Arms, a mother and grandmother, former pre-school and Headstart teacher, is a founding and active member of the Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children. At the pioneering Holistic Childbirth Institute in San Francisco, in 1977, Suzanne created and taught the first course on the evolution of childbirth practices and how we got the practices we have today. A year later she co-founded The Birth Place, the country's first resource center for pregnancy, birth and new parenting and one of the first independent birthing centers in the U.S. Located just minutes from Stanford University Medical Center, The Birth Place also began the first training of doulas. Suzanne was a founding and active board member of Planetree, the international organization working to transform hospitals and clinics into true healing centers.

Her film "Giving Birth", which contrasts the medical model for birth with the biological or midwifery model, is used extensively by birth educators, doulas, progressive hospitals and university women's studies programs. It has inspired thousands of women and men to make different choices about how to bring their baby into the world. In 2003 Suzanne Arms founded Birthing The Future, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Suzanne lives near Durango in SW Colorado and works with the help of volunteer interns from across North America.

Robbie Davis-Floyd, PhD, is a Senior Research Fellow in Anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin, and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. A cultural anthropologist specializing in medical, ritual and gender studies and the anthropology of reproduction, she lectures at childbirth, midwifery and obstetrical conferences around the world. Robbie has written over 70 articles as well as the book Birth as an American Rite of Passage (1992).

Debra Pascali-Bonaro is a mother of five. Co-chair of the International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative. Debra is a Lamaze certified childbirth educator and teacher trainer with a Passion for Birth. Debra serves on the Childbirth Connection Board of Directors. She served on the first Board of Directors for DONA International and is a DONA approved Doula Trainer.

Debra is an international speaker who teaches nursing, midwifery, and medical students and provides in-services to nurses, midwives, residents and Grand Rounds to physicians at hospitals and Universities around the world.

As a consultant and trainer Debra has been instrumental in the development of several hospitals and community based doula programs and has provided consultation to H.O.M.E. a project of the European Community and has worked with Brazil’s Ministry of Health to implement doula programs throughout Brazil. Debra has spoken about doula care at the White House and has served on national and local maternal/child health boards.

Debra has co-authored Nurturing Beginnings: MotherLove's Guide to Postpartum Home Care for Doulas and Outreach Workers, as well as many articles about continuous social support during childbirth and the early postpartum period.

Debra is director of the documentary "Orgasmic Birth" and is currently co-authoring Orgasmic Birth: Your Guide to a Safe, Satisfying and Pleasurable Birth, to be published in 2010 by Rodale.

Debbie Pulley, CPM, has a homebirth practice in Atlanta, Georgia. She serves on the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) Board as secretary, is the Director of Public Education and Advocacy and is the Legislative Committee Chair for Midwives' Alliance of North America (MANA). She is married with two grown children.

Jan Tritten is the founder and editor of Midwifery Today. She became a midwife in 1976 after the wonderful homebirth of one of her daughters. Her mission is to make loving midwifery care the norm for birthing women and their babies in this country and around the world.

[ PHOTO BY ANDREA NOLL ]