Rabbi Shira Shazeer is the founder and director of the Jewish Birth Network a Boston-based organization dedicated to helping emerging connect with the miraculous in pregnancy, birth, and parenting as they connect with other families and explore their Jewish, health care and parenting choices.  She received ordination from Hebrew College in June 2010 and is also studying towards certification as a childbirth educator through Childbirth International.  Before rabbinical school, she studied in the Scholars Circle at Drisha Institute for Jewish Education in New York.  She has guided families in planning and facilitated numerous Jewish life-cycle rituals, and has a passion for creating ceremonies thtat reflect the individuals involved.  She sees pregnancy and birth as safe, holy, and powerful moments which, when experienced with presence and intention transform individuals and couples, launching them into the joys, challenges and responsibilities of parenthood. Shira lives in Natick, MA with her husband, Ken Richmond, and two sons, Zalmen 4, and Velvel, 2.