
Back to Birth
-2025-
Event Time
November 8
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Event Location
OHSU Campus
2730 S Moody Ave
Portland, OR 97201

2025
Back to Birth

The Martha Lecture Series is having its 32nd Annual Event and we are excited to have you join us. The day will be filled with in-depth discussions around birth and then postpartum. We envision a day in which the audience is engaged with the material by each speaker. We will be hearing from speakers from around Oregon on topics such as Induction of labor, fetal positioning, chorioamnionitis and care during the postpartum period.
In-Person Event
Registration/check-in opens at 7:30
Lunch included in all ticket registrations
Attend Virtually
Lectures will be showed via WebEx
A link will be sent to all virtual attendees the week preceding the event
Post-Event
Access to the recorded lectures will be available for 30 days following the event
Early Bird (before 9/22): $200
standard Admission: $275
Student Admission: $50
Virtual Admission: $175
click here to register NowBIPOC Community
Members Free Registration
- Add a ticket via the form below
- Input discount code: BIPOC2025
- Proceed with checkout for $0
This Discount is
Supported by WHA

PRESENTATIONS
We will be covering topics that directly impact our laboring patients and how we can have a positive impact on their success. Our speakers will dive deep into 2 hour sessions each with their own audience engagement for hands on learning throughout the day.
Keep Calm & Ripen On: Updates in Induction of Labor Guidelines

Stacey Wilson, MSN, CNM
She has been a full scope CNM for over 30 years. Convinced that there should be a midwife at every meeting, she has served in a leadership capacity for 20 of those years. At Kaiser Permanente she works at both local and national levels in promoting perinatal patient safety. Locally, she keeps busy as the lead of the Kaiser Westside Midwives. With the help of others, she has developed an induction algorithm for their large group practice. As a champion of the interprofessional collaborative model of care, she revised Kaiser’s collaborative guidelines. More recently she has focused on postpartum hemorrhage reduction.
As a mentor for OB-GYN residents and medical and midwifery students for many years, she teaches the soft skills, such as encouraging all learners to consider “what can I give back to this birthing person?” before ever walking into the room.
Even at this stage in her career, she still loves catching babies in the middle of the night. In her spare time she enjoys going on adventures with her husband and their two adult sons. She is well known in Portland as an enthusiastic chicken keeper, and many local coops hold the results of her chick nursery.

Michele Megregian, PhD, CNM, FACNM
She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Midwifery Program and Marquam Hill Practice Manager at OHSU School of Nursing. She earned her midwifery degree from Columbia University in 1998, and went on to practice in the Chicagoland area until 2009, when she moved to Portland. Reaching back to her undergraduate philosophy roots she earned a Certificate in Biomedical Ethics at Portland State University in 2011, completed a Fellowship in Bioethics with the OHSU Center for Ethics in Healthcare in 2013, and her PhD in Ethics from Maastricht University in the Netherlands in 2021. She has multiple publications on the topic of midwifery ethics and shared decision-making. When not at OHSU or driving up/down the I-5 corridor, you’ll find Michele hiking the Oregon coast and canoeing Oregon’s watertrails.

Christine Morales, DNP, CNM, FACNM
She is the Medical Director for the Nurse-Midwives at Salem Health in Oregon. She completed graduate school in 2008 and her DNP in 2010, both at the University of Colorado Denver. She is passionate about increasing access to midwifery care. She has developed several quality improvement projects throughout her career aimed at improving outcomes, increasing access and continuity of care, respect for patient choice, and improving patient education. She is currently completing a Master of Legal Studies in Healthcare Law. When she is not working, she enjoys exploring the Oregon coast, hot yoga, playing with her dogs, and spending time with her husband and two teenage sons.
This presentation will review medications & interventions for induction of labor. It will review available options, risks and benefits. It will compare induction of labor statistics for Portland-area hospital systems. It will give specific protocols and strategies for induction of labor and review pros and cons of these options.
Pregnancy, Pain, and Positioning:
Using myofascial release to ease pregnancy and birth
This session explores a dynamic, physiologically-informed approach to addressing pregnancy-related pain and optimizing fetal positioning using gentle myofascial release techniques. Grounded in the work of Dr. Carol Phillips, this presentation will introduce foundational concepts of fascial mobility, and discuss their application in clinical scenarios involving pregnancy pain, fetal malposition and labor dystocia. Attendees will learn how to integrate these methods into prenatal and intrapartum care to support maternal comfort, balance pelvic structures, and promote optimal fetal engagement and rotation. Emphasis will be placed on individualized assessment and hands-on strategies for midwives and perinatal providers.

Michelle Turney, CNM
A certified nurse-midwife with over a decade of clinical experience. She has practiced full-scope midwifery since 2013 and began integrating bodywork into her care in 2017 after training in myofascial release techniques under Dr. Carol Phillips, originator of the Side-Lying Release and Forward-Leaning Inversion. She specializes in breech balancing, pregnancy-related pain, and addressing fetal malposition and labor dystocia through manual and positional techniques. Currently a PhD student at Oregon Health & Science University entering her third year, she works under the mentorship of Dr. Ellen Tilden. Her research focuses on persistent occiput posterior (OP) fetal position.
Labor: How long is too long or is that even the question

Ellen Tilden, PhD, CNM, FACNM, FAAN
Dr. Tilden’s research addresses maternity health systems improvements to decrease maternal morbidity and mortality, with a particular focus on prenatal care, labor progress, cesarean reduction, and maternal mental health. Her work improves the quality and safety of U.S. perinatal care via influencing clinical guidelines on labor management, driving state policies on doula care reimbursement, translating mental health interventions to the prenatal care setting, and dismantling professional silos between midwifery and physician teams. Dr. Tilden is the Chief Scientific Officer at Center Mom, Inc. She serves as the Associate Editor of Birth, Data Management Chair within the American College of Nurse-Midwives Division of Research, the Institute for Medicaid Innovation and the Leapfrog Group
Dr. Tilden earned her BA with Phi Beta Kappa from Reed College, her RN, MS, and CNM degrees from the University of California at San Francisco, and her PhD from Oregon Health and Science University. She is a Fellow of the American College of Nurse-Midwives as well as of the American Academy of Nursing.

Michelle Turney, CNM
A certified nurse-midwife with over a decade of clinical experience. She has practiced full-scope midwifery since 2013 and began integrating bodywork into her care in 2017 after training in myofascial release techniques under Dr. Carol Phillips, originator of the Side-Lying Release and Forward-Leaning Inversion. She specializes in breech balancing, pregnancy-related pain, and addressing fetal malposition and labor dystocia through manual and positional techniques. Currently a PhD student at Oregon Health & Science University entering her third year, she works under the mentorship of Dr. Ellen Tilden. Her research focuses on persistent occiput posterior (OP) fetal position.
Causal factors driving poor neonatal outcomes are complex and intertwined. Longer durations of labor have long been presumed to increase neonatal risk, but research testing this hypothesis demonstrates mixed results. Our presentation will trace the research that led up to our hypothesis that chorioamnionitis has been overlooked as a key neonatal risk driver. We will review the results of our recently published latent class analysis examining the mediating role of chorioamnionitis in poor neonatal outcomes and discuss its implications for future research and potential clinical application.
Integrating Postpartum Care into Prenatal Care
This presentation will explore postpartum planning as an essential strategy for improving perinatal health outcomes, highlighting a doctoral quality improvement project that successfully integrated postpartum planning into a hospital-based midwifery practice. Participants will leave with a clear, actionable framework for incorporating postpartum planning into their work with families. The session will include interactive activities that anchor the overarching concepts, as well as clinical skills, so that participants come away ready to implement these strategies in their care. We will close out our time together with an opportunity to explore how these same principles can be applied to our personal and professional well being.

Joanna Wilder, CNM CPM, DNP (she/her)
Joanna is a mom, a midwife, and an educator. She has welcomed babies in many settings. She was first a nurse: 3 years in the hospital and 14 in a freestanding birth center. Joanna trained in a midwifery apprenticeship and became a certified professional midwife (CPM) in 2010, with a home birth practice in Phoenix for eight years. After 40 years in the desert, she returned to her Oregon roots in 2018. Joanna attended Frontier Nursing University to become a Certified Nurse Midwife, graduating in 2022 with her MSN, and 2024 with a DNP. Joanna has taught nurses and midwives, from the community college to the baccalaureate and masters level. Her practice, Mariposa Midwifery, offers integrative gynecology, prenatal and postpartum care, as well as homebirth. Joanna is passionate about creating safe, inclusive spaces for individuals to feel at home in their bodies. She loves seeing folks own their body-story journey and experience the power of respectful trauma-informed care.

Kestrel Gates
She is a mother and perinatal health advocate living in Clatsop County on the Oregon Coast. She developed the Build Your Nest Postpartum Navigator Pilot Project, a community-based program that helps families prepare for the postpartum time and supports them through the first three months. The program is fiscally sponsored by Baby Blues Connection, a perinatal health organization based in Portland, Oregon. She is the author of the Build Your Nest postpartum planning workbook which has been translated into six languages. She is currently on the Oregon Perinatal Collaborative steering committee, is the chair for the Resilient Clatsop County community sector workgroup, and is the co-founder of the Clatsop Perinatal Task Force. She is a La Leche League leader and has training in doula work, lactation, and perinatal mental health. She brings her lived experience as a parent and community member to this work with a passion for creating systems and cultures of care.
Union Panel:
Midwives in Labor
We will have several Midwife Union Leaders from multiple institutions throughout Oregon to discuss the Union they represent, where they are in the unionizing process and the benefits of unions. This will be an open ended question and answer time for attendees.

Continuing Education Credits
provided Through
The American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) & Oregon Association of Naturopathic Physicians
REGISTER now WITH ASTUDENT DISCOUNT
LOCATION
Our event is being held at the OHSU Robertson Collaborative Life Sciences Building (RLSB), located on the OHSU Campus at 2730 S Moody Ave Portland, OR 97201. Events and seminars will happen throughout the day (November 8th, 2025) from 8am to 5pm with Check-In starting at 7:30am in the first floor lobby of the building.
You can learn more about visiting the RLSB via the OHSU website or gather more general information about travelling to the OHSU South Waterfront via it’s dedicated website. Both websites have detailed .pdf maps (in multiple translations), information about parking and local guidance.
Directions via Google Maps
PARKING
The RLSB provides ADA parking and pay-to-park options via the Robertson Life Sciences Building Parking Garage located between RLSB and Knight Cancer Research Building (S Meade St at S Moody Ave).
There is limited free parking in the “Schnitzer Lot” just north of the building. The lot also includes ADA spaces, options for oversized vehicles and motorcycles. The address for the parking lot near the lecture event is 2600 S Moody Ave Portland, OR 97201.
If you are able, we encourage you to take public transportation as parking availability is not guaranteed, more information can be found in the righthand sidebar of the building’s Oregon Health & Sciences University webpage.
Transportation Options
*The Tram and bike valet are located a 6 minute walk south.
REGISTRATION
Form Instructions
To register for the event, use the form below – here’s what to expect.
Page 1:
- Select your ticket quantities (press the “Add +” buttons)
- Fill out the event registration required information
- Add an optional donation that goes directly to the Oregon ACNM Foundation
- Click the “Continue” button.
Page 2:
- Enter your information and your organization’s info (if applicable)
- Apply any discount codes (including BIPOC)
- A donation to our ticket system (Zeffy) is pre-selected! The Foundation does not receive funds from this specific option, you can learn more about Zeffy here. To pay $0, click the drop down and select “Other”, then type in “$0” into the “Contribution” input box that appears.
- Enter your payment information
- Click the “Buy Tickets” button to submit
That’s it! Ticket details will be sent to the email you used.
Helpful Hints & FAQs
Helpful Hints & FAQ’s
- If you are attending the event in person, you will use the QR code in your registration confirmation email to check-in.
- Video access will be provided close to the day of the event, via the email you used to register.
- If you get stuck scrolling using the form below, use the “Add +” button to add a ticket. The section will then allow you to scroll and adjust your quantities.
- Having trouble with the form on our website? You can view it on Zeffy by clicking here: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/the-martha–2025
- Tax receipts are available for donations added onto your ticket purchase. If you do not receive one automatically, please fill out a request form here and we’ll email it directly to you. Note, only one tax receipt will be issued for the purchaser, multiple registrations per single email/form submission cannot be split up for non-organization tax records.
It’s OK to change your Ticket Type!
If you feel unwell on the day of the event, please contact us asap. Your registration can be switched to virtual in order to enjoy from the comfort of your home.