Janet is the pioneer of Active Birth and the centre’s founder. Her innovative ideas have spread throughout the world inspiring parents, birth educators, yoga teachers, midwives and doulas. Obstetricians have a high regard for her work and many who encourage natural childbirth, continue to be enthusiasts and supporters. While she remains a leading voice in the global campaign to transform birthing practices, the core work she still does and loves is with women and couples at the Active Birth Centre in London. Here she leads classes and courses, and runs training courses for professionals.
Janet also teaches across the world, currently in Brazil, Turkey and Israel. Janet’s unstoppable drive to give parents choice in labour and birth, and to provide the guidance and information to enable women to confidently follow their instincts and tune into their babies, has fuelled the global spread of Active Birth. Janet is the mother of four grown up children and one stepdaughter and has five grandchildren. You can read more about Janet’s personal journey, her published books, and her campaign for women to become active birth givers and her international trainings in Janet’s personal website, which is currently being created – as soon as it’s live we will post the link here.
I am an artist and a writer, and it is my good fortune to have eleven books currently published, all of which include my artwork. My books are practical and inspire the reader to self-empowerment. They explore the wild edges of our relationship with the Earth through our native plants and trees, tree lore, herbalism, Earth wisdom, alchemy, celebrating the Earth’s cycles and creating heartfelt ceremony. I am also the editor and co-creator of the yearly publication, the Earth Pathways diary.
Simon Fairlie worked for 20 years variously as an agricultural labourer, vineworker, shepherd, fisherman, builder and stonemason before being ensnared by the computer in 1990. He was a co-editor of The Ecologist magazine for four years, before joining a community farm in 1994 where he managed the cows, pigs and a working horse for ten years. He now runs Chapter 7, an organization that provides planning advice to smallholders and other low income people in the countryside. He is also editor of The Land magazine, and earns a living by selling scythes. He is the author of Low Impact Development: Planning and People in a Sustainable Countryside (Jon Carpenter, 1996), and Meat: A Benign Extravagance.
Marina Robb (MSc; MA; PGCE) is founder and Managing Director of Circle of Life Rediscovery CIC, a leading outdoor learning organisation. She is Author of ‘Learning with Nature: A how-to guide to inspiring children through outdoor games and activities.’
Mark Golding works with water, sacred geometry and mandalas.
Mike is an independent Funeral Celebrant and Dying Doula supporting people dying and the families. He is also a member of the Home Funeral Network supporting families to care for their own dead and make informed choices about all aspects of Funerals including Home Funerals. He runs workshops on dying and Dying To Talk sessions creating a safe space to talk about death and dying.
wild landscape surge after living for four seasons in a vast forest and later training with pioneers in the fields of somatic and eco-psychology. She has studied attempts at healthy human systems all her life, from living with the Brazilian Landless Movement (MST) to co-founding a refugee food growing charity in Glasgow and developing peer conflict resolution services for inner city schools. Maeve also has a background assistant producing social and environmental documentaries for the BBC including the Making of the Scottish Landscape. She now lives in the Highlands of Scotland by a beautiful loch with her son Sorley, surrounded by a strong community.
Margot is a poet, storyteller, writer and performer with a strong community arts practice. She has been working as an engaged community artist and cultural creative for the last 30 years, devising creative processes, workshops and performances for individuals, groups and organisations. Marogt have a background in community education, integrative arts therapy, ceremonial tradition and Buddhist meditation. Much of her work is environmental, site specific, participatory and inter-generational. She has worked in a variety of settings such as hospitals, day centres, prisons, theatres, museums, galleries, schools, conferences, festivals, forests, rivers, quarries and historic sites.
After 17 years working for a multinational energy corporation, a series of direct encounters with soul catalysed a radical change in my life. An instinctual call to be in wild places, my curiosity about the human journey and the nature of relationship, guide and inspire me.