Authors

Irene de Graaf obtained a doctorate at the university of Amsterdam in 1999 with a thesis entitled “ on first trimester Down syndrome screening”. She graduated as gynecologist in 2005. She worked for 7 years as a general gynecologist. In 2012 she switched to the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam to become a perinatologist. Her approach towards teaching resulted in an appointment as principal educator. Fields of interest are perinatology, pregnancy and psychiatry. She is a strong advocate of autonomy in childbirth and shared decision making.

Jaap van der Wal, PhD, is medical doctor and is now retired from the department of Anatomy and Embryology at the University of Maastricht, Holland. He worked as associate professor and later senior lecturer at various universities and schools in Holland. He also lectures on Medical Anthropology. In his research he specialized in the functional anatomy of locomotion and published about the functional architecture of connective tissue and fasciae as well as its (their) role in proprioception. “But my main passion”, he states, “still is the embryology.

Jamie E. Banker, Ph.D., is MFT Director of Counseling Psychology, MFT program, at California Lutheran University, 3263 Pioneer St., #4250, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360. E-mail: jbanker@callutheran.edu.

Janet Kilbride is presently affiliated with the Philadelphia Geriatric Center, Behavioral Research, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19141, U.S.A. A past secretary/Treasurer of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research, she has published in psychological and anthropological journals on topics concerning infancy, socialization, and facial expression recognition. She has recently co-authored with Philip Kilbride, Changing Family Life in East Africa: Women and Children at Risk, University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1990.

Jannet Bakker graduated as a midwife in 1979. During 18 years she worked as an independent midwife in a practice with mainly home deliveries in the Netherlands. There she developed interest in the physiology of childbirth and motivation to advocate the right of every woman to make autonomous decisions. She obtained a doctorate in the Faculty of Medicine of Amsterdam in 2013 with a thesis titled “studies on induced labor”.

Jeannine Parvati Baker has published in many journals on the psychological and spiritual aspects of fertility. Jeannine is the author of Prenatal Yoga & Natural birth, Hygieia: A Woman's Herbal and co-author with Frederick Baker of Conscious Conception: Elementary Journey Through the Labyrinth of Sexuality. Address correspondence to the author at Box 398, Monroe, UT 84754, USA.