WHOLISTIC MIDWIFERY SCHOOL OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
DBA THE ASSOCIATION FOR WHOLISTIC MATERNAL AND NEWBORN HEALTH
Providing Mother-Baby Friendly Support and Education
“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane”
-Martin Luther King, Jr. (25 March 1966)
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 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.
OUR COLLABORATIVE PARTNERS
We have received a grant from California Community Foundation for Nursing Education and Hospital Improvements. Our scope of work for FY 2011-2012 is to develop and conduct a training on Mother-Baby Friendly maternity care for labor and delivery nurses and administrators with the goal to help a local hospital or hospitals implement the Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative (MFCI), 10 evidenced based practices to improve maternal and infant care. The evidence supporting the MFCI was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Perinatal Education, and is available online at http://motherfriendly.org. “Hearts and Hands: The Art and Science of Mother-Baby Friendly Nursing, A Proposal for High Quality Maternity Care” will instruct nurses and administrators on evidence-based maternity and neonatal care practices which optimize maternal well being and mother-newborn attachment with the goal to lower rates of pain medication use, augmentation of labor and cesarean section and instrumental deliveries and improve breastfeeding success. We will be offering a 3 day training Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, May 22, 23, 24, 2012 from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm in Los Angeles. 21 BRN CEUs are offered.
Our Partners
Several organizations are collaborating with us on “Hearts and Hands: The Art of Mother-Baby Friendly Nursing, A Proposal for High Quality Maternity Care.”
Educate. Simplify. Creative Resolve Healthcare Training Company
This healthcare training company will be hosting us at their training center in May and helping us promote the training as well as offering 21 CEUs for Registered Nurses. Educate.Simplify. Creative Resolve Healthcare Training Company offers Continuing Education for Medical and Non-medical Professionals. Their current offerings are a unique brand of Continuing Education Seminars for Nurses and CPR, Neonatal Resuscitation and First Aid Courses, and upcoming projects will involve Public Health Ventures. Their aim is to be in forefront in both Health Provider and Public Health Educational Arenas.
The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services
The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) is a coalition of individuals and national organizations with concern for the care and well-being of mothers, babies, and families. Their mission is to promote a wellness model of maternity care that will improve birth outcomes and substantially reduce costs. This evidence-based mother-, baby-, and family-friendly model focuses on prevention and wellness as the alternatives to high-cost screening, diagnosis, and treatment programs.
The evidence-based Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative (MFCI) evolved from the collaborative effort of many individuals and more than 26 organizations focused on pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding during meetings spanning nearly three years in the 1990′s. The MFCI – the cornerstone of their mission – is the first and only consensus document on U.S. maternity care. The MFCI is recognized as an important instrument for change both in this country and abroad. Acknowledging the need to ensure the ongoing education and promotion of the Mother-Friendly childbirth model of care defined in the MFCI, CIMS was established as a non-profit corporation in 1997.
In addition, The Breastfeeding Taskforce of Greater Los Angeles is helping to promote the training.
Information and Introduction Session; February 23, 2012
Interested nurses, physicians and administrators are invited to attend an Information and Introduction session about the training opportunity on February 23, 2012 from 2:00-5:00 pm held at California Endowment Center for Healthy Communities 1000 N. Alameda Street, Sierra 2 Room, Los Angeles, CA 90017, . At this introductory information session, the audience will learn more about The Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative, and receive an invitation to participate in our nurse-education training. The event is free and RSVP is required by 2/16/12. Go to: http://mother-baby-friendly-nursing-training.eventbrite.com.
Location of Mother-Baby Friendly Nurse Training in May 2012
Heart and Hands: The Art and Science of Mother-Baby Friendly Nursing, A Proposal for Quality Maternity Care, will be held at Educate. Simplify. Creative Resolve Healthcare Training Company, Inc. – http://educatesimplify.com, located at 3850 Wilshire Blvd., 4th Floor Classroom, Los Angeles, CA 90010, in the Mid-Wilshire district of Los Angeles. The map of the location is below:
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PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT
Collaboration Opportunity: Spanish Community Doula Training-Promotores de Salud Para El Embarazo, El Parto y La Lactancia
Thanks to the generous donation of $2500.00 by The Laurence H. Tribe Charitable Foundation, Inc., we will be offering a Spanish speaking doula training and volunteer network serving the low income Latina population of Los Angeles. 
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 program and other perinatal support programs, we will form a network of “promotores de salud para el embarazo, el parto y la lactancia,” community health promoters educated in perinatal health, who are 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.
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.
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 doula training and volunteer doula network.
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.
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
