Birth & Midwifery in Brazil
RESOURCES FOR PARENTS AND PRACTITIONERS

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Some of the following sites may not be in English; an online translator may be useful.

Midwifery Today Country Contact

Heloisa Lessa and Alessandra Godinho

Heloisa Lessa is a nurse-midwife and got her masters in the subject of homebirth in an urban area of Brazil. She is an autonomous midwife doing homebirth in Rio de Janeiro a city with over six million people. She is coordinator of ReHuNa, the national net for Humanizing of Birth in Brazil. She also works with indigenous tribes and traditional midwives in the Amazon forest. She is a very active midwife and has organized large conferences about childbirth. The last one in 2005 was attendend by over 2,000 persons from 15 countries.

Alessandra Godinho is an aspiring midwife, doula and childbirth educator. She was raised in the US where her daughter Ananda was born in a birth center waterbirth with midwives. She moved back to Brazil almost four years ago and has been involved with the birth movement there, as an advocate for natural birth and homebirth. In 2004 she had her son at home and caught him herself, even though two midwives were present, an event that she characterizes as "fantastic!"

Currently, Alessandra is involved with ONG Bem Nascer (Good Birth NGO), a local birth and mothering support group she helped start in Belo Horizonte. She is a representative of Parto do Princípio (a play on words meaning both "Birth of the Beginning" and "Birth of the Principle"), a national network of women fighting for active birth and maternity rights.

To contact Heloisa Lessa, Alessandra Godinho or any other Midwifery Today Country Contact, please log in to the International Alliance of Midwives (IAM), or write to the IAM administrator.

Birth/Midwifery

• www.amigasdoparto.com.br/ Amigas do Parto (The original Amigas do Parto Web site)
• www.amigasdoparto.org.br Amigas do Parto (NGO)
• www.casasdeparto.com.br - About Birth Centers throughout Brazil
• www.doulas.com.br - Doulas do Brasil, Doula and Childbirth Educator training
• www.doulas.org.br - ANDO Associação Nacional de Doulas, Doula organization
• www.maternidadeativa.com.br - GAMA Grupo de Apoio à Maternidade Ativa, birth support and education, training for professionals
• www.partodoprincipio.com.br - Parto do Princípio, Rede de Mulheres pela Maternidade Ativa. A national network of women and support groups for active birth and maternity rights

Parenting/Breastfeeding

• La Leche League - Brazil Chapter
• www.aleitamento.com.br, http://www.amamentacao.com/ - Dr. Marcus Renato de Carvalho, Breastfeeding education and support for parents and professionals
• www.aleitamento.org.br - Grupo Origem, Breastfeeding support group
• www.ibfan.org.br - Ibfan Brasil, 25 years of breastfeeding defense

Education

• www.partonatural.com.br - Encontro de Gestação e Parto Natural Conscientes, Natural Conscious Pregnancy and Birth Congress (Yearly since 1990)
• www.rehuna.org.br - ReHuNa, Rede pela Humanização do Parto e Nascimento, Network for the Humanization of Childbirth
• www.smrn.blogger.com.br - Semana Mundial pelo Respeito ao Nascimento, Celebration of World Respected Childbirth Week in Brazil

Journals

• www.scielo.br/ - Scieo Brasil
• www.centrocochranedobrasil.org.br/lilacs.asp - The Cochrane Database, Brazil