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:Kittie Frantz, RN, CPNP-PC, is internationally known for over 45 years of work developing breastfeeding programs. She is a full-time Clinical Instructor in Pediatrics for University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine as well as the Coordinator of Lactation Education for Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center.
Honored as National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates and Practitioners (NAPNAP), Fellow of the Year in 1980, she is frequently invited to instruct at universities and medical conferences in many countries and sat on the United States National Breastfeeding Committee as well as the State of California's Breastfeeding Promotion Committee. She did the 20 hour staff training for Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center so that this hospital was the first in the USA to be designated Baby Friendly on the new 4-D Pathway exclusively using baby-led, laid-back breastfeeding.