Portland, Maine October 16-18, 2009
Pre-conference workshops October 15, 2009
Birth Works Childbirth Educator Workshop October 19-21, 2009

Conference Sessions

Pre-Conference Sessions

Taking the Quantum Leap from Fear to Love
Julie Gerland
Discover your inner child and the hidden, and often limiting, message you have received from your parents about yourself and the world. You will also discover the impact this has had on your life. Then through connecting with the powerful inner resources of the mother and father archetypes, you will be able to change this subconscious program establishing permanent inner resources for emotional security. Discover and experience what every human being needs; to feel loved unconditionally, protected and guided by "perfect parents." These archetypes provide the parenting role models for our future generations. This is a life-changing experience.

Nourish your Cells and Flourish
Julie Gerland
This workshop is a natural continuation of Taking the Quantum Leap from Fear to Love but may be taken seperately.
Is your body a friend or foe? Discover how your body is intelligent and loving as it always works to keep you in the best possible health. You will learn how to build rapport with your body. Whilst greatly reducing cellular stress you will begin to understand what is happening within you and respond with love to the body's "symptoms" or language. You will enter into the amazing world of the cells and discover what they need to flourish in harmony with the cycles of nature and how they are connected to the incredibly intelligent and loving universe in which we live. This empowering workshop shed’s new light on living in harmony with our body and on earth. A must for future parents, parents and health care professionals alike.

Umbilical Cord Clamping: First, Do No Harm
Judith Mercer, DNSc, CNM, FACNM & Deb Erickson-Owens, CNM, PhDc
At birth, and infant may gain or lose 60 to 120 mL of blood depending on how the umbilical cord is managed. This blood is rich with red blood cells, iron, and stem cells and other essential substances. Yet, some consider this medical "waste" and advocate for freezing it for possible later use. Whose blood is this and where should it be? During this workshop, we will describe the evidence for benefits and harm from delayed cord clamping, explain how the management of the cord can affect the physiology of the neonatal transition, discuss the relationship between cord clamping and resuscitation, and review techniques for umbilical cord management such as the somersault maneuver and implications for clinical practice. Pros and Cons of cord blood harvesting will be presented.

Honoring the Neonate’s Consciousness during a Neonatal Resuscitation Event: A Model to Minimize Traumatic Birth Imprints
Kathryn Landon-Malone, RN, PhD(c), CPNP
The emerging science of Pre and Perinatal Psychology and developmental neuroscience suggests newborns are capable of consciousness and establishing memory at birth. The science points to a potential for imprinting traumatic birth events thereby laying the foundation for future mal adaptive behavior patterns and mental illness. Because a neonatal resuscitation event poses a significant birth trauma for a baby new models are needed to minimize the impact of such an event. This presentation will review the current neonatal resuscitation standard of practice and present a new model of care that encompasses an approach honoring the neonate’s exquisite consciousness and minimize the impact of such a traumatic event.

Keynote Sessions

Primal Care: The First Care Given to New Life
Mary Zwart, Midwife
Primal care is the very first care given to new life. It starts even before life begins and is essential for humans. Zoo procreation programs give us inside information about the importance of primal care and its origins. Many animals know midwifery care. As humans are mammals too, midwifery care in a holistic setting is the best for human beings. Birth has to be seen as a part of life and not as a medical procedure.

Emerging Consciousness: Lessons from the Birth Room
Bethany Hays, MD FACOG
One cannot spend time in the presence of birthing women without being affected by the profound transformation a women undergoes in becoming a mother. In this talk an obstetrician with thirty years of experience will share her insights into the spiritual importance of birth and tell the stories of transformation that we all know to be true if we simply take the time to be present the the largest sense during the miracle of labor and birth.

How the Concept of Primal Health Research is Strengthening Midwifery in Brazil
Heloisa Lessa, CNM
How the concept of Primal Health Research can help us to change the situation in Brazil, a country with both skyrocketing rates of cesarean and the emergence of a new awareness.

A New Womb with a View: Review of Benefits
Susan Ludington, PhD, CNM
The continuation of the womb environment is best met by skin-to-skin contact with the mother starting within one minute of birth for healthy newborns or as soon as possible for preterm and sick newborns. An overview of the processes for Birth Kangaroo Care, Cesarean Section Kangaroo Care, and Preterm Kangaroo Care even for ventilated newborns and by mothers, fathers, and surrogates will be presented.

The Need for Primal Health Research
Michel Odent, MD
Thanks to recent technical advances the Cesarean section is now easier, faster, and safer than ever. This is why, if we do not urgently introduce new criteria to evaluate the practices of obstetrics and midwifery, it will be justified in the near future to offer a c-section to all pregnant women. Primal Health Research is one of the developing scientific disciplines that will oblige us to reconsider and to enlarge the short conventional list of criteria established during the twentieth century.

Workshop Sessions

Music Therapy: A Cradle for Pregnancy and Birth
Giselle Whitwell, MT-BC, CCE, Birth Doula
Our earliest development in the womb is that of a resonant cradle which holds us in an enriched and stimulated environment as our hearing develops; a sense that is fully functional before birth. This workshop will bring understanding why sound and music are ideal companions during our gestational journey. The quality of sound is sensed by all of us from the beginning of life, physically as well as emotionally and spiritually. The voice of the mother, in particular when singing, resonates strongly through the amniotic waters and her bones. The voice can facilitate the release of tension, re-energize our depleted forces, bond consciously with our babies and build a bridge to the post-partum period as songs will be remembered if they were performed during the pregnancy long before birth. By engaging in active music therapy through the involvement of the voice we are empowering the mother and also offering her some keys (tools) for managing her labor and delivery. Singing lullabies is also important for the father as his voice is recognized immediately after birth if the baby was exposed to it and provides him with resources to comfort his child during the night or when the baby is tense and upset. In this workshop I will provide vocal exercises from the practice of therapeutic singing that have been effective during pregnancy, labor and delivery.

Healthy Brains in Babies: Making Intelligent Food Choices in Preconception, Pregnancy, and through the First Year of Life
Maya Shetreat-Klein, MD
Have you ever wondered how to sort through the vast and confusing advice regarding how to best feed yourself and your baby? Do you feel that you are inundated with mixed messages from obstetricians, pediatricians, grandparents and the media? In this session, board-certified child neurologist Dr. Maya Shetreat-Klein will discuss the importance of food in brain development, from preconception through the first year of life (and beyond). She will outline scientific evidence showing how the food choices over this period can have a lifelong impact on a baby's health, touching on the emerging field of epigenetics. The session will culminate with concrete ways to mindfully approach eating during conception, pregnancy and beyond with your baby's (and your own) neurological health in mind.

Belly Dance for Pregnancy & Birth
Cathy Moore, CNM
This is an experiential workshop where in addition to discussion of the usefulness of belly dance as a prenatal exercise and as a tool to be used during labor, participants will learn some of the basic movements of belly dance. Participants should wear comfortable clothing that allows them to move freely.

Restorative Yoga
Valerie Fagin
Restorative yoga is a powerful practice that spiritually and emotionally will open up your mind and heart, leaving you with more love to give and a bigger capacity to receive love, as well. This practice helps to bring awareness of body sensations, the breath, and of the self. As you ground yourself in this restorative yoga practice you will be empowered to feel and trust the power of your body, you will learn to listen to your instincts and connect on a deeper level with the life growing inside of you. This soothing workshop will leave you refreshed and inspired to continue the practice of self-nurturance.

Birthing In The Spirit
Cathy Daub, PT, CD
Birthing in the Spirit is a human values approach to childbirth that has the potential for transformation. When women in labor know and practice their truth, they are able to transcend the thinking brain and access their primal brain that already knows how to give birth. This workshop will address the values of truth, right action, peace, love, and nonviolence, and their physiological aspects that lead to instinctive birthing. Following the wisdom that flows from these values into the birth of a human being takes us from an experience of “happiness and bliss” to ultimately “an experience of spirit”.

Living with Loss: Helping Families Through Loss and Subsequent Pregnancies
Aimee Gerbi
Unfortunately, many healthcare professionals are not trained to deal with the huge range of emotions that go along with the devastating loss of a baby through miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death. This sad fact is demonstrated by a survey of families who have had losses which shows that only 29% felt emotionally cared for upon discharge from their hospital or birthing center. Through this talk, I hope you will gain a deeper understanding of how the loss of a baby affects the family and a specific list of ways to help. We will also look at research on anxiety after loss and how that affects subsequent pregnancies. If you have had a loss, know someone who has had a loss or work with people as they navigate the often isolating path of living with a loss, this talk is for you.

Healing Human Potential Through Infant Feeding: The Synergy of Maternal and Infant Physiology, Function and Psychology
Jennifer Tow, IBCLC
Breastfeeding is a dynamic relationship, designed to modulate the optimal development of the human infant. The infant, born competent and aware is fully prepared to thrive in the environment for which he is uniquely designed--the body of his mother. Through feeding at breast, he initiates appropriate responses from his mother, guiding her in assuring that the biological imperative of attachment and bonding is achieved. Bonding is dependent upon competency—the infant’s competency in turn leads to maternal competency and guides the mother in completing the circuit for which both have been hard-wired. The inability to feed effectively at the breast is the earliest possible indication that compensations have begun and that intervention is required to restore function. In this workshop we recognize the fundamental competency of the infant, address practices that undermine competency and discuss supportive measures that restore competency. Specifically, collaboration between the lactation consultant and manual therapist has evolved as a means of restoring normal form and function and with it the potential for both competency and optimal development.

Preventing Musculoskeletal Injuries During Pregnancy, Childbirth, & Postpartum: An Evidence-Based Perspective
Michelle Maniaci, PT, RYT, CIIM
Pregnancy, Labor, and Delivery create many changes in a woman’s body. This course will introduce common musculoskeletal injuries and how to prevent them during and after pregnancy. Education, evidence based exercises, and healthy movement patterns will be experienced to promote optimal form and functioning of internal organs, spine, and lumbopelvis. Correct recruitment and activation of the deep core and respiratory muscles will be taught.

The Role of the Midwife in Primal Care
Mary Zwart, Midwife
Outside hospital care is important for communities and is more affordable. In this workshop we will look into the possibilities of outside hospital midwifery care and risk selection. Cooperation between childbirth educators, doula’s and midwives is essential. The midwife needs to be an integral part of this medical care. The impact of the midwifery model of care on the primal period is significant in improving the physical and psychological health of the baby.

Fetal Life, Birth and Health
Michel Odent, MD
An overview of the 'Primal Health Research Database' leads to the conclusion that our health is to a great extent shaped in the pre- and peri-natal periods. Similar conclusions can be reached via other perspectives, in particular via the concepts of 'genes expression' and of critical period for the genes-environment interaction. This is why one cannot dissociate today the issues of fetal life, birth, and health.

Prenatal Programming: The Origins of Adult Chronic Disease
Bethany Hays, MD FACOG
A growing body of evidence indicates that the current epidemics of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and depression begin in the womb. If we wish to stem the tide of these chronic diseases and save the healthcare system from the growing expense of caring for these individuals we will need to understand not only their treatment but how to prevent them. That prevention begins with our care of pregnant women. This nine month window could provide one of the most cost-effective approaches to disease prevention available. In this talk we will review the evidence for stress and placental function and their connection to diet and lifestyle in causing chronic disease in later life.

The Appropriate Use of Technology in Birth in the Age of Scientific Advances
Heloisa Lessa, CNM
An overview of the recent advances in evidence based medicine suggests that the priority is to avoid long and difficult labors ending with operative vaginal deliveries, like forceps or vacuum. How to use midwifery skills to make childbirth as easy and safe as possible will be presented.

Sensory Components of the Womb with a View
Susan Ludington, PhD, CNM
The sensory components and unique features of skin-to-skin contact that contribute to breastfeeding and physiologic and developmental gain in infants is discussed, emphasizing the skin interface and how this type of touch produces unique responses in stratum corneum cells and hormones.