I am pleased to announce the
2009 Birth Matters Virginia Award Recipients -----
Leslie Fehan, CNM and Sara Fariss Krivanec. Congratulations!
As a reminder, purchase your tickets now for our 8th Annual Awards and Fundraiser event, Sunday November 8th, 2009 1PM -5PM at the Renaissance Center 107 W. Broad St. Richmond. Come celebrate our award recipients , listen to Robbie Davis-Floyd speak, participate in our silent auction full of excellent items & services, as well as giving your support to Birth Matters Virginia
I would like to acknowledge our other nominees who are greatly appreciated by their communities for the excellent work and services that they provide. Birth Matters Virginia supports your efforts and continued commitment to evidence-based care practices.
Terri Svendson-Hewitt, CPM, Virginia Beach ~ Blair Conger, CNM, Virginia Beach~
Patience Salgado, Richmond ~ Nadene Brunk, Mechanicsville
Thanks goes as well to all of our members. I look forward to seeing everyone soon at what looks to be a stunning event!
Thérèse Hak-Kuhn
Executive Director, Birth Matters VA
Leslie Fehan is a graduate of Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania and trained as a certified nurse-midwife at Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing. She obtained her master's degree as a women's health nurse practitioner from Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia, where she later became adjunct faculty and practiced nurse-midwifery and as a women's health nurse practitioner. Ms. Fehan is well known in Richmond, where she has participated in community, nursing and medical education, as well as direct care for hundreds of new families.
Since February of 2006, Leslie has worked as a CNM at St. Francis Hospital in Richmond, making hospital-based midwifery care available to countless families in our community. She works continually to support women in birthing with less intervention and in receiving evidenced-based maternity care.
Birthing options in the Richmond area would be seriously lacking if not for Leslie Fehan's triumphant efforts to create and maintain a practice of hospital-based midwives. Her dedication to serving the wellness of Richmond's women and families now spans decades in our community. Most especially, Leslie's commitment to midwifery care for families birthing in the hospital is incredible. Her spirit of support and encouragement has seen innumerable women through the trials and triumphs of labor and birth. In addition to creating an option for families in maternity care; Leslie has also actualized the opportunity for other midwives to practice their passion in the Richmond hospital environment. In doing so, she has truly created a haven for families desiring hospital midwifery care in the Richmond area.
Despite hardship in the past, Leslie has worked tirelessly, refusing to be deterred in her mission of making supportive midwifery are a reality for Richmond parents-to-be. Her constant availability to her clients, patiently standing with them, advocating continually for the normalcy of birth in a hospital which does not always understand birth as normal, recalls the truest origins of midwifery care. As a community, we are truly and deeply grateful for her willingness to stand on the line again and again and again, in the face of doubt, disbelief, and adversity saying, "Yes. Birth is normal. And you can do it!"
In 2001, Sara Krivanec was a young mom with a baby on her hip and a thought in her head that reverberated deep into her heart that just would not go away. She had had a cesarean section with her son TJ yet she felt that it was not medically necessary. She wanted to understand the why of it and what she could do to help herself so that she could avoid repeating the experience if possible. She wanted to be better educated and to have clarity of what options existed. But she was not satisfied with just her own self healing; she wanted to support and pass on this education in order to encourage other women to feel their strength. The birth of TJ, as "traumatic" as it seemed to be, began a journey for Sara that has not just benefited her but so many women and families in her community and throughout the state.
Her passion is educating others about natural childbirth with a special interest in supporting those in the community who want a VBAC. She is past leader and avid supporter of ICAN of Richmond, a cesarean and VBAC support group. Sara is a certified birth doula, as well as, a postpartum doula. She has attended dozens of births, helping women and their partners to be active participants in their birth experiences as she informed them of the options, choices and alternatives that exist so that they could make truly informed decisions. Many, many women, men and babies have benefited from having known Sara's care.
As President of Virginia Friends of Midwives, she worked tirelessly to help get passage of the legislation that finally recognized Certified Professional Midwives in Virginia. She currently chairs the VABirthPAC; a group that works to impact evidence-based Maternal/Child health policies for the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Throughout all of this work she continued her academic studies, recently receiving her B.A. in Women's Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Sara is mother to three wonderful kids; Thomas, Mia a successful hospital VBAC and Aidan, born at home. Sam has been her supportive partner and husband throughout this transition.
It has been a privilege to walk with Sara on this amazing path and see the personal and professional growth she has achieved.
