Barbara Harper is an internationally recognized expert on waterbirth and gentle birth. She is the Executive Director of Waterbirth International, founded in 1988, with one goal in mind – to ensure that waterbirth is an “available option” for all women. During the past four decades Barbara has influenced and educated hundreds of thousands of professionals and parents through her writing and publishing, and her work as a pediatric nurse, midwife, midwifery instructor, doula trainer, and Blissborn Birth Hypnosis instructor and trainer. Her vast experience helped her develop unique seminars and workshops which she teaches within hospitals, nursing schools, midwifery and medical schools and through her online Gentle Birth World Institute. Lamaze International recognized her in 2002 for contributions in promoting normal birth on an international level. She has published articles in many journals including a new work for the Journal of Perinatal Education (July 2021) on protecting waterbirth, even during a global pandemic. Her bestselling book and DVD, ‘Gentle Birth Choices,’ has been translated into 9 languages, including a 2016 Mandarin Chinese edition. Barbara has dedicated her life to changing the way we welcome babies into the world. She is the mother of three adult children, two of whom were born at home in water, and grandmother of a college senior and a three-year-old. She lives in Boca Raton, Florida. Her website is www.waterbirth.org
Waterbirth is more than a fad or trend – it is evidence based practice in hospitals, birth centers and home birth throughout the world. Spending most or all of labour in water eases discomfort and creates a gentler birth process. The benefits of warm water immersion in labor and birth have been studied in many countries for over three decades.This course will explain why to integrate water immersion as a comfort measure option during childbirth and highlight the benefits of waterbirth as part of a gentle birth approach to maternity care. Special emphasis is given on newborn transitional physiology, the latest research, the impact of the ACOG opinion and we’ll discuss the Seven Secrets of Successful Waterbirth which include: Mobility, Intimacy, Safety, Research, Confidence, Consciousness and Fetal and Newborn Capabilities.
Waterbirth, often called the Gentlest of Gentle Births, has taught us many things during the past thirty years. The use of water during the birth process for a beech position of baby was at first considered risky. But, experience in facilitating breech births in water is growing throughout the world. One of the things we clearly see babies do is unfold more easily in the water. Breech babies, when born on land, and water born vertex babies transition in very similar ways. This course will review the cardinal rules when attending a breech birth – hand off, hands and knees, patience, leave the cord intact – and discuss the variabilities of how the water changes the perspective when attending a breech birth. Special emphasis will also be given on the fetal primitive neurologic reflexes and how they are expressed in a breech birth.
Directing women to push has been commonplace in the birth room far too long. The cultural expectation of how second stage should look has infiltrated movies, TV and people’s minds. Women are constantly told when to push, when not to push, how to push, and where to push. To understand and support physiological birth we need to reconsider the assumptions upon which this practice is based and how it affects the overall experience of birth. This workshop discusses both supporting instinctive pushing during uncomplicated, physiological birth and the fact that the descent and rotation of the baby through the pelvis is directed by primitive reflexes that guide the baby into the pelvis, out of the pelvis and up the abdomen for attachment to a breast. We will examine the multidimensional and individual nature of birth physiology through photos, video and discussion.
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