PROVIDING MOTHER BABY FRIENDLY SUPPORT AND EDUCATION

Welcome!

Shawna Wentz Photography Sacred Womb Artistry

Please allow me to introduce myself and to welcome you to Wholistic Birth Support and Childbirth Education, and to let you know about our organization. I am the principal consultant, workshop leader and creator of our trainings as well as the Director of Wholistic Birth Support and Childbirth Education. We are a community-based organization dedicated to increasing awareness of evidence-based practices and strategies to reduce perinatal health disparities, improve maternal satisfaction with childbearing experiences and improve outcomes for mothers and babies. We strive to help cultivate trust in birth and promote informed choices in maternity care. We offer trainings for perinatal professionals and provide childbirth education, doula support, midwifery services, postpartum doula support and lactation support to expectant women and new families. Our Birth Support Professionals are dedicated to the ideals of natural childbirth, evidence-based maternity care and attachment parenting.

My passion for mothers and babies began in childhood, long before I had my own children, I was always fascinated with pregnancy and birth and babies. I always loved to teach and worked with  children, throughout high school and college.  I obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Dance at Indiana University Bloomington, and moved to  Los Angeles to pursue a career as an actress in 1986. Then in  1989 and 1991,  the miraculous experiences of giving birth to my two children with Midwife at home changed the course of my life. I found my true calling and have been on a mission ever since,  empowered and inspired me to carry the message  that childbirth can be transformative  and an opportunity for personal growth.

Since 1991, I have been a Certified Childbirth Educator (CCE) and Certified Birth Assistant (CBA) providing education and childbirth support to families in Los Angeles county in clinics, hospitals, birth centers and homes. I am accredited as Childbirth Educator and Birth Assistant by the Association of Labor Assistants and Childbirth Educators (ALACE). I began  teaching expectant parents in my home on weekends when my children were small, studying midwifery and working with several local homebirth/birth center midwives and working at a community clinic teaching parents who were low income. This sparked my interest in public health. In addition, I  worked with California Association of Midwives to obtain licensure for direct-entry midwives in 1993.  I pursued becoming a midwife, working with several homebirth midwives,  as a Primary Midwife Under Supervision and Assistant Midwife,  and helped to establish a freestanding birth center where I did my supervised clinical training. All through those years I thought about how  difficult it was to become a Licensed Midwife and I wanted to make it easier for those who came after me, thus my dream of starting a school of midwifery  and freestanding birth center began .  In 2002 I went to graduate school,  while working full time at a public health department and raising  my children, and then  in  2008, I obtained a Masters in Public Health in Health Education and Promotion/Maternal Child Health from Loma Linda University. I also obtained my  Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) credential from the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, the gold standard for professional public health educators. My education at LLU expanded my awareness of global maternal-infant health and women’s issues, inspired a desire to work internationally with pregnant mothers, to preserve traditional birth practices and address maternal and infant mortality globally.  In 2007, I was a delegate and volunteer at Women Deliver in London, a conference to raise global awareness of maternal mortality and women’s rights.

Cordelia's receiving her MPH from LLU with her children Dylan and Aria Hanna

Since 2007, I’ve served as  Co-Chair of the Evidence in Action Committee of The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services, creator of the Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative. I also am part of the global safe motherhood movement, and participate in efforts to reduce ethnic perinatal health disparities in the United States. I am particularly committed to reducing African-American perinatal health disparities and worked for the Black Infant Health Program for seven years, and have been doing my part to achieve Millennium Development Goal 5: to reduce maternal deaths globally (with a particular passion and interest in Africa; as I am married to a man from Kenya).

Cordelia with husband and children

I provide consultation and training for the perinatal public health workforce, offering a myriad of health education courses for professionals which I have developed and teach. I am available to consult your agency on your perinatal practice including writing protocols, case management and more. I hope this website and my trainings will inform you and inspire you in your work with mothers and babies. I intend to create a community of like-minded professionals promoting an evidence-based, holistic model of maternity care to achieve public health goals for maternal and infant health in this county and country.

In 1993,  I founded our non-profit organization Wholistic Midwifery School of Southern California (DBA The Association for Wholistic Maternal and Newborn Health) to establish a freestanding birth center and midwifery school in Los Angeles  to serve low income disadvantaged families where health disparities are greatest and to train midwives, doulas and breastfeeding peer counselors from these communities. If this project is of interest to you, we welcome your involvement.

We have just been funded by The California Community Foundation to offer a training, “Hearts and Hands: The Art and Science of Mother-Baby Friendly Nursing: A Proposal for High Quality Maternity Care“  offered in Spring 2012 for hospital labor and delivery  nurses. To attend a Free Introduction  and Information session on February 23, 2012 from 2:00-5:00 pm in Downtown Los Angeles to find out more about Mother and Baby Friendly Care, please go to:http://mother-baby-friendly-nursing-training.eventbrite.com to register, or email: cordeliahc@socalbirth.com or call 626-388-2191 for more information, or visit The Art and Science of Mother-Baby Friendly Nursing

If you would like to discuss your agency’s health education and consultation needs, please download the Welcome Letter from me which further explains my work experience and then give me a call to discuss your specific needs and how I may be of service to your agency.

If you would like to receive training to work with pregnant women and infants,  we offer several trainings which may fit your needs.

Cordelia with client and her newborn.

If you are an expectant or new mother or father and need education and/or support, please look at the classes and services we offer or download our Brochure for Wholistic Birth Support and Childbirth Education and let us know how we can assist you in manifesting the birth you desire!

Warm regards,

Cordelia S. Hanna-Cheruiyot, MPH, CHES, CCE, CBA

Wholistic Birth Support and Childbirth Education of Southern California

Supporting Informed Choice. Cultivating Trust in Birth

“Providing Maternal Child Health Education and Training and Advocacy since 1991″