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:
Dr. Paula Meier, PhD, RN, FAAN, is the director for clinical research and lactation in the neonatal intensive care unit and is a professor of women, children and family nursing and a professor of pediatrics at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. She has worked as a practitioner and researcher in the area of human milk, lactation and breastfeeding for premature infants and their mothers since 1975. Meier has conducted numerous externally-funded research and demonstration projects, and served as the principal investigator for a recently-completed, 5-year, $2.76 million, NIH-funded study, "Health Outcomes and Cost of Human Milk Feedings for Very Low Birthweight Infants." She and her research team have a renewal NIH application pending review that proposes to study the impact of human milk feedings received during the NICU hospitalization on childhood health, neurobehavioral and cost outcomes for this same cohort of VLBW infants. Her other external funding has included grants from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), industry and philanthropic organizations. Dr. Meier has published over 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and serves as the Past-President of the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation and is a member of the Health Advisory Council for La Leche League, International. She was the recipient of the 2005 Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Illinois, and the 2013 Distinguished Alumna Award from Rush University College of Nursing. In 2013 she received the Audrey Hepburn Award for Contributions to the Health and Welfare of Children from Sigma Theta Tau, International.
rushmothersmilkclub.com/index.cfm?P=PaulaMeier
