Purpose of the Symposium
1) Discuss the benefits of the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative (MFCI) for hospitals, clinics, mothers, infants, and clinicians
2) Provide a forum for discussion among nurses, doctors, doulas, childbirth educators, midwives, administrators and others on the challenges and opportunities of implementing mother-friendly care in the clinical or hospital setting.
3) Provide a forum for dissemination of evidence-based best practices for maternity care.
4) Support clinics, hospitals and community-based programs in developing plans of action to shift the thinking in their organizations towards mother-friendly care and develop multidisciplinary coordinated networks of maternity care providers.
5) Practitioners and students of maternity care will obtain an objective understanding of the collision of worldviews and belief systems when the medical and midwifery models of maternity care intersect.
6) Participants will describe how the perinatal community as a whole can best collaborate to provide optimal care for mothers and infants based on the principals of the MFCI and the evidence-based practices available as outlined in the 10 steps of the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative (MFCI).
Principles of the MFCI are:1. Describe the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative including three supporting organizations, four principles on which it is based and describe three of ten recommended steps.
2. Discuss two benefits of the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative for hospitals, clinics, mothers, infants, and clinicians.
3. Identify one of the 10 steps which they are willing to implement in the setting where they work.
4. Describe how the priorities of the Affordable Care Act and national initiatives for maternal-child health are aligned with the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative.