Lamaze International is hosting an exciting learning event – The Virtual Education Symposium, on October 4, 2023. This event provides an opportunity to hear from experts in childbirth education on how you can enhance your childbirth education program activities to increase learner retention, improve perinatal outcomes and reduce inequities facing birthing people of the Global Majority. Over the next weeks leading up to the event, Connecting the Dots will present short interviews with the speakers, so that you can learn more about them, their upcoming presentation and some of their favorite resources. Today we meet Marjaana Siivola, LCCE, AdvBD(DONA), BDT(DONA), MS, Lis, PhD Candidate, who will be presenting "Flipped Learning and Online Flipped Learning in Childbirth Education." Marjaana will demonstrate how educators can (and should) incorporate  effective flipped learning activtities in both their in-person and virtual childbirth classes. 

1. When did you first get interested in the flipped classroom and begin to see the benefits for childbirth education?

I got interested in flipped learning around 2010 and have applied it in my training since 2012. COVID time increased the application of flipped learning and made the online meetings even more important.

2. What problem will perinatal professionals attending your session better be able to solve after their time with you?

Time is a scarce commodity and many LCCEs are struggling to get the parents to attend a full series of childbirth education classes. Also cost is a key component. With flipped learning you can reach more families and encourage them to come to your training, since there is an asynchronous component they can take on their own schedule. They need to reserve less time to attend the live meetings and with less live time from the trainer, the price can go down.

Training is also more fun, when the LCCE does not need to teach the basics over and over again, when the live meetings are more interactive and parents come with questions already based on the asynchronous material they have completed. You have more time to work on how they can apply the information at their upcoming birth.

There is always one or two who have not gone through the asynchronous material, but they usually get motivated to study it for the next lecture, when they see others getting into the subject and having questions. 

3. Based on your knowledge and experience, what do you believe is the biggest challenge facing people who are growing their families in 2023?

The biggest challenge currently that I see is decreased support services. At least where I am, in Finland, the maternity services are not as comprehensive as they used to be. 

Social media puts a lot of pressure on being the perfect expectant person, on how to give birth or how to raise your child. A childbirth educator can help parents to be grounded, get realistic expectations for their birth, and to trust in themselves.

4. How did you first come to be associated with Lamaze International and what has kept you engaged with the organization?

My plan from early on was to train with Lamaze while I was living in Colorado. At the time there were no Lamaze trainings available, so I trained with another organization (2012) and got certified (2014). I became a Lamaze member in 2015, since I really liked that the Lamaze program was research based and I wanted to read the Journal of Perinatal Education. In 2018 I finally took the daunting Lamaze test and passed it! Since then I have really enjoyed being an international member of Lamaze and I served two years on the International committee.

5. What is a resource (blog, website, book, podcast, influencer, etcetera) that you recently enjoyed learning from?

Doing my research on flipped learning, I have searched several research databases for the research and it has been interesting in reading the papers. 

Comber, D. P. M., & Brady-Van den Bos, M. (2018). Too much, too soon? A critical investigation into factors that make Flipped Classrooms effective. Higher Education Research & Development, 37(4), 683–697. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1455642

Hew, K. F., Jia, C., Gonda, D. E., & Bai, S. (2020). Transitioning to the “new normal” of learning in unpredictable times: Pedagogical practices and learning performance in fully online flipped classrooms. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 17(1), 57. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-020-00234-x

Låg, T., & Sæle, R. G. (2019). Does the Flipped Classroom Improve Student Learning and Satisfaction? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2332858419870489

Ng, E. K. L. (2023). Flipped versus traditional classroom and student achievement and cognitive engagement in an associate degree nursing fundamental course. Nurse Education in Practice, 68, 103567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2023.103567

Steen-Utheim, A. T., & Foldnes, N. (2018). A qualitative investigation of student engagement in a flipped classroom. Teaching in Higher Education, 23(3), 307–324. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2017.1379481

Stöhr, C., Demazière, C., & Adawi, T. (2020). The polarizing effect of the online flipped classroom. Computers & Education, 147, 103789. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103789 

Come hear Marjaana Siivola offer you an opportunity to engage learners and use classroom time widely in your perinatal classes at the Virtual Education Symposium by registering now. See you there!

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