My History and Motivation

Like far too many people, I have a history of physical and emotional trauma. My trauma surfaced as pelvic pain that was unresponsive to all allopathic medical approaches—including four pelvic and abdominal surgeries. Compounding a complicated history, I gave birth to my daughter, Arabelle, three months before starting the midwifery program at Bastyr University. During my postpartum recovery I started to realize the depth of my pelvic dysfunction. Although I was attended by a diligent and beloved midwife, I was unguided in my path towards pelvic healing. I worked hard to find the connections that have brought me healing. Because I know my journey through pelvic pain is not unique, I entered midwifery school knowing that I was going to change the status quo about pelvic health in community midwifery.

About Me

Olivia Kimble is a senior midwifery student at Bastyr University, graduating in June 2020, with experience working at the Sprout Birth Center and Puget Sound Birth Center in Washington State. She has worked in birth since 2014 as a certified birth doula and birth assistant with additional training in supporting parous people with trauma histories and homelessness. Olivia previously held leadership positions in the non-profit sector for a small, private college and a national arts organization. Olivia is currently engaged in opening a home birth practice in southeast Minnesota.

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Olivia Joy Kimble is a current graduate student at Bastyr University, pursuing a Master’s of Science in Midwifery. Expected graduation June 2020.

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Supervising Committee

Chair

Tanya Khemet Taiwo, LM, CPM, MPH, PhD

Tanya is an assistant professor in the Department of Midwifery in both the Master of Science in Midwifery and the Master of Arts in Maternal-Child Health Systems programs. She also provides midwifery care on a part-time basis at CommuniCare Health Centers, a Federally Qualified Health Center with clinics in urban and rural communities around the Sacramento area. These clinics are committed to the compassionate care of low-income families in a multi-disciplinary setting.

Dr. Khemet Taiwo is an epidemiologist whose dissertation research examined the role of maternal prenatal stress on child neurodevelopment, and how these stressors interact with environmental exposures. Her concern for environmental exposures affecting pregnant women drives her as co-director of the Community Engagement Core at the UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center. She is also a research fellow at The Birth Place Lab at the University of British Columbia. At the Birth Place Lab she’s collaborating on the Giving Voice to Mothers Study, a community based participatory research project that examines how race, ethnicity and birthplace affect maternity care in the United States. She also serves as the President of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Certified Professional Midwives, and counts herself blessed as the mother of three beautiful girls who were all born at home.

Activities & Affiliations

• President of National Association of Certified Professional Midwives (NACPM)

• Assistant Professor in the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University

• Research Fellow, The Birth Place Lab

• Co-Director, Community Engagement Core, Environmental Health Sciences Center, UC Davis

Content expert

April Bolding, DPT, CCE, CD

Dr. April Bolding specializes in an integrative and compassionate approach to physical therapy and Women's Health.  She helps people heal from pelvic floor, abdominal and musculoskeletal issues, with a special focus on the perinatal period.  Facilitating transformation into an awakened state of health is one of her highest offerings.

She holds a doctorate in physical therapy, is a Maya Abdominal Therapy practitioner, childbirth educator, birth doula, speaker and co-author of Pregnacy, Childbirth and the Newborn.

Activities & Affiliations

• Creator of the Phoenix Heart ARISE™ Pelvic Health and Healing Program

• American Physical Therapists Association (APTA)-certified clinical instructor

content expert

Holly Tanner, PT, DPT, MA, OCS, WCS, PRPC, LMP

She owns a private practice that focuses on pelvic rehabilitation and on chronic myofascial pain. She graduated from the College of St. Scholastica in 1995 with a Masters of Arts degree in Physical Therapy and in 2013 she completed a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree. She is also a licensed massage practitioner, licensed in Washington since 2003. Prior experience includes working for Apple Physical Therapy where she developed and directed the Women's and Men's Health programs for the company’s many clinics. She is Board-certified in Orthopedics, Women's Health, and is also certified in Pelvic Rehabilitation and in Pelvic Muscle Dysfunction Biofeedback. Holly served as adjunct faculty at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA and at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN, for whom she continues to teach in the transitional DPT program. Along with H&W faculty member Stacey Futterman she co-authored the "Male Pelvic Floor Function, Dysfunction, and Treatment" course. She is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association and the American Massage Therapy Association. Her physical therapy and massage practice, Flow Rehab, is located in the Fremont neighborbood of Seattle.

Activities & Affiliations

• Faculty member and Director of Education at Herman & Wallace Pelvic Rehabilitation Institute

• Adjunct faculty at University of Puget Sound

Application expert

Jessica Swan, LM, CPM, MSM

Jessica graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2011 with a degree in Psychology and a desire to go to Bastyr University's newly established Department of Midwifery. It was a screening  of "The Business of Being Born" that sparked a passion within her for birth and family rights. While in the Midwifery Program, Jessica was a student midwife with Eastside Midwives at Puget Sound Birth Center in Kirkland, WA. Upon graduation in 2015, she was hired into the practice as a full time midwife. Jessica wrote her Master's Thesis on the use of the Laryngeal Mask Airway which is a simple tool that can be used to improve outcomes during neonatal resuscitation. Since graduating Jessica has precepted a dozen students and discovered that her biggest passion is teaching. She is adjunct faculty at Bastyr University, teaching most the Clinical Skills series in the Department of Midwifery. She also helps facilitate the Basic and Advanced Clinical Exams that occur during the three year program.

Jessica joined the MAWS Board of Directors in 2018 is currently Vice President. In her roll she is working closely with the rest of the executive committee and the MAWS Office Manager to streamline the internal systems and improve the functioning of MAWS as an organization. She lives in Kenmore with her wife Chelsey, where they spend their spare time cooking, gardening, and traveling to Burning Man and beyond.

Activities & Affiliations

• Vice President of Midwives’ Association of Washington State (MAWS)

• Adjunct faculty at Bastyr University, Kenmore