2016 Speakers & Topics
Dr. Hazelbaker has been a therapist for over 30 years. She specializes in cross-disciplinary treatment and to that end has taken training in several modalities to best assist her clients. She is a certified Craniosacral Therapist, a Lymph Drainage Therapy practitioner, a Tummy Time™ Trainer, a Rhythmic Movement practitioner and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. She earned her Master’s Degree from Pacific Oaks College (Human Development specializing in Human Lactation) and her doctorate from The Union Institute and University (Developmental Psychology, specializing in Energetic and Transformational healing.) Dr. Hazelbaker specializes in the treatment of infant sucking problems, especially those involving infant trauma. She utilizes the principles of pre and perinatal psychology in the treatment of infant trauma. To date, she has performed over 8000 treatments on infants who have severe sucking and trauma issues.
Dr. Hazelbaker defines infant trauma and describes its signs and symptoms. She then discusses the various strategies for preventing infant trauma and resolving the condition. She suggests the multiple ways that midwives and doulas can help prevent infant trauma. She then makes suggestions as to which practitioners midwives need to refer to assist resolution.
Annie Brook, Ph.D., LPC, author, Registered Movement Educator (ISMETA), public speaker, and master therapist, has worked for over three decades helping people learn to enjoy life. She has worked as a therapist in public schools, clinics, and hospitals, and been in private practice, treating infants through adults. Annie taught meditation at the Heartsong School, was guest artist in residence for the Naropa University BFA, taught group process skills and then became Director of Body Psychotherapy track for Naropa University, MA in Somatic Psychology, in Boulder Co. Annie left Naropa to open Colorado Therapies in 2006, and founded the Brook Institute in 2014, which trains and supervises MA Therapy interns. Annie integrates movement, psychology, social skills, and the expressive arts. She draws on a vast and broad background of studies that include: leadership training, communications and conflict resolution with the LIOS Institute; emotional integration, transactional analysis, and Neo-Reichian work with Healing Ourselves; in-depth movement, perceptions, and movement training via BodyMind Centering, Continuum, and the work of Suprato Suryadamo; continued advanced touch skills in Cranio-Sacral and Visceral Manipulation, and meditative holistic studies with Native American elders, Buddhist Lama's, and Sufi masters; improvisational Action Theater skills with Ruth Zapora, Playback Theater with Jonathan Fox, Motivity with Terry Sendgraff, and contact dance and improvisation; and outdoor education and guide work with Adventure Associates and Outback Kayak. Annie is certified in the Jin Gui school of Chi Gung.
Hidden body stories pattern behavior. Birth creates these deep within the primitive brain which affects bonding and attachment. Learn as a midwife how to soften the imprint of a difficult birth, interrupt your own activation, and offer parents resources for recovery that help the infant/parent bond.
Barbara Harper is an internationally recognized expert on waterbirth and Gentle Birth. Dedicating her life to changing the way we welcome babies into the world, over the past four decades, Barbara has worked as an OB and pediatric nurse, home birth midwife, midwifery instructor, doula and doula trainer, and childbirth instructor. She has used her vast experience to develop many unique seminars which she teaches within hospitals, midwifery and medical schools and community groups worldwide.
She founded Waterbirth International in 1988, to ensure that waterbirth is an “available option” for all women. She has authored many journal articles and the highly acclaimed book and DVD, Gentle Birth Choices. Her next book ‘Birth, Bath & Beyond: A Practical Waterbirth Guide for Parents and Providers, will be ready for publication in 2016. She lives in Boca Raton, Florida, where she is active in her community as a volunteer and as a midwifery and doula mentor and teacher. Her website is www.waterbirth.org
Topic: Seven Secrets of Successful Waterbirth - [View Abstract]
Waterbirth, often called the Gentlest of Gentle Births, has taught us many things during the past thirty years. The use of water during the birth process for a beech position of baby was at first considered risky. But, experience in facilitating breech births in water is growing throughout the world. One of the things we clearly see babies do is unfold more easily in the water. Breech babies, when born on land, and water born vertex babies transition in very similar ways. This course will review the cardinal rules when attending a breech birth – hand off, hands and knees, patience, leave the cord intact – and discuss the variabilities of how the water changes the perspective when attending a breech birth. Special emphasis will also be given on the fetal primitive neurologic reflexes and how they are expressed in a breech birth.
Waterbirth is more than a fad or trend – it is evidence based practice in hospitals, birth centers and home birth throughout the world. Spending most or all of labour in water eases discomfort and creates a gentler birth process. The benefits of warm water immersion in labor and birth have been studied in many countries for over three decades.This course will explain why to integrate water immersion as a comfort measure option during childbirth and highlight the benefits of waterbirth as part of a gentle birth approach to maternity care. Special emphasis is given on newborn transitional physiology, the latest research, the impact of the ACOG opinion and we’ll discuss the Seven Secrets of Successful Waterbirth which include: Mobility, Intimacy, Safety, Research, Confidence, Consciousness and Fetal and Newborn Capabilities.
Carolyn Hastie is a mother and grandmother. She is senior lecturer of midwifery at Southern Cross University and has been at the leading edge of midwifery practice and education for four decades. Her passion is improving care for childbearing women, partners and babies; her focus is on the neurophysiological intersection of growth, development and relationships for everyone involved. Among Carolyn’s achievements are, with her colleague, Professor Maralyn Foureur: gaining visiting rights to public hospitals in 1984, a first for Australia and starting the first Australian midwives’ clinic in 1987. Carolyn commissioned and managed a quality award winning stand-alone midwifery service which included the option to birth at home. She has researched and written extensively on midwifery related subjects, including horizontal violence and bullying in midwifery after a young new graduate midwife she met at a workshop committed suicide in response to workplace bullying in 1996. Jodie’s suicide led Carolyn to seek ways to teach midwifery students and new graduate midwives the necessary skills to manage themselves and their relationships with colleagues in the workplace.
A work environment that lacks effective teamwork is synonymous with a work culture where bullying thrives. Bullying is commonly defined as “repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed towards an employee or group of employees that creates a risk to health and safety”. Bullying is an expensive business: an estimated $6 billion to $36 billion is lost to the Australian economy every year. Bullying is common. In one Australian study, 32% of 447 nurses and midwives surveyed reported that they have experienced bullying. Bullying is, therefore, a major source of workplace distress. When staff are bullied, errors are more common and patients suffer the consequences. In seeking to improve patient safety, a workplace culture improvement plan along with four pillars of reform has been recommended: 1) information technology development, 2) evidence-informed practice standards and guidelines, 3) planned, systematic, multidisciplinary education and training of professional staff, and 4) fostering a teamwork culture. Managers have a legal and ethical responsibility to put this plan into action.
Gail Tully, is a certified professional midwife (CPM) who began her midwifery studies preparing for a breech baby's homebirth in 1983. Expecting to photograph, Gail found herself already receiving the baby as the midwife entered and declined to take over. Gail is the founder of www.SpinningBabies.com which is a top resource for pregnant women with breech positioned babies and world renown approach to physiological birthing. Retired from primary care, she enjoys being called out to an occasional breech birth. Gail Tully is the author of The Belly Mapping Workbook (2005), Resolving Shoulder Dystocia video (2011), Daily Essentials video, Spinning Babies Parent Class video (both 2014), Spinning Babies Quick Reference (2015), and Breech Birth; Quick Guide (2016).
Can we encourage labor onset and progress without the force of pharmecueticals? Learn the value of body balancing the soft tissue anatomy of engagement. Unravel a common misdiagnosis and learn how to help baby into the pelvis to help baby through the pelvis. Shorter labors; fewer cesareans. The observations of Gail Tully for your birth bag.
Gauri Lowe is a medical doctor (University of Cape Town, South Africa) and spent several years after that working in rotations and then focusing in obstetric and gynaecology wards in government hospitals around Western Cape. Then she worked with a homebirth midwife in Cape Town and has been doing homebirths while in India too. Since the homebirth of her son during medical school her focus has become practicing and teaching a Sacred model of birth.She was a co-founder of the Complementary Medical Association at medical school; co-founder and speaker at the Midwifery and Birth Conference in Cape Town, South Africa and written articles for Midwifery Today as well as having an active blog page dedicated to spreading a Sacred model of birth. She is also studying botanical medicine for women’s health with Aviva Romm. Presently she does online holistic women's health and pregnancy consultations and is developing workshops to teach a Sacred Model of Birth to birth practitioners.
I have experienced birth as a medical doctor, a homebirth midwife and as a mother. My personal birthing experience changed my perspective and paradigm of birth as I realized the importance of this event in the lives of the mother as she begins her parenting journey and for the baby being born. So I began to research and engage with experts and other medical, midwife, birth workers, psychologists and mothers on this subject. I began to learn and realise that our experience of birth has the power to change the limbic imprint or the consciousness, what drives, what underlies a person and their expression in life, their “normal” – what molds their innate fears and character. The medical model of birth I was working in was grossly inefficient and depleted in reaching this aspect and appreciation of birth. The midwifery model is much closer yet still subordinate to the driving medical model. A Sacred Model of Birth is needed to truly address the underlying needs and happenings of the expression and founding experience physically and emotionally of BIRTH – for mother and birth worker. In this talk I explore what this means in various aspects and if it is a realistic option or just a fantasy.
Inbal Sigler is the founder of Isis HypnoBirthing & Yoga. She is also a certified HypnoBirthing trainer, Yoga teacher specialized in pre- and postnatal, and a licensed doula. Isis Hypnobirthing & Yoga is a comprehensive pregnancy and childbirth preparation program combining techniques of Hypnobirthing, Theta Healing, Chinese Medicine and Yoga. Inbal supports women on the amazing journey to motherhood in fertility, pregnancy support and birth support.
Research shows that Hypnobirthing (HB) techniques allow the birthing process to progress naturally. HB mothers require less drugs during birth, are calmer and can therefore process information and make decisions more efficiently in cases intervention is required. HB mothers also show lower rates of premature births and low birth infants. However, despite the increasing awareness in the world (and in the Netherlands where I live and work) to the existence of Hypnobirthing, I feel there is room for improvement in the inclusion of this method as a mainstream practice in the delivery room. Teaching Hypnobirthing techniques as part of the mainstream childbirth preparation courses and especially when combined with other relaxation techniques and prenatal yoga, can dramatically improve and facilitate the work of the midwives and the doctors, resulting in calmer mothers whose bodies work with the birthing process in harmony rather than against it (due to stress and pain).
Karen Strange teaches Integrative Resuscitation of the Newborn, an online neonatal resuscitation course which includes the physiology of newborn transition, evidence-based studies, and the “When, Why and How” to provide neonatal resuscitation in the least traumatic way. Her information is confidence-based, not fear-based.
A Certified Professional Midwife (1996), and AAP/NRP Instructor (1991), Karen specializes in debriefing, having conducted over 1,000 hours of debrief/case reviews with all types of birth professionals. She has taught neonatal resuscitation skills to over 14,000 people worldwide.
Karen beautifully weaves her famous explanation of the Baby’s Experience of Birth through her presentations and shares her “Simple Tools” that can be used for all babies but especially for babies that have had interruptions or intervention during birth or the time afterwards.
Karen’s lectures are dynamic and engaging. Come, listen, enjoy, learn, you will be happy you chose this lecture.
This lecture will create a clear visual image and understanding of what is happening for the baby as she takes her first breaths and shifts from oxygenating through the placenta and cord to beginning to use her lungs. Participants will learn when, why and how they need to assist a newborn in respiratory distress or in need of neonatal resuscitation.
Laurel Wilson, IBCLC, CLE, CCCE, CLD is a TEDx and international speaker, author, pregnancy and lactation expert, and consultant. She served as the Executive Director of Lactation Programs for CAPPA, the Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association for 16 years and now is on the Senior Advisor Board. She served on the Board of Directors for the United States Breastfeeding Committee from 2016-2019. She also is on the Advisory Board for InJoy Health. She owns MotherJourney, focusing on training perinatal professionals on integrative and holistic information regarding pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding. She has her degree in Maternal Child Health: Lactation Consulting and is an internationally board certified lactation consultant. As the co-author of two books, The Attachment Pregnancy and The Greatest Pregnancy Ever, original Editor of the CAPPA Lactation Educator Manual, and contributing author to Round the Circle: Doulas Talk About Themselves, she loves to blend today’s recent scientific findings with the mind/body/spirit wisdom. Laurel has been joyfully married to her husband for nearly three decades and has two wonderful grown sons, whose difficult births led her on a path towards helping emerging families create positive experiences. She believes that the journey into parenthood is a life-changing rite of passage that should be deeply honored and celebrated.
Attachment begins during pregnancy, not in the moments, weeks, and years post birth. This attachment, the motherbaby bond, is forged through an awareness of the biological and emotional connection between mother and child from the very earliest moments of conception. The internal world of the mother and child is now known to be a strong influence in the behavior, health, and personality of a child. This crucial prenatal period is impacted by emotional and nutritional experience of the mother and has a lot to do with who babies turn out to be. The prenatal attachment that occurs, regardless of a mother’s conscious awareness, is changing the brain development, personality, and genetic expression of her baby. At no other time in their child’s life do parents influence who that child will be, both emotionally and physically, than during the 0-3 period of life. We now know that prenatal chronic stress leads to babies who cry more, sleep less, and are anxious. A mother’s thoughts create chemical signals that literally form her baby’s brain and lead to a happy or anxious child. Mothers have the ability to influence healthy brain development and genetic expression during pregnancy through the motherbaby bond. This presentation discusses epigenetics, brain development, molecular messaging between mother and baby, and the impact of stress on the baby’s future health.
Mark Harris is registered as a midwife and nurse. He loves being around people, and has for as long as he can remember. Having five sisters and three brothers has afforded Mark with plenty of practice and now with six children of his own and 6 grandchildren, he has lots of opportunity to indulge his people passion.
The choices he has made in his professional life have been shaped by this gregarious inclination. Mark has trained and worked as a Nurse, Midwife, Teacher in Further Education, hypnotherapist, NLP trainer, and outreach youth worker. He still works as a Midwife offering birth education through a program called, Birthing For Blokes. He states that for him, work and play often merge. Mark is the author of the newly released book "Men, Love and Birth", and together with doula Karen Hall, he produces Sprogcast, which is a podcast about pregnancy, birth and early parenthood.
Men and women experience the world differently, has become a little controversial to say that, but own experience of relating to men and women in our day to day lives probably bears it out, not to mention pop songs and our cultural references to relationships between the sexes. If we were to look into the history books we would find multiple examples of different cultures expressing the same phenomena, the Chinese, with ying and yang and the ancient understanding of the Indian sub continent through shakti and shiver. ‘Modern science’, with its emphasis on our evolutionary adaptive history roots; the differences in an understanding of our struggle to survive as a species of mammal. After 20 years of being present for hundreds of births and watching the feminine/masculine dance of birth unfold, I think I have some insights that can support, not only men as they dance the dance of being with the one they love as she births, but also birth professionals as they seek to communicate to men about birth and breastfeeding.
Maryn Leister Green is a Certified Professional Midwife that lives in Sedona, Arizona. Maryn is well known for her international association, the Indie Birth Association (indiebirth.com), which serves and educates women and midwives all over the world. She has written numerous blog posts and recorded over 65 podcasts on iTunes (“Taking Back Birth”) that encourage women and midwives to rethink what they have been taught, and re-connect with ancient wisdom in combination with current research and knowledge. Maryn created and hosted her first international midwifery conference this year. She is a graduate of the Ancient Art of Midwifery School. Most passionate about physiological birth and the fate of future generations, Maryn has been inspired and taught by the birth of her own 7 children. When not learning or teaching, Maryn enjoys spending time in the Red Rocks, hiking with her kids and dogs.
This presentation questions the mainstream approach to Group B Strep (GBS) in pregnancy/birth as far as research, testing, treatment. The mainstream approach is questionable in effectiveness; routine testing/treatment are not improving outcomes for babies in the developed world. In fact, the mainstream approach to GBS may be negatively effecting the health of present/future generations permanently. The holistic model is defined/explored as it relates to a whole-body view of this disease. Group B Strep (GBS) can be re-defined and re-framed as a system imbalance that indicates the need for changes in several body systems. Class covers how midwives can offer holistic view as they talk about GBS with clients, in what other ways it can be viewed, tested/treated in pregnancy. Focus is on balancing the whole person, and how important it is that we see GBS as an opportunity to focus on the motherbaby as a complex, integrated duo. Approaching GBS from the holistic perspective may give future generations a chance at improved gut health and therefore overall well-being. The holistic model of health is explored through the pregnancy, but also before conception, and then into how creating an undisturbed birth environment may affect overall gut health and influence the health of the newborn. A touch of politics and information on full informed choice rounds out this oral/visual presentation.
Miranda Buck, (RN(Paeds), BA(Hons), MPhil, IBCLC), has been a paediatric nurse since 1995 and has a background in neonatal and paediatric intensive care nursing. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Judith Lumley Centre and a lactation consultant at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. She also enjoys teaching into the undergraduate and postgraduate nursing programs as a visiting lecturer. Miranda is noted for her enthusiasm for evidence based care and an approach which draws on anthropological and developmental theories. Her particular research interests are breastfeeding difficulties, online peer support and breastfeeding in the neonatal intensive care unit. She lives in Melbourne with her daughters, Esme, seven and Sylvie, four.
More than 90% of Victorian mothers initiate breastfeeding but the number of women breastfeeding their babies decreases quickly.During the first two days of life more than half of women experience problems with latching and feeding their babies.By three months of age only half of Victorian babies are fully breastfed. In a survey of 729 Australian women with gestational diabetes 97% reported ‘ever’ breastfeeding but only 19% had breastfed for ≤ 3 months.A combination of lack of effective support and incorrect advice often results in women experiencing breastfeeding problems.Our study of first time mothers found that 80% experienced nipple pain in the early weeks and 60% had nipple damage. Babies are capable of effective breastfeeding, but too often their innate abilities are disrupted by hospital practices. In this session I will explain how I work with new mothers and their babies to overcome the disruptions of medicalised births and allow babies to breastfeed themselves. Using illustrations and examples from practice I will provide midwives with tools to support breastfeeding in birthsuite and the early hours following birth. I will show how applying the science of neonatal behaviour helps us to understand what new mother baby dyads need to transition to successful breastfeeding. This session will translate research into practice and demonstrate how we can transform outcomes for mothers and babies with small changes in practice in the first 24 hours after birth.
Ratih Ayu Wulandari, MD, IBCLC, is a bikram yoga practitioner since 2008. She continued her practices on her first and second pregnancy, and got many benefits from the exercises. She certified as prenatal yoga teacher from sun yoga in 2015 so that she can embrace its benefit to every mother to be . She is also a lactation consultant and work in the lactation clinic which practicing frenotomy for tongue-tie and lip-tie. She believes attachment parenting is the best way to nurture a child and shares her thoughts on her blog http://www.menjadiibu.com.
Exercise during pregnancy is a key component to ensuring maximal health status for both mother and baby. Prenatal yoga is an excellent choice for a healthy pregnant woman to prepare herself physically and emotionally during pregnancy, also for labor and birth. Prenatal yoga poses can help to strengthen muscles and relieve pain while breathing techniques and relaxation can help to relieve stress and improve quality of sleep. Bikram yoga is a type of hatha yoga characterized by a set series of postures and breathing exercises, performed in a room heated to a very high temperature, approximately 40.6 degrees Celsius or 105 degrees Fahrenheit for 90 minutes of practices. As a regular bikram yoga practitioner, I can continue my practice during my first and second pregnancies with modification poses of Rajashree pregnancy yoga. With regular practice 3 times per week, it was significantly lowering my placental resistance index. It keeps me fit physically and emotionally throughout pregnancies and also helped me during labor and birth.
Monroe became a Direct-Entry Midwife in the 70’s, to empower the women in her community. In 1991, she founded the International Center for Traditional Childbearing (ICTC), the first US-based Black Midwives and Doulas Professional Organization. In 2002, she developed the ICTC Full Circle Doula program and trains thousands of persons, with one-third becoming midwives. In 2012, she received her Master of Public Health from Walden University. She is featured in numerous articles for her work, including the Bill HB3311 (2011) Doula Report, “Into These Hands, Wisdom of Midwives,” and recently completed the foreword for “Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy and Childbirth.” In 2014, she opened Shafia Monroe Consulting, a cultural competency training service. Shafia receives numerous awards for her work, including the Life Time Achievement Award, and the Midwife Hero Award. Shafia is a wife, a mother, and a grandmother. She enjoys gardening, writing, riding horses and cooking for family and friends.”
The African American Midwife had a vital role in advancing women's health in the United States, using traditional and public health practices. There are numerous articles, books and documentaries giving historical accounts of the impact of the Black midwife in providing care in the direst circumstances, helping birthing women, their partners and family, have sacred and safe deliveries. How did the Black midwife come near to extinction, and how do we create a revival for her return within the ranks of the midwife profession. By understanding the history of the Black midwife in the US, we can examine the shortage of Black midwives in the profession, the need to diversify the midwifery workforce, with collaborations to improve birth outcomes for women of color. The Black midwives taught women how to be mothers and taught men how to be good fathers, and played a major role in shaping cultural perceptions of motherhood as well as functioning as officiate in the rite of passage of becoming a mother. Wilkie (2003) writes, “In addition to their medical expertise, Black midwives were bearers of cultural and communal standards.” Collins (1994) termed the work done on behalf of one’s own biological children or the community as “mother work.” Collins (1994) and Wilkie (2003) found, that Black midwives of the pre- and post-civil war in the South were generational and cultural mediators interpreting “mothering” ideologies during enslavement, as well as the violent transition after freedom into the first part of the twentieth century definitions of white American role as mothers. The Black midwife answered a calling and assumed the social role in response to her community’s need (Monroe 2010 and Wilkie (2003).
Sheena Byrom is a freelance midwifery consultant, using the knowledge and skill she developed during an extensive midwifery career in the NHS. She was one of the UK’s first consultant midwives, and as head of midwifery successfully helped to lead the development of three birth centres in East Lancashire. She is a board member of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), a member of the RCM's Better Births initiative, Patron of StudentMidwife.Net, and Chair of the Iolanthe Midwifery Trust.With esteemed colleagues, she lead the Midwifery Unit Network, an initiative which aims to support the development and success of midwifery units through connecting and sharing resources.
Her midwifery memoirs, Catching Babies, is a Sunday Times bestseller, and her absolute passion is promoting normal physiological birth, and a positive childbirth experience for all women. Her latest book, The Roar Behind the Silence: why kindness, compassion and respect matter in maternity care is jointly edited with Professor Soo Downe OBE, and they hope the book will used as a resource to promote positive childbirth throughout the world.
Sheena was awarded an Order British Empire in 2011 for services to midwifery, and actively lobbies for maternity service improvements through several social media channels. She is a member of the @WeMidwives team, running regular online chats for student midwives and midwives. She lectures nationally and internationally on midwifery and childbirth related topics, and the benefits of using social media. In 2015 Sheena was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Midwives.
Kindness and compassion are absolutely fundamental to good quality maternity care, although for those using and delivery maternity care, this is a missing element, resulting in dissatisfaction, distress and in some instances, birth trauma. For many years there has been a growing concern about the culture of fear that is penetrating maternity services (Kirkham 2013, Dahlen 2014), potentially contributing to a lack of kindness and compassion (Byrom and Downe 2014). For midwives and obstetricians, fear of recrimination, litigation, negative media exposure and loss of livelihood potentially contributes to defensive practice (Symon 2000). Over- treatment ‘just in case’ not only increases workload stress and error (Youngson 2012), but potentially causes iatrogenic damage to mothers and babies (Dahlen et at 2013, Renfrew et al 2014). Whilst safety and effective health care treatment is the usually the intent and expectation of care givers and receivers respectively, Ballatt and Campling (2011) warn that when control is external it is toxic and doesn’t encourage kinship and reciprocity. Over-regulation and control, they believe, feeds a culture where those whose intention is kindness and caring are forced to behave defensively.
Silke has practiced as a midwife in a range of birth environments for many years. She is also a midwifery educator, working with undergraduate and postgraduate midwives. She originally hails from Yorkshire, UK, but has lived and worked for many years in Marlborough, New Zealand, and more recently has 'crossed the ditch' to Tasmania, Australia.
This presentation is developed from the findings of a structured review of evidence, entitled 'How effective is the presence of meconium-stained amniotic fluid as a predictor of neonatal morbidity and mortality?' undertaken as a Master of Midwifery dissertation at the University of Leeds, UK, back in 2005. A discussion of her findings – 'Holy Meconium' - was published in Essentially MIDIRS in 2013 and she has since presented at conferences. She continues to keep abreast of theories, research findings and practice implications relating to meconium.
Using the findings from an extensive review of the literature, this presentation will discuss the theories of meconium passage. It will examine the research findings that are currently shaping our meconium guidelines, and then explore the evidence that supports the concept of in-utero meconium passage as a physiological process. Then it will consider the controversial diagnosis of Meconium Aspiration Syndrome in the light of the challenges to its existence as a disease in its own right
Stephanie Pearson has a unique distinction in her field for integrating traditional practices in nutrition and herbalism with principles of evidence-based research and constitutional medicine.She is a certified clinical herbalist, functional nutritionist, clinical aromatherapist master (in process), and a professional educator and presenter at universities, and for wellness conferences and webinars. Stephanie’s 25 years of botanical medicine study expands outside the classroom and crossculturally, enriched by field studies in Native American, Western Eclectic, and Latin American herbalism.
This presentation, an excerpt from a longer training course, outlines the most valuable information on the use of essential oils during each phase of maternity and in infant care. Participants will come away feeling capable in their understanding of the safe and effective clinical use of essential oils as well as their various applications, individual properties, dosages, and contraindications during maternity. Essential oils may seem like old news, but access to therapeutic-quality oils and French methods of application have brought this ancient health practice to a whole new level of popularity. Course content is substantiated by current, peer-reviewed research.

Annet Mulder first became interested in breastfeeding in the year 2000, when she became a mother for the first time. During and because of her own breastfeeding experiences, in 2002 she became a volunteer with the Dutch breastfeeding Organization and in 2008 sat for and passed the exam administered by the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners. As an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, she now
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