Birth Interventions Online Course(s) & Continuing Education
Access the latest clinical skills and research for Birth Interventions for PREGNANCY, LABOUR & CHILDBIRTH professional training. These Birth Interventions online courses provide practice-changing skills and valuable perspectives from leading global experts. This Birth Interventions education has been accredited for a variety of CEUs / CERPs and can be accessed on-demand, at your own pace.
Breaking the Silos: Understanding the Connections Between Labor Interventions and Lactation
Janiya Mitnaul Williams, MA, IBCLC, RLC, CLC is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Registered Lactation Consultant, and Certified Lactation Counselor who has been supporting nursing families since 2007. She holds degrees from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and Union Institute and University in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and Health & Wellness with a concentration in Human Lactation respectively.
Janiya is the Program Director of the Pathway 2 Human Lactation Training Program at N.C. A&T SU (NCAT P2P). She also works for the Women’s and Children’s Center at Cone Health as the Co-Coordinator for Doula Services. In 2015 she created Mahogany Milk Support Group in order to promote, encourage, and normalize nursing for Black and Brown families. That same year, Janiya also became the first person of color and Non-Registered Nurse to be hired as a Lactation Consultant for Cone Health’s hospital system.
She is most passionate about creating diversity, equity, and inclusion within the field of Lactation in order to promote better health outcomes for Black and Brown, marginalized, and underprivileged families because they have the greatest lactation barriers to overcome.
Birth and breastfeeding/chestfeeding are intimately woven together although many separate the two. One's labor and birth process however, have a direct impact on how their nursing journey begins. Naturally, most infants can independently progress through the fetal to neonatal transition and produce a baby-led latch within the first hours of life. However, the process of birth is often unpredictable and many birthing families are regularly faced with common or unexpected labor interventions that can adversely affect milk supply and the initiation and receptivity of breastfeeding/chestfeeding for the infant. Some of the most common interventions include: IV fluids, induction of labor, epidurals, and continuous electronic fetal monitoring. These maternity care practices come with unintended consequences that directly impact lactation. Furthermore, studies indicate that many of these interventions are done more for convenience as opposed to medical reasoning. In order to promote, protect and support breastfeeding/chestfeeding for birthing families, providers and other members of the healthcare team should be encouraged to work in tandem; using effective communication and facilitating open dialogue. By including families in every aspect of their birth and postpartum period, self-efficacy and confidence is increased and trust is developed, setting the foundation for increased initiation and duration of human milk feeding.
Maria Milton is a midwife from the state of Florida. She holds a Bachelor's of Science in biology/PreMed from Florida A&M University and she is a licensed laboratory technician. Maria has been practicing as a midwife since 1984. She is the current owner/operator of Milton Memorial Birthing Center, a facility founded by her late mother/ colleague, Gladys Milton. She is also a stronge advocate of natural childbirth and the midwifery model of care. And, for over twenty years, Maria has been a speaker / presentor of various midwifery topics at midwifery conferences, midwifery retreats and community health programs.
How to get back to Naturalistic Midwfery" will explore the many ways in which childbirth has changed over the years. This session will compare practices in natural childbirth with the practices in births where interventions/augmentations have occurred. These comparisons will prove how these practices have led to worse outcomes and increased the cost of helath care. This session will also demonstate how changes in attitudes about birth have affected birth practices as well as how providers have adapted to these changes. The session will end with offering solution to the problems created by these practices.
Oxytocin and the Transformation of Birth
Dr. Sarah Buckley is trained as a GP/family physician with qualifications in GP-obstetrics. She has been writing and lecturing to childbirth professionals and parents since 1997 and is the author of the best-selling book Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering. Sarah has a special interest in the hormones of physiological labour and birth and the impacts of interventions. In 2015 she completed an extensive report on this topic, Hormonal Physiology of Childbearing, published with Childbirth Connection (US). She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland, researching oxytocin in labour and birth. She has co-authored several papers on oxytocin in labour, birth and breastfeeding. Sarah is also the mother of four children, all born at home and now in their teenage years and beyond. She lives on the semi-rural outskirts of Brisbane. For more, see www.sarahbuckley.com
Oxytocin is a major hormone of labour and birth. As well as facilitating the rhythmic contractions of labour in all mammals, oxytocin also acts within the maternal brain at this time, with calming, connecting and pain-relieving effects. Oxytocin activates maternal behaviour in all mammals including by activating brain reward and pleasure centres through the oxytocin peaks of labour and birth. The oxytocin system in labour and birth can be disrupted by obstetric interventions. This presentation draws from current knowledge, human and animal research, and biological understandings to discuss possible positive and negative impacts of synthetic oxytocin, epidurals, and caesareans on maternal and fetal oxytocin systems. Strategies to fill possible ‘hormonal gaps’ are also discussed.
