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.
This session will be broadcast as a live-streamed simultaneous webinar. Please go to: https://2015-mfci-symposium-virtual-meeting.eventbrite.com to register.
SESSION DESCRIPTION:
Many organizations and individuals are involved in maternity care advocacy in the United States. The US has some of the worst maternal outcomes among developed countries, with African American women at three-four fold greater risk of dying than women of other racial-ethnic groups, the widest public health disparity. Subsequent calls for an organized, national response to worsening maternal outcomes have resulted in coordinated efforts including actions to address patient safety in maternity care, increase state maternal mortality reviews, and other private and public investment in maternal health initiatives. Grassroots activists and childbirth advocacy organizations have long been promoting quality, respectful, transparent & evidence-based maternity practices using a rights-based framework of women-centered care. How are these groups & efforts aligned? Where do they diverge? This presentation will provide an overview of historical and recent initiatives to improve maternity care and outcomes. It outlines a vision of maternal quality improvement that balances awareness and responsiveness to “risk” (the measurement, analysis, and prevention of maternal mortality and morbidity) with meaningful efforts to support the “normality” of physiologic birth among low-risk women in hospital settings.
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.
MFCI Principles and Steps this session refers to are:
Principles
Steps
Step 1. Offers all birthing mothers:
Step 5. Has clearly defined policies and procedures for:
For a complete description of the MFCI Principles and Steps, go to: http://wholisticmaternalnewbornhealth.org/cims-mfci-principles-steps
The conference themes this session refers to are:
SESSION DESCRIPTION:
In her workshop on Compassion in Maternal and Newborn Health, Wendy Silvers, Certified Hypnotherapist and founder of The Million Mamas Movement and an Agape International Spiritual Center Licensed Spiritual Practitioner, illustrates how a caregiver can embody and apply compassion to the mother in their care, thereby providing a nurturing and healing emotional environment for both mother and child.
Learner Objectives:
At the conclusion of the program, the participant should be able to:
This comprehensive Report Examines the Science on the Hormonal Physiology of Childbearing and Its Implications for Women, Babies and Maternity Care.
The U.S. maternity care system is missing opportunities to provide better care and use resources more wisely by routinely intervening in labor and delivery in ways that interfere with, instead of promoting, supporting and protecting, innate biological processes that result in healthier outcomes for women and newborns. That is the conclusion of a major new report, Hormonal Physiology of Childbearing: Evidence and Implications for Women, Babies, and Maternity Care. The unprecedented synthesis of scientific research on how hormone systems function from late pregnancy through the early postpartum period concludes that commonly used maternity interventions — such as labor induction, epidural analgesia, and cesarean section — can disturb hormonal processes and interfere with the benefits they offer.
Dr. Buckley will describe ways birth attendants of all kinds -- physicians, nurses, doulas and family members-- can support the laboring woman in such a way that the birth process can unfold naturally as it was designed to do.
Overview of hormonal physiology of childbearing which has evolved over millions of years to optimize reproductive success.
After this session, you will be able to:
This session will also be a live international town-hall meeting live-streamed over the internet. To register, go to: https://2015-mfci-symposium-virtual-meeting.eventbrite.com
ABOUT THE FILM:“Freedom for Birth" is a 58 minute documentary that reframes women's birthing rights as one of the most pressing human rights issues in the world today. “Freedom For Birth” is more than just a film. It marks the beginning of a movement that will focus global attention on the violations of women's rights during childbirth all around the world.
This film and presentation following presentation with Hermine Hayes-Klein JD of Human Rights in Childbirth will also be available via webinar. Fee: $20 Regular Admission $10 Student Admission (with ID)
Note:
If you are attending just the film + lecture and not the entire day, please park at the Postal Annex parking lot adjacent to the California Endowment. Fee is $6. There will NOT be any parking available in the California Endowment parking lot.
This session will also be a live international town-hall meeting livestreamed over the internet. To register, go to: https://2015-mfci-symposium-virtual-meeting.eventbrite.com
SESSION DESCRIPTION:
This session will discuss Reproductive Rights and Justice in Maternity Care by two human/women's rights advocates, Hermine Hayes-Klein, JD, a Human Rights Lawyer, and Dr. Laila Al-Marayati, MD, FACOG, an Islamic Women's Rights Activist and Obstetrican-Gynecologist. Their discussion will follow a screening of the film "Freedom for Birth: The Mother's Revolution" a 28-minute film that highlights violations in human rights in maternity care around the world.
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/
Conference Themes this session refers to are:
This session will also be a live international town-hall meeting livestreamed over the internet. To register, go to: https://2015-mfci-symposium-virtual-meeting.eventbrite.com
Placenta eating, or Placentophagy, is the consumption of one's own placenta.Eating Placenta is becoming increasingly popular among childbearing women these days. What used to be in the homebirth midwife's 'bag of tricks' for treating severe postpartum hemmorhage has now become mainstream practice much in demand. Is this practice beneficial or harmful? Is it cannabalism or is it a natural and effective approach to treating common conditions of postpartum?
More and more women who suffer from postpartum depression or who suffer from anemia due to postpartum hemmorhage are considering placenta eating as a natural remedy for these conditions. The placenta can be consumed in a variety of ways, and has many health benefits according to Placenta Encapsulation Specialists and Naturopathic Physicians, Midwives and others.
MFCI Steps and Principles this session refers to:
Principles
Steps
Step 7. Encourages all mothers and families, including those with sick or premature newborns or infants with congenital problems, to touch, hold, breastfeed, and care for their babies to the extent compatible with their conditions.
Step 10.
Strives to achieve the WHO-UNICEF “Ten Steps of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative” to promote successful breastfeeding:
SESSION DESCRIPTION:
In this session, Kittie Frantz, RN, CPNP-PC, a world-renown expert on breastfeeding, will summarize the research on co-sleeping conducted by James McKenna Ph.D. at the sleep research lab at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, as well as other research which supports the tenet that “babies should never sleep alone”. Drawing upon Suzanne Colson’s paradigm of Biological Nurturing TM, and research by Dr. Nils Bergman on Kargaroo Mother Care and skin-to-skin contact, Ms. Frantz will summarize why practitioners that work with families should counterbalance the negative information that families often receive on the dangers of co-sleeping with evidence-based information on the potential benefits of Co-sleeping, and give safety guidelines for families who make informed decisions to co-sleep with their infants and young children.
For directions, click here!
MFCI Step this session refers to:
Principles
Steps
Step 2. Provides accurate descriptive and statistical information to the public about its practices and procedures for birth care, including measures of interventions and outcomes.
Step 5. Has clearly defined policies and procedures for:
.
For a description of MFCI principles and steps, go to: http://wholisticmaternalnewbornhealth.org/cims-mfci-principles-steps/
Conference Themes this session refers to are:
For a description of conference themes, go to: http://2015mfcisymposiumprotectingthemo.sched.org/
Joy is the founder of The 2020 Mom Project ("The Project") an urgent national call to action that sets forth an aggressive new path for solving what some have called one of the biggest public health concerns of our time: the silent maternal mental health crisis which impacts up to 20% of expecting and new moms.
The project seeks to bring about change by the year 2020, starting with the insured population.
Because of a complicated set of long-standing barriers, expecting and new moms are not consistently screened for emotional problems and therefore are not diagnosed and offered treatment, and consequently these moms and families largely suffer in silence
Research suggests that when moderate to severe cases of maternal mental health disorders are left untreated, not only does the mother's health suffer, but so does her infants', the stability of her marriage or partner relationship, and the long-term health and well being of all of her children.
MFCI Step this session refers to:
Principles
Steps
Step 1. Offers all birthing mothers:
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 refers to conference themes of:
Doula Care in NYC: Advancing the Goals of the Affordable Care Act which uses the framework of the Affordable Care Act’s “triple aim” to present information on how doula support:
The report highlights how doula care can reduce disparities and improve patient engagement in health care decision-making.
CONTEXT:
Overview of Maternal Health in the US, including:
Bottom Line: doula care is an evidence-based service that improves maternal and infant heath outcomes.
Following this, a panel discussion with MCH experts and Birth Workers of Color will ensue. The purpose of this session is to facilitate meaningful dialogue within the childbirth reform movement about racial and social inequities and multiculturaliim using compassionate and respectful communication.
MFCI Principles and Steps this session refers to are:
Principles:
Steps:
This session refers to MFCI Steps 6, 7, 8 & 10:
Step 6:
other interventions are limited as follows:
Step 7:
Educates staff in non-drug methods of pain relief, and does not promote the use of analgesic or anesthetic drugs not specifically required to correct a complication.
Step 8:
Encourages all mothers and families, including those with sick or premature newborns or infants with congenital problems, to touch, hold, breastfeed, and care for their babies to the extent compatible with their conditions.
Step 10:
Strives to achieve the WHO-UNICEF “Ten Steps of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative” to promote successful breastfeeding:
For a description of MFCI principles and steps, go to: http://wholisticmaternalnewbornhealth.org/cims-mfci-principles-steps/
Conference Themes this session refers to are:
This session refers to the following MFCI Steps and Principles:
Principles
Steps
Step 4. Provides the birthing woman with the freedom to walk, move about, and assume the positions of her choice during labor and birth (unless restriction is specifically required to correct a complication), and discourages the use of the lithotomy (flat on back with legs elevated) position.
Step 5. Has clearly defined policies and procedures for:
Step 6. Does not routinely employ practices and procedures that are unsupported by scientific evidence, including but not limited to the following:
other interventions are limited as follows:
This session refers to the following conference themes:
In this session, participants will learn how by adhering to ethical and evidenced based standards we can reestablish the normalcy of the human birth process. The presenter will review how the idea of beneficence does include respect by the practitioner for the well informed pregnant woman's reasonable choices. Models of collaboration between home and hospital, midwife and physician for smooth transition of care will be discussed. The goal of this presentation is to assist the participants with evidence to build a case to improve the relationships between care providers in their own communities and so honor the pregnant woman.
other interventions are limited as follows:
SESSION DESCRIPTION:
Executive Producer Elliot Berlin of The Informed Pregnancy Project and Director Mel Kennedy-Morrow have collaborated to wake up the birth industry with their documentary, Heads Up: The Disappearing Art of Vaginal Breech Delivery, a short film on breech birth. This film is the first of a series that will shed light on little known and sometimes taboo information that goes against the social norm.
Presentation following the film with Dr. Elliot Berlin, Prenatal Chiropractor/Executive Producer
and
Mel Kennedy-Morrow,Director
and Mothers and Physicians appearing in the film.
SYNOPSIS:
Time Is Running Out For Breech Babies
Los Angeles, CA, February --, 2015 - In America, 1 baby is born breech every 4 minutes. After a faulty study in 2001, women were given no choice but to deliver breech babies via cesarean section. Even after the study was rejected and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) concluded that vaginal deliveries of breech were a reasonable choice, doctors were no longer taught this skill in medical school. The doctors with the knowledge and experience are approaching retirement and women will be left without a choice.
Heads Up delivers facts to debunk the C-section myth and a call to action so that the power of choice can be restored. Actress Morena Baccarin (Gotham, Homeland) and Kimberly Van Der Beek (Wellness Blogger & Public Speaker) eagerly joined this production along with celebrity obstetrician Dr. Paul Crane to share their compelling stories about why informed choice is so important to childbirth in America.
MFCI Principles and Steps this session refers to are:
Principles:
Steps:
This session refers to MFCI Steps, 8 & 10:
Step 8:
Encourages all mothers and families, including those with sick or premature newborns or infants with congenital problems, to touch, hold, breastfeed, and care for their babies to the extent compatible with their conditions.
Step 10
Strives to achieve the WHO-UNICEF “Ten Steps of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative” to promote successful breastfeeding:
For a description of MFCI principles and steps, go to:
http://wholisticmaternalnewbornhealth.org/cims-mfci-principles-steps/Conference Themes this session refers to are:
In this session, attendees will be able to:
1. Compare and contrast the short- and long- term outcomes of human milk versus donor human milk and infant formula for infants who require care in the NICU.
2. Describe the Rush Mothers' Milk Club program of lactation and human milk feeding as an exemplar for supporting lactation in risk populations.
3. Discuss case studies and talking points that exemplify the engagement of families in decision-making about provision of human milk and breastfeeding after the NICU hospitalization.
