Achieving Quality Maternal Care Lecture Series Past Speakers

Join us as we learn from one of the world's most informed, compassionate and inspiring speakers, Suzanne Arms, as she explores evidence-based ways to improve the quality of life with babies (including in utero) and children.

If you're expecting or planning to have a child, parents, grandparents, childcare providers, educators, therapists, students or professional birth workers, this is an event to put in your calendar.

You will learn concepts and practices based on ancient wisdom, intuition, and modern science that you can begin to use immediately to bring ease and peace fulness to everything you do with babies and children.

Join us for this exciting and enlightening opportunity! And meet old and new friends.

How do parents develop a bond to their baby? How does a baby develop secure attachment to his or her parents? This lecture will address the important components of this relationship. Bonding starts in prenatal life and parents can learn activities that enhance this earliest communication and understand why it is important for the infant’s mental and physical health later in life. Developing a tie to one’s infant is biological, psychological, and cultural and the events at birth can interfere with or strengthen how parents perceive their baby. Parents need continuous support during birth to experience a birth that is empowering, creating confidence and self-esteem, and avoiding a birth that is disappointing or traumatic. The day of birth as well as this early postpartum period are equally important for the mother and baby. By understanding the states of consciousness and what responses the baby brings, parents can gain a new appreciation of their infant’s abilities. A major concern in our culture is the lack of on-going support for parents in the postpartum period. This lack has caused parents to be exhausted, disappointed in each others performance and level of support, and creates unrealistic expectations of the self and one’s partner. Depression and anxiety can ensue. We will look at several recommendations to make this most important time healthy and loving for the self and the baby.

Phyllis Klaus, MFT, LMSW, is a licensed Marriage Family Therapist, clinical social worker, and Approved Consultant and Trainer of EMDR. She practices in Berkeley and Palo Alto, California, providing psychotherapy, hypnotherapy , and counseling to individuals, couples, families, children, and groups. Formerly she was a Behavioral Science Instructor on the faculty of Michigan State University Department of Family Practice. She has been working with the concerns of families in the perinatal period for the past 30 years, and has been involved in research and training of maternity caregivers and doulas since 1982. She consults and presents workshops nationally and internationally and is co author of several articles as well as the following books: The Doula Book; Bonding; Your Amazing Newborn; a video, The Amazing Talents of the Newborn; and When Survivors Give Birth: Understanding and Healing the Effects of Child Sexual Abuse on Childbearing Women.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Born two Birth (30 mins) is an educational documentary of natural childbirth. This film provides a view of a complete experience: from prenatal preparation, through 'live' birth with the mother's and father's personal birth stories, onto postpartum success. Born two Birth utilizes an artistic multimedia collage of a first baby home birth with a midwife, who in this case delivered her own Grandchild! In this unique and candid example, the viewer is taken on an intimate journey through a process that is raw, natural, and normal. Let the power of primal woman be restored, and our future generations will thrive!

Following the film will be an open discussion with the midwife, Kathe Gibbs, mother, Kaja Gibbs-Davidson and daugther, vyShara Kahealani.

To view trailer please visit www.BornTwoBirth.com

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Join Rowen Holland for a fundraiser and screening of Guerrilla Midwife, an inspirational, educational, and award-winning documentary about the important work this foundation and its founder, Ibu ("Mother") Robin Lim, CPM, offer to the world - providing gentle loving birth services, midwifery training, and direct aid in Indonesia and disaster areas. Robin has recently been featured as a CNN hero: www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/10/cnnheroes.lim.midwife/index.html.

View the trailer here: www.skwattacamp.com/Guerrilla-Midwife-Trailer-H.264.mov

Rowen has recently returned from an internship with Robin Lim at Bumi Sehat in Bali, Indonesia. After the film, she will be talking about her experiences and there will be time for questions.

Maddy (pictured here with her daughter, Tatia, and Tatia's husband JB) will share her experience regarding the death of her daughter and granddaughter and how that started her journey of childbirth and activism.

In December 2001, Maddy Oden’s daughter, Tatia Oden French entered a well-known and well-respected hospital to deliver her first child. She was 32 years old, in perfect health, and looking forward to a natural childbirth, without any interventions or drugs. There were no problems during the pregnancy. According to her doctor's calculations, she was a little under 2 weeks overdue. She was given the drug Cytotec to induce her labor. Cytotec, also known as Misoprostol, is a drug manufactured to treat ulcers. It is NOT approved by the FDA, or the drug company, to induce labor. Ten hours after being administered Cytotec, Tatia suffered hyper-stimulation of her uterus, an amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) was released, an emergency C-Section was performed because the baby was also in distress. Both Tatia and her baby Zorah died in the operating room.

Maddy is the Executive Director of The Tatia Oden French Memorial Foundation, a non-profit corporation formed in March 2003 to give ALL women of childbearing age complete information concerning medical interventions and drugs which are administered during childbirth. We do this hoping that women may then be able to make FULLY informed decisions regarding the birth of their children. Since 2005, she has served as a birth doula in her community. “That is my greatest reward, assisting and supporting these young moms to birth free of drugs and medical instruments.” Maddy strives to “open women’s eyes to the awesome beauty and wonder of birth itself and learn to trust it and to trust the Spirit who originally created birth.”

www.tatia.org

Saturday, April 30, 2011

When maternity care reformers advocate for evidence-based practices, it may be a case of “be careful what you wish for.” Join Henci Goer in taking a look at what’s wrong with concepts of evidence-based medicine, what’s right about it, and problems with medical-model based research. Henci will cap off her talk with a baker’s dozen tips on how not to get duped when reading the research.

Henci Goer, award-winning medical writer and internationally known speaker, is the author of The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth. Her previous book, Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realities, is a highly-acclaimed resource for childbirth professionals, and a new edition is in press. An independent scholar, she is an acknowledged expert on evidence-based maternity care. Goer has written consumer education pamphlets and numerous articles for magazines as diverse as Reader's Digest and the Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing. She served as project director and participated as an Expert Work Group member on the document, "Evidence Basis for the Ten Steps of Mother-Friendly Care." Currently, she is a resident expert on Lamaze International’s website where she moderates the "Ask Henci" forum and appears as a regular guest blogger on Science and Sensibility. Now concentrating on writing and speaking, Goer was a doula for over 20 years and a Lamaze educator for ten.

www.hencigoer.com

Saturday, March 12, 2011

The presentation will briefly review the mission and projects of the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC), and address the rising maternal mortality rate in CA and the US, its significance and steps being taken to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity in CA. In particular, toolkits on obstetric hemorrhage and elective deliveries under 39 weeks will be described. It will also inform participants of national policy developments in obstetric quality measures, and the role that can be played by maternity care advocates in the growing movement to increase transparency and public reporting of OB quality measures. The presentation will allow time for discussion and questions geared to the information needs of those in the audience.

Christine Morton, PhD, is Program Manager and Research Sociologist for the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative at Stanford University, an organization devoted to improving maternal quality and reducing preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and related racial disparities. Since joining CMQCC in August 2008, she has managed the CA-Pregnancy Associated Mortality Review (funded by CA State Dept of Health, Maternal Child Adolescent Health Division) and provides technical assistance to two projects with county health leaders to eliminate elective inductions and improve response to maternal hemorrhage. She’s also conducting research on women’s and clinician’s experience with near-miss events with the goal of identifying quality improvement opportunities to prevent PTSD in both populations.

Her past research has focused on advocacy and information roles in maternity care, including doulas and childbirth educators. She received funding from Lamaze International to do an ethnographic study of childbirth education from 2005-2007. With Elayne Clift, she is working a book entitled, Birth Ambassadors: Doulas and the Re-emergence of Woman-Supported Childbirth in the United States. She is a guest contributor to Science & Sensibility blog by Lamaze International and has experience serving on the boards of birth advocacy organizations. She lives in Belmont, CA with her husband, their two children and two dogs.

www.cmqcc.org