Compassionate industry leaders…
The Birth Wellness Festival is dedicated to providing a comprehensive program of presentations, workshops and talking circles held by leading birth and health practitioners from Northern New South Wales and South East Queensland.
With decades of combined experience and deep passion for informed birth choices our presenters will share a wide range of knowledge and experience that will empower women and their families.
Saturday 13 September - Preparing for Birth
Sunday 14 September - Postpartum Offerings
Day 1: Saturday 13 September
Preparing for Birth
8.30 - 9.00 | Acknowledgment of Country + Birthing on Country Kelly Gilbett-Knox | Kinship Doobai Dancers Performance
9.00 - 9.30 | Bunyarabugalma Workshop Eve White
9.30 - 10.00 | Self Inquiry: What do you really need to know when preparing for Birth Sali McIntyre
10.00 - 10.30 | Making Space for Birth Jenny Blythe
10.30 -11.00 MORNING TEA
11.00 - 11.30 | The Nervous System of Birth: Where Instinct Meets Intuition Dr Athena Hammond
11.30 - 12.00 | Preconception to Pregnancy: The Foundation of Intergenerational Health Naomi Jansson
12.00 - 2.00 LUNCH BREAK - explore the Birth Wellness Village Marketplace
2.00 - 2.30 | Shared Wisdom on Pregnancy Wellness: Panel Discussion
2.30 - 3.00 | Shakti Birthing: Embracing your Feminine Essence for Birth & Beyond Anna Watts
3.00 - 3.30 | Birthing Options: Panel Discussion
3.30 - 4.00 | Updates + Birth Advocacy: Panel
4.00 -5.00 | Practicing the Art of Attunement to feeling Calm and Safe Dr Athena Hammond and Jenny Blyth
Day 2: Sunday 14 September
Post Partum Offerings
9.00 - 9.30 | Importance of Postpartum Planning Dr Oscar Serrallach Mother Care & Postpartum Specialist
9.30 - 10.00 | The Art of Womb Wrapping: The Faja & the Fajita Andrea Lopez
10.00 - 10.30 | Postpartum Recovery and Breastfeeding: Q&A Panel Discussion
10.30 -11.00 MORNING TEA
11.00 - 11.30 | Men's Roles in Pregnancy, Birth & Postpartum Mason Taylor SuperFeast
11.30 - 12.00 | Holistic Resources & Approaches to Postpartum: Panel Discussion
12.00 - 2.00 LUNCH BREAK - explore the Birth Wellness Village Marketplace
2.00 - 2.30 | Postpartum Traditional Practices that Hold Mothers: Panel Discussion
2.30 - 3.30 | Birth Story Circle: Community Sharing
3.30 - 4.00 | Rebozo Closing Circle
Sali McIntyre
Sali is a passionate advocate for the transformative power of birth, believing that how we birth matters profoundly. She views birth as a sacred rite of passage, guiding women from maiden to mother and inviting partners into a shared journey of emotional and relational growth. Through her classes and workshops at Heart and Soul of Wellness in Murwillumbah, she creates spaces for storytelling, wellness, and connection, empowering families to embrace birth as a cornerstone of human experience.
Dr Oscar Serrallach
Dr Oscar Serrallach specialises in maternal health, with a focus on integrative and functional medicine, and postnatal wellbeing. His work is dedicated to supporting mothers in the months and years after childbirth by combining cutting-edge neurobiological research on the maternal brain with diverse cultural perspectives on postpartum care.
His medical training spans various specialties, including family medicine, indigenous health, addiction medicine, psychiatry, and general practice, alongside extensive postgraduate studies in nutritional and environmental medicine. These experiences, combined with his journey through parenthood and insights gained from indigenous models of Mother Care, have shaped his unique approach to supporting Mothers in the 21st century.
Naomi Jansson
Naomi is a Traditional Medicine Doctor providing treatment and education utilising Chinese Medicine Philosophy, Traditional Herbal Foods, Acupuncture, Moxibustion and her experience as a Registered Nurse. Naomi combines her lived experiences and knowledge of Eastern and Western Medicine through her services and education offering programs of care in her area of expertise; Women's Medicine, Conception, Pregnancy and Postpartum Care.
Jenny Blyth
Jenny Blyth has supported parents in natural birth for over 40 years. She is an independent birth educator, bodyworker, Associate Practitioner of Ortho-Bionomy, Spinning Babies® Approved Trainer, Spinning Babies® Aware Practitioner & Trainer, & Internal Pelvic Release Work Practitioner & Trainer.
Her particular focus is on body preparation for birth & recovery, & encouraging greater self-responsibility in parents - to realise potential in birth & reduce birth trauma. She specialises in pelvic bodywork for wellbeing, balance, comfort & healing. Jenny regularly facilitates workshops in Australia & overseas.
She is project co-ordinator for Lao Birthwork, teaching hands-on & emergency skills to health staff in remote areas of Northern Laos. She is also an author – The Down to Earth Birth Book, Birthwork, The little book of Pelvic Jiggling - & filmmaker -The Big Stretch films & A World of Birthworkers.
Andrea Lopez
Andrea is well known for her beliefs in Traditional Health and Healing when it comes to supporting Women’s Health issues and prevention. With a passion for educating and supporting women through the various stages and initiations of life, she brings a wealth of experience and a collection of learnings from her travels, family heritage, motherhood and clinic practice.
Andrea has been a bodyworker from 1997, with a strong focus on Women’s Health since 2007.
She has whispered to many a womb over the years and finds each woman who presents in clinic, another learning and deepening of wisdom worth sharing.
Anna Watts
Blending her unbroken lineage of home birth with decades of experience as a Sacred Birth and Doula Educator, Counsellor and Spiritual Healer, Anna offers a unique and deeply integrated understanding of how birth is both a physiological process and a spiritual rite of passage.Bringing a depth and grounded warmth to her teachings, Anna firmly believes in the power of self-exploration and inner discovery on the transformational path of birth and beyond.
In 2009 Anna established the Celebration of Birth Doula Academy offering professional training to Birth and Post-natal Doulas. She has an on-going commitment to personal growth and spiritual development in all aspects of life. Anna is the mother of two beautiful daughters both born at home, and now a grandmother to two delicious home born grandbabies.
Tania Luz
Tania is a Colombian woman; mother, daughter, and sister living in the Northern Rivers. She walks the path of traditional medicine, rooted in the ancestral memory of Abya Yala, Latin America. This is knowledge passed through the womb, through the feminine, from the earth and the ones who came before. She carries this lineage with deep reverence and love.
Tania’s work is rooted in the care of women through the cycles of life, from fertility and menstruation to postpartum and beyond.
She brings together bodywork, herbal medicine, ritual, and ancestral knowledge to support women in their physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing and remembering
Tania’s work honours the Earth, the womb, and the ancient practices of feminine care, carrying forward the revolution of care through presence, touch, and tradition.
Dr Athena Hammond
Athena is a midwife and a psychotherapist, who lives in the beautiful Northern Rivers village of South Golden Beach. She has over twenty years of experience working in the maternity care space as a doula, midwife, educator, researcher, facilitator and now as a qualified trauma therapist.
She works in private practice in Mullumbimby seeing a range of folks, including childbearing women, midwives and obstetricians.
She has a special interest in birth trauma, is the mum of a grown up son and makes a mean bowl of guacamole.
Mason Taylor
Mason Taylor is the founder and CEO of SuperFeast, Australia's leading provider of tonic herbs and medicinal mushrooms. With a focus on longevity and holistic well-being, Mason is dedicated to teaching people how to harness the healing forces of nature to improve their health and vitality.
His passion for traditional Chinese medicine and Taoist philosophy has driven him to create products and educational content that empower individuals to take control of their health.
Family is at the heart of Mason's life. He, along with his wife Tahnee and their children, are rooted in a lifestyle that values connection and growth. They reside in the beautiful region of Byron Bay, where they embrace the natural surroundings and community spirit.