Where we started, and where we’re going…

Julie Moon

Julie is the owner and lead facilitator at Midwives Untethered. Julie is a Certified Nurse Midwife and NRP Instructor Mentor who has been teaching NRP since 2001, and since 2014 has been specializing in community based birth.  She started her career in EMS, and has a Bachelor’s in Nursing and Master’s in Midwifery.  In recent years she has taught maternal and newborn content for Paramedic academies, provided education for local city and volunteer departments, and written and collaborated on content at the national level to help guide collaboration of midwives and EMS.  She has spent years working towards making the transfer and transport of birthing families as seamless as possible by working with EMS and midwives to develop skills and protocols. Julie is passionate about helping to provide birth and resuscitation education wherever it is needed to help make birth a safe experience for the family and the care providers involved.  She is driven to serve and guide midwives, birthworkers, EMS and all caregivers to optimize their care and their own well-being.  She knows the key to this is caregivers who are self-aware, compassionate, and empowered to perform within functional systems, while being well educated to assess needs and perform safely in those systems.  She is honored to guard physiologic birth and the traditions of midwifery, while advocating for safe, quality care.

 

What People Are Saying

  • Jessica Sawyer, CPM, CDM, Mat-Su Midwifery

    Julie’s trauma course is a safe, supportive setting to explore how we are affected by unexpected, difficult or stressful situations that inevitably arise as we work intimately with families, colleagues and the unpredictable nature of birth. Our team learned practically helpful information about how our brains process stressful situations and some simple things we can do to minimize trauma and support each other well. We were able to share some of our individual perspectives and experiences, which helped us get to know each other better and improve our teamwork

  • Anonymous Learner

    I have been taking hospital based NRP from 1995-2021, and was even an NRP instructor for 8 years. Then I came across Julie's NRP course on the AABC website, specifically designed for community birth workers. Until I took this course, I didn't realize what I had been missing. This 7 hr intensive course was not only extremely informative, it provided me with hands on practice, numerous drills, and it allowed me to connect with other birth workers in my area. I feel so much better prepared for an emergency resuscitation now

  • Melissa P., CNM

    I just took Julie’s NRP course 2 weeks ago, & it was hands down the best one I’ve ever attended in 25 years of doing this work. It’s worth it!

  • Heather P. MHSc, RDN, IBCLC

    “

    As a lactation consultant who follows mothers for months after birth, I have been closely involved as they process their birth experiences. I found Julie’s seminar to be exceptionally helpful. Julie’s genuine passion for the topic and thoughtful, down to earth approach gave me practical strategies for taking care of my human self as well as taking care of the human mothers I work with

    ”

  • Alana R., RN

    “ It was refreshing to be able to share a little and listen to others as we explored their cases. We were all mesmerized and refreshed by the information Julie shared with us. I left our short class feeling refreshed and invigorated. “

Olga Ryan

Olga has been an NRP instructor for more than 20 years and has been teaching NRP in the community birth setting since 2006.  She has worked as a birth assistant, nurse manager, and administrative director at two birth centers in southern Arizona.  She has worked with the Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers for many years in various roles including Sentinel Event reviews and as a member of the AABC Standards Committee, and helped write the 2016 edition of the Standards for Birth Centers. As a sister and mother of firefighter/paramedics, she really enjoys teaching and partnering with first responders in training for birth and newborn response.  Teaching midwives and medics together feels incredibly important for improvement of teamwork and decreasing safety errors that mothers and babies can experience in pre-hospital care. 

 

What People Are Saying

  • Josh, Paramedic

    Olga…your warm welcome and inclusive teaching style put me at ease right away. Despite it being outside of my routine day to day calls, I felt comfortable throughout the class. Your guidance and expertise helped me to gain much-needed confidence in the skills required for newborn resuscitation.

  • Anonymous learner

    I really liked that the course was geared to situations that would be most likely to happen in a birth center environment. I also really liked that the instructor (Olga) gave examples and ways to make certain skills “easier” to remember when in a high stress environment.

  • Anonymous Learner

    I really liked seeing other scenarios but especially Olga tailoring the scenarios for the homebirth midwives to homebirth. The debriefing was thorough as all were encouraged to share. Olga is an excellent communicator and instructor.

Melissa Lawlor

Melissa brings a wealth of lifetime experience with a varied background to the Midwives Untethered team. Her journey into medicine began 30 years ago when she became an EMT and exterior firefighter, which she is still actively involved in. She has held the position of Fire Commissioner since 2020. The natural progression in medicine began and Melissa diligently pursued her nursing education alongside mothering 3 incredible sons into adulthood. (2 FF/EMT's and 1 Engineer) Melissa has a Masters in Midwifery and a post master's certificate in Family Nurse Practitioner from Frontier Nursing University. She has worked in hospitals, homebirth and accredited birth centers. Her soul lights up supporting families in out of hospital birth. Melissa observed there was a gap in EMS OB/GYN education and thus began her drive to provide the education. She believes the EMS and Midwifery community can come together to decrease maternal/infant morbidity/mortality by utilizing evidence-based protocols in OB/GYN and NRP. Since her initial OB/GYN presentation, Melissa has gone on to present locally and nationally on the following topics: Firefighter/EMS Health and Wellness, Firefighter/EMS Reproductive Health, Breech Birth, Firefighter/EMS C-PTSD Trauma, Firefighter Rehab and continues to develop more presentations. Melissa understands fire/EMS culture. She has a refreshing "boots on the ground" perspective and teaches from this viewpoint. 

 

Grants and Research

American Association of Birth Centers Foundation Grant Recipients 2018-Neonatal Resuscitation Provider Training for birth center staff-An analysis of efficacy

American Association of Birth Centers Foundation Grant Recipients 2023-Neonatal Resuscitation Provider Training for birth center staff-An analysis of efficacy and compilation and preparation for dissemination of data ; Neonatal Resuscitation Provider Instructor Surveys and compilation of data