Below is a list of available sessions from the 2016 MANA Conference, "RESPECT" Atlanta, October 13-16 2016.
MA1601: Plenary 1 - Home Birth Health System - Alignment of Providers and Hospital- Brad Bootstaylor
Review the Home Birth system of support in alignment with Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Midwifery hospital based practice regarding: consultation, administrative support, hospital transfer of care, midwifery hospital based continuation of care, and postnatal support. A system of real tangible support for Home Birth midwives and their patients
MA1602: Preceptors and Students Speak Out - Preliminary Results of the MEAC Clinical Training Survey - Abigail Aiyepola
In the fall of 2015, MEAC surveyed students and preceptors regarding their experiences on both sides of the clinical training relationship. 560 respondents shared their needs, wants, stories and ideas for how midwifery clinical training in the U.S. and abroad is working well, not so well, and how it could be working better. Preliminary themes from this analysis include: * why preceptors continue to take students * why preceptors stop taking students * preceptors’ most valuable resources * what midwifery students consider to be great learning experiences * the hardest things about being students in clinical sites * the best things that preceptors can do for students * ideas regarding what can be done to improve the clinical training experience for both students and preceptors
MA1603: AME Presents - The Fetal Distress, Shoulder Dystocia, and the Fetal Vagus Nerve - Geni G. Proteau
Fetal vagus response (FVR) in labor is a normal phenomenon that occurs as the body attempts to maintain homeostasis. The protracted stimulation or suppression of the fetal vagal response, including over activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, syncope, and disruption of normal vagus nerve function, can create fetal vagus nerve compromise (FVNC). These types of compromise may be responsible for several fetal and newborn complications such as bradycardia, tachycardia, meconium staining, shoulder dystocia, delayed neonatal respiration, poor initial muscle tone, poor latch, and weak suckling. This session contains a review of the vagus nerve and its functions, as well as describes the vulnerability of the fetal vagus nerve during labor and birth, and makes recommendations for the prevention and management of signs and symptoms of delayed or hyper-stimulated fetal vagus nerve response.
MA1605: Clearing the Smoke - Talking about the health and legal consequences of marijuana use with your clients - Heather Thompson
The number of states legalizing marijuana for medical or recreational use is growing quickly and perinatal healthcare providers must learn to craft a conversation with their pregnant and breastfeeding clients about cannabis use. Unfortunately, this is not a simple scientific or legal question, but requires a multifaceted examination of the perinatal environment to create an evaluation of risk. This session will provide tools to help midwives and other birthworkers create an evidence-based conversation about the health and legal consequences of legal cannabis use with their clients. This session will explore the pharmacokinetics of THC in humans and review the scientific literature on cannabis during the perinatal period. In addition, participants will examine limitations to current and future marijuana research in the U.S, including the potential role of race and poverty in the interpretation of available data. A cross-cultural comparison of perinatal cannabis use provides a way to talk about both systemic and interpersonal bias and sets the stage for a discussion of how current Colorado policy is being created and implemented. Discussion on the legal climate in Colorado will include an analysis of how race and class affect outcomes. This session is designed to help birth professionals create a data-driven conversation about cannabis use that fosters an improved individual and realistic conversations about marijuana with their clients. The combination of legal realities, scientific evidence, cross-cultural perspective and real social implications is designed to provide birth professionals with tools to provide evidence-based care for families using cannabis while pregnant or breastfeeding.
MA1607: Scar Reduction, the DIY Hands ON Approach - Rowan TwoSisters
One of the most deflating feelings I’ve ever had is when a client received a surgical birth. This is what I share with those clients, which I think is a valuable tool for setting them up for self-healing, both physical and emotional. Scars can really shift one's health, from decreased range of motion of a limb to constricting bowel function, they are large and in charge. The good news is that they are uncomplicated to heal, especially with a little guidance and perseverance. • Learn how scars form (in layman's terms) and why they are a hazard • Assess! Form a baseline of the body's terrain. This is an important first step, especially for all my C-Section mamas out there. • Next I will get you introduced to powerful tools of healing that you may already own • Practical application, learn the process of applying these tools to get your heal on. • Step by step on how to share it with our clients that have had a previous surgical birth, or are healing from one while in our care, This information will make a difference for people who are interested in self-healing, scar reduction, and making a difference in how their bodies function. Included is a proposed teaching sequence for midwives to share with clients immediately postpartum, after six months postpartum, or currently pregnant.
MA1608: Plenary 2 - How to Pass Go in the Game of Midwifery - Indra Lusero
Session explores the concepts of equity and equality:
Internalized, interpersonal, institutional and structural oppression
Social determinants of health, health disparities, and health inequities
Antitrust law and how it impacts health care
Open Records requests, explorations of state and federal agencies.
Increase your confidence and get involved!
MA1609: A Return to Women Helping Women - Advancing Midwifery for the Next Generation - Madeline Lutz
The session will discuss the on-call lifestyle typical of American home birth Midwives today; its perils and limitations, and how a paradigm shift could improve the lives of current midwives, encourage more women to become midwives, and enhance the benefits of the midwives model of care for more and more birthing women.
MA1610: Placenta - The Forgotten Chakra - Robin Lim
An exploration of the cultural significance and the physiological functions of the placenta. What is the difference between early and late clamping and cutting of infants’ umbilical cords? How midwives can advocate for the human rights of newborns and practice optimal umbilical cord care in the first days postpartum.
MA1611: Ultrasound - benefits, risk, errors and "fake outs"; Contextualize the Anxiety - Brad Bootstaylor
Review of the limitations and benefit of ultrasound in the support or management of pregnancy: The ability to contextualize the "soft markers" of U/S imaging Ultrasound Safety U/S errors and "fake outs", what's real vs. what's not; markers of aneuploidy U/S benefit in regards to Post Dates antenatal surveillance (Biophysical Profile)
MA1612: Walking the Labyrinth - Research Literacy, Evidence-Informed Practice, and Shared Decision-Making - Courtney L. Everson
This session will introduce midwives to the fundamentals of research literacy and evidence-informed practice. Evidence-informed practice is increasingly championed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Institutes of Medicine (IOM), the Center for Optimal Integration (COI), and other leading health entities as a central framework for facilitating shared-decision making, informed choice, and client-centered care. Also called “evidence-based practice” or “evidence-based care or medicine”, an evidence-informed practice (EIP) framework rests in the triad intersection between the best available research with your professional expertise as the midwife alongside the client’s individual values, needs, and context. In this session, we will explore the EIP cycle (Assess-Ask-Acquire-Appraise-Apply) using current midwifery clinical topics, maternal-child health studies, and participatory engagement. In the first half of the session, we will focus on the foundational principles of an EIP framework, finding original studies, critically appraising literature, and applying research to midwifery care. Then, in the second half of the session, we will focus on the teaching and integration of EIP into midwifery education.
MA1613: Intermittent Auscultation (IA) in Labor - Research and Practice Updates - Wendy Gordon
Intermittent auscultation (IA) in labor is standard in most home and birth center midwifery practices. But how consistent are we in the way that we use IA across our profession? What does the research say about best practices? There are currently no consistent guidelines on how to categorize FHR findings when documenting IA. This session will describe what the current research does and does not tell us, review professional guidelines, discuss various procedures for performing IA in labor, and propose methods for charting your findings. Participants will put their skills to the test in case presentations.
MA1616: Plenary 4 - We Sued the Sheriff - Lessons from Rulemaking in Arizona - Julie Gunnigle
In 2012, the midwives and consumers of Arizona pushed for a bill to open the midwifery rules of practice. The rules were opened and, after countless meetings and open forums, VBACs were added to the scope of practice for licensed midwives. What looked like a win was quickly reversed when legislators sought to undo this increase and the Department of Health Services began changing the way it read existing rules. That same year, the Department announced that there was a "new sheriff in town." This new sheriff suspended fifteen percent of the actively practicing midwives in the state in a single year. This presentation will focus on the lessons learned from the rule making and hearing process in Arizona, along with advocacy pointers for midwives and birth workers alike.
MA1617: Plenary 5 - Dignity Birth Campaign - Marinah V Farrell
The Midwives Alliance and Compassionate Birth Project, funded by CoreAlign and led by MANA President and activist Marinah Farrell and Compassionate Birth Founder Robyn Sheldon, have teamed up to innovate a campaign of justice and compassion for midwives. We are seeking to solve the problem of the current dis-empowerment and dehumanization of midwives in the health care system, to ensure that this disempowerment and dehumanization does not get transferred from the midwives to the families they serve, and to improve birth outcomes as a result of the empowerment and compassionate care of midwives. We are developing links with international and professional midwifery organizations and associations at a community, national and international level. Training dignified, compassionate care for and by midwives will have a far reaching and potentially powerful impact on maternity systems and the reproductive movement as a whole. The long term goal would be to impact the healthcare system as a whole. This is being developed by a team of six that are from the U.S and from South Africa under the guidance of CoreAlign facilitating the planning phase, innovation and ideology and implementation. This is an exciting global initiative to bring back justice, compassion and healing for midwives.
MA1619: No Butts About It - Reversing Breech Presentations - Maria Milton
This session will address the alarming increase in the number of cesarean sections due solely to the presence of a breech presentation. This session will show how this increase is becoming a public health threat by significantly increasing the number of mandatory cesareans due to breech presentations and by significantly decreasing women's options for vaginal deliveries. This session will also teach the latest in version techniques to reverse breech presentations. Too, since women may not always have options for VBACs, this session will show how version techniques can drastically decrease the cesarean rates in cases where the conditions for version are favorable.
MA1620: The Game Of Rubrics - Leveling The Playing Field For Preceptors And Students - Sharon Wells
Set the ground rules for the open discussion. Talk about confidentiality, shared respect, focusing on one’s own cultural experience, attitudes and beliefs. Discuss the guidelines for talking about their frustrations in a Non Violent Way, culturally safe way. Allow each person to discuss their issues and frustrations as a preceptor or a student around signing off for skills and clinical experience, while fostering clear, value free, open and respectful communication Using power point presentation to discuss lack of a common language to describe competency and how can we change this dynamic. Introduce the concepts of Competency Based education and what does competency mean? Introducing the Rubric and the addition of attitudes into the equation.
MA1621: The US MERA and Midwives Alliance Relationship - Colleen Donovan-Batson
In the fall of 2011, a historical coalition of midwifery organizations was envisioned and formed, with the first convening occurring in the spring of 2012. Since then, the group has met at least yearly to consider the needs of the United States Midwifery Education Association and Regulation (US MERA) organizations, and to develop innovations to bring US midwifery standards into alignment with those of the ICM global standards for midwifery. These innovations include consensus statements regarding accredited education pathways, principles for model midwifery legislation and regulation, and the Midwifery Bridge Certificate for experienced midwives. In 2016, US MERA transformed by welcoming the International Center for Traditional Childbearing (ICTC) to the coalition, and examined the future of the coalition, with strategic planning in process. This session will provide an update to attendees about the current plans of US MERA and the role of MANA in the process.
MA1623: Mentoring Midwives - Creating Safe Space in Education - Sarita Bennett
This session will look at the relationship between preceptor and student through the new lens with an understanding of the difference between mentoring and teaching. With an emphasis on a balanced power dynamic, we will discuss the responsibilities and rights of both partners in the dance of apprenticeship. The preceptor can learn how to bring their midwifery skills to their mentoring as an already innate knowing that will enhance the student's education. The student can learn how to fully participate in their education in the same way that families are encourage to take responsibility for their health and birthing experiences. By using the skills and perspective in education that we already use in midwifery, we can create a truly safe space within which the profession can sustain itself while expanding into communities that so desperately need us.
MA1624: A Generation of Addicted Mothers - Tara Tulley
Psychiatric illness is the leading cause maternal mortality, with substance abuse deaths resulting in suicide or overdose being the largest risk factor. Up to 24% of postpartum mothers may abuse substances.
MA1626: Elder Midwives Hanging On! - Karen Ehrlich
Retirement can be a thorny and emotional issue for midwives. As we grow older, there are riches of age and experience that make us incredibly valuable. But midwifery is challenging on so many levels! There are pitfalls ahead as our abilities, focus, energy, and flexibility shift. Let's talk together about how we decide when we need to step down from the labors that we love so deeply. What are the signposts that give us messages that we don't necessarily want to hear? How many of us are still doing births because we have no other way of making a living, but don’t have financial retirement planning to support us? Do we approach an elder midwife who doesn’t want to acknowledge that she is no longer working at the top of her game and give her the benefit of our loving perspectives on her situation – and if so how exactly do we go about creating such an intervention? And how do we continue to be midwives if we are no longer midwifing?
MA1627: Birthing Within Broken Systems Of Care - Reframing How We Approach Fear Of The Childbirth Experience - Lee Roosevelt
Many women experience a generalized level of fear and anxiety about their birth, an anticipatory response that is both pervasive and normative. For a small subset of women, however, the fear can become so overwhelming that it influences obstetric outcomes as well as a woman’s ability to access and maintain medical care. This presentation describes the qualitative data gathered through focus groups with a sample of women in Southeast Michigan. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 22 women into three focus groups. Deliberately, each focus group had a unique demographic makeup. The results of these focus groups indicate that discussions of fear of childbirth (FOC) in our practice and research need to be expanded to include the factors that women in the United States identify as key contributors to their fears and worries. The results also indicate that women are deeply rooted within the culture in which they live and the dialogue around FOC needs to discuss not only each individual woman’s fears but also how her provider, birth setting, and society at large contribute to her birth experience and her fears and worries around the process.
MA1628: Engendering System Integration of Home Birth through a Quality Narrative and Guidelines for Collaboration - Kate T. Finn
For families choosing childbirth at home, policy and research literature highlights the importance of integrated access to a maternity system that facilitates consultation and transfer to hospital care when necessary. A strategic policy framework is described in terms of a "quality and safety bundle" for integration of planned home birth. Come to this presentation to find out about the rationale and process for developing trustworthy state midwifery association practice guidelines for planned home birth, while keeping the family at the center of their care planning. Explore practical steps to engage local hospital providers and staff, as well as the state organization for obstetricians, as partners in coordination of transfers of care from planned home birth to hospitals when indicated.
MA1629: Keynote - Awakening Birth - Robin Lim
An exploration of the essential role of midwifery in the genesis of current childbearing practices and human rights in childbirth.
MA1630: Plenary 7 - Why is Home Birth Safe in Canada, While American Midwives Struggle to Show That They too are Practicing Safely? - Michael C. Klein
Attendees will learn about the previous studies in the US that claimed that home birth in the US was unsafe. The latest US study, from Oregon was published in the New England Journal of Medicine received wide publicity, with most news sources accepting that home birth was relatively unsafe, compared with hospital birth. This study will be deconstructed and results compared to the results from three Canadian studies, demonstrating the safety of homebirth. Lessons from other models will also be discussed.
MA1631: What Midwives Can Do to Prevent Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancies - Marilyn Pierce-Bulger
This session will update midwives on current evidence about alcohol exposure in pregnancy. We will discuss the unique role midwives can play to routinely screen for alcohol misuse, correct common misconceptions, provide anticipatory guidance to women experiencing an unintended alcohol-exposed pregnancy, and promote communication of alcohol exposure risk to the pediatric provider for future diagnostic differential use. Case studies will be discussed to demonstrate how midwives can conduct alcohol screening among women of reproductive age and provide effective follow-up for positive screens.
MA1632: Routine Episiotomy to Cesarean Section on Demand — How Did It Happen - Michael C. Klein
We will review the history of the development of the discipline from Gynecology to Obstetrics and Gynecology, from the promotion of routine episiotomy to acceptance of cesarean section as just another way to have a baby. Using the results of our national study of the attitudes and beliefs of all the maternity care providers in Canada, the learners will explore the central role of training in the acquisition a view that childbirth is nothing more than an opportunity for things to go wrong. Note the same attitudes exist in the USA despite such different health care system. Participants will critically read the relevant literature and appreciate the role of the misuse of meta-analysis in the development of views that are at variance with clinical reality. We will explore how we have gone from evidence-based decision-making to decision-based evidence-making.
MA1633: Oral Ties and the Breastfed Baby - Erik Bauer
Tongue and lip ties, how they may affect breast feeding, and how to recognize and treat them, have become a hot topic in pediatrics and allied specialties. In this session, we will discuss the anatomy and mechanics of the latch and the infant and maternal factors that can affect it. We'll address risks and benefits of treatment of tongue and lip ties, strategies to achieve and maintain breastfeeding success after frenulectomy procedures, and other factors that may influence or limit results. Participants will be better equipped to answer new mothers' questions about oral ties and to determine when an infant or breastfeeding dyad should be referred for further evaluation.
MA1634: Transgender Cultural Competency 101
As the USA becomes a more diverse nation, health care systems and providers need to respond to patients’ varied perspective around health and well-being.
Providers will explore skills to develop more inclusive practices.
MA1636: Strengthening Midwifery in The Caribbean - Debrah Lewis
In 2012 a group of 30 midwives representing 13 Caribbean nations met with the goal of launching a regional midwifery association. The goal of the fledgling organization was to provide a forum for a united voice for midwifery and a way to share and knowledge across multiple governments and regulatory bodies. In two years, the CRMA has become a strong voice for midwifery in the region as well as a sponsor of educational opportunities for member countries. This presentation will describe the development of the CRMA, its progress toward representation at regional and global levels, and the active work to strengthen midwifery education. CRMA presenters will address the challenges of working across 13 nations, a variety of regulatory and educational systems and small budgets. The achievements of the regional association can offer important global lessons for development of strong collaborative midwifery networks.
MA1637: Plenary 8 - The American Way(s) of Birth and Death - Lessons for Midwifery From the Death Care Movement - Barbara Katz Rothman
Can it possibly be right that almost every American baby begins life in precisely the place almost every older person passionately wants not to end it? Over and over again we hear that older people want NOT to go into hospitals to die. They want to be at home, with loved ones, not in an institution, and particularly not in that one, understood as being cold, impersonal, unfeeling...
And yet – we mostly do end up dying just there, hooked up to the machines we said we didn't want, tubes and wires our best connection to the world, diapers and catheters tended to by strangers, the colors of cleanliness on surfaces covered with germs, flimsy drapes separating us from yet more suffering strangers. In we come and out we go, the gates to America marked 'Emergency Room Entry' and 'Hospital Parking Only.'
People have tried to change death care in much the same way as birth – sometimes involving the same people. This paper will present the historical and social parallels, including home birth and home death; in-hospice care and birth centers; death workers challenging the funeral industry; the attempts by the medical industry to maintain control over other providers; and what can be learned in developing strategies to change national standards of care.
MA1638: Plenary 9 - North American Midwifery - MANA, CAM, and Mexico Association alliance - Cristina Alonso
This panel discussion will explore the current state of midwifery in North America.
Examination of new developments in the Mexican midwifery system, education and regulation of Native American/Aboriginal midwives in Canada and common trends in North American Midwifery in 2016.
