Birth Tender Retreat

September 20-22, 2024

$160, plus meals and lodging

This is for YOU – the midwives, doulas, physicians, nurses, assistants, therapists and consultants. Those who have put passion into action- tending and nurturing the pregnancies, births and postpartum of others.

Take pause for a weekend in the woods of central Wisconsin. Step aside from all you do to support others and tend, nurture and renew your own connection to yourself, your calling and The Wild Divine.

It is time to reconnect with your true nature- we call this “The Wild Divine”.

Create and strengthen community with other birth tenders while allowing for the transformative space of individual reflection.

Jill and Emily have been tending birth as firstly doulas and ultimately midwives for a combined 40 years! They currently serve the Chippewa Valley communities. Their desire for strong connection with something greater than the daily grind has been the spark that birthed The Wild Divine Collective.

The Wild Divine Collective seeks to cultivate circles of connection within communities in the healing presence and guidance of wilderness.

This gathering offers the nourishment of healing arts, nature immersion, joyful movement and quiet

retreat. Whether you are seeking connection or desire solitude, this retreat will provide.

Additional registration for Breech Without Borders workshop is below.

If you sign up for the weekend retreat you will already be included in meals and do not need to fill out the meal registration for Saturday’s workshop.

If you are attending the Saturday breech workshop only and would like meals provided by the Christine Center, please register below.

Your Retreat Guides

Emily Sisco APNP, CNM and Jill Tormoen APNP, CNM met in 2018 when Emily was one of Jill’s clinical midwifery preceptors. As the universe would have it-they were unknowingly a part of an wider, overlapping circle of mutuals passionate about birth advocacy.

They have been friends and midwife partners in the Chippewa Valley of Wisconsin ever since.
They enjoy going on adventurous escapes that include spiritual development and nature immersion in all seasons of weather and life. Their newest project is a business muse called “The Wild Divine Collective”.

Emily started her birth work as a doula in Duluth, MN. After nursing school she continued her doula work while also working as a Maternal Child Public Health Nurse for the Center for American Indian Resources. Midwifery was always her dream and in 2009 she moved back to West Central Wisconsin to start midwifery school. She’s still learning and growing while working as a midwife for the last 13 years.

Jill began tending birth as a doula in 2002, evolved to a homebirth midwife assistant in central Wisconsin in 2012 and ultimately became a certified nurse midwife in 2019. She devotes time at a bustling hospital practice. Her heart was full with hospice nursing prior to her full time birth adventures and holds sacred space for “the coming and the going”.

Speakers

Amanda Mondlock

Amanda graduated with her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology in 2006 and immediately began working for a non-profit, coordinating a Sexual Assault Resource Center, where she remained for 13 years. During this career she worked with the Assistant Attorney General to consult Universities, Law Enforcement Agencies, and Hospitals around the state on implementing trauma informed policies and protocols.

After having her child in 2011, she became passionate about carrying her skills of education, counseling, and advocacy over to the birth world. She has been working as a birth & postpartum doula since 2019 and a childbirth educator since 2021. She prioritizes families feeling empowered, informed, and supported during such an intimate and vulnerable time in their life. She hopes to help reduce incidences of birth trauma, one client at a time.

She will be leading a session “Understanding and Managing Vicarious Trauma. How to continue providing compassionate care while maintaining your own well-being.”

Katie McMorran PT

Katie has been weaving the practices of yoga, reiki and physical therapy together since 2007 for herself and clients. She offers teachings for professional women to tap in and remember how to honor and trust their intuition for greater healing in themselves and their community.

She will be leading a guided moving meditation session “ Restore the Floor: Vibrant Self Meditation and Womb Space Clearing”.

Movement Facilitators

Christie Reynolds CPM, LM, IBCLC

Christie has cared for the diverse population of central Wisconsin home birth families with In the Beginning Midwives for nearly 20 years. Following three years in Bangladesh, first as a Peace Corps volunteer and later with the Nirapad Ma (Healthy Mother) project, she returned to the US to complete a master’s degree in community health. While researching the impact of continuous labor support on birth outcomes, she trained as a doula and birth assistant. Drawn to birth work, she continued her education and became a certified professional midwife. She became an IBCLC in 2018, and in 2023, she attended her 800th birth.

Christie guides a resonant, all-levels vinyasa flow class. Students begin to build warmth with breath and movement to safely support flexibility as the class stretches toward savasana (resting pose).
She and her family live in a sweet, old farmhouse just outside Waupaca, WI.

Cheryl Berkley

Let Love, LLC was founded by Cheryl Berkley with the intention to hold space for
people to invite awareness, intention, compassion, and Love in Birth and in all of life.

Cheryl currently journeys alongside people on their path through pregnancy, Birth, postpartum, and parenthood. Her offerings are an ever-evolving curation of practices unique to the individual or small group she is practicing with. The practices Cheryl weaves in are those she finds most nourishing in her own life, including Birth Story Sharing Circles, individual or small group postpartum practices and connections, prenatal and postpartum yoga, Birth support person partner practices, breath awareness, meditation, visualization, Ayurvedic principles, education, a connection with Mother Earth, doula care, if requested, and a comprehensive Birth preparation with the Birthing from Within philosophy created by Pam England. She also finds great joy in supporting people who are supporting others by holding space for midwives, doulas, Birth tenders, spiritual guides, teachers, childcare providers, caregivers, and all people growing more Love in the world. It is a family effort as her husband and three daughters provide a deep well of support for the preparations of practices and care given. Cheryl and her family are truly grateful for and humbled by the opportunity to help weave this tapestry of Birth, of humanity, of community, and of Love, in our time