IBCLC Detailed Content Outline: Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology Focused CERPs - Section V

For many mothers/lactating parents, their reasons for deciding to breast/chestfeed are often grounded in an effort to do what’s best for themselves and their child. Unfortunately, the reality is that on the road to trying to be the best parent they can be, breast/chestfeeding doesn’t always work out in the way that parents had hoped. In fact, sometimes it doesn’t work out at all. This loss can be deeply felt by a parent for a long time.

This presentation will explore what is at the heart of breast/chestfeeding grief and what distinguishes it from other types of grief. Lactation providers will also learn about several socio-cultural factors that amplify grief after the loss of the breast/chestfeeding relationship. Additionally, attendees will learn about some of the emerging data related to how the pandemic has impacted this type of grief. And lastly, we will take a closer look at how to respond more effectively to clients who are experiencing the loss of a breast/chestfeeding relationship with their child.

This is a presentation on how explaining things to babies of all ages, including newborns, can help solve difficult moments during lactation in the parent-baby relationship and lead to healthy parenting. Communication blocks happen frequently due to changes, events, and anxiety, and sometimes they can interfere with breastfeeding/chestfeeding. At least some of these blocks can be solved by communicating with the baby in an open, compassionate, and respectful way.

Lactation and healthcare professionals will learn how to approach such situations, what questions to ask and what suggestions to make to parents so they and their babies can overcome the situation. Lactation and healthcare professionals will also learn about different cases that I have encountered, how the method was applied and what were the results.

I deeply believe that the way we talk to babies, communicate with them and how we teach parents to do that is an essential part of our work. On the long term, it can make an important difference to how those babies are treated, respected, parented, educated, and raised and what kind of adults they will become.

Current information on working with teen mothers includes issues such as body art, nutrition, grandmothers, and adolescent brain development. Strategies for connecting with and teaching these mothers will be addressed.

A good birth is such a gift, and a complicated birth is the reason YOU are there. When a baby is born not breathing or not breathing well, it’s the birth practitioners job to step in and help. This goes beyond just having an NRP card. One wants confidence and competence to respond appropriately even if fear and panic may be filling your body.

Karen Strange is teaching the subject that she knows best: neonatal resuscitation and how newborns go from fluid filled lungs to air filled lungs. Karen has gathered data from around the globe and pinpointed the 5 most common mistakes/failures that occur in neonatal resuscitation.

She breaks down the 5 main failures and gives tips and clarity needed for successful resuscitation of the newborn, in the least traumatic way. Learn what often gets missed, and the most frequent misunderstandings regarding neonatal resuscitation. Feel competent and confident regarding when and how to respond to a newborn in distress.

Lactation consultations delve into perfecting a latch, maximizing milk supply and even recovering from giving birth. Very few visits discuss how breastfeeding can affect intimacy. The research on breastfeeding and intimacy is scarce and the assessment tools and evidence-based solutions are almost nonexistent. Perinatal providers often don’t recognize the relevance or have time to troubleshoot the inquiries. Lactation specialists understand that the situation exists but may not know how to approach the line of questioning or how to provide solutions. This webinar will illustrate the relationship between lactation-specific hormones and sex hormones. It will present the mental and physical struggles that families face when tackling the topic of returning to intimacy when breastfeeding. Providers and lactation consultants will receive recommendations on how to approach, assess and assist in resolving clients’ perceptions and concerns surrounding breastfeeding and intimacy. Discussion will offer web resources and how to add the topic into community resources.

Up to 75% of women will experience a prolapse in their lifetime. 1 in 3 will experience urine incontinence and 1 in 10 faecal incontinence. Around 60% of women experience diastasis recti. Add in pelvic girdle pain, a hypertonic pelvic floor, perineal and vulva trauma, vaginismus, vulva varicosities, anal fissures and haemorrhoids and most women, at some point, will describe their body as feeling broken.

Midwives play a crucial role in assisting women in the prevention and treatment of these conditions. International guidelines and clinical standards advise that pregnant and postpartum people should be doing pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT). This however, is not just as simple as doing Kegels while waiting at traffic lights. In order to provide best care, midwives need a deeper understanding of the physiology of the core and pelvic floor in pregnancy, birth and postpartum.

This presentation will enable a deeper understanding of the physiology of the core and pelvic floor during pregnancy, birth and postpartum. You will learn practical techniques to assist women in protecting their core and pelvic floor during these stages, including how best to support physiological birth and what we can do when interventions occur. We will also cover techniques and realities for postpartum healing and evidence-based advice to managing existing conditions.

Labour and birth cause huge changes in the neurophysiology, involving multiple hormonal and neurological systems. These will be discussed in detail and how this knowledge can be used in midwifery practice. The recent concept of "birthing consciousness" describes changes in maternal consciousness during labour (Dahan et al, 2020). The physiology of attachment and effects of parent-neonate separation will also be discussed, especially surrounding neonatal care.

The historical evolution of infant feeding includes direct breastfeeding, wet nursing and bottlefeeding. Before the invention of bottles/ vessels to feed babies, wet nursing was the safest and most common alternative way to feed a baby. As bottles and nipples were developed, scientific advancement improved formulas, wet nursing fell out of favor. It gradually went from being widely accepted as the most normal way to feed a baby to where we currently are as a modern society. It is negatively seen as being weird and risky behavior. When mothers do not breastfeed or give their babies human milk, they use formula to feed their babies. Given the current knowledge of lack of complete nutrition formula has more mothers are showing an interest and actively pursuing wet/cross nursing. This presentation will help us understand the history of wet nursing and offer reasons to support, advocate and be encouraging to mothers who want to participate in the practice of wet/cross nursing.

In Alameda County, Black women are initiating exclusive breastfeeding, but only ~15% remain breastfeeding by 3 months. For impoverished Black women, especially those in their teen years or who may have less than high school education, these numbers are even lower (9-12%). There is minimum breastfeeding support for black families.
When Black mothers in West Oakland who received peer and professional breastfeeding support through Breast Friends, exclusive breastfeeding at 3 months rose to 63%. This project expanded the Breast Friends model to East Oakland while also training 12 new peer counselors (including 1 father), 24 new group facilitators, and enhancing breastfeeding messaging in the California Black Infant Health program. The project surpassed our expectations. 5 out of the 12 trained peer counselors are now working in other community organizations as Community health outreach worker, peer counselors, doulas and WIC staff.

Storytelling is the foundation of the human experience and can be an extraordinarily powerful tool used to connect families and healthcare providers in the neonatal intensive care. The NICU is a fast-paced, high stress environment so it’s easy to lose site of the story, but it is the story that can make a difference, not only to the families you serve, but to you as well. It is through storytelling that a compassionate, real approach to care and medicine will bring change to the NICU experience, increase patient satisfaction, and decrease burnout and compassion fatigue. In this presentation you will learn how to develop more empathetic relationships with families on the basis of a deeper understanding of their human experience. Follow Jodi as she explores the principles of storytelling, evaluates the use of narrative medicine in NICU education, and teaches ground breaking strategies to recreate a positive and profound NICU experience through the power of human connections.