Panelists
Dr Kirsten Small
Dr Kirsten Small is Director Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Grafton Base Hospital in northern NSW. She works as a clinician, educator, researcher, and writer. Her vision is to promote respectful maternity care for women, babies, families, and their care providers.


Bashi Kumar-Hazard
Bashi Kumar-Hazard is an Australian lawyer and the principal of B W Law, a legal practice directed at assisting women and children, and the Legal Director of the ANZ arm of the Human Rights in Childbirth (HRiC) International Lawyers Network. Bashi’s background is in competition and consumer law and litigation, developed while working for several years with Allens in Sydney, immediately after graduating with first class honours in Law and Economics from the University of Sydney. Under her maiden surname “Kumar”, Bashi has written and spoken on issues relating to competition and trade practices law, legal professional privilege and the ethics of free speech and the philosophy of law. Bashi’s focus in law expanded soon after she had her first child. From her own experiences, Bashi became aware of the widespread impact of current obstetric models of care on the emotional health and wellbeing of mothers. That awareness took her back to working with fundamental ethical principles and human rights law and forming networks with human rights lawyers in the USA, Netherlands, UK and Europe, with whom she now works closely to develop a legal discourse around the human rights of women in pregnancy and childbirth. Bashi is mother to three amazing young children, teaches ethics and grows orchids.

Catherine Bell
Catherine Bell is a consumer advocate pursuing a PhD in how we can better facilitate communication and informed decision making in maternity care. She would like to see a shift from consent to focusing on informed decisions. She is the author of The Birth Map and hosts bellabirth.org

Claire Marks
Claire Marks (she/her) is an Endorsed Midwife with over 10 years’ experience supporting women (birthing parent) and their families through the journey of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and the post-partum phase. Claire completed a Master in Primary Maternity Care and is a published author. She has a diverse range of experience with a strong background in continuity of care models including private midwifery practice offering homebirth services and more recently experience working with Aboriginal women and families in the top end in both regional and remote settings. Claire has a strong ethos for woman-centred led care and believes strongly in the woman's right to be self determing in her own journey. She believes every woman deserves to have continuity of care with a midwife to protect and promote woman led care.