clients and Birth Workers: the RISE UP method of postpartum stress relief" (1.5 CEU hours*)
Lori Barklage is the owner of Ancient Art Midwifery Institute. She is a passionate advocate for women’s choices in birth. She also founded Birthing Peace Within, where she uses energy psychology to help women heal their traumatic births to better nurture future generations.
Amy Medwin, CPM
"Making Love Last" (1.5 CEU hours*)
Amy Medwin: A Woman Still Becoming:) ... at this point , the becoming involves ( but is not limited to) ... Being in love with her best friend for 39yrs , mother to 6+ children for the past 43 yrs , Bubbie to 9 grandchildren, Organic farmer and Lover of the outdoors . And she's also a midwife!!! 38 years ago she began learning from some Granny midwives at the commune she lived in. She was enthralled! Before long she enrolled in a distance midwifery program ... and eventually became a CPM. It's been such a blessing for Amy to have been taught by and worked with a wide array of midwives. Just as wonderful has been her involvement in the nurturing of at least 10 women who have become talented midwives themselves! There is such an interconnection between the facets and cycles of life . ---gestation, birth, growth, change, death, rebirth.... she sees midwifery as allowing a unique path to explore it all . She's looking forward to exploring Love and Relationships at the Retreat .... the good , the bad , the ugly and the awesome !!!
Shelby Lewis and DeNea Means of Safe Passage
"Domestic Violence and the Childbearing Family" (2 CEU hours*)
Christine Strothers, CPM
Case Studies (2 CEU hours*)
President SCNACPM
NC and SC State Chapter meetings. Stick around and see what we are all about. (2 CEUs*)