Bay Area Birth Association is a multi-disciplinary organization committed to improving the outcomes of birth in the Bay Area, and committed to doing it in a cooperative manner.
Our Board of Directors is composed of birth professionals who are all dedicated to the success of our mission statement.
Felicia Roche - President
Felicia is a certified doula through DONA (Doulas of North America). She has been the DONA Northern California representative since 1998 and designed the 2001 DONA poster "How to be a Fabulous Doula." Felicia founded Working Woman Productions and is the creator of the Doula Client Contact Files. Her most recent accomplishment is the video compilation "Working Women in Labor" and "In the Doula Spirit"- two years in the making.Woven together with beautiful music and captivating photography the videos artfully illustrate the positive role that doulas play in birth. She has been offering birth doula trainings for over 4 years and has trained hundreds of fabulous doulas.
Felicia has assisted over 300 families during their labors and births in the Bay Area and continues to make a difference in the labors and births for women and families on nearly a weekly basis.
In late 2004, the Learning Annex in San Francisco contracted Felicia to teach a course titled "How to Start a Career as a Birth Doula." The course was so successful that in the spring of 2005 Felicia presented the same topic for the Learning Annex in Sacramento.
Felicia previously served as the executive director and publications coordinator for Birthways, a non-profit childbirth and pregnancy resource and referral center in the Bay Area. She is very involved in many aspects of building a doula community locally and nationally.
She finds joy and fascination in mothering her creative 8-year-old boy, Illinois. Together, with her husband Lee and the support of their "village," they raise Illinois and one very sweet Chihuahua.
Felicia Roche
510.530.5056
doula@att•net
www.feliciaroche.com
Certified Doula - DONA
DONA Approved Doula Trainer
Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator
Newborn Massage Instructor
Lactation Counselor
Ann Hayman - Vice President
When Ann first heard of the concept of midwifery, she did a great deal of research and realized that birth was a healthy, normal experience needing love and support, creativity and empowerment. This gathering of information concluded in doing a persuasive speech in college. Ann entertained the idea of maybe becoming a midwife someday. Yet, regardless of her aspiring to be a midwife, she knew from that moment, that birth was an experience to believe in and respect, for its power and its depth.
Upon graduating from San Francisco State in 1998, she decided to pursue the experience of being a massage therapist. Ann went to Alive and Well, the Institute of Conscious Bodywork and became a Certified Massage Technician. She continued to work in the restaurant business, which she had been doing for ten years, and added her massage practice part-time, always continuing to take more classes in massage and the healing arts and building her repertoire. When a client came into her practice that was pregnant, Ann decided to take a pregnant woman and infant massage class at McKinnon Institute and this was where she found out about doulas. Interested in the concept of mothering the mother and recalling her earlier experience with finding out about midwifery, she fell in love with the idea of becoming a doula.
In April 2003, Ann was at a friend's birth just two days before she was scheduled to take her doula training. She followed her intuition and worked with the knowledge she had gained from doing massage and had an amazing experience. At the training Ann realized that she had done everything right and the feeling that she was meant to be a doula just filled her up. From that point, Ann knew this was the work that she was here to do.
In January of 2004 Ann ended her fifteen-year career in the restaurant business and followed her heart to start her own business combining Bodywork and Doula Services. Ann is based in San Francisco and serves the Bay Area. She is certified with DONA and is trained as a Newborn Massage Instructor and a Lactation Educator.
Ann fills her spare time with reading, yoga, the beach and an assortment of friends. "I absolutely love what I do and I feel honored and lucky to have an incredible job and such a fabulous life!"
Ann Hayman
415-826-7121
misslotus@comcast•net
www.thelotustouch.com
Certified Doula
Lactation Educator
Certified Massage Therapist
Newborn Massage Instructor
Elon Bartlett - Secretary
Elon Bartlett was born at home in the Bay Area and has been interested in birth ever since. He combines his natural gifts as a healer with his desire to support and empower pregnant women by practicing as a chiropractor and CranioSacral Therapist in downtown Berkeley.
Dr. Bartlett's goal is for pregnant women to have pain-free pregnancies. He safely and gently addresses the aches and pains of pregnancy without drugs. He is also certified in the Webster Technique that, when done throughout pregnancy, can prevent a breech or OP baby and when performed on a woman with a breech baby, can support the child to turn head down by his or herself.
Dr. Bartlett believes that the healthcare system is working at its best when all the members of your healthcare team are working together. He helped found the Bay Area Birth Association because he wanted to create an environment that fosters cooperation and collaboration. Dr. Bartlett believes that a wide variety of birth professionals working together creates a better resource for pregnant women than the same professionals working in isolation.
Committed to an integrated approach to healthcare, Dr. Bartlett enjoys studying old wisdom and sharing new ideas.
Elon Bartlett, D.C.
(510) 843-1234
eb@bartlettchiropractic•com
www.bartlettchiropractic.com
Chiropractor
CranioSacral Therapist
Deidre Abrons - Volunteer Coordinator
Deidre was an elementary school teacher in East Palo Alto for several years before moving to New York and becoming a Certified Massage Therapist specializing in Prenatal and Postpartum Massage. She attended The Swedish Institute in New York City, Mother Massage with Elaine Stillerman and the McKinnon Institute in Oakland acquiring 775 hours of instruction in massage therapy. She has been working with pregnant women for the past five years.
Deidre took a friend's advice and decided to take a doula course not knowing how deeply it would affect her. She immediately began volunteering for the births of massage clients and at Highland Hospital and found the work to be more fulfilling than she ever could have expected. Deidre is also an AFFA certified Fitness Instructor and has taught for Baby Boot Camp, an exercise class for postpartum women.
Deidre's volunteer experience includes: working as a doula at Highland Hospital, teaching at Ashraya Children's Home in Bangalore, India and caring for animals at Bide-a-Wee, an animal shelter in New York City.
She currently lives in Oakland with her husband and tenacious 2-year-old. She cares for her daughter, practices massage and works as a private and volunteer doula. She strongly believes that all women deserve to have supported births in which they feel respected and safe.
Deidre Abrons
(510) 836-0273
deidre@kindbirth•com
www.kindbirth.com
Certified Doula (DONA)
Certified Massage Therapist Specializing in Prenatal and Postpartum Massage
Certified Postpartum Fitness Instructor (AFFA)
Angela Rehm- Event Coordinator
As a new mother, Angela has only recently learned of the tremendous advantage of having a knowledgeable, available birth community.
Angela is co-owner of Two Dog Marketing, a marketing services company. She and a friend opened this business in order to spend more time with their children. Both women have found the support of the Bay Area birth community invaluable and enjoy serving them with their advertising and web needs. Angela has 13 years marketing experience, and one year parenting experience.
She is a volunteer with Taproot, providing marketing services to non-profit agencies in the bay area.
Angela enjoys snowboarding, music, yoga and spending time with her husband, son and dog.
Angela Rehm
(510) 682-3506
angela.rehm@gmail•com
www.twodogmarketing.com