Our Training Team
Our trainers are hand-picked for their ability to do three things: teach you, inspire you and help you grow. We support, encourage and spark each other to create great curriculum. Every Heart Soul Birth Pros trainer shares the same values (heart + business + community), and we're all successful birth business owners in our home areas. Get to know the team!
Interested in becoming a Heart Soul Birth Pros trainer? We're currently adding DONA approved birth and postpartum doula trainers, and we're also looking for Lamaze certified childbirth educators to become trainers. Email jessica@heartsoulbirthpros.com for all the details.
JESSICA ENGLISH, OWNER & LEAD TRAINER
BA, BDT/AdvCD/PCD(DONA), LCCE, FACCE
Jessica started her birth business as a childbirth educator in 2005. Today, she is also an advanced certified birth doula, postpartum doula, owner of Michigan's first and longest-running doula agency, and the owner and lead trainer at Heart Soul Birth Pros. She is a DONA approved birth doula trainer and a Lamaze program director and trainer. When she's not taking care of families or training up birth workers, Jessica is transitioning to become an "adulting consultant" to her sons as they blossom into amazing young men. She loves fishing, travel and spending time on the water with her husband Keith and their boys. Learn more about Jessica.
JENNIFER R. DAY, BREASTFEEDING TRAINER
IBCLC, RLC, CLS, CLE
Jennifer Day is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, birth doula, and founder and owner of Feed the Babes, LLC, where she offers in-home and clinic-based breastfeeding support. She also serves as the community building project manager for the Michigan Breastfeeding Network, and she is a founding member of the Southeast Michigan IBCLCs of Color. The mother of two happy, healthy, breastfed children, Jennifer has made it her life mission to disrupt the broken systems that plague families impacted by systemic racism and injustice. She is a dual Canadian and American citizen. She, her husband, and their two children live in Metro-Detroit, Michigan.
SHONTE' TERHUNE-SMITH, BREASTFEEDING TRAINER
BS, IBCLC, CLS
Shonte’ Terhune-Smith is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and health educator. She is also a co-founder of Southeast Michigan IBCLCs of Color. Over the past 10 years, she has worked diligently in Genesee County to increase breastfeeding rates. She has worked in the hospital as a lactation intern and at various pediatric and obstetrician clinics, promoting and educating women about breastfeeding. She facilitates local support groups, works with community partners, provides doula services, and recently completed training to be a childbirth educator. Shonte' has worked with hundreds of families to provide education, support, and empowerment. She prides herself in caring, professional, efficient, and trustworthy care. Normalizing breastfeeding is her passion. Her goal is to provide care with cultural humility for all families. Shonte’ has breastfed her four children and understands that there can be struggles of breastfeeding, the importance of support, and how rewarding it is to overcome the struggles. She lives in Grand Blanc, Michigan.
KRISTA MALTAIS, POSTPARTUM DOULA TRAINER
PDT/AdvPCD(DONA), ALC
Krista Maltais is an Advanced Certified Postpartum Doula (AdvPCD) and an Approved Postpartum Doula Trainer (PDT) through DONA International and an Advanced Lactation Consultant (ALC) through the Academy of Lactation Policy and Practice. She earned her bachelor’s degree in family studies from the University of New Hampshire and has worked as an adjunct professor at Great Bay College in the Early Childhood Education Department. Krista began working as a postpartum doula in 2006 and now owns Relief - Parenting Respite & Resource Center. She has worked as a postpartum doula with newborns (including many multiples), siblings and parents in a variety of settings both in the United States and abroad. She has a strong background in parent-child attachment, family dynamics, growth and development as well as family support. Krista lives in Hampton, New Hampshire.
ELON GEFFRARD, EQUITY TRAINER
BS, CD(DONA), CLC, ICCE
Elon Geffrard is co-founder of Birth Detroit and a former maternal health equity consultant with the Michigan Public Health Institute. She is also a DONA certified birth doula and childbirth educator, focusing on support for Black women through her private practice and Birth Detroit's clinic. Elon also works as a doula with the Michigan Prison Doula Initiative, supporting birthing parents who are incarcerated in the state's only women's prison. A future nurse midwife, Elon offers recorded and live equity training for Heart Soul Birth Pros' birth doulas.