Childbirth Education Online Course(s) & Continuing Education
Access the latest clinical skills and research for Childbirth Education for PREGNANCY, LABOUR & CHILDBIRTH professional training. These Childbirth Education online courses provide practice-changing skills and valuable perspectives from leading global experts. This Childbirth Education education has been accredited for a variety of CEUs / CERPs and can be accessed on-demand, at your own pace.
Awakening the Parent: Are You Supporting or Sabotaging Your Client’s Transformation?
Dr. Britta Bushnell (she/her) is author of Transformed by Birth, host of the podcast Transformed, veteran childbirth educator, celebrated speaker, mythologist, wife and mother, and specialist in childbirth, relationship, and parenting. For over 20 years, Dr. Bushnell has worked with individuals and couples as they prepare for the life-changing experience of giving birth. Her work with parents has been enriched by her doctoral work in mythology and psychology, her years spent as a co-owner of Birthing From Within, as well as her dedicated study of solution-focused brief therapy, storytelling, and skills for supporting intimate relationships while parenting.
Britta is an engaging teacher, speaker, and presenter. Whether addressing a room of expectant parents, new mothers, or seasoned birth professionals, Britta has a way of captivating and inspiring them all. She has presented at conferences such as DONA International, MANA, ICEA, and Lamaze. Additionally, Britta has been featured on several popular podcasts including Informed Pregnancy, Birthful, and Atomic Moms. In 2016, in recognition of her transformative childbirth classes, Britta was awarded "Educator of the Year" by the Southern California Doula Association (DASC).
Topic: Awakening the Parent: Are You Supporting or Sabotaging Your Client’s Transformation? - [View Abstract]
Becoming a parent is a process of profound maturation, one that requires expectant parents to grow into decision-makers for their growing families. Teachers and experts in the childbirth and parenting fields naturally want to share their hard-earned wisdom with expectant parents. However, doing so without awareness may be unwittingly reinforcing the idea for new parents, that experts “out there” hold the knowledge needed to be make decisions in the best interest of their growing family. This effectively keeps expectant parents in the energetic position of the child (the one who receives guidance) rather than supporting them to grow into the position of the parent (the one who makes decisions and acts). If we want to help the expectant parents grow into autonomous and self-guided parents, educators must practice in such a way that inspires the growth needed in the parent rather than simply fill them with information. Flipping from the authority of teacher and expert to mentor or guide, reduces the hierarchical nature of the relationship and can help awaken the inner authority of the parent-to-be. Understanding this dynamic along with a few basic tools can help you better support your clients as they stretch into parenthood.
Becoming Parents: Preparing Parents for the Journey of a Lifetime
With over 25 years’ experience as a relationship counsellor, parents’ group facilitator, mental health educator, partner and mum, Elly Taylor has become an internationally known parenthood preparation and perinatal relationship expert and the award-winning author of Becoming Us. Elly’s passion is preparing parents for a happy and healthy family—at any stage in their parenthood journey, and especially in a challenging world. Her Becoming Us approach includes fathers and partners in all aspects of pregnancy, birth and beyond, harnesses the attachment bond between couples to stabilise them through the life changes and challenges of parenthood and links both parents into community services to support the mental, emotional and relational wellbeing of the whole family.
Elly has served as an advisor for numerous university research projects and her ground-breaking Becoming Us developmental framework has now become a comprehensive multi-disciplinary education and professional training and courses for parents. In a full circle moment, Elly recently trained midwives, allied health and therapy professionals in her local community and now Becoming Us Nest Building Sessions are preparing expectant parents in the hospitals where her children were born. Elly lives in Sydney, Australia with her firefighter husband, their three kidults and an abundance of pets.
Topic: Communication and Conflict - How Connection Supports Both - [View Abstract]
Topic: Including Fathers and Partners to Support Perinatal Mental Health and Marriages - [View Abstract]
The “transition” into parenthood is culturally a time of great joy, excitement and celebration. But our “Bon Voyage” attitude to parenthood appears to be setting families up to fail. Research tells us new parents are struggling: currently 1 in 3 mothers and 1 in 5 fathers suffer from anxiety or depression during the perinatal period. Added to this, a whopping 92% of couples report increased conflict and 67% a decline in relationship satisfaction in the first few years of family. So, what’s going on here? Is there a better way? And what can perinatal professionals do about it?
In this presentation, we’ll first bust some unhelpful myths of parenthood. Next, participants will learn that while parents may expect having a baby is the destination, it’s just the beginning. Parenthood is like travelling deeper and deeper into foreign territory: every new stage has it’s own surprises, joys, challenges and unexpected rewards. And the journey never ends.
We’ll explore ways to prepare parents for the stages of early parenthood (even long after their baby has joined them) in ways that support the mental, emotional and relationship wellbeing of mothers, fathers and parents, so their whole family can thrive.
The Tipping Point in Childbirth Education: The Consequences of Ignorance
Penny Simkin, PT, is a physical therapist who has specialized in childbirth education and labor support since 1968. She estimates she has prepared over 13,000 women, couples, and siblings for childbirth. She has assisted hundreds of women and couples through childbirth as a doula. She is author or co-author of books for both parents and professionals, including “The Labor Progress Handbook;” “Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn: The Complete Guide;” “When Survivors Give Birth: Understanding and Healing the Effects of Early Sexual Abuse on Childbearing Women;” “The Birth Partner: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, and All Other Labor Companions,” She has developed teaching materials for birth classes and produced several videos for educators, doulas, and families , the latest of which is for siblings-to-be, “There’s a Baby.” She is co-founder of DONA International (formerly Doulas of North America) and PATTCh (Prevention and Treatment of Traumatic Childbirth).
Currently, she serves on the editorial board of the journal, Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care, and serves on the senior faculty of the Simkin Center for Allied Birth Vocations at Bastyr University, which was named in her honor.
Today, her practice consists of childbirth education, birth counseling, and labor support, combined with a busy schedule of conferences and workshops.
Penny and her husband, Peter, have four grown children and eight grandchildren from 11 to 28 years of age, two grandchildren-in-laws, and a pug, Lola.
Penny will explore trends in childbirth education over the past quarter century when childbirth education became marginalized with fewer than half of first time north American childbearing families taking any childbirth classes. Reasons and implications of a poorly informed childbearing public will be discussed. Penny will discuss her perceptions of what is missing in childbirth education today, and will suggest some solutions. She will review knowledge essential for families to make choices in maternity care. Penny calls for more skill building in classes relating to comfort measures and improving labor progress.
