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Cristin created Conscious Empowered Birth after her daughter's birth in 2008. It was a wonderful, natural homebirth in water, but with partially detached retained placenta she went to the hospital. The manual removal of the placenta required an epidural - done by an unsupervised medical student who took the needle in and out of her spine six times. This caused a loss of cranio-sacral fluid and horrible spinal headache, so she missed out on the first days of her baby's life. After a blood transfusion, a poorly managed IV (for pain) led to extreme fluid retention. Shocked, that the management let an unsupervised student work alone on an emergency patient, and given the poor, inconsistent care that followed, she left the hospital against advice. Family helped and with time everyone was fine... but the experience remains vivid. It is incongruent that the medical staff saved Cristin's life AND caused multiple major problems. Out of the experience, she decided to empower women about their ability to birth naturally, as well as understanding the important reality of severe, cascading risks of interventions and poor medical care.

Cristin Tighe, MEM, MA, CD(DONA), PCD(DONA), RYT-500, is a DONA International certified birth doula and postpartum doula, and she is completing childbirth education certification with Birth Works® International. She is currently Birth Works® International Ambassador for Africa. She has breastfeeding training from Lactation Education Resources and Doula Institute of Northern Virginia.  She worked for Momease and Mother & Baby Matters doula agencies, and was a Brussels Childbirth Trust Early Days Supporter and Group Leader for new moms. Cristin is a also a certified Kundalini Yoga teacher, and an Excel & Celebrate for Women facilitator, with advanced training in Conscious Pregnancy© Yoga (prenatal and postpartum). She teaches hatha yoga as a Relax & Renew (Restorative Yoga) Trainer®, and is a certified Healthy Moms® Perinatal Fitness Instructor. She also teaches Itsy Bitsy Yoga® for new moms and their babies. For almost five years, Cristin owned Spiral Flight, Washington DC’s oldest yoga and healing center. Cristin has a Master degree from Yale University, focused on environmental health, and is a PhD candidate in International Health Policy from Johns Hopkins University. She is a member of Birth Works® International, DONA International, International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association and Yoga Alliance. 

Leda McDonald  worked with Cristin as a back-up birth/labor doula, when she was based out of Brussels. Leda grew up in farmland in southern Ontario, Canada, watching the births of animals with fascination. Throughout two years travelling Australia and living in Europe, she gained a new interest in birth. She is training as a birth/labour doula with Childbirth International. She is excited to be entering a field with so much diversity, to be working so close to miracles. She is articulate, well-read, intuitive, and eager to offer her care and support. You can email her for doula support in Toronto, Canada where she lives now.