WOW! You don't want to miss this interview with Billie Harrigan. If you don't know Billie, you need too! Billie has been serving birthing families for about 40 years as a Traditional Birth Companion,( What Canadians used to call “the neighbor “ when having a baby) educator, breastfeeding counsellor, lay pastoral counsellor, and integrative perinatal health consultant. She’s the founder of The Harrigan Hive, The Hive Collective – a Private Member Association, and Birth Trauma Ontario. Billie is the author of the world’s first and most comprehensive online training in the skills of trauma-informed care for the perinatal client. She’s a subject matter expert on obstetric violence, birth-related trauma, and postpartum PTSD. She has taught midwives, doulas, and nurses in 125 countries on the skills of physiological birth, has served on the PhD committee for a perinatal therapist, and was a critical reviewer for Rachel Reed’s ‘Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage’. Today she focuses on training new traditional birth companions and advocating for safer and saner approaches to pregnancy care and childbirth.
I asked Billie to come on and speak about her recent response to the AOD's- Association Of Ontario Doula's Statement they put on The Position of Non-Aboriginal Traditional Birth Attendant/Companion. This connection was heartfelt, I did get emotional during our conversation as this recent statement by the AOD has left me feeling very sad, as any Wise Elder does Billie tends to this episode with such love and insight and I am so grateful she came on to share her heart and discuss with me her Position Statement released back to the AOD along with so many other important insights for us all to reflect upon. I hope you enjoy this episode.
Positions Statement links from AOD & Billie Harrigan below if you wish to read prior to listening to this episode.
All resources discussed in episode below and ways to reach Billie.
AOD Statement of Position on Non-Aboriginal Traditional Birth Attendant /Companion https://mailchi.mp/b22850d7802b/important-statement-from-the-aod?e=aee13e74bb
Billie Harrigan Elder and Companion Statement Position re: The Association of Ontario Doula’s Statement of Position on Non-Aboriginal Traditional Birth Attendant/Companion (TBC)https://billieharrigan.com/bloghttps://billieharrigan.com/https://www.harriganhive.com/https://birthtraumaontario.ca/
Constrained Care: Doula Practice and Hospital Birth-Thesis Paper https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/108538/3/Young_Christina_Michelle_202011_PhD_thesis.pdf
A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard
https://www.amazon.ca/Midwifes-Tale-Martha-Ballard-1785-1812/dp/0679733760
Avalon Within https://www.amazon.ca/Avalon-Within-Sacred-Journey-Mystery/dp/0738719978
Gloria LeMayhttps://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/gloria-lemay-illegal-midwife-home-searched-1.7100708
Indie Birth Podcast episode I spoke about -Moving Away From the word Midwifehttps://indiebirth.org/moving-away-from-the-word-midwife/
