Speaker Release
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Fertile Ground Health Group
Fertile Ground Health Group is a Melbourne-based natural medicine fertility clinic established in 2001. For over two decades, we have brought together experienced practitioners who focus on preconception care, infertility, IVF support, pregnancy health and postnatal care, as well as broader reproductive and family health.
We support individuals and couples at many stages of their fertility and health journey. Our work centres on strengthening individual health and wellbeing before and during pregnancy, with natural medicine playing an important role within integrative care.
Natural medicine is often referred to as complementary or allied health because these modalities can be safely integrated with Western medical treatment when appropriate. We work collaboratively and communicate openly with general practitioners, specialists and fertility clinics where useful, so that care remains clear, coordinated and considered.
Our services include naturopathic fertility care, fertility acupuncture, pregnancy acupuncture and pregnancy massage, as well as broader reproductive and family health support. Our fertility naturopaths and Chinese medicine practitioners work with individuals and couples across many stages of their fertility and pregnancy journey.
Education is central to our approach. We aim to empower individuals and couples to better understand their health, recognise patterns and make informed decisions about their care. Our role is to provide thoughtful, individualised support in a welcoming and professional environment.
We are committed to creating a secure and supportive space in which your fertility and family health goals can be explored and supported with care.
Panelists
Janine Shifman
Janine Shifman is a Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist with 20 years' clinical experience, and a birth doula with 6 years' experience in the birth space. She has a special interest in women's and pelvic health, trained as a doula with Rhea Dempsey, and has also trained in internal pelvic release work with Fiona Hallinan, Founder and clinician at Anara Health in Melbourne. Janine has published research with Dr Laura Whitburn through La Trobe University, exploring how first-time mothers plan to cope with labour pain.
Dr Laura Whitburn
Dr Laura Whitburn started her career as a physiotherapist before transitioning into tertiary education and research. She is currently Associate Professor and Discipline Lead (Anatomy) in the School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment at La Trobe University, where she has coordinated the physiotherapy anatomy program for over a decade and contributes to an international anatomy syllabus for physiotherapy courses. Her clinical research focuses on the multidimensional nature of labour pain and intrapartum communication — how cognitive, social and environmental factors shape a woman's pain experience, and how communication between healthcare providers and birthing people affects perceptions of pain and psychological safety. Dr Whitburn is co-Chair of the Humanising Birth Research Network, an international collaboration of researchers, clinicians and consumers advancing respectful, person-centred maternity care.
Rhea Dempsey
Rhea is a passionate woman of birth; she is an Educator, Trainer, Doula, Counsellor, Speaker, Activist and Author.
Rhea’s understanding of birth has been gained over four decades. She has presented nationally and internationally and is recognized as an insightful commentator on the difficulties women, who have a yearning for normal physiological birth, face in navigating present birth culture. And is respected as one of Australia’s foremost thinkers on the topic of working with pain in childbirth and its connection to normal physiological birth.
Her books, Birth with Confidence: savvy choices for normal birth and Beyond the Birth Plan: getting real about pain and power, as well as giving a clear account of the challenges faced by contemporary birthing women, also map out a path to powerful birthing experiences.
Rhea is the mother of three adult daughters, and five delicious home born grandchildren.
To find out more about Rhea’s books and work, visit her websitewww.rheadempsey.com.au
FaceBook – Rhea Dempsey Birthing Wisdom
Instagram – rheadempseybirth
Twitter - @rheadempsey
Tanya Cawthorne
Tanya, MWomenChldH, LCCE, FACCE is the Co-Founder of Lamaze Australia, Program Manager of the award-winning Caring Mums program, and an experienced childbirth educator, birth doula and maternal health professional.
She served as President of Lamaze International in 2022 and since 2016, she has trained over 200 childbirth educators in Australia and internationally.
Tanya holds a Master of Women’s and Children’s Health from the University of Technology Sydney and has a particular interest in reproductive autonomy, respectful maternity care, birth trauma and the changing landscape of freebirth. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Perinatal Education and a co-author of research examining women’s experiences of weight-stigma in maternity care. Her work spans childbirth education, doula practice, community-based maternal support, research and advocacy, with a strong focus on informed decision-making and placing women’s voices and experiences at the centre of maternity care.
Vicki Hobbs
Vicki is a multi-award-winning childbirth educator, hypnobirthing practitioner, birth and postpartum doula, and remedial massage therapist specialising in pregnancy massage. Since launching her business in 2004, Vicki has drawn on evidence, tradition and lived experience to support women’s mental, physical and emotional wellbeing. She is the founder and a trainer at the Doula Training Academy in Perth, Western Australia, where she equips emerging and practising doulas with practical skills, business know-how and a community that lasts beyond graduation. Vicki’s approach is steady, respectful and outcomes-focused: clear information, useful tools and continuity of support. Through the Academy’s ongoing learning hub, she fosters collaboration over competition and champions high-quality doula care throughout Australia.
Nartarsha Bamblett
Nartarsha is a First Nations speaker, cultural educator and wellbeing practitioner, known as Queen Acknowledgements. Through storytelling, cultural learning and wellbeing experiences, she invites people to deepen their connection to self, culture, Country and community. Her ceremonial Acknowledgements of Country create space for presence, reflection and meaningful connection.
Sue Lee
Sue is the founder of Mana Health Practice, a women's holistic health clinic in Preston, Melbourne. With over 20 years of clinical experience, she holds a Bachelor of Health Science in Homeopathy, a Diploma of Education, and a Diploma of Shiatsu. Sue is a multi-modality practitioner specialising in birth work, offering classical homeopathy, birth doula services, prenatal and postnatal yoga, Mizan abdominal therapy, and Internal Pelvic Release Work (IPRW). She trained as a doula with Rhea Dempsey. Sue also runs POD Pregnancy Massage Training and ili ili stones (hot stone massage training). Learn more at manahealthpractice.com.
Sophie Jeffries
Sophie is a postnatal doula, perinatal somatic practitioner, Shiatsu therapist and Pilates teacher, with over 20 years experience in movement, rehabilitation and bodywork. She has worked in the birth and postpartum field for almost ten years, supporting mothers and families through pregnancy, birth and the transition into parenthood, with a particular focus on postpartum recovery, embodiment and connection. Sophie has undertaken training in Integrative Pre- and Perinatal Dynamics (IPPD) and trauma-informed practice for birth and bodywork professionals, alongside extensive training in prenatal and postpartum rehabilitation. Her multidisciplinary approach brings together movement, touch, somatic awareness and practical postpartum care. Through her in-home postpartum doula work, Sophie is particularly interested in the ordinary moments of care that can help families move from overwhelm towards greater stability, connection and capacity. She is the founder of The Motherbody Movement, an ongoing community of care for mothers.
Rachel Penn
Rachel — Somatic Modality Practitioner I’m a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and body-based therapist based in Geelong, Victoria, with a particular interest in the ways our earliest experiences shape the nervous system, our relationships, our sense of self and the way we inhabit our bodies. My primary modality is Somatic Experiencing® (SE), a nervous-system-based approach developed by Peter Levine. My work focuses on noticing what is happening in the body in the present moment and supporting the nervous system towards greater capacity, flexibility and choice. A significant area of my work is pre- and perinatal experience. I’m particularly interested in how experiences from pregnancy, birth, early bonding and our earliest relationships can continue to be expressed through the body and nervous system, even when we have no conscious memory of them. I have undertaken and assisted in IPPD (Integrative Pre- and Perinatal Dynamics) training, which has deepened my understanding of these early developmental experiences and their relationship to attachment, regulation, embodiment, relationship and our fundamental sense of safety and belonging. Alongside Somatic Experiencing and IPPD, I draw from Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP), NeuroAffective Touch, Kathy Kain’s Touch Skills for Trauma, the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP), Transpersonal Art Therapy and other body-based and creative approaches. Together, these modalities inform a body-based, relational and developmental approach to supporting people to understand themselves through their bodies, develop greater nervous system capacity and explore new possibilities for connection, regulation and change.
Dr Rosemary Listing
Dr Rosemary Listing is a lawyer, academic, and health law specialist based in Newcastle, NSW, with a PhD in medical negligence and over a decade of experience in injury cases. Her work focuses on supporting women following difficult or traumatic birth experiences, including cases arising from both public and private maternity care. Rosemary regularly works with women in the postpartum period who are seeking to understand what happened during their birth, why it continues to affect them, and what options—legal or otherwise—are available. She brings a trauma-informed, respectful approach to legal education and works closely with those who support women, including doulas and birth workers. Her focus is on clarity, validation, and empowerment, helping women and their supporters make sense of complex experiences without fear, blame, or pressure.
Melissa Miceli
Melissa is a Qualified Occupational Therapist, Maternal Health practitioner, academic researcher, and educator. Her published research explored the experiences and gave a voice to vulnerable and marginalised mothers affected by trauma, severe mental health conditions and child removal, which went on to be published. Melissa founded Motherscape after mothering five children of her own and identifying the need for women to have enhanced care in late pregnancy and early postpartum. Through her work in maternal health, Melissa has developed a particular interest in the profound transformation that occurs through motherhood that involves a deep reshaping of identity, relationships, and occupations in everyday life. She recognised the valuable contribution her training and experience could provide. Melissa brings a unique combination of clinical expertise and lived experience of motherhood through using an innovative and enhanced model of health care delivery.
Georgia Jane Adams
Georgia Jane is the founder of Bodyworks, a bodywork studio in North Fitzroy supporting people through pregnancy, postpartum, pelvic health and major life transitions. Her work grew out of her own journey of learning to feel at home in her body, and more than a decade of receiving and studying bodywork. She began studying midwifery in 2020, and her practice draws on fascia-informed bodywork, internal pelvic release work, and Rebozo techniques. Georgia also runs Bodyworks Education, where she teaches touch as an everyday skill rather than something reserved for professionals, including Touch Literacy for Birthing Partners. She works with a team of practitioners who share her trauma-aware, responsive approach to touch.
Ashleigh Dodd
I am the General Manager of Ever May Community Collective, a collective bringing compassionate care, connection and community together across life’s most significant transitions. With more than 20 years’ experience in leadership, education and community services, I have spent the past decade working as a birth and end-of-life doula, educator and mentor.
As the former National CEO and founder of Mother Moon Mentors, I have a particular interest in full-spectrum doula practice, education, grief and bereavement, and the importance of informed choice and continuity of care. Through Ever May, we bring these areas of care together, from first breath to last, creating greater connection between birth, life, death, grief and community.
Katherine Eden
Katherine Eden is an integrative therapist, therapeutic social worker, doula, kinesiologist and trauma-informed spaceholder, with a background spanning psychology, midwifery, counselling and community facilitation. For over 15 years she has worked within birth and perinatal communities, co-founding and growing peer networks that connect thousands of families and professionals, and facilitating community gatherings, retreats and peer supervision circles for doulas and birthworkers. Her work weaves trauma-informed, nervous-system and relational frameworks to explore how spaceholders can practice with integrity, prevent burnout and moral injury, and support genuine transformation in birth.
Alongside her clinical and educational work, she has supported many birthworkers in building ethical, sustainable practices, and is equally passionate about honest conversations on the business realities of this profession. Through education, mentoring and advocacy, she is committed to helping birthworkers become the empathetic witnesses their clients- and the profession- need.
Claire Tonti
Claire is an Australian indie folk artist, podcaster & Matrescence activist. She released her debut album Matrescence in February 2023 with sold out shows both in her hometown Melbourne & across the UK and Ireland. 11 songs about love, loss, identity, motherhood, creative freedom & overcoming birth trauma. Claire founded the first ever Matrescence festival in 2024 in Exeter UK with fellow Matrescence activist and artist Lizzy Humber and the Australian version in 2025 in Eltham, Melbourne. She also hosts the podcast TONTS. where she celebrates women’s stories - talking to writers, experts, thinkers and deeply feeling humans about their lives. Claire has just released her first feature documentary called Matrescence: the hidden world m/otherhood.
Instagram: @clairetonti
Jess Permezel
Jess Permezel (they/them) is a queer midwife and community educator with a deep commitment to health and social justice. Drawing on professional expertise and lived experience as a queer co-parent to two amazing donor-conceived teenagers, Jess specialises in LGBTIQA+ perinatal care. They work to ensure queer and trans people and their families receive safe, affirming and respectful care through pregnancy, birth and early parenthood.
Jess runs birth classes designed specifically for queer and trans families, creating spaces where people can prepare for birth and parenting without having to explain or justify who they are. They also deliver professional development for perinatal health specialists, supporting them to build the knowledge and confidence necessary to provide genuinely inclusive care.
As a white settler of Anglo-Celtic heritage, Jess recognises the ongoing impacts of colonisation on health outcomes and is committed to listening, learning and working towards meaningful allyship with First Nations peoples. They believe equitable care is built through community, connection and a willingness to challenge systems that exclude.
Gabrielle Brennan
A Nurse, Midwife, and Personal Trainer based in Bentleigh, VIC, Gabrielle Brennan is a visionary leader rewriting the narrative around modern birth. Driven by a fierce determination to challenge unnecessary interventions and reverse the deskilling of birth workers, she advocates passionately for the power of physiological birth and the body’s innate capacity to labour effectively.
Through her specialised pregnancy bodywork, Gabrielle empowers women by working with fascia to release soft-tissue tension, re-connect with the nervous system and foster ideal fetal positioning before labour even begins, creating the physical and emotional conditions for spontaneous, empowered birth experiences.
Bernadette Lack
Bernadette is a midwife with 20 years of experience across large tertiary hospitals, Aboriginal communities, international aid, public homebirth and birth debriefing. She holds a Masters of Public Health and is trained as a somatic therapist. She is the creator of Reconnected Birthing™, a somatic and systemic methodology for birth workers. Through her business Core and Floor Restore, she works with practitioners and families across training, mentorship, and direct client care. She is honoured to be with us tonight
Nadine Richardson - Keynote
Nadine Richardson became a doula to understand birth more deeply - everything else, has been a bonus. She's the founder of She Births®, a scientifically validated childbirth education program, with her randomised trial results published in the British Medical Journal 2016.
Nadine has spent over 20 years teaching birth education, working as a doula, yoga teacher, podcaster, speaker and recently published her first book.
She Births: Your practical guide to a beautiful birth (Murdoch Books / Allen & Unwin) is available now in Australia, Europe and the USA.
Based between Sydney and the Northern Rivers, Nadine's work centres on restoring the sacredness of birth and helping families create a beautiful birth, whatever unfolds.
She is currently working on two exciting creative projects that expand her work into the mainstream. Both projects plan to shift cultural attitudes and change representation of birth in the media.
Janinne Gliddon - Keynote
Janinne is a proud Badimia, Yamatji/Ballardong, Nyoongar senior woman who is currently a Senior Lecturer with the School of Indigenous Knowledges, Murdoch University WA. She has completed her Master's of Indigenous Health with Research and her project was on Katitjan Mindamarra Aboriginal Perinatal Navigators.
Janinne has lead the development of a doula/birth navigator education program which creates a rich and critical enduring legacy of Aboriginal women’s cultural knowledges and practices.
For over 35 years Janinne has had a varied public service career in the public housing field and since 2008, in the health sector, with a focus on women’s and maternal health and Indigenous health promotion. During her time at KEMH, Janinne initiated a highly successful volunteers’ program, which draws on a group of Aboriginal women who visit women transferred from homeland communities and the regions to Perth for childbirth or women’s health care.
In 2019 Janinne was awarded a prestigious Churchill Fellowship to conduct a study of Aboriginal doula programs in New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. Janinne has been a Chief Investigator on many research projects one being the NHMRC Birthing on Noongar Boodjar project and continues to provide high level advice to a range of Ngangk Yira Institute for Change projects.
Liz Newnham - Keynote
Flinders University - Adelaide, South Australia
Elizabeth (Liz) Newnham is Associate Professor of Midwifery at Flinders University and a Fellow of the Australian College of Midwives. Over a 25-year career spanning clinical midwifery, academic leadership, research collaboration and theory development, she is internationally recognised for her work on humanising birth and advancing social justice in maternity care.