Research and resources for perinatal professionals.
December 03, 2019 | by: Molly Giammarco
The Lamaze advocacy team continuously tracks bills relevant to maternal and childbirth health and would like to highlight a few that Lamaze currently supports. Those who attend the Lamaze Childbirth Advocacy Summit in May 2020 will receive more information on the bills relevant to Lamaze—and much will happen with new and existing bills between now and May. This is just a summary for some of the prominent bills currently tracking in the U.S. Congress. This is not a comprehensive list of bills relating to maternal and/or child health outcomes; Lamaze is tracking many bills that seek to improve maternal and childbirth outcomes. Stay tuned.
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November 27, 2019 | by: Sharon Muza
As I try not to get sucked into the spending frenzy I see around me, I offer up today’s Brilliant Activities for Birth Educators activity that involves simple items that you may already have around the house or office. These ideas and activities are easy on the budget and at the same time fun for the families in your classes and help make learning fun and memorable too! To see all the Connecting the Dots Brilliant Activities for Birth Educators ideas, follow this link.
November 22, 2019 | by: Sharon Muza, BS, LCCE, FACCE, CD/BDT(DONA), CLE
It is hard to believe that the end of the year is almost upon us, with December just a week away. For folks all around the world, this time of year is often full of festive occasions, travels and time with family and friends, good food and many traditions. Not many of us have our sights fully set on 2020 yet, but do make sure that you have Lamaze International’s Childbirth Education Advocacy Summit on your radar.
November 19, 2019 | by: Tanya Strusberg, LCCE, FACCE
The first thought that crossed my mind after reading Milli Hill’s new book, Give Birth like a Feminist, was; why did it take this long for a book like this to be published? An entire generation of women have been raised since the last time birth and feminism as two intertwined topics were really explored. Ask your average millennial on the street today if she has heard of Germaine Greer, Adrienne Rich or Naomi Wolf, let alone the matriarchs of the feminist birth movement; Ina May Gaskin, Sheila Kitzinger and of course, Lamaze’s very own, Elizabeth Bing.
November 13, 2019 | by: Sharon Muza, BS, LCCE, FACCE, CD/BDT(DONA), CLE
Many childbirth educators new to Lamaze International have just finished the fall testing period and now wait to find out if they can add the credentials Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator (LCCE) to their name. When you are a new childbirth educator, it feels as if there is so much knowledge and information that you must remember and you worry about how you will be able to recall all the important content when facilitating your first classes without looking like a fumbling fool while clutching handfuls of notes and papers. This is a completely normal feeling, and the reality is, even experienced educators don’t hold all the information in their head and often rely on notes to be sure they are providing accurate information to class members. Here are five recall hacks that can help you be the professional educator you are right from the start.
November 07, 2019 | by: Hillary Melchiors Ph,D, MPH, LCCE, CD(DONA)
Rebecca Dekker has a PhD in Nursing and uses her research knowledge and skills to summarize the medical evidence about birth related topics through her company Evidence Based Birth, which is helpful for both the consumer and the perinatal professional. “Babies Are Not Pizzas” is Dr. Dekker’s first book, and it details her journey to realizing that there is a lack of evidence based medical policies and procedures specifically surrounding pregnancy and birth in American hospitals.
November 05, 2019 | by: Molly Giammarco
To support its growing advocacy platform, Lamaze launched the Advocacy + Collaboration (A+C) Committee earlier this year to help navigate, develop, and monitor state, federal, and local advocacy efforts related to CBE. The timing for this new Committee is perfect as discussions around improving maternal and childbirth outcomes continue to gain momentum among communities, clinicians, and all levels of government.
This movement creates many new opportunities for Lamaze advocacy. Led by Jill Wodnick, the A+C Committee is developing a toolkit to help advance state and local maternal and child health priorities, integrate CBE into state Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant Programs funding, and further engage health departments, perinatal collaboratives.
October 31, 2019 | by: Sharon Muza, BS, LCCE, FACCE, CD/BDT(DONA), CLE
Halloween is a holiday that lets a pregnant person truly shine! When someone is pregnant, there are so many creative and fun options for costumes that incorporate and celebrate the newest family member. If you teach childbirth classes that are scheduled during the week of Halloween or even better, on Halloween, you may see your class participants arrive ready to celebrate with an amazing costume. You can even encourage costumes and make a party out of it.
October 29, 2019 | by: Sharon Muza, BS, LCCE, FACCE, CD/BDT(DONA), CLE
This month’s Brilliant Activities for Birth Educators is all about using “weighted” babies in childbirth classes. In this post, we look at three easy ways to incorporate a life-size baby whose weight of 7 ½ or 8 pounds approximates the average weight of a newborn in the USA. Using a doll with a the same weight as a newborn really helps new families to have some practice with something that will be similar to their own newborn in just a few weeks.
October 24, 2019 | by: Cara Terreri
Recently, Lamaze International signed on to endorse The White Ribbon Alliance's Respectful Maternity Care Charter. This charter clearly defines the rights owed to women and newborns when receiving maternity care in health care facilities worldwide.
A charter, like this one and many others before it, is created to give an organization or country a set of guidelines, rights, principles, boundaries, and/or a foundation. When rights are clearly defined, they can be defended! Historically, we have not identified childbearing people and newborns as a specific, vulnerable populations that needs special rights. But the truth is, mothers and babies are being mistreated, injured, and killed during the time around birth in countries around the world -- they need special protection.
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