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 the founder of Working Woman Productions and has assisted over 800 families during their labors and births in the Bay Area and continues to make a difference for women and families on nearly a weekly basis. She has successfully built strong professional alliances with many care providers and nurses at local hospitals. She is very involved in many aspects of building a doula community locally and nationally. She is the Coordinator of the East Bay Doula Circle www.eastbaydoulas.org
In 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.
She previously served as the executive director and publications coordinator for Birthways, a non-profit childbirth and pregnancy resources and referral center in the Bay Area.
Before finding her calling as a doula Felicia served for many years as a rape crisis counselor, joining women in trauma and guiding them through a heightened and volatile process. She was also a sex educator and lifeskills coach for Planned Parenthood, working with inner-city school kids.
Felicia Roche
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 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 (Doulas of North America) and is trained as a Newborn Massage Instructor and a Lactation Educator, she is a LAMAZE trained childbirth educator.
Ann Hayman
(415) 826-7121
misslotus@comcast•net
www.thelotustouch.com
Certified Doula - DONA
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 Oakland.
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) 452-2929
office@acornwellness.com
www.acornwellness.com
Chiropractor
CranioSacral Therapist
Deidre Abrons - Volunteer Coordinator
Deidre is currently studying to become a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) in the Master’s Program at The Wright Institute in Berkeley. She is a former DONA certified birth doula and Certified Massage Therapist specializing in Prenatal and Postpartum Massage. Deidre is also an AFFA certified Fitness Instructor and has taught postpartum fitness classes for Baby Boot Camp, Stroller Strides and at The Claremont Resort and Spa. She has been working with pregnant women for the past seven years.
She currently lives in Oakland with her husband and 2 children. 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)
Signy Toquinto - Executive Director
Signy Toquinto is a recent graduate of the University of California Davis. She graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Exercise Biology. Signy has been practicing as a doula since 2008, and became DONA certified in 2010.
Signy has long been fascinated with the birthing process. Her curiosity and pursuit to enrich the birthing process for women was influenced by her own mother’s teachings and interest in childbirth. This last year Signy had the privilege of being her sister’s doula at the birth of her first niece; it was the most beautiful experience Signy has ever been a part of and it further encouraged her participation in the birth process. Signy is also a volunteer doula and believes that all women should have access to the physical and emotional support of a doula.
Signy plans to attend nursing school and hopes to focus her work with the underserved population with the ambition to rally the belief that healthcare is a basic human right.
Signy Toquinto
Birth Doula DONA
www.signytoquinto.com
contact@signytoquinto.com
(415)246-0736