Welcome the 26/27 HBA Committee

Behind every organisation doing meaningful work is a team of people who care deeply. 

The 26/27 Homebirth Australia committee is no exception. Across clinical expertise, lived experience, and years of community advocacy, this committee represents some of the most committed voices in the Australian home birth movement. 
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Get to know the women who will be showing up for you this year.

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Katelyn Commerford | Coordinator

​Doula, VBAC educator, and President of Homebirth New South Wales, Katelyn brings four years of national advocacy experience to the Homebirth Australia committee. Her advocacy was sparked by the birth of her second child, her first planned homebirth, and has since been shaped by her work supporting women in birth spaces and her commitment to continuity of midwifery care.
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Katelyn's core position: women should be the decision makers about where, how, and with whom they birth, and every woman should be able to access continuity of midwifery care.

She joins the 26/27 committee as Coordinator with a focus on uniting the homebirth community to drive meaningful systemic change.​"Though we've seen some good wins in recent years, the fight for accessible homebirth for all who desire it is far from over. The homebirth community is a small but extremely passionate one, and I truly believe that we can achieve a lot if we work together, which is what brought me to take on Homebirth Australia coordinator and help unite us all for the battles ahead."

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Kate Lyons | Assistant Coordinator

Kate brings a background in social work and healthcare to the Homebirth Australia committee, with professional experience as a dental nurse and a broad foundation in community support. Her commitment to homebirth advocacy is grounded in lived experience - the stark contrast between a COVID hospital birth with her first child and a homebirth with her second made her passionate about expanding access and support for families who choose to birth at home.

Based on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria, Kate is driven by a deep belief in the value of community, continuity of care, and postpartum support. Values she hopes to further develop through future training as a postpartum doula.

​She joins the 26/27 committee as Assistant Coordinator with a focus on contributing to Homebirth Australia's advocacy goals and strengthening the community around birth and early parenthood.

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Fiona Marlow | Secretary

Fiona is a midwife, nurse, occupational therapist, and researcher with a career shaped by maternity care across multiple contexts including work in Timor-Leste and within Australian hospital systems.

As a mother of four and grandmother of three, she brings both clinical depth and lived experience to the committee. Her philosophy is clear: birth is not a medical event by default, but a normal physiological process that unfolds best when women are trusted, informed, and supported.

She is a passionate advocate for evidence-based maternity care that is free from unnecessary intervention and genuinely centred on women and babies. Fiona believes that for the vast majority of women, birthing at home with trusted support and skilled midwifery presence is not only a valid choice, it is the safest one.

​Fiona joins the 26/27 committee as Secretary, bringing her clinical credentials, research background, and unwavering commitment to protecting women's right to birth safely and with dignity.

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Virginia Maddock | Events Coordinator

Virginia is a doula of 20 years, natural therapist, holistic bodyworker, birth photographer, and placenta encapsulator, operating through her practice Natural Beginnings.

​Her advocacy for homebirth spans more than 17 years ignited by the birth of her first child at home and has been sustained through active involvement with Homebirth NSW (2009–2020), Doula Network Australia, and Homebirth Australia. With four Homebirth Australia conferences already under her belt as an organiser, Virginia brings rare institutional knowledge and hands-on experience to the Events Coordinator role. She is one of the most experienced voices on the 26/27 committee, and a deeply committed advocate for the homebirth community.

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Susanna Alvarado | Community Engagement Coordinator

Susanna is a doula, movement specialist, and bodyworker at The Birth Suite, with over 20 years of experience supporting women, first as a fitness and powerlifting coach, and now as a birth worker committed to physiological birth and women-centred care. As a HBAC mother, she brings lived experience of navigating the system and advocating for her own birth choices.
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Susanna joins the 26/27 committee as Community Engagement Coordinator, focused on building meaningful connections across the homebirth community and championing every woman's right to feel seen, heard, and supported through pregnancy, birth, and beyond.

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​Philippa Scott | Advertising Coordinator

Philippa is a trauma therapist, birth worker, and parenting mentor with more than 20 years of experience supporting families through pregnancy, birth, and early parenting. She is the founder of Fantastic Futures and creator of The Regulated Mother Method™ - a framework supporting mothers to heal birth trauma and build confidence in parenting. Her advocacy is extensive and practical: she was part of the campaign that brought the Townsville birth centre to life in 2008, and has spent over two decades championing informed choice and respectful maternity care as a doula, childbirth educator, and consumer advocate. Homebirth is deeply personal for Philippa.

She is the mother of two home-birthed babies including one born as a freebirth due to the absence of available homebirth midwives and is now a proud grandmother of a home-birthed baby. These experiences underpin her conviction that every family deserves real options, good information, and genuine support around birth.

​Philippa joins the 26/27 committee as Advertising Coordinator, bringing her clinical expertise, advocacy history, and personal commitment to keeping family voices at the centre of the conversation.

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Jo Askham | Website Coordinator

Jo is an independent midwife and experienced doula whose path to midwifery was shaped by decades of supporting families through pregnancy and birth. Her own three births, spanning a hospital birth and two planned homebirths, alongside years of witnessing managed, production-line maternity care, crystallised her commitment to finding a better way. Her practice centres on supporting optimal birth experiences outside of acquiescent care, with a focus on families being well informed and physically, emotionally, and spiritually supported through pregnancy and birth.

Alongside her midwifery work, Jo brings professional administrative expertise as a consultant and organises a broad range of birth events, workshops, and support circles.

​Jo joins the 26/27 committee as Website Coordinator, contributing both her clinical perspective and her organisational experience to the work of Homebirth Australia.

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​Jenna Fivaz | Advocacy Coordinator

Jenna is a registered nurse whose path into birth advocacy was shaped by personal experience - a deep interest in physiological birth following the birth of her first daughter in 2019, a homebirth with her second in 2021, and the privilege of being present at three of her sister's births, two of which were homebirths.

​Jenna joined the Homebirth Australia committee in 2023 as Website Coordinator before stepping into the Advocacy role, bringing continuity and growing institutional knowledge to the 26/27 committee. Her clinical background as a registered nurse, combined with her lived experience of homebirth, positions her well to bridge the gap between evidence-based care and community advocacy.

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​Caitlin Dowswell | Social Media Coordinator

Caitlin is a bodyworker, yoga teacher, and doula based in Kiama on the NSW South Coast, with a background in midwifery studies at ACU Brisbane. It was during that training that she first encountered the dissonance between the natural rhythms of birth and the hospitalised maternity system and began advocating for a more supportive, woman-centred approach.

​Witnessing her first homebirth in 2022 was a turning point: the empowerment, comfort, and ease she observed confirmed what she had long felt - that women deserve to birth in an environment where those natural rhythms are truly supported. Her passion now lies in sharing knowledge and experience to help women make informed choices about their birthing journey.

Caitlin joins the 26/27 committee as Social Media Coordinator, bringing her embodied understanding of women's wellbeing and her commitment to growing awareness of homebirth as a safe, supported option.

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​Allyson Hickey | Memberships Coordinator

​​Allyson is a Registered Midwife based in Adelaide, currently working in a midwifery education role. She is the mother of two children, both born at home with a private midwife, and brings both clinical expertise and lived experience of homebirth to the committee. Allyson is a passionate advocate for homebirth, waterbirth, and women's right to informed choice in maternity care, and joins the 26/27 committee as Memberships Coordinator.

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Eve Moeller & Erin Akhtarkhavari | Communications Co-Coordinators

Eve

Eve is a mother of two whose path to advocacy was shaped by her own birth experiences  including a planned homebirth that transferred to hospital and ended in an emergency caesarean. It was through this experience, held by her private midwife and doula, that she understood firsthand the difference skilled, compassionate support makes and the cost when it is absent. Eve is passionate about expanding access to homebirth, supporting informed choice, and addressing birth trauma within a maternity system that she believes must better centre women. Her commitment to Homebirth Australia is rooted in her experience of matrescence and a determination that the next generation of women should not be left asking — what just happened to me?

Erin

​​​Erin is a yoga teacher, mentor, and space-holder with over 12 years of experience working with the body including extensive study of the energetic body and a long-standing practice of supporting women through significant life transitions. She has taught yoga to thousands of women, facilitated hundreds of full moon circles, rituals, and retreats, and has led an ongoing meditation community, The Coven, for over eight years. Her understanding of birth is shaped by both her professional grounding in women's embodiment and her own lived experience - a planned homebirth that became a freebirth when her baby arrived before her midwife. That experience deepened her respect for women's autonomy and the deeply personal nature of birth. Erin brings to the Communications role a commitment to clear, considered, values-aligned communication that supports women to feel informed and resourced in their birthing choices.

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This committee is here because they believe that every woman deserves to feel safe, informed, and supported in how she brings her baby into the world. 

​That belief is what unites us, and it is what will drive the work ahead.
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We are glad you are part of this community. Stay close... there is a lot coming.

From all of us on the HBA Committee x