Our teachers: the perfect combination of wise, dedicated and loving

In 2012, Ibu Robin Lim & Debra Pascali-Bonaro came together to teach the first Eat Pray Doula Workshop
in Bali, Indonesia. In 2017, they were joined by Midwife Mala Landt.

Since then, their vast individual and collective experience and passion for culturally safe, gentle birth including informed and respectful decision-making as the pathway to Peace On Earth has offered retreat participants an unparalleled wellspring of tools, inspiration, information, and hope for their own futures as Doulas, Midwives, Nurses, Physicians, Acupuncturists, Therapist and Body Workers to become change-makers in birth for the future of planet earth.

Together, we provide our promised doulas with wisdom, research, song and ceremony which has been acquired
from traditional birthkeepers from around the world.

Learn more about our teachers and their expertise

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Debra has trained thousands of doulas, birth keepers and parents around the world in the practices of gentle birth support.  She is the Founder & President of Pain to Power Childbirth Experience, Director of the award-winning documentary Orgasmic Birth: The Best-Kept Secret , author and inspirational international speaker, and chair of the International MotherBaby Childbirth Organization.   Debra’s passion comes from her years as a Lamaze International childbirth educator, and birth and postpartum doula trainer with DONA International where she has worked with women, men, midwives, doulas, nurses and physicians in over 40 countries bringing comfort, love and pleasure to birth and life!

Robin Lim is an internationally-recognized midwife, well-known author and talented poet. Bumi Sehat International,  her non-profit Indonesian birthing and educational clinics have saved hundreds of lives and delivered thousands of babies, serving the poor and medically disenfranchised citizens of Bali and in the tsunami-ravaged province of Aceh, Sumatra and the Philippines. Ibu Robin remains indefatigably committed to changing the world, one gentle birth at a time.

Mala has been a CPM for over 20 years and lives on the Big Island of Hawaii on a small organic farm with three of her four sons and their families. Her farm has been dedicated as a Gentlebirth Sanctuary and Education Center. Mala has had a home birth midwifery practice on the Big Island for 18 years now yet she has spent 10 of those years traveling to Bali to work with Ibu Robin in Ubud, Bali.

Mala has a BA in Anthropology and Psychology and a Masters in Special Education. She worked as a Dance Therapist in the North Carolina State School for the Handicapped and later on in the Virgin Islands Public schools, she taught Adaptive Physical Education. She orchestrated Preschools to begin combining special needs children and “normal” children, and proved the benefits for both populations in social adaptation and motivation in learning.

She is an International Yoga Teacher of 40 years, a professional Massage therapist of 20 years, a Cranial Sacral Therapist and Prenatal Yoga instructor and Postpartum Exercise Instructor. She studied at the Oneness University in India and became a Trainer of “Deeksha,” which is a force for Global Awakening. She was an Instructor of Doula Certification and training with the Barefoot Doctors Academy in Hawaii in 2004, 2009 and 2014.

Our Birth Doula Guest Teachers

LaShanda Dandrich, IBCLC

LaShanda Dandrich is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant since 2013.  After the birth of her daughter in 2009, her passion for breastfeeding and supporting mothers and families in the postpartum period blossomed.  She became a trained postpartum doula while pursuing her IBCLC credential.  She has worked as an IBCLC in several hospitals in the NYC area, as well as facilitating lactation support groups and doing home visits. She supports families of all diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds throughout NYC. Lashanda lives in Harlem with her daughter, Ava.  When she is not busy being a mom and supporting other moms, she enjoys traveling, reading sci-fi, and trying new cuisines.

Alejandra Lozano, LCCE, Midwife, Doula

Since the birth of her son Mariano, she became passionate about birth, and began her preparation to become a professional and traditional midwife, with the intention that more women have the opportunity to live a respected, pleasurable, transcendental birth experience, with company, trust and love.

Combining ancestral knowledge from the ancient and traditional midwives of México and Latin America with the most up-to-date scientific evidence to find a balance in the needs of today’s women and to keep the traditional medicine alive.

Her personal interest is to offer quality midwifery services at low costs so every woman can have the same opportunities, always working as a team with other Midwives and health providers.

Sokhna Heathyre Mabin, Advanced Doula

Sokhna Heathyre Mabin is a mother of 2 beautiful beings ~ one born via her belly and the other naturally at home.  She has been a student and teacher of Yoga for 35 years and is also an herbalist, sound therapist, lactation counselor, Care Coordinator with Healthy Start US Presidential Initiative for maternal health.  

Sokhna is an advanced doula who has trained with DONA, Ancient Song Doulas, and The Traditional Postpartum Healing Lodge.  She is the creator of MamaSutra Loving Arts which canopies her herbal medicine practices in The Tantric Tavern.  She has led 2 community doula trainings and is currently overseeing the development of a hospital doula program for women of color in Kalamazoo, MI.

Sokhna is the creator of “The 13 Moonth Svadhyaya”, a year-long self-study through the Art of Yoga,  and co-creator of “Embodied Anatomy:  Kundalini Yoga and Women’s Anatomy” and the phenomenal online “10 Day Womb Cleanse Revival.”   She is a Sacred Woman, A Wild Woman Facilitator, and a Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator.  Her artistries as vocalist & dancer have taken her around the world, as has her passion for seeing birth and mothering made sacred again through the connected matrix of the Womb Wide Web.  

www.MamaSutraLove.com

Our Advanced Skills Guest Teachers 

Jennie Joseph, LM, CPM, Midwife & Executive Director of Commonsense Childbirth, Inc.

Jennie Joseph is a British-trained midwife who fights to ensure every woman has their healthiest possible pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience with dignity and support.

Jennie created The JJ Way® which is an evidence-based maternity medical home model delivering readily-accessible, patient-centered, culturally-congruent care to women in areas that she terms ‘materno-toxic zones’.

She is the Executive Director of her own non-profit corporation Commonsense Childbirth Inc. which operates a midwifery school & training institute, health clinics and a birthing center in Orlando, Florida where she has lived since 1989. Jennie is also the founder of the National Perinatal Task Force, a grassroots organization whose mission is the elimination of racial disparities in maternal child health in the USA.

Dr. Sarah Buckley, Author, PhD Candidate

Dr. Sarah Buckley is a family physician (GP), trained in GP obstetrics.

She has been writing and lecturing to childbirth professionals and parents since 1997, and is the author of the internationally best-selling book Gentle Birth. Gentle Mothering,

Sarah has a special interest in the hormonal physiology of labour and birth and in 2015 she completed an extensive scientific report on this topic, Hormonal Physiology of Childbearing, published with Childbirth Connection (US) in 2015. She is currently a PhD candidate in this area at the University of Queensland, Brisbane Australia.

See www.sarahbuckley.com and her Hormonal Physiology report at http://transform.childbirthconnection.org/reports/physiology/