The Business of Being Born at the Rio Cinema, Dalston 29th June 2008

Panel Members

Dr Adam Forman

Adam has been working as GP for 20 years - 11 years in Sheffield where he was working with a small team of midwives to provide continuity of carer throughout pregnancy. Since 1999 he has been a GP in London, the last five years in Hoxton (Hackney). Adam has a long-term interest in improving maternity services in general and community based service in particular. He is the clinical lead for Maternity Care for East London Integrated Care (ELIC). He is the GP representative on the Maternity Services Liaison Committee (MSLC) at the Homerton Hospital. He was a member of the birth group advising Lord Darzi on his original report in 2007.

Elke Heckel

Elke is a Hackney based independent midwife, a mother and a member of the Independent Midwives Association (IMA). Nearly twenty years ago Elke co-founded the Hackney Homebirth Group with Julie Sumner. Elke moved from being a birth companion and antenatal teacher to becoming a midwife. She worked as a midwife in The Royal London Hospital in an integrated team for two years. For the last nine years she has provided total continuity to women, mainly supporting home births, as an independent midwife. She works with three colleagues in 'The London Birth Practice'.

Jenny Rathbone

Jenny served 14 years on the MSLC in Camden & Islington and was involved in the establishment of one of the first midwifery led units at UCLH in the early 1990s. Jenny managed a Sure Start programme in Islington from 2002-2007, during which time she oversaw the establishment of the ante- and postnatal services at Paradise Park Children's Centre which the Department of Health badged as a model service in the National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services.

Julie Sumner

Julie gave birth to her daughter at home in 1990. She trained with the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) as an antenatal teacher and is a qualified yoga teacher. She co-ran the North East London Home Birth support group for ten years. She has been a member of the Homerton MSLC since 1994 and Chair from 1998 to 2008. For the last 16 years she has facilitated ante- and postnatal drop-in groups through the NHS in various settings including GP practices, Holloway Prison and in three Children's Centres in Islington where they are co-located with the midwives' clinics. In Hackney she runs antenatal yoga classes in Yogahome, Stoke Newington.

Meg Taylor

Meg is a retired midwife and psychotherapist and mother of two sons, both born at home in Hackney supported by independent midwives. When she was a midwife Meg worked for the NHS in both hospital and community. She was a member/chair for the MSLC at the Homerton Hospital in the 1990s. She has been widely published in midwifery journals and books and continues to write. Her writing is focused on describing childbirth from a non-medical perspective: one which involves the psychological, social, political and spiritual.