Wholistic Midwifery School of Southern California

DBA THE ASSOCIATION FOR WHOLISTIC MATERNAL AND NEWBORN HEALTH

A 501c3 non-profit educational corporation, founded in 1993, we are a training and  and advocacy organization with a  grassroots, community-based approach to support direct-service providers in promoting the health of mothers, infants, and families.  The organization trains community perinatal  health workers,   designs community-based initiatives,  so as to engage and mobilize  diverse stakeholders in collaboration to  develop  wholistically-oriented programs  and policies that improve maternal and child health. Our purpose  is to promote the availability and use of  skilled maternity care including nurses, midwives, doulas and community health promoters, at all levels and in a variety of settings including clinics, private homes, hospitals and freestanding birth centers  to promote evidence-based maternity and infant  care and reduce perinatal health disparities.

Coming in Fall, 2012

SPANISH COMMUNITY DOULA TRAINING

Collaboration Opportunity: Spanish Community Doula Training

Oportunidad de colaboración: Español comunidad Doula formación “Promotores de Salud Para El Embarazo, El Parto y La Lactancia”

Thanks to a $2500 donation by the Laurence H. Tribe Charitable Trust, Inc. bequeathed to The Association for Wholistic Maternal and Infant Health, this project will train Spanish speaking birth and postpartum doulas to serve as a team of volunteer labor companions and postpartum care providers  to low-income Latina pregnant women and mothers. Working with local agencies who provide case management and home visitation and prenatal care through the Medi-Cal CPSP programs,sand other case management and home visitation programs for pregnant women, we will form a network of educated, culturally and linguistically competent birth and postpartum doulas and breastfeeding peer counselors providing free birth and postpartum support services to and childbirth education to Latino families in Los Angeles County.

Benefits of Doula Support

Doula support is associated with fewer cesarean sections, decreased rates of induction and pain medication use, shorter labors, and decreased postpartum depression and improved maternal-infant interaction and breastfeeding initiation. according to studies by Kennell and Klaus and others.

Collaboration Opportunity for Agencies

The doula training will be offered in Fall, 2012.  If you are a clinic or community-based organization providing direct services to pregnant women and would like to provide labor support, postpartum doula support  and childbirth education for your Latina  clients, please contact us regarding our volunteer doula network.

Scholarships and Work-Study Available

We will offer one full scholarship and one work-study position as health education assistant. Please contact us for an application and interview.

Este proyecto formará a nacimiento de habla española y las doulas posparto para servir como un equipo de compañeros de trabajo voluntario y los prestadores de atención posparto a madres y mujeres embarazadas de escasos recursos Latina. Trabajando con agencias locales que ofrecen administración de casos y visitas de casa y cuidado prenatal a través del programa CPSP Medi-Cal y otros programas de apoyo perinatal, nos formará una red de “promotores de salud para el embarazo, el parto y la lactancia,” promotores de salud comunitaria en salud perinatal, que son cultural y lingüísticamente competente nacimiento y las doulas posparto y consejeros de pares de la lactancia materna nacimiento libre y servicios de apoyo postparto a y educación de parto a las familias latinas.

Apoyo de doula está asociada con menos secciones de cesárea, disminución de tasas de inducción y dolor la medicación utilizan, labores más cortos y disminuyeron la depresión postparto y mejorar la interacción materno-infantil y la iniciación de la lactancia materna.

La formación de doula se ofrecerá en otoño, 2012. Si usted es una clínica o organización comunitaria proporcionar servicios directos a las mujeres embarazadas y le gustaría proporcionar apoyo laboral, la educación doula postparto parto y soporte para sus clientes de Latina, contacte con nosotros acerca de nuestra red de voluntarios de doula y formación de doula red.

For more information, contact us at 626-388-2191

or email our Executive Director, Cordelia Hanna-Cheruiyot, MPH, CHES, CCE, CBA at cordeliahc@socalbirth.com