Spinning Babies® Conference 2016

Sweet ’16 The Success of Our Confluence

The new paradigm is begun

In 20 minutes on Sunday afternoon as participants left I heard,

“This was the best conference I’ve been to in my life.” heard 3x in a row
“This was the best conference I’ve been to in my career.”“The was the best conference I’ve ever been to!”

If you weren’t able to be with us, you can still share the love! Here’s what happened!

The Spinning Babies Workshop started our 5-days of learning with Rachel Shapiro, CPM and CNM-student. It was a full house to say the least! Gail was so proud to introduce Rachel in her trainers circle at the conference! SpinningBabies.com/meet-the-trainers/rachel-shapiro
ACNM has granted 7 Contact Hours or .7 Continuing Education Units for Certified Nurse Midwives.

MEAC has granted 7 Contact Hours or .7 Continuing Education Units for Certified Professional Midwives.

Doula organizations, such as DONA International, often accept these CEUs. By the way, DONA International has approved the Spinning Babies Workshop as an advanced doula training but because this is Rachel’s first workshop, she had not yet applied to be on faculty for the recognition by DONA International for this purpose. That may come along soon.

Denise Bolds, of Bold Doula used her blogging presence to
address issues of equity at our conference and in the birth world.

Thursday attendees dove into the topic of their choice for the day. Everyone was beaming as they left for the day. Thursday Speakers included

Angelina Martinez Miranda, Midwife.

Carol Phillips, DC;

Adrienne Caldwell, LMT;

Phyllis Klaus, MFT, LCSW;

ACNM has granted 7 Contact Hours or .7 Continuing Education Units for Certified Nurse Midwives.

Jenny Blyth and Fiona Hallinan, contact hours pending.

Belly Mapping with parents and potential belly painters finished the day! This one does not have continuing education credits.

“The conference was the best of the best!”

Emily Shier is a DONA International approved doula trainer in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Friday celebrated 16 different speakers through the day. Seriously, something for everyone! Interest tracks included 3 maternity care topics and one mentoring bonus discussion with Penny Simkin; pelvic topics with Jenny Blyth and Fiona Hallinan; bodywork topics with Lindsay McCoy, Deb McLaughlin, and Marcello Windolph; and (recorded for the webinar in the main room) Breech with Jane Evans, Anke Reitter, and short pres
entations from Adrienne Caldwell, Phyllis Klaus, Angelina Martinez Miranda, Dennis Hartung, Leslie Sedlak, Nicole Morales and Gail Tully.

“This was the best conference because in every room I went into, people were hugging!”

Penny Simkin chatting with our own Megan Edington.

Saturday presented the paradigm with Penny Simkin, Anke Reitter, and Gail Tully (recorded in the webinar). Claudia Booker gave dynamic presentations on The New Face of American Birth and “Women of African Descent: Modern Day Implications and Strategies for Pregnancy, Labor and the Vaginal Birthing of Our Babies. An Interactive, Town Hall and Sharing Presentation”. Participants also heard Dennis Hartung, OB on Safely Reducing Cesareans; Phyllis Klaus on Resolving Birth Trauma; and Deb McLaughlin on craniosacral protocols.

Sunday began with Jeanne Ohm on Chiropractic considerations in her Great Expectations talk. Dennis Hartung showed mildly complicated breech births to encourage an understanding that slowdowns in breech birth can be handled by skilled providers who want to reduce cesareans, and Gail and her trainers spoke on how to bring Spinning Babies into the practice of providers, particularly nurses and doulas.

Speakers at Our Confluence

Adrienne Caldwell, LMT; Akhmiri Sekhr-Ra, CPE; Angelina Martinez Miranda, Midwife, Anke Reitter, MD. PhD, Fetal Maternal Medicine Specialist; Carol Phillips, DC; Claudia Booker, MEd, CPM; Deb E. McLaughlin, CST, CPM; Denny Hartung, OB; Jane Evans, independent midwife in the UK; Jeanne Ohm, DC; Jenny Blyth and Fiona Hallinan; Jessica Peterson, DC; Lindsay McCoy, Restorative Exercise Specialist; Marcello Windolph, Fasciatherapie; Penny Simkin, PT; Phyllis Klaus, MFT, LCSW; and Wendy Foster, Birth Recovery Specialist.

Spinning Babies Approved Trainers who spoke at the conference and pre-conference were Jennifer Walker, Lorenza Holt, Marya Molette, Nicole Morales, Rachel Shapiro, Tammy Ryan and Gail Tully,

Are you interested in how many continuing education credits were given to which sessions? See the Spinning Babies conference website at

“This was the best conference because in every room I went into, people were hugging!”

If you weren’t able to be with us, you can still share the love. Learn about the paradigm of

Balance Before Force

Blooma’s Sarah Auna (center) enjoys hosting the party of international speakers the night before the Spinning Babies 2016 World Confluence. Blooma’s owner Sarah Longacre and five of her staff created a party for us with wine and chocolate. It was a wonderful event!! Lorenza Holt, Angelina Martinez Miranda, and Joni Nichols sang Los Mananitas to me! And then Joni insisted she and Jennifer Walker sing Happy Birthday in Dutch to me!

See more on our blog, https://spinningbabies.blogspot.com/2016/10/spinning-babies-conference-2016.html

Tomesha Walker of WalkerGroup, LLC

Tomesha Walker came from Cleveland to do promotion and video coverage during the conference. She added her own unique element of joy in every interview. See her interviews on our Spinning Babies Facebook page.

Tomesha also taught our trainers the basics of social media promotion while she was with us. Expect to see more from the trainers on Facebook!

“…Thank you for the absolutely wonderful beyond words Spinning Babies Confluence….thank you!” – Charrie, Attendee

The magic of Phyllis. Phyllis Klaus gives up-to-date MindBody techniques for fetal positioning, healthy pregnancies and overcoming past birth trauma. Follow her in depth sessions in person.

The magic of Phyllis. Phyllis Klaus gave up-to-date MindBody techniques for fetal positioning, healthy pregnancies and overcoming past birth trauma.

“It’s a great honor for me to be here with Gail and what she has created and given to us, world wide, to understand the wisdom of the body and the human spirit and the baby.” – Phyllis Klaus said as she began her talk on how she may use the MindBody approach in fetal position in pregnancy and in healing the messages we carry onward from birth.

“This conference was incredible all around and I am so grateful to have been a part of it. Looking to the future once school is complete … I would love to offer my service to any future endeavors.” -Shyla Earl, Intake Coordinator for Everyday-Miracles.org in Minneapolis

Jenny Blyth and Fiona Hallinan introduced a warm and welcoming approach to mobilizing the pelvis that won American hearts.

“There hasn’t been anything this big in the birth world for a long time, since Janet Balaskas… nah, this is bigger.” -Fiona Hallinan, RN, RM.

Dr. Dennis Hartung, OB, speaks on safely avoiding cesareans at the Confluence. His session is not live streamed. Enjoy this intimate gathering with one of our local birth heroes.