Rebecca L. Dekker, PhD, RN, APRN is the founder and author of Evidence Based Birth. Rebecca is an assistant professor of nursing at a research university in the U.S. She teaches pathophysiology  and pharmacology to BSN nursing students, and she serves as a mentor for doctoral students in Nursing. 

Rebecca’s area of research is depression in people with heart disease, and she is currently funded by a $355,000 grant to gain formal training in cognitive behavior therapy and clinical trial research. Recently, Rebecca was invited to serve as a co-investigator on several studies testing cognitive behavior therapy for pregnant women who are at high risk for future cardiovascular disease.

Rebecca’s research has been recognized with many awards, including the Young Investigator Award from the Cleveland Clinic Institute for Heart-Brain Medicine and the Promising Young Investigator Award from the American Heart Association. Rebecca is also a board-certified adult clinical nurse specialist and an advanced practice registered nurse.

In May 2012, Rebecca realized that it was very difficult for the average person to find information about evidence-based maternity care. Realizing that she had the research and writing skills to meet this need, Rebecca coined the term “evidence based birth” and founded www.evidencebasedbirth.com. The mission of Evidence Based Birth is to promote evidence-based practice during childbirth by providing research evidence directly to women and families.

Founding Evidence Based Birth has led to new opportunities for Rebecca. In November, 2012, she was asked to join the executive board of directors of www.ImprovingBirth.org, a non-profit whose mission is to bring evidence-based care and humanity to childbirth. Over the past year, Rebecca has given many presentations about evidence based birth to nursing students, medical residents, college students, and nurse midwives. In 2013, she will give a speech at the American College of Nurse Midwives annual conference, and she will be talking about the use of social media to promote evidence-based maternity care at the Virtual International Day of the Midwife.

In addition to being a prolific writer, researcher, and teacher, Rebecca is wife to Dan and mom to two young children. In her spare time she loves to garden, bike, and play piano, flute, and piccolo.

You can contact Rebecca at evidencebasedbirth@gmail.com.

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To see Rebecca’s future speaking engagements (some of which are free and online!), click here.