IBMS Collaborators
Maryn Green has been in the birth world since . Maryn is well known for her international association, the Indie Birth Association, which serves and educates women and midwives all over the world. She has written numerous blog posts and recorded over 200 (and counting!) podcasts on her podcast Taking Back Birth.
She is a graduate of the Ancient Art of Midwifery School, and has taught globally for the Gold Midwifery Conference, Inherent Birth Conference as well as locally, inspiring midwives and students through workshops and the Wise Woman tradition.
Most passionate about physiological birth and the fate of future generations, Maryn has been taught by witnessing hundreds of undisturbed births, the best of which have been the births of her own 10 children. When not learning or teaching, Maryn enjoys spending time hiking with her husband, kids and dogs.
Maryn Green, Indie Birth Founder
Meet Our Master Teachers
We have been so blessed over the years, well before the creation of this school, to have the honor of working with some of the most knowledgeable, well-known people in the birth world.
The teachers that create content for the courses in our programs are no exception. They are some of the most dedicated and brilliant people that we know. These people were chosen, not just for their experience and skill, but because they are wonderful people from the inside out and are aligned with our greater mission. From midwives to doctors, we are so thrilled that the Indie Birth Midwifery School can proudly feature the names and expertise of the people below.
Content from our amazing library of classes featuring the below teachers (and more) is utilized throughout the program, and many make regular guest appearances on our weekly student calls.
Margo has been in the birth world since 2011
Margo does curriculum development, teaches for Indie Birth both online and in person, and writes and podcasts on pregnancy and birth topics. She ran a midwifery practice in Duluth Minnesota from 2016-2023 when she got divorced and life made on call life impossible for the moment :)
She now lives in Tucson, Arizona with her two kids and is focused exclusively on teaching, and doing virtual consulting and coaching, with a renewed focus on Mind-Body Coaching and IFS/Somatic Parts Work for women and birth workers.
She loves dancing, reading, snuggling her kids, and lifting heavy things.
Margo Blackstone, Indie Birth Co-Director
Gail Hart graduated from a midwifery training program as a Certified Practical Midwife in 1977. She has held a variety of certifications over the years; she was a Certified Midwife through the Oregon Midwifery Council, and an LDEM in the state of Oregon. She is now semi-retired and no longer maintains her license, but keeps active with a small community practice. Gail is strongly interested in ways to holistically incorporate evidence-based medical knowledge with traditional midwifery understanding.
Gail Hart, Midwife
Karen H. Strange is a Certified Professional Midwife started practicing in 1988. She is an American Academy of Pediatrics/Neonatal Resuscitation Program Instructor since 1991.
She is founder of the Integrative Resuscitation of the Newborn workshop, which includes the physiology of newborn transition, the evidence-based studies having to do with neonatal resuscitation, and the “when, why and how” to do neonatal resuscitation in a non-traumatizing way.
Karen incorporates the baby's perspective of birth and tools for healing/integration for both the mother and baby. Laced throughout all Karens work is information on how to use the practice of grounding and presence for not only every day skills but specifically ho these skills impact the professional in an emergency.
Karen has taught over 10,000 people worldwide. She has conducted over 900 hours of debriefs with birth professional regarding all aspects and experiences in resuscitation of the newborn.
Karen Strange, CPM
Stuart James Fischbein, MD was Board Certified in 1989 by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and became a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology in 1990. Since completing his residency, he has been in solo clinical practitioner for 36 years. While well trained at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the standard medical model of obstetrics he had the respect and vision to support the midwifery model of care and served as a backup consultant to many home and birthing center midwives for 25 years. In 1996 he founded The Woman’s Place for Health, Inc., a collaborative hospital-based practice of Certified Nurse Midwives and Obstetricians in Ventura County, California. In 2010, he left hospital based practice to join his midwife colleagues in supporting women in a community setting throughout Southern California.
He has spoken internationally on breech and twins and the right of informed decision making. He has appeared in many documentaries, including: “More Business of Being Born”, “Happy Healthy Child”, “Reducing Infant Mortality”, “Heads Up: The Disappearing Art of Vaginal Breech Delivery” and multiple YouTube, Rumble, and Instagram videos discussing birth choices and respect for patient autonomy and decision making.
Dr. Fischbein recently stopped practicing community based birthing and now travels around the world sharing his knowledge with and teaching skills to birth workers. He is an outspoken advocate of informed decision making, the midwifery model of care and human rights in childbirth, receiving the 2016 “Most Audacious” award from HRIC and the Association for Wholistic & Newborn Health. Hear more of his thoughts and advocacy for evidenced-based, reasonable choices on his podcast with co-host Midwife Blyss Young.
Dr Stu, OBGYN
Dr. Rixa Freeze has a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. Her doctoral studies focused on the history of healthcare and medicine with specialization in pregnancy, childbirth, and maternity care. Her dissertation examined why women in North America choose unassisted home births. She has published two articles about home birth: “Staying Home to Give Birth: Why Women in the United States Choose Home Birth” (JMWH 2009) and “Attitudes Towards Home Birth in the USA” (Expert Review of Obstetrics & Gynecology 2010). She recently published the article Breech birth at home: Outcomes of 60 breech and 109 cephalic planned home and birth center births with BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth. She recently authored another article about outcomes of breech at home or in birth centers (Midwifery Today fall 2019) and a book chapter freebirth in the US in the book Birthing outside the system: The canary in the coal mine.
Dr. Rixa Freeze, PHD American Studies
Nathan is an OBGYN trained on the west coast. Now I'm working in Louisville as an OBGYN hospitalist and palliative care physician. I believe in natural death and trust in natural birth. Naturally I’m an advocate for community-based birth, though Im currently working in a hospital with the hope of improving hospital-based women’s health practices. I have a lovely wife and dog. Outside work, I entertain innumerable hobbies including climbing, camping, and mountain biking.
Nathan Riley, OBGYN
Emily began her journey into birth work after the homebirth of her first child in 2008. Trained first by a nurse midwife who attends homebirths, then by licensed CPMs, unlicensed CPMs, traditional midwives and radical midwives, Emily has witnessed and learned from hundreds of families. During her four year apprenticeship, Emily birthed two sons at home and studied for two years under Whapio at The Matrona. Emily combines practical knowledge, personal experience, stories from midwives and mothers and intuitive connections to develop an ever-broadening picture of what birth does and can look like.
A big part of this work is teaching future midwives how to maintain their personal integrity and autonomy as they sit with women, how to remain centered as they witness, how to have trusting hearts and skillful hands, how to elevate and honor mothers, even when our culture does not.
Emily Graham, Independent Midwife
Julie Hughes was an active midwife for over 11 years and is currently on an extended sabbatical as she focuses her attention on her 4 children and her passion for education. She is currently a women’s life cycle and hormonal health guide and educator. Julie’s mission in life is for girls and women to feel powerful in their own bodies, no matter the age and stage of life they are in.
Julie Hughes, Midwife
Astrid Grove is a midwife, mother and herbalist. She attended her first birth 17 years ago and has been devoted to the path of midwifery ever since. She graduated Birthwise Midwifery School in 2006 and began to attend families in Vermont as a licensed midwife from 2006-2008 and in California from 2008-2013. After having her first daughter at home in 2012 (breech!), she has focused her energy on family and healing work with women in all stages of their life cycles through herbal medicine, ceremony and uterine massage.
She now resides in a small mountain town in Colorado where she just birthed her second daughter at home, and is passionate about supporting women who are feeling the call to deepen their wisdom of birthwork. She will be teaching the herbalism classes here at Indie Birth Midwifery School. The plants themselves are her strongest teachers, and she has also been blessed to apprentice with herbalists Susun Weed, Pam Montgomery and Ellen Evert Hopman. This past summer she founded Colorado’s first all women’s annual herbal gathering, Red Earth Herbal Gathering, with many amazing workshops and a red tent. www.redearthherbalgathering.com
Astrid Grove, Midwife
Jennifer holds an MA in counselling psychology and is a Certified Canadian Counsellor with over 17 years of experience in maternal health and psychology studies. Located in Edmonton, Canada, she uses her expertise and voice to help advance the dialogue on motherhood and healing. Her deep desire is to inspire mothers to come home to their hearts.
Jennifer Summerfeldt, MACP, CCC
Amy Wright Glenn earned her MA in Religion and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She taught for eleven years in the Religion and Philosophy Department at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey earning the Dunbar Abston Jr. Chair for Teaching Excellence. She is a Kripalu Yoga teacher, Birthing Mama® Prenatal Yoga and Wellness Teacher Trainer, (CD)DONA birth doula, hospital chaplain, and founder of the Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death. Amy is a regular contributor to PhillyVoice and author of Birth, Breath, and Death: Meditations on Motherhood, Chaplaincy, and Life as a Doula and Holding Space: On Loving, Dying, and Letting Go.
To learn more, visit: www.birthbreathanddeath.com
Amy Wright Glenn, MA Religion and Education
Radha Schwaller is a devoted Wife, Mother, Herbalist, Aromatherapist, Certified Ayurvedic Educator and Practitioner, Ayurvedic Body Therapist and Ayurvedic Postpartum Doula.
Radha has incorporated holistic health into her and her families’ lives for almost two decades. Her Holistic Health journey began in 2001 during a herbal medicine apprenticeship in the deciduous forests of the Midwest.
In 2001, she also became certified in Reiki levels one and two. It was within this training that she awakened her love for the subtle and powerful energy medicine. In 2007 she completed her massage therapy training. Her Ayurvedic training began at Kayakumari School of Ayurveda where she studied Ayurveda foundations, herbal medicine, nutrition, Ayurvedic Body therapies, Panchakarma and received her Certificate in Ayurvedic Education in 2008. Radha received her Wise Earth Ayurveda Practitioner certificate in 2012. She has studied aromatherapy for over 15 years. She has trained with DONA and Sacred Doula to assist mothers during labor and childbirth. In 2018 she completed Core Synchronism level 1.
Radha Schwaller, Ayurvedic Postpartum Doula
Jacky Bloemraad-de Boer is a Certified Professional Midwife, Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner, Doula, Nutritionist, Herbalist and Educator. Jacky has been working in the field of maternal health for over 20 years in the Netherlands & Africa as a midwife, doula, Holistic Women’s Health practitioner and passionate educator. Jacky regularly speaks at international conferences and writes articles for health magazines. She has published a book: A-Z for a Healthy Pregnancy and Natural Childbirth.
