Wholistic Midwifery School of Southern California
DBA The Association for Wholistic Maternal and Newborn Health
Offering Mother Baby Friendly Education and Support
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.
CURRENT AND UPCOMING PROJECTS AND TRAININGS
Mother-Friendly Nurse-Education Training| Spanish Community Doula Training
FY 2011-2012 ACTIVITIES
Project: “Heart and Hands: The Art and Science of Mother-Baby Friendly Nursing, A Proposal for High Quality Maternity Care”
A 3-day 
nurse-education training implementing the Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative in Los Angeles
Funder: California Community Foundation Grant for Nursing Education and Hospital Improvements
Amount of grant: $12,000
Scope of work: to develop and conduct a training on Mother-Baby Friendly maternity care for labor and delivery nurses and administrators 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 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; learn 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, and help acheive public health objectives for maternal and infant
Collaborative Partners: The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) and Educate.Simplify. Creative Resolve Healthcare Training Company
Our Trainers and Consultants and Collaborating Organizations
We are thrilled to welcome our principal consultants for this project,Vanessa Nicolas, CNM, CLE and Nicette Jukelevics, MA, ICCE. Our collaborating partner organization is The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services, and two consultants from that organization, Jeanette Schwartz, MSN, ICCE, CD and Marilyn Hildreth, RN, FACCE, CD will be helping to conduct this training. Educate and Simplify: Creative Resolve Healthcare Training Company is providing us with their training site located in Mid-Wilshire district of Los Angeles for the May training, and helping to promote the training. In addition, we gratefully acknowledge the support of The Breastfeeding Taskforce of Greater Los Angeles for their support to help us promote the training.
Overview of Training
- Day One: Train-the-Trainer (for nurse-champions of mother-baby friendly care; learn how to teach co-workers how to provide mother-baby friendly nursing care).
- Day Two: The Art and Science of Mother-Baby Friendly Nursing Care (practical applications of the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative in the labor and delivery unit).
- Day Three: Promoting Mother-Baby Attachment, Cultural Awareness and Communication Skills and h’ors d’ouevres & cocktail reception with local doulas (special guest speaker to be announced) from 4:00-6:00 pm.
Important Dates
Introduction and Information Session About Heart and Hands: The Art and Science of Mother-Baby Friendly Nurse-Training – Thursday, February 23, 2011, 2:00-5:00 pm, California Endowment Center for Healthy Communities 1000 N. Alameda Street, downtown Los Angeles, CA 90012.
Who Should Attend?
Hospital administrators and nurse-managers from hospitals in Los Angeles County. If you are a hospital labor and delivery nurse or a hospital administrator interested in attending the event to learn more about this training opportunity, please RSVP by 2/19/12 at: http://mother-baby-friendly-nursing-training.eventbrite.com.
Purpose
At the introductory information session on 2/23, the audience will learn more about The Mother Friendly Childbirth Initiative, and receive an invitation to participate in our nurse-education training coming in May 2012.
Representative Roybal-Allard To Receive Award at Event
Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard, 34th Congressional District, will be present to receive The Champion of Mother-Baby Friendly Maternity Care Award on behalf of the collaborating partner organizations for her legislation on the MOMS for the 21st Century Act.
Location of Introduction and Information Session: California Endowment Center for Healthy Communities (Downtown Los Angeles)
See Map below:
Three Day Nurse Training: Heart and Hands: The Art and Science of Mother-Baby Friendly Nursing - Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, May 23, 24, 25, 2012, 8:30 am-5:30 pm, will be offered in collaboration with Educate. Simplify. Creative Resolve Healthcare Education Company who offers Continuing Education for Medical & 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. Educate and Simplify: Creative Resol-ve Healthcare Education Company. aims to be in forefront in both Health Provider and Public Health Educational Arenas. The training will be held at Educate.Simplify’s training center, located at 3580 Wilshire Blvd., 4th Floor Classroom, Los Angeles, CA 90010. See map below:
FY 2012-2013 ACTIVITIES
Project: Spanish Community Doula Training – “Promotores de Salud Para El Embarazo, El Parto y La Lactancia”
Funder: The Laurence H. Tribe Charitable Foundation, Inc.
Amount: $2500.00
Project Description: Thanks to the generous donation of The Laurence H. Tribe Charitable Foundation, we will be offering a Spanish speaking community doula training and establishing a Spanish-speaking doula volunteer network serving the low income Latino community of Los Angeles.
Rationale for Project: Within 20 years, Latinos are predicted to be 60% of the California population. 42% of teenage pregnancies are among Latina women, the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the U.S., at 90.5 per 
100 among women 15-19 years of age. These women are vulnerable to poverty, inadequate health care and welfare dependence and lack health education and often have difficulty navigating the health care system. 34% lack health insurance, the highest among all ethnic groups. In addition, there is a shortage of culturally competent health educators and Latina women, particularly teens, have many misconceptions and myths abound regarding sexuality, contraception, childbearing and breastfeeding, and there are numerous language and cultural barriers to accessing information and services. Mexican-American women suffer disproportionately from diabetes, have higher rates of obesity than non-Hispanic Caucasians. Maternal overweight can lead to gestational diabetes in pregnancy, which is associated with childhood obesity and diabetes in their children. Puerto-Ricans have the highest infant mortality of all Hispanic groups, and suffer disproportionately from low birth weight, while Mexican-Americans are 2.5 times more likely than non-Hispanic Caucasians to begin prenatal care in the third trimester, or receive none at all.
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, we will form a network of community perinatal health promoters who are culturally and linguistically competent. These birth and postpartum doulas and breastfeeding peer counselors will provide free birth and postpartum support services and childbirth education to Latino families.
Doula support is associated with fewer cesarean sections, decreased rates of induction and pain medication use, and decreased postpartum depression and improved maternal-infant interaction and breastfeeding initiation.
Important Dates: The doula training will be offered in Fall, 2012. Please contact us for further information. Scholarships and work study are available.
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.
If you have any questions or would like to participate in any of these projects, or make a tax-deductible donation to support our mission and projects, please call 626-388-2191 or
contact our Executive Director, Cordelia Hanna-Cheruiyot, MPH, CHES, CCE, CBA by email at cordeliahc@socalbirth.com.
