Eugene 2015
Midwifery Today Conference
Eugene/Springfield, Oregon • March 18–22, 2015
“Birthing with Love Changes the World”
Wednesday • March 18, 2015 • Pre-Conference
These sessions are designed to improve and enhance your midwifery skills and knowledge. This is a great class for beginning and advanced midwives.
Midwives of all backgrounds, doulas and other birth professionals desire more knowledge for preventing and correcting malposition in pregnancy and labor. Learn to identify the posterior position, avoid the ROA/LOP mix-up, identify flexion vs. extension, and understand asynclitism. Learn the difference between a lull in labor and actual cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD). New strategies and traditional techniques to assist fetal rotation without invasive measures will be covered. You may be surprised that there was so much more to learn about this time-worn concern. Register early; space is limited.
Michel has been—directly or indirectly—involved in childbirth for more than 60 years. He has practiced on the European and African continents and has experience with hospital births and homebirths. As the editor of the Primal Health Research Database he has a unique knowledge of the medical and scientific literature. As the author of Genèse de l’homme écologique (1979) and of Childbirth and the Future of Homo Sapiens (2013), he is raising questions about the future of our species in relation to the modes of birth. For these reasons Michel and the participants will be in a position to introduce a great diversity of topics.
Learn the art, the essence and the subtleties of midwifery care in this full-day workshop designed for midwives and aspiring midwives. Our experienced teachers share their wisdom and love of midwifery in a way that will nurture your interest and make you feel welcomed to the world of midwifery and birth.
Angelina will discuss positioning, remedies, techniques and customs from Mexico. The origin of these techniques and traditions goes back thousands of years. We will learn how to use a rebozo, a very useful tool in all parts of the childbearing cycle in relation to preventing and dealing with complications. Discover simple techniques that promote healthy pregnancy and birth. This course will add greatly to your knowledge. You will actually practice what you are learning under Angelina’s watchful guidance.
This parents class, sponsored by Sacred Waters Community Birthing Center, is about empowering women to go within their inner wisdom and silence to have the natural birth they envision, giving the best welcome to their babies in an atmosphere of love, appreciation and joy. This free class is open to all pregnant women and their partners in the Eugene/Springfield area. Doulas, prenatal educators and midwives are also welcome!
All are welcome.
Thursday •March 19, 2015 • Pre-Conference
There is much to learn in the world of essential oils, herbs and homeopathy. This full-day class will increase your knowledge of plant and oil uses to aid a midwife’s work during pregnancy, labor, delivery and postpartum. LaRee will explain the basics of essential oils and discuss the physical and emotional strength essential oils can offer. She will also explain the theory behind homeopathic treatment and how to use this modality safely and effectively. LaRee will discuss herbs as natural powerhouses of readily absorbed vitamins and minerals for use during pregnancy, labor and delivery. She will show you practical applications for the use of essential oils, herbal remedies, and homeopathics in women’s health and childbearing.
These teachers together are very experienced in breech birth and bring years (even decades!) of experience to share with you. Enjoy this full day of classes that will educate you on the most current breech research, show you basic breech skills, increase your knowledge of breech complications and offer you plenty of time to get all of your questions answered.
These teachers have extensive combined experience with breech deliveries and these intimate roundtables give the participant a chance to dialog with each teacher individually. Bring your cases and questions to share.
This class is for midwives and other health care workers or students who serve women anywhere in the world where maternal and newborn mortality is high. We will focus on the newest and simple techniques to implement best practices for achieving the best outcomes for mothers and babies. Also, Vicki will address the unique needs in developing countries, where culturally sensitive, respectful and evidence-based maternity care is actually a life and death matter. Since women of color die in childbirth and lose their babies at birth at rates much higher than white women everywhere in the world, this class is essential for all of us who care about survival of the human race! Vicki is teaching from 35 years’ experience as a midwife, 24 of those years serving in a developing country.
At his Clinica La Primavera in Quito, Ecuador, Diego gives the most loving pregnancy and birth care imaginable. He is one of the most accommodating and loving providers in the world! His videos from prenatal visits, birth, humane cesareans and so much more are so touching you might be on the verge of tears. Come listen as he shares his loving ways and philosophy with you in this session with a groundbreaking physician.
Every birth is the result of a magical process that was initiated by conception and then was followed by various stages of development in the womb, where the unborn child receives the introductory lessons about trust, empathy, love, sadness, anxiety and all basic human emotions. This gentle physician will guide us into the magical and sacred life of a baby getting ready to emerge from the womb of creation as he or she is bathed in the cocktail of love hormones.
Our teachers discuss the mechanical and physical causes of shoulder dystocia; the associated risk factors; symptoms and signs to predict it; and how to remedy it. They will analyze tools and methods used to overcome panic reactions and demonstrate effective treatments. Come learn new methods, new mnemonics and the latest research!
Our teachers will share the protocols and techniques they use to help the mother move through labor. This discussion will include prolonged rupture of membranes, failure to progress, abnormal labor patterns, non-medical intervention and more. Listen to these experienced midwives discuss constructive and effective ways to handle both normal and difficult situations. Bring your questions and experiences to what promises to be an exciting class.
Share the techniques you’ve perfected in your practice or bring your burning questions to this roundtable of pertinent tips on a wide variety of topics. This is always a much-appreciated session, for its sense of sisterhood as well as its information. “Worth at least two weeks of academic training,” said one participant.
Friday • March 20, 2015 • Conference Day One
This early-morning meeting is designed to get our minds ready for our day of learning by going within our silent space. Current cognitive neuroscience research tells us meditation helps to maximize the effects of beta and alpha brainwave patterns for the benefit of humanity.
Come learn from midwives and physicians how love can be manifested wherever you care for motherbaby and each other. Vicki will describe how dozens of midwives initially trained in a system of abuse and disrespect became loving, kind and caring midwives with sensitivity training and awareness of a better way to treat the mothers. Love is possible even in the worst situations; it can be taught, it must be modeled and it can change the world!
According to emergent scientific disciplines, we know the following: Newborn babies need maternal love; this need has been ignored for thousands of years (routine separation of mother and babies, delayed initiation of breastfeeding, etc.). Newborn babies are supposed to be colonized by friendly microbes that immediately educate their immune system; until recently all microbes were considered enemies. The stress induced by uterine contractions has a positive role to play in the development of human beings; until recently the word “stress” had an exclusively negative connotation.
As a professional communicator and midwife, Yeshi will guide us through the basic principles of communication among midwives, fostering good relations and support among colleagues. This is especially important to build a sense of harmony within the birth and midwifery community.
Learn about the use of herbs, homeopathics and other natural remedies in pregnancy, birth and postpartum. Learn practical uses of these remedies for your clients’ ailments and complications, such as using alternatives to halt a hemorrhage and how to keep the women in your care well. This class is for not just for novices, but for everyone!
Renegade midwives generally reject allegiance to the professionalization project of direct entry midwifery (licensure, regulation, following protocols) in favor of allegiance to the birthing mother and her desires. In so doing, renegades both jeopardize the status of direct entry midwives (DEMs) in their states, and provide options for birthing women that DEMs who follow state protocols cannot provide. This presentation will analyze the complex issues and challenges provided to midwives in America by the existence and practice of these “renegades.” If time, we will to consider the charged issue of “the renegade midwife” in other countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary and more.
Vicki has extensive experience responding to disasters and teaching disaster preparedness, including leading a full-scale response to the recent Philippine super typhoon that left thousands of pregnant women with no place to give birth. More and more areas of the world are experiencing natural disasters, including the US. The role of the midwife as part of the health care response team in these disaster areas will be explored in this class. This class will also discuss the ways midwives are especially suited as first responders during any crisis, and will explore what is helpful, and what is not, in a disaster situation. Use of psychological first aid, cross-over medical skills, and universal maternity care protocols will be discussed.
What are the real risks of prolonged pregnancy? How do we correctly identify the postdates baby, and assess for signs of postmaturity syndrome? How do we know when it is time to intervene, and how do we intervene when it’s needed? Let’s look at what the evidence says about risks and how to mitigate them, discuss how to monitor the prolonged pregnancy, and learn how to balance protocols with common sense.
Gail Tully, “The Spinning Babies Lady,” helps fit the puzzle pieces of lack of engagement, shoulder dystocia and breech obstruction. Increase your familiarity with the pelvic diameters. When reaching into a woman’s pelvis is as familiar to you as your sock drawer you will better know which way to turn a stuck baby and why using flexion and adduction saves lives.
In this aggressive world, the need for love is great. Learn what we can do in our role as midwives, doulas and doctors to help promote love, and listen as Michel discusses the science behind love.
Yeshi has spent a lifetime studying how we communicate and miscommunicate. She has pioneered ways to help us improve the most important skill for birth practitioners, and her classes are always creative and interactive. Come and learn about your communication style and learn what works and doesn’t work in communication. Improve your practice and profession with clear communication.
In this class, Robbie uses her history-telling skills, which are laced with drama and humor, to describe various intense confrontations and dilemmas that have permeated midwifery politics over the past three decades. Robbie brings her knowledge that comes from 10 years of research on American midwifery to show why midwives matter to American women and to convince her audience that midwives should be the primary birth caregivers in the US. Other topics include successful legislative strategies, the tensions between the social activist midwifery movement and midwives’ professionalization projects, and the most recent developments in US midwifery internal politics.
What can be done at pregnancy visits by midwives and doulas to help women and couples be proactive in childbirth preparation with fetal positioning? Let Gail Tully, “The Spinning Babies Lady,” introduce you to the First Principle of Spinning Babies: Balance. Try out three techniques that you can then teach pregnant women and couples over three prenatal visits. Please bring massage tables if you have any available.
It is important to understand the full process of third stage and to facilitate the delivery of the placenta correctly. Let’s look at the evidence and learn techniques used where routine oxytocics are not accessible and which render the need for pharmaceuticals rare. You will learn about how to assess third stage and deal with complications to reduce the risk of excess blood loss. You will also learn about how to assess and deal with bleeding in a way that will increase your confidence—by actually estimating with real blood in and on different materials such as on pads and in water. We will also talk about using the placenta, cord and membranes for hemorrhage control.
Fear can complicate an otherwise straight-forward natural process like birth. The most powerful and effective item we carry into the birthing room is how we feel about birth. Join us as we role model and role play the subtle influences of love and fear in birth. Bring your questions and experiences.
The cabaret is for everyone to show their many talents whether in song, dance or whatever you do that you would like to share. (This is a very fun event!)
Saturday • March 21, 2015 • Conference Day Two
This early-morning meeting is designed to get our minds ready for our day of learning by going within our silent space. Current cognitive neuroscience research tells us meditation helps to maximize the effects of beta and alpha brainwave patterns for the benefit of humanity.
Many busy birth practitioners find it difficult to keep up with new research and even more difficult to separate fact from myth. Let’s look at the newest data, information and research and update our knowledge about some common issues. What’s the “real deal” about postdates, fetal testing, active management of labor or third stage, probiotics, vitamin supplementation, anti-hemorrhage medications and more? Every birth practitioner seeks to do The Right Thing. But how do we know what the right thing is when the definitions, protocols and recommendations are constantly shifting?
“From GrandMother to GrandDaughter the Cherokee Way of Love taught me to live comfortably in my own skin, to walk gently upon the Earth and to stand in good relations with all people.” Sister MorningStar
is one of Midwifery Today’s well-loved conference teachers. Come learn from her Cherokee wisdom and see how your view of birth expands!
The way we are born affects our lives and the lives of future generations. Factors include hormones, microbes and the way human traits pass down generations. Research of recent years and decades will be reviewed during this session.
Suzanne and Sister have extensive experience with twin birth. They will discuss strategies for safe twin birth, including positioning, time of delivery, premature delivery and avoiding postpartum hemorrhage, as well as special aspects of prenatal care. Sister will also bring experience and story of native ways from her Cherokee heritage.
Analyzing the various techniques used around the world brings the surprising conclusion that neonatal resuscitation methods are a cultural, not a scientific, norm. The experiences of what works in one hospital unit is often different from a unit in the same city and practitioners who work in both home and hospital know they often do things differently depending on the setting. Gail will present the concept of safe and effective physiological resuscitation methods which don’t require high technology for implementation.
In this class we will review complete physical exam skills, with attention to making the exam a valuable experience for both client and practitioner. How is the pregnant woman doing, physically, emotionally, in her life as a whole? Is she healthy, or does she have chronic health problems? Is she happy, sad, busy or stressed? With this as a background, we examine the complete exam, head to toe, system by system, with particular focus on obstetrical and gynecological functioning as appropriate.
This presentation will explore the nature and uses of ritual in rites of passage and in daily life, with special emphasis on its roles in engendering belief, enhancing courage, effecting healing, and transforming individual consciousness. In the medical realm, ritual takes on special importance. It defines appropriate procedure, indicates proper training and competence, and serves as an essential buffer against the fear of dealing with out-of-control natural processes. Ritual’s courage-enhancing and habituating effects can be used wisely in medicine.
Join your fellow conference attendees for a buffet lunch at the Hilton Eugene. Network, hobnob and relax. Price includes lunch, dessert and beverage station, with vegetarian options provided. $15 for conference registrants, $25 for non-registrants, payable with registration; no payments taken at the door.
Village prenatals have a sole purpose: We gather out of selfless service to support and encourage the instinctual life of pregnant women who are trying to birth in power against a modern current of fear and an environment of perpetual interventions. We are there to shower them with village attention and support and to bathe them in the sense of belonging and being cherished.
Discover low-tech ways to make birth safer in those regions where the technology simply is not available, or to prepare to be able to provide care during a national disaster. Do you know how to work without medications or IVs? What would you do if you did not have your equipment and supplies at a birth? Would you be lost without your “stuff”? Let’s look at what is truly essential for birth, which routines can be abandoned or modified, and how we can improvise when necessary.
Learn how to be prepared for anything and everything. You will learn about how to prepare for uncommon complications you may encounter: excessive bleeding, disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), hematoma formation, amniotic fluid embolism and more. Learn about how to manage these while keeping the family and yourself calm. Bring questions and cases to study.
Long labors may be associated with complications ranging from social or emotional issues to physical problems. We will learn different reasons for prolonged labor, as well as methods for helping women move along in labor. Analysis of myth and reality will also be discussed. Learn prenatal factors that may help allay long labors.
Birth practitioners sometimes experience births that are disappointing, difficult, or traumatic for ourselves. We need a safe place to tell those stories and to be listened to deeply without judgment. This session will provide ways to do the necessary healing work so that we can grow in self-compassion and wisdom as we continue to serve the mother and babies that we care for.
Angelina will discuss positioning, remedies, techniques and customs from Mexico some of which date back thousands of years. We will learn how to use a rebozo—a very useful tool in all parts of the childbearing cycle.
Brainstorm with us and your peers on how we can effect changes in midwifery and childbirth on the global level. This will be an interactive session, learning from the midwives present from the many different countries represented. Learn about the midwifery and birth movements going on around the world and how you can help. We can make changes for the better with knowledge of global possibilities.
With skillful hands and open heart, true midwifery marries science and art, forges the deepest alliances and operates at a level of intimacy uncommon in our busy society. Join us as we delve into the joys and mysteries of our sacred calling.
Join in our popular evening program. Dance with Jenaguru Full Moon Marimba, a local Zimbabwean marimba band, and let your primal brain relax and play after its full day of learning!
From earliest history, women have shared their personal experiences of strength and healing. Stories wrapped with love and trust in the birth process have transmitted wisdom and confidence to each generation. Come to share or just to listen.
Sunday • March 22, 2015 • Conference Day Three
This early-morning meeting is designed to get our minds ready for our day of learning by going within our silent space. Current cognitive neuroscience research tells us meditation helps to maximize the effects of beta and alpha brainwave patterns for the benefit of humanity.
Magical Beginnings is a celebration of pregnancy and birth where moms and dads have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be conscious participants in this miraculous creative process. When parents celebrate the gift of conceiving, schooling in the womb and delivering a child, together with their midwife or other health provider, we all become part of this magical process. From this perspective, pregnancy and birth are what they are meant to be—a joyful and sacred event where mom, baby and dad actively participate in the miracle of creation.
This presentation describes what co-editors Robbie Davis-Floyd of the US, Lesley Barclay of Australia, Betty-Anne Daviss of Canada, and Jan Tritten of the US call “birth models that work.” This talk first presents the criteria we have developed to identify and characterize birth models that work and then proceeds to identify and describe a number of such optimal birth models from countries as diverse as Canada, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines and Samoa. Updates on how these models have stood the test of time will be included.
Can birthing women experience ecstasy and empowerment in the hospital? Must midwives dilute quality of care in this environment? Much depends on the vision, integrity and preparation of the staff, midwife and family. Yeshi has created a practice called “Homestyle Midwifery Care.” After 25 years as a homebirth midwife, she successfully took this kind of care into a hospital practice. Marion has worked in home, birth center and hospital settings and therefore brings excellent experience to this session.
This is an in-depth look at malpresentations and mal-rotations, their likelihood and causes, palpation methods to identify them and the techniques for assessing and dealing with them. You will learn many tips for helping remedy these errant babes to move into better position for vaginal birth. Bring your techniques to add to this body of midwifery knowledge.
The ability to transport is essential in every home or birth-center birth. Learn about why and when to transport and how to make the transition as smooth, intelligent and educated as possible.
In this session, we will give examples of how midwives can individualize and personalize a woman’s experience of receiving care during pregnancy, birth, and beyond. These tips will be adaptable for anyone caring for women during the childbearing year, including doulas, doctors, or OB nurses.
In this well-loved Midwifery Today format, you’ll sit in on three interesting and inspiring roundtables of your choice. Roundtables will include:
This presentation is based on interviews with 32 of Brazil’s holistic obstetricians, who call themselves “the good guys and girls”—a name they use to distinguish themselves from the “bad guys” who perform many unnecessary cesareans for their own profit and convenience. These holistic OBs dedicate themselves to helping birthing women achieve normal, physiologic birth. They have extremely low cesarean rates compared to the rest of the country, yet with wide variation—from 7% to 30%. They practice in varied settings yet share a commitment to holistic practice under a midwifery model of care, often calling themselves “midwife-obstetricians.” This presentation will describe what motivated them to change, the forms those changes took over time, the current ways in which they practice, the persecution they suffer from the larger health care system, and the ways in which they are working, individually and collectively, to transform that system.
Learn how you can incorporate love into your practice from four practitioners who embody love in very practical ways. You won’t want to miss this!