We are thrilled to welcome wise women and doula trainers Adriana Lozada and Lesley Everest as this year’s summer retreat speakers!

Our retreat will be taking place at Camp Capilano in North Vancouver, BC. While it feels like you’re deep in the beautiful, lush, green forest with a river running in the background, you are also in full cell service and 5 minutes from the Lions Gate Bridge. It’s the perfect spot for a doula retreat, especially if you are on call!
For more information about Camp Capilano, please visit: https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-parks/facility/camp-capilano-indoor-group-camp

The event starts at 5pm on Friday, June 28 and runs until Sunday, June 30 at 12pm.  Two nights accommodations at Camp Capilano (bunk beds in dormitories on the Friday and Saturday nights) are included in the ticket price. Meals will be potluck, and a sign-up sheet will be circulated among ticket holders closer to the event.

In addition to our speakers, there will be opportunities for roasting marshmallows over an outdoor campfire, swimming in the onsite heated outdoor pool, and beautiful riverside hiking.

Babies in arms are allowed to attend during the day, but are not welcome to sleep over. Tickets and any partial payments are non-refundable unless the retreat is cancelled (in which case full refunds will be given). However, tickets are transferable and can be sold to someone else.

Adriana will be speaking about Dismantling Learned Compliance. In this full-day workshop, participants will explore the following objectives:

• Describe the four entwined aspects of physiological birth presented within this model.

• Describe ways in which clients can begin to support these four aspects during pregnancy, to later improve labor flow.

• Describe ways in which clients can support these four aspects during labor, and your role as facilitator.

• Reconsider the need for demarcation of a separate pushing state, learn how to convey evidence and physiology to help clients internalize this new concept, and discuss how this can be put into practice within the common hospital approach towards the pushing stage (whether it be directed or not).

• Explore birth scenarios where interventions may be suggested or required (prodromal, PROM, inductions, epidurals, GBS+), focusing on how to best support physiology, within the boundaries imposed by the interventions.

• Discuss ways in which this new birth model promotes birth ownership, and increases birthing confidence.

Lesley will be speaking about Nurturing Secure Attachment in the Perinatal Period.
Secure attachment is a foundation for more robust physical and mental health. Perinatal support people are in unique positions to serve as strong, secure attachment figures to their clients throughout pregnancy, birth, and early parenting. This relationship of healthy attachment holds the capacity to promote positive epigenetic changes at a time when the parent brain is plastic and open. Our connection to our clients can be healing, especially within systems that do not nurture security. In this workshop we will explore basic attachment theory, discover our own attachment styles, learn how to navigate styles different from ours, and how to stay emotionally safe in the face of conflict and boundary issues with our clients, colleagues, and the systems we interact with.

About our speakers:

Adriana Lozada is a birth doula, birth and postpartum educator, international speaker and host of the acclaimed Birthful podcast.Since 2007, she has helped birth doula clients take the reins of their process and own their births to have more satisfying birth experiences. These experiences have run the gamut from unmedicated home births to planned cesarean births, and everything in between. The preparation we do during our prenatal meetings is so impactful, that there have even been times where birth has switched gears and flowed too quickly for me to make it to the hospital in time. These clients still tell me they “couldn’t have done it without me,” meaning, they couldn’t have done it without all this simple yet powerful preparation. I use the term “simple” because we don’t spend months getting ready. In fact, I only met twice with my doula clients, for a total of 3 hours. This Dismantling Learned Compliance workshop outlines the physiology-based method I developed through supporting hundreds of births AND having hundreds of conversations with perinatal professionals on the Birthful podcast.

Lesley Everest has been practising as a birth, postpartum, and end-of-life doula in Montreal for over 30 years. She is the founder of MotherWit Doula Care and MotherWit Doula Training. Lesley’s professional background in many forms of somatic/emotional support therapies and inter-spiritual ministry informs her work as a teacher of human resilience , as do the births and parenting of her own four kids, and her experience of healing from cancer. She has learned over the years that a good birth and early parenting experience is less about goals being met and more about feeling safe and respected. Lesley believes that the journey into family-hood matters for all members, serving as a transformational event that has the power to shape early parenting and the next generations. Lesley’s diplomatic and collaborative nature has made her a sought after speaker in the North American birth and parenting conference circuits, as well as a facilitator of workshops geared towards soft skills building for medical care providers. Lesley is resourced by long walks in nature, late night dancing with friends to ‘80’s music, and visits to the spa.