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:MFCI Step this session refers to:
Principles
Steps
Step 3. Provides culturally competent care—that is, care that is sensitive and responsive to the specific beliefs, values, and customs of the mother’s ethnicity and religion.
For a description of MFCI principles and steps, go to: http://wholisticmaternalnewbornhealth.org/cims-mfci-principles-steps/
This session will also be a webinar. Go to: https://2015-mfci-symposium-virtual-meeting.eventbrite.com to register.
SESSION DESCRIPTION:
In this session, attendees will develop the ability to sense the subtle and obvious cultural, religious, spiritual, philosophical needs of our clients and their families. The session will help attendees develop competency in culture specific trends, beliefs, and customs related to pregnancy and childbirth and breastfeeding, included, but not limited to Islamic, Latino, African-American, West African and Jewish traditions.
This workshop will help Birth Workers and Breastfeeding Consultants to develop communication skills and interpersonal approaches helpful in relating with clients from cultures different than their own.