Presenter Bios
Monica Basile, PhD, CPM, CD(DONA), CCE(BWI)
Mapleseed Birth Services and Iowa City Mindful Birthing
Monica Basile is a Certified Professional Midwife, Certified Childbirth Educator, and Certified Birth Doula with more than 18 years of experience teaching prenatal classes and attending births in both home and hospital settings. She is committed to helping expectant parents gain confidence in their ability to give birth through holistic, community-oriented, hands-on childbirth education. She offers evidence-based, non-judgmental birth services, with the goal of helping families create positive and transformative birth experiences. Monica is the mother of a teenage son, and she holds a PhD in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies. She is also a midwifery advocate and a founding member of Friends of Iowa Midwives.
Kristin Bergman, LMT, Doula, Director of Conscious Birth Iowa
Sacred Space Bodywork
Kristin shares touch and movement techniques along with patient advocacy for optimal labor, birth, and recovery. She has 17 years of doula experience both in the hospital and as a sibling doula for home births. Kristin has been a Pregnancy Massage Instructor at East West School of Integrative Healing Arts since 2007. She also leads preschoolers in place-based, sustainability education with Taproot Nature Experience and is currently training for her RN. Her two teenagers were born at home. Kristin is available for private birth planning and healing consultation.
Jenn Bowen, Birth and Postpartum Doula
Monarch Birth Services
Jenn has been supporting birthing women and their families in the Iowa City area for 10 years. Inspired during her first pregnancy by the work of Ina May Gaskin and birth stories of women everywhere, Jenn knew her future lay in birth work. She became a Certified Labor Doula in 2004 and gave birth to her 3 children at home in the water. She believes inherently in the strength and wisdom of the female body to birth naturally and understands the universal need for emotional and physical support during the birth process. As a labor doula, Jenn supports a family on the journey through the childbearing year, from understanding and traversing pregnancy, labor, and birth to navigating the early postpartum period. Birth is a right of passage for both mothers and their babies and Jenn believes it is every woman's right to fully know the options for making her own best decisions for her and her baby. Jenn also recently passed her Introductory 1 assessment toward receiving Iyengar Yoga Certification.
Kelly Fischer
International Cesarean Awareness Network, ICAN of Northeast Iowa
Kelly Fischer is a cesarean and VBAC mom. She started ICAN of Northeast Iowa in February 2010, when her VBAC baby was 2 months old, so that other families would not have to go through what she did without support. In the almost 4 years since it was founded, ICAN of Northeast Iowa has grown to be one of ICAN's largest and most active chapters, regularly hosting special events including movie premieres, guest speakers, and educational events. Her continuing education has included Pam England’s Birth Story Listening tele-course, Birthing Racial Justice (a 1 day training with Susan Raffo and Heather Hackman about racism in birthwork), and Postpartum Support International’s certificate training in Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders. Fischer also recently became ICAN's Midwest Regional Coordinator, and is honored to offer support for the Midwest ICAN chapters!
Kimberly Hendricks
Beloved Bonds Womb to World
Kimberly is currently fulfilling requirements to become a Board Certified Lactation Counselor and Registered Nurse. She is also an experienced Birth Doula as well as a momma of four beautiful little girls. She has extensive knowledge with breastfeeding. She assists first time mommas as well as experienced mommas with guidance, support, encouragement and a comforting space to ask questions or share concerns. She believes with a good support system and the correct resources, knowledge and tools, all woman can breastfeed their babies. She loves working with women and empowering them to believe in themselves, their babies and their bodies.
Mandi Hardy Hillman, PhD, LPC, CD(DONA), ICCE
Iowa Birth Organization, ImprovingBirth.org, Gentle Beginnings Birth Services
Mandi Hardy Hillman is a Board Member with ImprovingBirth.org, Co-Founder & Current President of Iowa Birth Organization, and Owner of Gentle Beginnings Birth Services.
"Throughout my first pregnancy in 2007, I had planned and prepared for an unmedicated birth. I found I was frequently silenced by society and by the end of my pregnancy felt quite isolated in being able to discuss birth in any sort of positive light. After achieving my goal – with a ten and half pound baby, mind you – I was confident those who had tried to silence me would certainly want to hear about my success. Much to my surprise I was again silenced and marginalized. “You just don’t remember what it was like.” “There’s no prize for not having medication.” “You just have a high pain tolerance.” More isolation. After that, I decided to become a doula. I figured that if I was able to be one positive voice out there–for just one more woman–that would be enough. After attending my first birth, I was hooked. During this pregnancy, I was working as a mental health professional. Specifically, I was working with children and families dealing with varying degrees of attachment trauma. After becoming a doula and working in birth I started to notice a pattern. My clients had traumatic birth stories. My worlds were colliding. Could there be a connection between how we enter this world (our births) and how we act and feel years later? Around the time I was first beginning to explore the idea of a possible relationship between our birth experiences and attachment, I had entered graduate school again to pursue my doctorate. Throughout my course of study I plunged myself into this topic – approaching it from various theoretical perspectives. My dissertation study,The United State of Birth: A Feminist Critique of Birth in America, was an exploration into women’s maternity care experiences and the ways in which these experiences are internalized. I began my study using a feminist perspective to thoroughly explore the history of birth in America. I like to say that I study “how we got here and what it means for moms and babies now that we are here.” My professional work, as well as my research, has led me to the place I am today: a passionate advocate for human rights in childbirth."
Lynne Himmelreich, ARNP, CNM, MPH, FACNM
University of Iowa Women's Health Nurse Midwife Service
Lynne is the director of the University of Iowa Women's Health Nurse-Midwife Service and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Iowa Department of OB/GYN. Lynne has spent her 40 year career in maternity care listening to women and making hospitals family friendly. For the last 19 years as a midwife at the University of Iowa, she has promoted normal physiologic birth for women in a hospital setting and taught our future physicians to listen to women and have faith in normal birth.
Kellie Osler, DONA trained Birth and Postpartum Doula
Motherly TLC
Kellie is a birth and postpartum doula serving the Iowa City area. She’s also the proud mother of a 2.5 year old boy. It was on her path to motherhood that she learned about doulas. She assists families prenatally to discuss options, questions and concerns about their journey, give community resources, write a birth plan and encourage open communication with their care provider. During labor, she provides advocacy, continuous emotional and physical support for the mother and partner to help create their positive birth experience. Kellie believes women should be empowered, educated and treated with TLC while preparing for their child's birth and during labor.
Ron Robinson, DC, CACCP
Robinson Family Wellness
Dr. Ron owns Robinson Family Wellness along with his wife, Dana Robinson of Sweet Feet Yoga, where they offer family wellness chiropractic care, prenatal yoga, yoga for children and teens, massage, and cross-training. Chiropractic care benefits all aspects of your body’s ability to be healthy. This is accomplished by working with the nervous system– the communication system between your brain and body. When it comes to a wellness approach, there is no better time to start than pregnancy. Recent studies have shown the choices that mothers-to-be make will affect the overall health of their babies in the long term. In a time in which our children have a lower life expectancy than their parents, this is a vital choice. Not only are Chiropractic adjustments important for the infants, but mothers also report shorter and less painful labors following a pregnancy in which they received regular chiropractic adjustments. Dr. Ron also holds a certification in Webster Technique and sees many women with babies in a breech position and has seen much success in helping them. Sacral misalignment causes the tightening and torsion of specific pelvic muscles and ligaments. It is these tense muscles and ligaments and their constraining effect on the uterus, preventing the baby from comfortably assuming the best possible position for birth. The Webster Technique is defined as a specific chiropractic analysis and adjustment that reduces interference to the nerve system and facilitates biomechanical balance in pelvic structures, muscles and ligaments. This has been shown to reduce the effects of intrauterine constraint, allowing the baby to get into the best possible position for birth. Dr. Ron has three young children and enjoys many outdoor activities with his family.
Alice Spitzner Claussen, L.Ac., Dipl.O.M.
Twig and Needle Chinese Medicine
Alice holds a Master's Degree in Oriental Medicine from Southwest Acupuncture College as well as a Bachelor's of Science in Biology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She moved to Iowa City from Ward, Colorado in September of 2003 to open her practice, Twig & Needle Chinese Medicine. Alice is a general practitioner of Chinese Medicine with special interests in women's health, digestive health, and Chinese herbal medicine. She believes in the patient being an active participant in achieving and maintaining their own health. Alice is an avid reader, yoga practitioner and hiker. She is also kept busy chasing her 2 1/2 year old daugher, Stefany.
Mapleseed Birth Services and Iowa City Mindful Birthing
Monica Basile is a Certified Professional Midwife, Certified Childbirth Educator, and Certified Birth Doula with more than 18 years of experience teaching prenatal classes and attending births in both home and hospital settings. She is committed to helping expectant parents gain confidence in their ability to give birth through holistic, community-oriented, hands-on childbirth education. She offers evidence-based, non-judgmental birth services, with the goal of helping families create positive and transformative birth experiences. Monica is the mother of a teenage son, and she holds a PhD in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies. She is also a midwifery advocate and a founding member of Friends of Iowa Midwives.
Kristin Bergman, LMT, Doula, Director of Conscious Birth Iowa
Sacred Space Bodywork
Kristin shares touch and movement techniques along with patient advocacy for optimal labor, birth, and recovery. She has 17 years of doula experience both in the hospital and as a sibling doula for home births. Kristin has been a Pregnancy Massage Instructor at East West School of Integrative Healing Arts since 2007. She also leads preschoolers in place-based, sustainability education with Taproot Nature Experience and is currently training for her RN. Her two teenagers were born at home. Kristin is available for private birth planning and healing consultation.
Jenn Bowen, Birth and Postpartum Doula
Monarch Birth Services
Jenn has been supporting birthing women and their families in the Iowa City area for 10 years. Inspired during her first pregnancy by the work of Ina May Gaskin and birth stories of women everywhere, Jenn knew her future lay in birth work. She became a Certified Labor Doula in 2004 and gave birth to her 3 children at home in the water. She believes inherently in the strength and wisdom of the female body to birth naturally and understands the universal need for emotional and physical support during the birth process. As a labor doula, Jenn supports a family on the journey through the childbearing year, from understanding and traversing pregnancy, labor, and birth to navigating the early postpartum period. Birth is a right of passage for both mothers and their babies and Jenn believes it is every woman's right to fully know the options for making her own best decisions for her and her baby. Jenn also recently passed her Introductory 1 assessment toward receiving Iyengar Yoga Certification.
Kelly Fischer
International Cesarean Awareness Network, ICAN of Northeast Iowa
Kelly Fischer is a cesarean and VBAC mom. She started ICAN of Northeast Iowa in February 2010, when her VBAC baby was 2 months old, so that other families would not have to go through what she did without support. In the almost 4 years since it was founded, ICAN of Northeast Iowa has grown to be one of ICAN's largest and most active chapters, regularly hosting special events including movie premieres, guest speakers, and educational events. Her continuing education has included Pam England’s Birth Story Listening tele-course, Birthing Racial Justice (a 1 day training with Susan Raffo and Heather Hackman about racism in birthwork), and Postpartum Support International’s certificate training in Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders. Fischer also recently became ICAN's Midwest Regional Coordinator, and is honored to offer support for the Midwest ICAN chapters!
Kimberly Hendricks
Beloved Bonds Womb to World
Kimberly is currently fulfilling requirements to become a Board Certified Lactation Counselor and Registered Nurse. She is also an experienced Birth Doula as well as a momma of four beautiful little girls. She has extensive knowledge with breastfeeding. She assists first time mommas as well as experienced mommas with guidance, support, encouragement and a comforting space to ask questions or share concerns. She believes with a good support system and the correct resources, knowledge and tools, all woman can breastfeed their babies. She loves working with women and empowering them to believe in themselves, their babies and their bodies.
Mandi Hardy Hillman, PhD, LPC, CD(DONA), ICCE
Iowa Birth Organization, ImprovingBirth.org, Gentle Beginnings Birth Services
Mandi Hardy Hillman is a Board Member with ImprovingBirth.org, Co-Founder & Current President of Iowa Birth Organization, and Owner of Gentle Beginnings Birth Services.
"Throughout my first pregnancy in 2007, I had planned and prepared for an unmedicated birth. I found I was frequently silenced by society and by the end of my pregnancy felt quite isolated in being able to discuss birth in any sort of positive light. After achieving my goal – with a ten and half pound baby, mind you – I was confident those who had tried to silence me would certainly want to hear about my success. Much to my surprise I was again silenced and marginalized. “You just don’t remember what it was like.” “There’s no prize for not having medication.” “You just have a high pain tolerance.” More isolation. After that, I decided to become a doula. I figured that if I was able to be one positive voice out there–for just one more woman–that would be enough. After attending my first birth, I was hooked. During this pregnancy, I was working as a mental health professional. Specifically, I was working with children and families dealing with varying degrees of attachment trauma. After becoming a doula and working in birth I started to notice a pattern. My clients had traumatic birth stories. My worlds were colliding. Could there be a connection between how we enter this world (our births) and how we act and feel years later? Around the time I was first beginning to explore the idea of a possible relationship between our birth experiences and attachment, I had entered graduate school again to pursue my doctorate. Throughout my course of study I plunged myself into this topic – approaching it from various theoretical perspectives. My dissertation study,The United State of Birth: A Feminist Critique of Birth in America, was an exploration into women’s maternity care experiences and the ways in which these experiences are internalized. I began my study using a feminist perspective to thoroughly explore the history of birth in America. I like to say that I study “how we got here and what it means for moms and babies now that we are here.” My professional work, as well as my research, has led me to the place I am today: a passionate advocate for human rights in childbirth."
Lynne Himmelreich, ARNP, CNM, MPH, FACNM
University of Iowa Women's Health Nurse Midwife Service
Lynne is the director of the University of Iowa Women's Health Nurse-Midwife Service and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Iowa Department of OB/GYN. Lynne has spent her 40 year career in maternity care listening to women and making hospitals family friendly. For the last 19 years as a midwife at the University of Iowa, she has promoted normal physiologic birth for women in a hospital setting and taught our future physicians to listen to women and have faith in normal birth.
Kellie Osler, DONA trained Birth and Postpartum Doula
Motherly TLC
Kellie is a birth and postpartum doula serving the Iowa City area. She’s also the proud mother of a 2.5 year old boy. It was on her path to motherhood that she learned about doulas. She assists families prenatally to discuss options, questions and concerns about their journey, give community resources, write a birth plan and encourage open communication with their care provider. During labor, she provides advocacy, continuous emotional and physical support for the mother and partner to help create their positive birth experience. Kellie believes women should be empowered, educated and treated with TLC while preparing for their child's birth and during labor.
Ron Robinson, DC, CACCP
Robinson Family Wellness
Dr. Ron owns Robinson Family Wellness along with his wife, Dana Robinson of Sweet Feet Yoga, where they offer family wellness chiropractic care, prenatal yoga, yoga for children and teens, massage, and cross-training. Chiropractic care benefits all aspects of your body’s ability to be healthy. This is accomplished by working with the nervous system– the communication system between your brain and body. When it comes to a wellness approach, there is no better time to start than pregnancy. Recent studies have shown the choices that mothers-to-be make will affect the overall health of their babies in the long term. In a time in which our children have a lower life expectancy than their parents, this is a vital choice. Not only are Chiropractic adjustments important for the infants, but mothers also report shorter and less painful labors following a pregnancy in which they received regular chiropractic adjustments. Dr. Ron also holds a certification in Webster Technique and sees many women with babies in a breech position and has seen much success in helping them. Sacral misalignment causes the tightening and torsion of specific pelvic muscles and ligaments. It is these tense muscles and ligaments and their constraining effect on the uterus, preventing the baby from comfortably assuming the best possible position for birth. The Webster Technique is defined as a specific chiropractic analysis and adjustment that reduces interference to the nerve system and facilitates biomechanical balance in pelvic structures, muscles and ligaments. This has been shown to reduce the effects of intrauterine constraint, allowing the baby to get into the best possible position for birth. Dr. Ron has three young children and enjoys many outdoor activities with his family.
Alice Spitzner Claussen, L.Ac., Dipl.O.M.
Twig and Needle Chinese Medicine
Alice holds a Master's Degree in Oriental Medicine from Southwest Acupuncture College as well as a Bachelor's of Science in Biology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She moved to Iowa City from Ward, Colorado in September of 2003 to open her practice, Twig & Needle Chinese Medicine. Alice is a general practitioner of Chinese Medicine with special interests in women's health, digestive health, and Chinese herbal medicine. She believes in the patient being an active participant in achieving and maintaining their own health. Alice is an avid reader, yoga practitioner and hiker. She is also kept busy chasing her 2 1/2 year old daugher, Stefany.
