Speakers

Gurujagat is the founder of the International Yoga Doula School (www.yoga-doula.eu) and senior trainer, co-founder of the Postnatal Support Network and a senior trainer. She is a Kundalini yoga teacher Trainer, Lead Trainer L1, member of KRI (Kundalini Research Institute)

Born in Israel, she was in her early twenties when she came across the Kundalini yoga mother ashram in Amsterdam, Holland in 1975. Back then, the KY ashram in Amsterdam was the first and only KYoga Ashram in Europe. Intense program of studying, practicing and serving there during 11 years gave her a profound life experience. This is where she began working as a doula back in the ’80.

Indeed, since early adolescence, witnessing the amazing miracle of life, Gurujagat felt a call of devotion to serve women and partners during their process of becoming parents. Mother of four, and seven times grandmother, Gurujagat is still active in sharing her insight of the necessary change of birth paradigme .

Alongside yoga doula work, Gurujagat is a Family counselor, specialized in Human Relationships, Conscious Parenting, Rebirthing, NLP, Systemic Family therapy and Family Constellations.

Presently residing in France, her extensive traveling and a multicultural journey grants her a cosmopolitan vision and a fine-tune intuition.

Gurujagat will speak on The Cinderella Syndrome: a Postnatal Tale? on March 27, 2021, at 9 am.

She will go into what this classical fairy tale reveals about women, mothers and daughters. On masculine and feminine forces? On transforming a servant into a queen?

She will address the topic of reviving the postpartum time in the light of this symbolic and universal tale.

Soo spent 15 years working as a clinical and research midwife. In 2001, she joined the UK University of Central Lancashire, (UCLan)  where she is now the Professor of Midwifery Studies. Her main research focus is the nature of, and cultures around, normal birth. She has Chaired two EU COST networks over an 8 year period including 33 countries and over 120 scientists, professionals, academics, policy makers, artists, and service users from a wide range of disciplines. She is a member of the Board of Directors  of the International MotherBaby Childbirth Organisation,  and of the Global Respectful Maternity Care Council of the White Ribbon Alliance. She was a member of the lead author group for the Lancet Midwifery Series (2014); an author on and Advisory Group member for the Lancet Stillbirth Series (2016); and a co-author on the Lancet Reducing Caesarean Section Series (2018). She has been a member of the Technical Working Group of the World Health Organization antenatal, intrapartum, postnatal, uterotonics,  and optimising caesarean section guidelines. She has published over 150 peer reviewed papers, and has undertaken research using a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods. She is a member of the NHS England Better Births national Stakeholder group, and was the founder of the International Normal Birth Research Conference Series.

Soo Downe will speak on March 27, 2021, at 10 am on: What matters to women in the postnatal period: results of a global meta-synthesis.

Sat Kirtan is the creator of the NineMinMax® Business Yoga method and the author of the book “Bye Bye Stress in 9 Minutes or Less“. She began her career in the financial industry and worked her way up the ladder. Although she was successful in her career, due to the high levels of stress she developed a chronic illness.

After suffering for three years, she came to the conclusion that she needed to transform her life, in order to heal. She needed to become the leader of her life, living from her heart. It was through her conscious commitment to the Kundalini Yoga practice, her illness disappeared after three weeks. “If I knew then what I know now it would have made life much easier for me.” The more Kundalini Yoga she practiced, the more she realized her souls mission is to help people stay relaxed in the unrelaxed world.

Sat Kirtan is now committed to serving people, especially managers and CEO’s, to live and perform better today, without the stress of finding time to carve out of their busy schedules, so they can live a happier, healthier future. She focuses on leaders, because they touch so many other lives. To support her mission, she wrote the book “How to Become a Conscious Leader. 5 Vital Lessons CEOs can Learn from a Yogi to Build Trust and Make an Impact”. 2021. Her company is growing, she runs an international certified teacher training and works with teams around the world to bring consciousness within a business environment. She is also the initiator of the Kundalini Yoga Festival held each year in the Netherlands. 

When Sat Kirtan isn’t teaching and sharing her message, you can find her taking long walks on the beach, chanting mantra’s, playing on her harmonium and being inspired by her two beautiful children.

Sat Kirtan is happy to offer you a free copy of the book Bye Bye Stress: https://tinylink.net/8nzrz.

Sat Kirtan will speak on “Lead yourself into the blessings of motherhood” on Saturday, 27 March, at 2 pm.

Debra Pascali-Bonaro is a world-renowned inspirational speaker, filmmaker, doula trainer, childbirth educator, and author.  Debra’s latest book, an Amazon #1 New Release, The Ultimate Guide to Sex After Baby: Secrets to Love and Intimacy brings together her passion for pleasure in every aspect of life with her Jersey-Girl attitude of talking about what no one is talking about!  Debra is a mother, grandmother and featured expert in parenting journals and media around the world. 

Debra is the Founder & President of the revolutionary online childbirth class Pain to Power, which prepares expectant mothers, fathers, and partners to be positively prepared for birth, the Director of the award-winning documentary Orgasmic Birth: The Best-Kept Secret and co-writer of “Orgasmic Birth: Your Guide to a Safe, Satisfying and Pleasurable Birth” all of which explore the intimate and sacred nature of birth. 

Debra Pascali-Bonaro is also Co-Chair of the International Childbirth Initiative and Chair of the International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative both of which promote safe, respectful childbirth maternity care. She is a Lamaze International childbirth educator, birth and postpartum doula trainer with DONA International, Debra’s passion comes from her over 30 years of working with women, men, midwives, doulas, physicians and nurses in over 40 countries bringing comfort, love, and pleasure to birth and life.

Debra Pascali-Bonaro: Creating more love, healing, intimacy and better sex after having a baby (Q&A pre-recorded) March 27, 2021, 3 pm. 

Kestrel Gates is the author of the Build Your Nest postpartum planning workbook. The workbook offers a comprehensive planning process and includes crucial information about the postpartum time. It has been translated to Russian, German, French, Italian, with Spanish and Danish in progress.

She lives in Oregon, USA with her husband and two children, who are 9 and 13 years old. She has completed two doula trainings, first in 1997 and then in 2017. She has a degree in dance/performing arts and has studied many different movement forms. She has worked as a massage therapist, and in 2001 had the honor of spending a month assisting elder midwife Angelina Martinez Miranda in Mexico.

In her community she offers postpartum planning consults, pelvic steaming and cultivates community for parents and for birth professionals. She volunteers as a La Leche League leader and is a maternal health advocate. Her latest project is the development of pilot program of Postpartum Navigators who support families through the fourth trimester.

Kestrel is passionate about intentional living, day-to-day joy, strong communities, and the wellbeing of families.

The Power of Postpartum Planning

Postpartum planning as a tool for individual health and cultural change.

Presentation Description:

This presentation covers 10 key concepts that speak to the importance of postpartum planning and provides practical applications, laying the groundwork for making postpartum planning an integral part of maternal health-care. Postpartum planning is critical to the larger dialogue about postpartum care. It serves as the link between expectant parents and what we, as birth and postpartum professionals, know and understand. It honors traditional practices and personal choice. Postpartum planning is cultural change in action, one family at a time.

Adam is passionate about perinatal care. With the GSH global scar harmonization technique, he is developing a particular approach to caring for women after cesarean and episiotomy.

Harmonizing the physical, emotional, energetic, sensory and relational levels.

Filling in the “missing end” so that the mother feels peaceful, fulfilled and whole. This work harmonizes the relationship with the child and the symptoms that can arise from a complicated childbirth. Helping the mother’s relationship with herself and with the child is essential.

Adam works in the south of France and accompanies mothers from a distance all over the world.

His book “The Caesarean Section – Wound and Healing of the Mother’s Wife and Child” will be released in 2021.

HIS TALK

Heal and grow from Caesarean scar

Originally from France, I have lived in Quebec for almost 30 years. Starting as a nurse in  palliative care, I worked for 10 years in obstetrics. In 2005, I founded the Centre Pleine Lune and decided to focus on accompanying women and couples during pregnancy and birth. I then launched trainings for professionals in Québec and in Europe.

3 books has been born along the years: La maternité au Féminin (2007/2011), L’instant Présent – Aller-retour vers l’au-delà (2015), Le Dauphin Blanc – Rituels de femmes pour réenchanter la maternité  (2017) Le Courrier du livre.

Accompanying, transiting, awakening consciousness about the big steps of giving life seems important. I have learned a lot during my life, by being present during birth and death, those two gateways propulse ourselves into our depth and resistance, in our joy and in our fears, in our body and beyond.

Isabelle Challut will speak on the Space between worlds/ L’espace entre les mondes (in French) on March 28, 2021, at 5 pm. 

Titre: L’espace entre les mondes 

Parfois, la promesse d’une vie nouvelle se transforme en deuil de cet enfant rêvé. Quel que soit le moment de la grossesse où ça se passe, où il faut accepter l’inacceptable, les parents et l’entourage sont propulsés dans une expérience inconnue.

Apprivoiser la mort peut-il nous amener à célébrer la vie? 

Je vous propose de mettre des mots sur ces expériences, sur cet espace intangible rencontré lors de l’accompagnement de la mort. Cette rencontre au-delà du corps peut nous mettre en contact avec notre propre intériorité, notre profondeur, notre lien avec la vie au-delà de nos croyances. 

Et je vous proposerai un petit rituel. Vous pourrez si vous le désirez, préparer un bol en terre, empli d’eau, avec quelques pétales de fleurs ou ce qui vous inspire. Ce bol sera notre objet d’ancrage et de lien avec la vie, avec l’eau, avec notre nature profonde afin de nous relier à elle durant notre rencontre.

Ingrid Bayot is a midwife, graduated in Belgium in 1981; she worked in various areas of perinatal care, including the delivery room, postpartum and neonatal care, as well as comprehensive support for birth and breastfeeding. In 2004, she obtained a University Diploma in Human Lactation and Breastfeeding (DULHAM) at the Faculty of Medicine of Grenoble. She has taken various training courses in communication and psychology. Since 1991, she has provided training in perinatal and breastfeeding in French-speaking Europe and in Quebec, where she resides since 1996. She is a lecturer at the University of Quebec at Trois Rivières in the Baccalaureate in Midwifery Practice. She is the author of numerous articles and books: Le quatrième trimestre de la naissance, Ed. ÉRES 2018 and Parents futés, bébé ravi, Ed. Robert Jauze, 2004. Site www.ingridbayot.com

Ingrid Bayot will speak on “Mama Sapiens and her postpartum, or: how has our species managed to survive and develop, with babies so immature and vulnerable?“/ “Mama Sapiens et son postpartum, ou : comment notre espèce a-t-elle réussi à survivre et se développer, avec des bébés aussi immatures et vulnérables?”  (in French) on March 28, 2021, at 2pm.