GOLD Speakers

Billie Harrigan, BA TBA CD CBC

• Country: Canada

Biography:

Billie has been serving birthing families for 35 years as a mentor, breastfeeding counsellor, childbirth educator, doula, and traditional birth attendant. She is the Founder and Director of Birth Trauma Ontario, an agency that advocates on behalf of parents for universal training in trauma-informed care for all perinatal health care providers and provides training and skills development for primary and allied health care professionals. Billie authored the world's first accredited certification course for becoming a trauma-informed professional specific to caring for the perinatal client. She has devoted decades to following the research that explores issues of maternal and infant health, birthing safety, and midwifery and obstetric practices in the context of culture and structural violence. She has educated doulas, midwives, physicians, nurses, and lactation counsellors in over 120 countries. Billie has been blessed with a very full life with 7 wonderful children, several amazing in-laws, some adorable grandchildren, a couple of decades of homeschooling, and hundreds of families who invited her into their families as they welcomed their precious babies.