Research and resources for perinatal professionals.
April 05, 2023 | by: Sharon Muza, BS, CD/BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE
April is Cesarean Awareness Month, an annual observance in the United States and around the world that brings focus to the extremely high number of cesarean deliveries in many areas of the globe. In 2021, the most recent year for full statistics, the cesarean rate in the United States was 32.1%. This is up one full percentage point from the 2020 statistics, and the second yearly increase in a row, after two years of declining in 2018 and 2019. Black birthing parents have the highest cesarean birth rate of all US populations, with 36.8% of Black parents having a surgical birth.
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March 29, 2023 | by: Sharon Muza, BS, CD/BDT(DONA). LCCE, FACCE, CLE
This month’s Brilliant Activities for Birth Educators’ post takes a look at the flipped classroom. A flipped childbirth classroom is where families engage with specific interactive content focusing on key concepts outside of regular class time, creating space for in-class activities that clarify concepts, apply acquired knowledge, and encourage problem solving - all skills that can be used during labor, birth and early parenting. The flipped classroom could be a tool that helps you effectively use your time together with birth class families. It can be applied to both in person and virtual classrooms. You can find all the Brilliant Activities for Birth Educators ideas here at this link
March 22, 2023 | by: Sharon Muza, BS, CD/BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE
Many perinatal professionals work as birth and/or postpartum doulas as well as teach classes either independently or as part of a hospital or community program. Each role is professionally fulfilling in different ways and also helps generate several income streams.
While being both a doula and a childbirth educator can peacefully “co-exist,” there are definitely challenges to make it work well. The on-call life of a birth doula often creates a major conflict with the planned and scheduled-in-advance responsibilities of a childbirth educator.
Here are some suggestions for successfully managing both roles.
March 15, 2023 | by: Sharon Muza, BS, CD/BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE
Lamaze International just announced that applications for both trainees and mentors are being accepted for the 2023 Lamaze Expand Equity Scholarship program. This is the second year of this exciting opportunity, funded by the Prolacta Bioscience Foundation. Administrators of the Lamaze Expand Equity Scholarship program explain that it is a “workforce development program that aims to recruit, train and mentor individuals from under-resourced or historically marginalized communities to become Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educators (LCCEs). The intent of this program is to promote a diverse childbirth educator workforce and to increase access to high quality evidence-based childbirth education for families who are often not afforded reasonable access to maternity care.”
March 08, 2023 | by: Sharon Muza, BS, CD/BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE
Today, March 8th, is International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day is a global event, officially recognized for the first time by the United Nations in 1977.
The theme for the 2023 event is, “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality. Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”.
Access these free digital tools from Lamaze International to help achieve a safe and healthy birth.
March 01, 2023 | by: Sharon Muza, BS, CD/BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE
Perinatal educators often maintain a list of expert lactation consultants to share with families attending their classes, if there is a need to consult on feeding concerns after babies arrive. But did you know there are several reasons why a pregnant person, who is hoping to feed their baby human milk, should consider meeting with a lactation consultant prior to birth? Here are some reasons that a pregnant person might want to connect with a lactation consultant prior to birth.
February 22, 2023 | by: Sharon Muza
For this month’s Brilliant Activities for Birth Educators activity, we turn our attention to icebreakers. Merriam-Webster defines an icebreaker as “something that is done or said to get through the first difficulties in starting a conversation or discussion.” Using a short icebreaker is a quick way to start your perinatal classes in a fun, informal manner. Icebreakers serve several purposes; they provide an opportunity for class participants to find commonalities with others in the cohort, it lets everyone learn something unique about others, it sets the tone for your classes in general as fun and informative and it accommodates the stragglers before you begin introducing new content. Find all the past Brilliant Activities for Birth Educators here.
February 15, 2023 | by: Sharon Muza, BS, LCCE, FACCE, CD/BDT(DONA)
February is Black History Month, a dedicated month to recognize and celebrate the achievements and contributions of African Americans and honor the significant role that Black people have played in the success of the United States.
Are we as childbirth educators doing everything we can to eliminate health disparities and support Black perinatal professionals and Black birthing families. Here are eight action steps that you can do today to support Black perinatal professionals and Black birthing families.
February 08, 2023 | by: Sharon Muza
The role of the childbirth educator is not only to share evidence based information, but to do so in a format that enhances learning and promotes recall in the future, when the families will be needing the information. Providing frequent opportunities for families to move, stretch and increase oxygen to their brain during your classes can help them to have a more positive experience along with increased learning retention.
February 02, 2023 | by: Sharon Muza
It is unfortunate that in the case of birth in the United States and many other parts of the world, expectant families are destined to receive “Groundhog Day” level care despite significant and compounding evidence that doing the same non-evidence based practices over and over is not improving outcomes or increasing birth satisfaction. It is also not being respectful of what best practice perinatal care should be.
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