Milli Hill
Founder and Director
Milli set up the Positive Birth Movement in 2012 and has since run it from her laptop whilst her three small children sit on her arms. She is passionate about positive birth as a human right for all women and campaigns and speaks on this issue in the media and at high profile conferences and events both nationally and internationally. She uses social media to challenge attitudes and is the brains behind viral hashtag campaigns such as #birthjusthappened and #soproud. She has written for Telegraph, Mother&Baby, Guardian, GoodtoKnow, BestDaily and more on the topics of birth, pregnancy and motherhood, and is the author of the bestselling books The Positive Birth Book and Give Birth Like a Feminist. She is a frequent media spokesperson on the topic of women’s right and choices in childbirth and has appeared on BBC Radio 2 Jeremy Vine Show, BBC Radio 5 with Emma Barnett, Talk Radio, LBC, many local stations and numerous podcasts including Deliciously Ella and The Irish Times Women’s Podcast. Milli lives in Somerset and is happy to be contacted on 077 391 391 15 or via info@positivebirthmovement.org.
Charlotte Bailey
Operations Manager
Charlotte began her professional journey into birth work in 2011 and has been a keen supporter of the PBM since she underwent Doula training in 2016. Before that, over a decade, she founded a Community Interest Company that aimed to foster the empowerment of vulnerable and marginalised community groups around the world using Theatre and Film-making. It was through this work that she galvanised her passion for working with women. She is now a mum and an experienced Doula with a keen interest in perinatal mental health, living and working in Hampshire. She set up the successful PBM – New Forest in 2016.
Abigail Blackburn
Board Member
Abigail Blackburn is a Creative and Digital executive leader, currently working as a Director in the Tech sector across Marketing and Communications. She specialises in developing brand and social media strategy, content marketing, campaigns and creative platforms for mainstream brands and consults on two start-ups in her downtime. A storyteller at heart, she spent much of her career as an editor on leading women’s publications in the UK and Australia, including Cosmpolitan, Woman and Femail, before becoming Editor-in-Chief of Now magazine. She’s also appeared as a guest speaker on diversity in media for BBC Breakfast, The Guardian and Girls Talk London. She studied Creative Writing at Sydney’s University Of Technology.
During her time as Content Director of BestDaily.co.uk, Abigail established a creative partnership with Milli Hill that built a record-breaking new digital audience for Best magazine by generating weekly discussions about birth in a more empowering way.
Abigail’s two sons, who arrived via two markedly different birth experiences, are the source of her personal passion for the difference that can be made by improving access to positive information, support and choices in childbirth. Abigail is an advocate for complete inclusivity around birth and enjoys bringing a diverse perspective, whenever possible, to any project she supports. She also brings significant experience to the Positive Birth Movement in generating audience engagement and growth, advising Boards on proposition development and digital innovation.
Sakina Ballard
Regional Co-ordinator – London
Sakina came across the Positive Birth Movement in 2017, having had 2 very different birth experiences and becoming passionate about helping women create better birth experiences. After training as Antenatal Hypnobirthing teacher and facilitating a peer support group for women with Birth Trauma, Sakina heard about The Positive Birth Movement and found an ethos and approach that she felt was greatly needed in antenatal groups and birth preparation. She is proud to be a part of the Movement and an active facilitator in her community, seeing women connect, discuss and prepare for births that are positive for them.
Toni Sorrell-Cook
Regional Co-ordinator – South West England
Tori is mum to three small wild ones (7, 4, 1) who all entered the world very differently and whose births have been a huge part of the blueprint that makes up her antenatal practice in Wiltshire today. With a focus on giving parents information and guidance to build their own toolkit for birth Tori hopes to reduce the number of women locally who feel let down by their antenatal care and to help spread a little birth love. Passionate about ‘mothering the mother’, giving women back their sense of having a village at this hugely important time; Tori has worked with families both as a doula, educator and peer supporter right through from antenatal classes to early years. She believes every woman has a right to plan and own her birth journey, whatever that may be and she can frequently be found shouting from rooftops that there is no right way to birth! (Just your way)
Tori is the host of the Swindon PBM group and can be contacted on 07837360489 or hello@mamabababump.co.uk
Suzanne Hancock
Regional Co-ordinator – North of England
Suzanne is a mother to three beautiful boys and also moonlights as an antenatal teacher, baby massage instructor, nanny, nappy librarian, and co-facilitates the Warrington Positive Birth Movement group. Having worked with babies and children for well over a decade, she found a real passion for birth after becoming a mother. Informed choice and empowering families to find their own unique path are very important to her. To get in touch with her contact: Suzy@birthandbabymatters.co.uk
Justine van Dugteren
Regional Co-ordinator – South Africa
Justine is a mother of two young children and is a qualified doula in Cape Town. Her interest in birth and women’s rights in this context developed while preparing for the birth of her first child and motivated her to qualify as a doula shortly before the arrival of her second child. She believes that the way in which a woman is treated before, during and after birth can have far reaching effects – for the woman, her baby, her family and for society in general – and that every woman has the right to respect, support and accurate information throughout. She co-facilitates the Cape Town Southern Suburbs Positive Birth Movement group.
Amelia Parkinson
Regional Co-ordinator – Australia
I am a Hypnobirthing mum to a beautiful 5 year old boy. I LOVE anything birth and baby related- I studied Health Science and have worked in Mental Health and Community Settings, after having my Positive Birth experience with my son I was quite naive about talking about my positive birth- and soon realised people didn’t want to hear it! I attended some PBMs in London and become even more passionate and inspired to help women achieve positive births. I was keen to start one in Sydney after I moved back here after 9 years away- I love the way that women can support and encourage each other in a gentle way that creates empowerment. I teach the Wise Hippo Programs for Bump, Birth and Baby and live in the Inner West of Sydney. Find my Sydney group on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/positivebirthmovementinnerwestsydney/
or email me: amelia@thewisehipposydney.com.au
Sangheetha Parthasarathy
Regional Co-ordinator – India
Sangheetha a mother-of-two, who recently moved from the UK to Chennai. Sangheetha trained as a Birth Doula under the world-reknowned obstretician Dr.Michel Odent and the famous London Doula – Lilliana Lammers. She has also trained in Hypnobirthing under Katharine Greaves, the founder of KGHypnobirthing. Sangheetha is also a pioneer – She is India’s very first and only Birth Trauma Resolution Practitioner. She is also one of two Evidence Based Birth Instructors in India. She is a guest contributor at the Lamaze-run Journal for Perinatal Education in the United States and reviews books for Association for Improvement of Maternity Services (AIMS) in the UK. Sangheetha runs India’s first birth-related podcast show – World Doula, regularly bringing in insights on a wide-range of women’s reproductive issues – from pre-conception, to pregnancy, labour and post-partum. Sangheetha is a fellow of University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Social Impact Strategy programme. She also belongs to a very exclusive and highly competitive Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) Primary Care’s Healthcare Innovation Bootcamp Fellow – for her healthcare maternity focussed healthcare startup. Sangheetha has a background in Design Thinking and is an ex-strategy consultant at Accenture.