The International MotherBaby Childbirth Organization Board of Directors
Debra Pascali-Bonaro, IMBCO Co-Chair, is an internationally renowned childbirth expert, a 26-year speaker in childbirth education, a Lamaze-certified veteran in maternity care, and a DONA-approved doula trainer. A graduate of McGillUniversity, Debra travels the world working to ensure that women and their partners understand their rights related to the circumstances of giving birth. In the U.S. she teaches nursing, midwifery and medical students at University of Pennsylvania, ColumbiaUniversity and New YorkUniversity, has spoken about doula care at the White House, and has been instrumental in the development of several hospitals and community-based doula programs. Abroad she provides consultation to H.O.M.E., a project of the European Community, and works in Brazil to implement doula programs; she also provides in-services to nurses, midwives, residents and Grand Rounds to physicians at hospitals and universities internationally, and teaches doula trainings in many countries.
Debra served on the first Board of Directors of DONA International and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Childbirth Connection. She co-authored Nurturing Beginnings: Mother Love’s Guide to Postpartum Home Care for Doulas and Outreach Workers and received the Lamaze International Elizabeth Bing Award in 2002. For her first documentary film, Orgasmic Birth, Debra videotaped births in New Zealand, Mexico, the U.K., South America, and the U.S. to help educate and inspire people to consider their options and the implications of the circumstances of birth for women's and babies' health and well being. This documentary is being shown around the world to great acclaim.
Robbie Davis-Floyd PhD, Editor for the IMBCI, is a Senior Research Fellow in the Dept. of Anthropology, University of Texas Austin and a Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology. She is a medical anthropologist specializing in the anthropology of reproduction. An international speaker and researcher, she is author of over 80 articles and of Birth as an American Rite of Passage (1992, 2004); coauthor of From Doctor to Healer: The Transformative Journey (1998); and coeditor of eight collections, including Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (1997); Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots (1998); and Mainstreaming Midwives: The Politics of Change (2006). Birth Models That Work, an edited collection that highlights excellent models of birth care around the world, is in press. Her research on global trends and transformations in childbirth, obstetrics, and midwifery is ongoing. Robbie speaks regularly at universities and at national and international childbirth, obstetrical, and midwifery conferences around the world. She has been involved with the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) since its founding at Mt.Madonna in 1995, serving on its Leadership Council and as Chair of the CIMS Editorial Committee for the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative (MFCI). She currently serves as Senior Advisor to the Council on Anthropology and Reproduction.
France Anne Donnay MD, MPH practiced ob/gyn in Belgium for 15 years in public and private health facilities, including working with migrant families from Morocco, Turkey, Chad and Cambodia. From 1980-1994, she also served as consultant in reproductive and child health for WHO, UNFPA, the World Bank, and Doctors without Borders. In 1994 she joined UNICEF, and transferred to UNFPA in 1999; in both positions, she provided technical support to many countries and programs. For her work she has travelled to over 60 countries in all regions and worked on many maternal health programs. From 2005-2008 she served as the UNFPA Representative in Pakistan, leading a large staff working in maternal and newborn health, family planning, gender equality, and population policies. She is author of numerous publications, and in 2003 received the FIGO award for outstanding contributions to safe motherhood. She currently serves as Senior Program Officer in Maternal Health for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where she manages a large portfolio of maternal health-related grants, with a focus on research about how to address the four major causes of maternal mortality--hemorrhage, eclampsia, obstructed labor and sepsis--and on programs in India, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. She collaborates with many partners for policy change, resource mobilization and better allocation of resources for maternal and neonatal health in Africa and Asia, and is happy to add promoting the IMBCI to her health agenda.
Mayri Sagady Leslie CNM, MSN, currently holds a clinical faculty appointment in Nurse-Midwifery at Yale University. In addition, she is working on her doctoral research in the Graduate Schoolf of Education and Human Development at The George Washington University. Ms. Leslie is a previous member of the faculty at Georgetown University and the former director of the Nurse-Midwifery Service for the University of California, San Diego. As a national leader and advocate for maternal and child health, she has served twice as the Chair of the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) and is active as an author, reaseracher and consultant on behalf of mothers and babies.
Debrah Lewis, RN, LM, CNM, MSC is a founder, the current Director, and a practicing Midwife at Mamatoto Resource & Birth Centre in Trinidad. She is a founding member, and current Executive Member of the Trinidad & Tobago Association of Midwives, and the Americas Regional Board Member of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM). Debra’s academic appointments include: Advisory Board Member in the School of Advanced Nursing Education at the University of the West Indies, the Clinical Preceptor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Midwifery Program, and Courtesy Faculty at Yale University School of Nursing. With global exposure from the many international organizations that Debrah works with and as a midwife in a variety of settings and countries, she brings to the IMBCO board a unique perspective and a range of experience
Petra ten Hoope-Bender,Midwife, MBA, has 20 years experience as an executive manager in the management and development of organizations and public-private partnerships in the professional and volunteer sectors at local, national, and international levels. She holds an International Organisations Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of Geneva (2007). From 1985 to 1998, Petra worked in an independent midwifery practice in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The practice consisted of 4 midwives who were collectively responsible fore the prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum care of around 800 women per year. During that time, she also served as a member of the Board of the Royal Dutch Organization of Midwives and as its representative to the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM). From 1998-2004, she served as Secretary General of the ICM, an organization that brings together more than 80 midwives' associations around the globe to ensure the availability of high-quality midwives to all women of childbearing age. From 2004-2006, Petra served as the interim Executive Director of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH), housed at WHO in Geneva, which brings the community of global players in maternal, newborn, and child health together to coordinate efforts, increase programmatic impact and speed up the achievement of MDGs 4 and 5. The Partnership includes UN agencies and the World Bank, donor countries, recipient countries, NGOs, health care professional organizations and academics/researchers. Currently, Petra is the Human Resources Programme Coordinator for Staff Mobility, Work/Life Balance and Staff Wellbeing across the UN system.
Daphne Rattner, MD, MPH, PhD is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Collective Health, School of Health Sciences of the University of Brasilia. Besides her PhD in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, Daphne studied Public Health and Tropical Diseases at the University of Sao Paulo; Hospital and Health Services Administration at the Fundacao Getulio Vargas; Community-oriented Primary Health Care at Hebrew University, Israel; and Primary Health Care: Policy, Planning and Politics of Health in Development at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom. She served as national coordinator of the Rede Nacional pela Humanizacao do Parto e Nascimento (Brazilian Network for the Humanization of Childbirth) (ReHuNa) from 2000 to 2004. Daphne organized the book Humanizando Nascimentos e Partos (2005), and in 2009 A medicina tradicional e os sistemas municipais de saúde: Humanização do parto sob o enfoque do Patrimônio Cultural / La medicina tradicional y los sistemas municipales de Salud: Humanización del parto sobre el enfoque del Patrimonio Cultural (Traditional medicine and local healthcare systems: Humanization of Childbirth under the perspective of Cultural Heritage). Before taking on the position at the University, Daphne worked for five years in Women’s Health Program for the Brazilian Ministry of Health.
Hélène Vadeboncoeur, Ph.D, has dedicated her professional life to improving the conditions in which women give birth, with an emphasis on women and family-centered care, informed choice, evidence-based practices and women’s reproductive rights, in direct link with the optimal maternity care principles and steps of IMBCI. In the 80s, Hélène wrote in L’Une à l’autre, published by ‘the’ Quebec organization born in the wake of the humanization of birth movement, Naissance-Renaissance. She then wrote a book on VBAC, so that women could learn about the possibility of giving birth themselves after a cesarean. In the 90’s Hélène was hired by several public organizations within the Quebechealth care system, to conceive birth center projects with the help of multidisciplinary teams. Subsequently, she was employed by the Quebec government to support the implementation of midwiferybirth centers. During this time she obtained a master’s degree in public health, doing an exploratory comparative study on the legalization of midwifery in Canada. Hélène now has a PhD in Applied Social Sciences (Université de Montréal), and wrote a thesis on humanization of childbirth in hospitals. Since 2000, she has been part of several actions and scientific committees centered on improving childbirth, and has been working as an independent researcher, a writer and teacher. In addition, Hélène speaks at conferences on various aspects of childbirth and midwifery both in North America and abroad. She is a member of the Association pour la santé publique du Québec (ASPQ), the Quebec public health organization that has been lobbying against medicalized childbirth since the 70’s. She is presently co-researcher in 2 Canadian studies: a multi-centered randomized controlled study on lowering caesarean rates, and a study on how women perceive the way they are treated while giving birth. Hélène also is coordinating an innovative study on the experience of being a pregnant and vulnerable immigrant, a study that is centered on the co-creation of a theatre play based on the women's experiences.
IMBCO Executive Director and Administrative Director
An obstetrician/gynecologist from Tucuman, Argentina, he worked for ten years at Hospital Avellaneda, a highly humanistic public maternity service, served as Professor of Obstetrics at the National University of Tucuman, and currently serves as Adjunct Professor in Maternal and Child Health in the School of Public Health at UNC. He obtained his MSPH from the University of North Carolina and his PhD from the National University of Tucuman, and has served at IPAS for the last several years as Senior Health Systems Advisor, promoting women's health and reproductive rights. Dr. Gomez is responsible for overall management of activities involved in the launch and expansion of the IMBCI such as fostering support by regional, national and international organizations; maintaining productive relationships with supporting organizations; and working closely with demonstration sites to develop and evaluate approaches and strategies for successful implementation of the IMBCI and document best practices and lessons learned.
Administrative Director, Rae Davies, BSH, CD(DONA), LCCE, IBCLC rae@imbci.org
For over thirty years Rae has worked in health promotion focusing primarily on childbearing families during pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. She continues to dedicate her time to providing training programs globally for doulas, childbirth educators, and midwives. Rae became the first Executive Director for the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) where she represented CIMS nationally, internationally, and on the US Breastfeeding Committee. Rae also serves as the co-coordinator for the World Alliance of Breastfeeding Action (WABA) Health Care Practices Task Force, and on the board of directors at the Florida School of Traditional Midwifery.
