Frieda Norris, RN, BSN, LCCE, is a champion of evidence-based practices for safe and healthy births. She is currently making an impact at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC, and in April 2009, she was given permission to utilize some of the North Carolina Perinatal Outreach Program Region Three Grant funds for this purpose.

She has used part of the grant to purchase the Lamaze Evidence-Based Nursing Care: Labor Support Skills curriculum and a large number of workbooks. She will teach the Lamaze Evidence-Based Nursing Care: Labor Support Skills workshop to nurses throughout her region to promote the benefits of evidence-based care. “I want to give the nurses some support. I’ve been an obstetrical nurse for 32 years and I’m afraid a lot of newer nurses don’t have the skills to support natural birth,” she said. “Just teaching nurses won’t be enough—we need to empower them.”

By teaching the workshop, Norris hopes to tap into the nurses’ attitudes about natural birth and evidence-based practices. One of her goals is to uncover strategies for nurses to work with physicians so they are less likely to call for an induction.

Norris also hopes the workshops will help lower the prematurity rate in her own hospital. Research indicates birth outcomes are improved when babies are born after 39 weeks. She noted, “The education alone isn’t enough, but it’s one important piece of ensuring more babies are born after 39 weeks and letting labor begin on its own.”

Norris is well on her way as an ambassador for safe, healthy birth in her community. She plans to teach the workshop at 14 hospitals as well as in several physicians’ offices. “It’s a miracle they will let me do this. I’m so excited.”

Early in her career, Frieda worked at a hospital in Gastonia, NC. There, she became horrified at the labor and delivery practices. What she saw led her to work toward the transformation of the hospital’s approach by introducing Lamaze preparation for childbearing families.

“Working at the hospital in Gastonia was like going into the dark ages. The physician and nursing practices contradicted everything I learned in nursing school. So I immediately completed the necessary steps to become a Lamaze-certifed instructor and began creating a better environment for moms and babies” said Norris. 

Interested in learning more about offering the Lamaze Evidence-Based Nursing Care: Labor Support Skills workshop to offer to nurses in your community? Contact Joyce Arawole at workshops@lamaze.org. You can reach Frieda to learn more about her work at: Frieda.norris@carolinashealthcare.org.