The 2019 LamazeLive! conference is happening in Pittsburgh, PA on April 11th through 13th, 2019.  At this event, perinatal professionals will be gathering in order to connect, learn and re-energize with our colleagues.  Plenty of contact hour opportunities for certification renewal are available and an exhibit hall full of vendors with new and interesting products are waiting to be explored. The LamazeLIVE! format means that presentations are fast-paced, dynamic and jam-packed with information that is important to you and the families you work with.  Early-bird registration ends March 8th, so don't delay in signing up so you can save on costs.  Register today!

Virtual attendance is totally possible if traveling to Pittsburgh is not an option for you.  Please consider signing up for the virtual portion of the event.  LamazeVIRTUAL! can come directly to you wherever you are.  More info on attending virtually here.

As we get ready for the LamazeLIVE event, Science & Sensibility will highlight some of the scheduled presenters and provide a sneak peek into their chosen topic. Today we meet Kathy McGrath, MSW, LSW, FACCE, CD(DONA) who is presenting the opening session of the entire event with her "Finding the Path, What Have We Learned?" presentation. Kathy is a long time childbirth educator, doula and doula trainer.  Kathy will be describing a framework of looking at what makes birth an optimal experience and how perinatal professionals will be able to use the information to guide their clients in choosing their own paths for birth.

I asked Kathy to share some insights with us about what we can expect from her presentation.  Here is her response:

I’ve long been interested in the hero’s journey, which in essence is what the original ‘Finding the Path’ was about.  It looked at the questions  ‘why do we need to have pain in childbirth?’, “how much pain is too much?” and “how many challenges should there be?” for people to be in flow during birth.  This talk looks at those issues again but in light of today’s maternity climate. 

This talk is not exactly about birth satisfaction, but more about a person's long term feelings about their birth. In my postpartum groups (I do between four and six per week, reaching 50-80 parents ) what I’m seeing is a lot of negativity not aimed at the medical care system or caregivers, but at themselves and disappointment with their own ability to get through the birth the way they wanted to.  I find this very distressing.  I think it is worthwhile to take a look at the way we’re teaching the benefits of uninterventionistic birth (which, of course, are evidence-based) to better minimize collateral damage, which is mothers’ feelings about themselves and their ‘performance’ in labor. 

How can we teach evidence-based material and increase the numbers of parents coming out of birth with feelings of pride in how they met the challenges of birth?  I believe that focusing on the journey, figuring out how to navigate the trials and obstacles along the way can give us a helpful framework that allows more people to come out of their birth experience with an increased appreciation of their own ability to get through a difficult situation. 

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