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About our Founder

Janice Banther, CCE, CD(DONA)
Janice Banther is the founder and Executive Director of For the Love of Birth, Inc. (formerly the Women's Health Center). She has been supporting expecting mothers and their babies since 1983 and has been a birth doula at over 500 births in the Tampa Bay Area. She was one of the first certified birth doulas with DONA International in Florida and is both a certified birth doula and an approved birth doula trainer with DONA International. She is also a certified birth doula and birth doula trainer with CAPPA. Janice is a former member of the Board of Directors of DONA International.

Janice is a certified childbirth educator with B.E.S.T. (Council of Childbirth Educators). She is also a RTS Bereavement Coordinator for mothers and their families to help them in their time of deepest need. Her love and work with expecting mothers, many in crises or difficult life circumstances, was recognized by the Salvation Army in 2002 when they bestowed upon her the coveted "OTHERS" award for the Southeastern United States in honor of work on behalf of "others.

Her personal achievement and her development of a staff of caring professional women earned Janice recognition by the Palm Harbor Junior Women's Club as their "Woman of the Year" in 2001. In March 2002, she was one of four women in upper Pinellas County honored during Women's History Month. She is the founder of the childbirth education and birth doula program at Pasco County Jail. She is also the mentor for the upper Pinellas County MOPS (Mothers Of Preschoolers) group.

Janice has been featured in numerous television, radio and print interviews including the national magazine CHILD. But she considers her most rewarding work as wife to Barry and mother to David and his wife Ruth, John, a sophomore at The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Also, Casey, the best lap dog always is part of the family. Her hobby is collecting old quilts, scrap booking, reading, and going to the mountains in North Carolina.