MIDWIFERY SCHOOL


Providing Mother-Baby Friendly Education and Support

Miracle Birth

Our "school" is society: we are educating parents and professionals about a wholistic, evidence-based mother and baby centered model of care which is aimed to improve quality of maternity care, lower costs, improve birth outcomes and reduce perinatal health disparities while acheiving public health goals for perinatal health.

WHOLISTIC MIDWIFERY SCHOOL OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

DBA THE ASSOCIATION FOR WHOLISTIC MATERNAL AND NEWBORN HEALTH

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)

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. Our purpose  is to promote the availability of skilled maternity care providers including nurses, midwives, doulas and community health promoters,   and  to promote evidence-based maternity care aimed to reduce perinatal health disparities. The organization trains community perinatal  health workers at all levels and in a variety of settings, and  designs community-based initiatives,  engages and mobilize  diverse stakeholders to  develop  programs  and policies that improve maternal and child health.  We are a 501c3 non-profit  California educational organization incorporated in 1993.

 

“The question should not be is it possible. Rather, the question should be is it worth trying to do.“

- Allard Lowenstein

VOLUNTEER, WORK-STUDY AND INTERNSHIP  OPPORTUNITIES

Available for Students  of  Public Health, Nursing, Midwifery or Aspiring Childbirth Educators, Aspiring Doulas

WHO WE ARE

We are a dedicated group of  public health professionals, childbirth educators, maternal-infant health advocates, midwives, doctors, mental health professionals  and community members committed to improving the quality of maternity care and making an impact in reducing ethnic disparities in birth outcomes of mothers and infants in Los Angeles.

ABOUT OUR ORGANIZATION

Wholistic Midwifery School of Southern California is a 501c3 non-profit California educational corporation ( DBA The Association for Wholistic Maternal and Newborn Health) founded in 1993 with the purpose 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, through the education and professional development of  nurses, midwives, doulas and community health promoters who are qualified practitioners to provide maternity care in varied settings including clinics, private homes, hospitals and freestanding birth centers and to promote evidence-based maternity and infant  care and reduce perinatal health disparities. We are a training and  and advocacy organization with a  grass roots, 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 to  collaborate to develop  wholistically-oriented programs  and policies that improve maternal and child health.

We  train parents, midwives, nurses, doulas and perinatal community health workers  to promote natural childbirth, the midwifery model of care, breastfeeding,  and woman-centered, culturally competent childbirth education  and  support.  We are striving to  improve perinatal health outcomes such as infant mortality, low birth weight and maternal mortality through the revitalization of “traditional” birth attendants–midwives and doulas.   We are  developing and implementing innovative initiatives that aim to  close the gap on health disparities, including breastfeeding peer counselor trainings, nurse-education, and community-based doula programs.

OUR VISION

Our purpose is  to improve perinatal health outcomes and quality of care, reduce health disparities,  reduce neonatal and maternal disability and   death. We are working to  achieve Healthy People 2020 objectives for maternal-infant health and  Millennium Development Goal  5:  to  reduce maternal mortality. We are also working to   reduce disparities in prematurity and infant mortality. We are taking a global health approach to address urban health disparities in the U.S.  by  training skilled birth attendants (midwives and nurses) and paraprofessional community perinatal  health promoters  from disadvantaged urban communities where perinatal health disparities are greatest. Public  health and midwifery are holistic models of care:  they are collaborative, multi-disciplinary,  rooted in the community, promoting the health of the community members.  Our vision marries the  midwifery model of care with public health promotion. Our approach to  improve maternity care is to  promote the midwifery model of care and forward the midwifery profession.  We believe doing so will help us  achieve public health objectives for maternal and infant health.

 We collaborate with  agencies with maternal-child health programs and social service  providers. We train perinatal  health workers  (lay health promoters),  who are dedicated to  improving the health of mothers, infants  and children in their communities.  We provide training to organizations  and institutions  in “mother-baby friendly” approaches to maternity care.  Also, we  are mobilizing multi-discliplinary  stakeholders to  implement  wholistic policies and programs that will  improve maternal and child health in Los Angeles.

 

WHAT WE MEAN BY ”WHOLISTIC” MATERNITY CARE

Our intent is to mobilize the community to  implement culturally appropriate wholistic approaches to perinatal health so as to improve outcomes and quality of maternity care in all settings: clinics, hospitals, birth centers and domiciliary settings.  We promote an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to maternity care which encompasses the   physiological, psychological, and socio-ecological determinants of health.   Our vision is to work in harmony and  collaboration with a variety of care providers, both  conventional and alternative including hospitals, clinics, medical doctors, nurses, midwives, mental health specialists, health educators, nutritionists and paraprofessionals (such as doulas), community health promoters, breastfeeding peer counselors and perinatal case managers, as well as  chiropractors and other allied health professionals with specialization in maternity and newborn health.

OUR MISSION

  • We are committed to improving access to quality care for all pregnant women
  • We are committed to ensuring skilled attendants at all births
  • We are committed to developing an opportunity for women’s economic empowerment and vocational development in communities of color
  • We intend to create  a compassionate, harmonic birthing environment for families
  • We are ensuring linkages and solid collaboration
  • We support increased integration of midwifery and doula care

 

CURRENT PROJECTS FY 2011-2012

California Community Foundation for Nursing Education and Hospital Improvements – “Hearts and Hands: The Art of Mother-Baby Friendly Nursing , A Proposal for High Quality Maternity Care”(a training for hospital labor and delivery nurses and administrators).

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 at a Los Angeles hospital 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. Our collaborative partner  is The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS). We will be offering a 3 day training in May 2012 in Los Angeles for hospital labor and delivery nurses and administrators.

Please attend our information and introduction session which  will be held at California Endowment Center for Healthy Communities on February 23, 2012 from 2:00-5:30 pm. Our target audience are hospital administrators and nurse-managers from hospitals in Los Angeles County.  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 coming in May 2012.   For more information, go to: http://mother-baby-friendly-nursing-training.eventbrite.com

Volunteer/Work-Study Jobs Avialable: Training coordinator and Health Education Assistant

Internship Opportunity: For students in Public Health, Masters or Bachelor’s level, or Nurse-Educators.

Spanish Community Doula Training Offered

Thanks to the generous donation  of $2500 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, 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.

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.

The doula training will be offered in Fall, 2012. Please contact us for further information. Scholarships  and work study are available.

Volunteer/Work-Study Jobs Available: Training coordinator and Health Education Assistant

Internship Opportunity: For students in Public Health, Masters or Bachelor’s level, or Nurse-Educators, or aspiring doulas and/or childbirth educators.

PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT

Wholistic Midwifery School and Family Birth Center

We are gathering community support and evoking the commitment of the Los Angeles midwifery and public health sectors to implement  an out of hospital childbearing  and family resource center and school of midwifery in a disadvantaged community of  Los Angeles. A Family Centered Birth Center  and School of Midwifery  is currently in development in a disadvantaged community of Los Angeles (exact location yet to be determined).   Check back later for updates and progress, or join us to help implement this project.  Contact us to volunteer your time and talents  and  to participate in our community engagement events. We are all volunteers who believe in this vision and want to make this  dream a reality, if you believe in this vision: join us!

Our freestanding birth and family center will be located in a community of Los Angeles (yet to be determined) where birth outcomes are poorest so as to achieve public health goals for maternal and infant health improvement.  We are creating a community center for families offering a variety of classes and services for expectant parents and  families.

Our school will be a 3 year MEAC accredited program offering supervised clinical training in an out of hospital setting plus  academic instruction. Students will be prepared for the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) Exam. eligible to become Certified Professional Midwives. Graduates will also be eligible to take the licensing examination offered by the California Medical Board. We will meet Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC) standards,  and  California Medical Board Division of Midwifery Licensing standards. Nurse-Midwifery students who desire clinical training experience in out-of-hospital birth settings will also  have an opportunity to receive supervised clinical instruction in a variety of settings including clinics, birth centers, hospitals and homes. While the school will not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, religion, age, gender or sexual orientation, our emphasis is on recruiting aspiring midwives of color from communities where birth outcomes are poorest and midwives are least represented.

We will also train doulas, community health promoters and breastfeeding peer counselors from communities where the health disparities are poorest.

Download a PDF Fact Sheet: LA Birth Center Midwifery SchoolPDF Logo 16px     Get Involved: Join our cause on Facebook!

Volunteer and Internship Opportunities Available: for Students of Public Health, both Bachelors and Masters level as Health Education/Project Assistant.

 

 For more information on volunteer or internship opportunities

contact our Executive Director, Cordelia Hanna-Cheruiyot, MPH, CHES, CCE, CBA at 626-388-2191 or email: cordeliahc@socalbirth.com.