MATERNAL HEALTH Online Course(s) & Continuing Education
Access the latest clinical skills and research for MATERNAL HEALTH for MIDWIFERY professional training. These MATERNAL HEALTH online courses provide practice-changing skills and valuable perspectives from leading global experts. This MATERNAL HEALTH education has been accredited for a variety of CEUs / CERPs and can be accessed on-demand, at your own pace.
Marea Goodman (she/her) is a licensed midwife specializing in pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and conception care for the LGBTQ+ community. A graduate of the National Midwifery Institute, Marea got her license from the California Medical Board in 2015 and spent the following year and a half working at birth centers in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Vieja, Guatemala. She founded her midwifery practice, Restore Midwifery, in 2016 in the Bay Area, and is now serving the community in Santa Cruz, CA.
Aside from midwifery, Marea is also a writer whose work has been featured by the Huffington Post, Ms Magazine, and Mother.ly. She co-authored the book, Baby Making for Everybody—Family Building and Fertility for LGBTQ+ and Solo Parents, which is set to be published in April, 2023. She lives in Santa Cruz with her three children and her wife, Andrea Ruizquez, who is also a midwife.
Ray Rachlin (she/they) is a Licensed Midwife and Certified Professional Midwife providing home-birth midwifery care, fertility and home-IUI care, and community education throughout the greater Philadelphia area and South Jersey. Ray founded Refuge Midwifery in 2017 to create a home for families not served by our current healthcare system.
In addition to their midwifery practice, Ray has been immersed in promoting affirming reproductive care for transgender patients and has taught midwives, doctors, nurses, and birth professionals throughout the country on trans-inclusive fertility, birth, and postpartum care. In their private practice, Ray specializes in natural fertility support for individuals with prior hormone use. Ray is the co-author of the forthcoming book Baby Making for Everybody—a Guide for LGBTQ+ and Solo Parents, coming April 2023.
Ray earned their Bachelor of Science in midwifery at Birthingway College of Midwifery in Portland, Oregon, in 2016 and also holds a Bachelor of Science in political science, urban studies, and labor studies from Queens College. Ray is a member of the Queer and Transgender Midwives Association. Ray lives with their partner and child in Philadelphia, PA.
In Midwifery-Led Fertility Care, midwives Ray Rachlin, LM, CPM and Marea Goodman LM, CPM will educate midwives on how to provide fertility care in an out-of-hospital setting. In this presentation, Ray and Marea will review the different options people with uteruses have to create pregnancies with fresh and frozen sperm and the success rates for each. They will focus on lower-intervention insemination options that can be performed at-home or in a midwife’s office. The presenters will also review fertility awareness method counseling and how midwives can support their clients to determine ovulation, as well as insemination timing and navigating sperm banks, ACOG preconception care, and fertility lab work.
Throughout the presentation, Ray and Marea will provide an introduction on how to provide culturally appropriate care to the LGBTQ+ population and transgender parents. They will also discuss how to apply infertility research to LGBTQ+ people, and when to refer to different levels of care.
LGBTQ+ people face many obstacles to healthcare access including a lack of knowledgeable care providers, other people’s lack of awareness of identity issues, and outright prejudice and discrimination. This leads to both underutilization of healthcare and overmedicalization, and contributes to health disparities and poor outcomes, especially by individuals with intersecting marginalized identities. Midwives are in a unique position to provide excellent, culturally competent care to this population. However, viewers should not expect to become culturally competent in caring for the LGBTQ+ population in this one hour class. There will be resources for further learning provided at the end of the presentation.
Tynan Rhea is a queer, nonbinary settler with German and Slovak ancestry. Tynan has a private practice online across Canada as a sex & relationship therapist, sex educator, and aromatherapist. Tynan developed and teaches the Sex & Birth course for Doula Training Canada and is the founder of PostpartumSex.com. Tynan approaches their practice from sex-positive, queer & trans-affirming, trauma-informed, anti-oppressive, and feminist frameworks. Tynan started their private practice in Tkaronto and grew-up in Wasaga Beach. You can find Tynan on Facebook, Instagram @TynanRhea or TynanRhea.com
Have you ever wondered why some people's sex lives improve after having children and why so many other's struggle? Or maybe you want to have a better understanding of what is "normal" for postpartum sex. In this introductory presentation, you'll learn how the different aspects of our lives influence our sexual experiences postpartum including the importance of being trauma-informed and sex-positive in order to effectively respond to your client's sexual health support needs.
Returning to Sex Postpartum: Expectation, Preparation, Treatments for Pain and Dysfunction
Sonia is an occupational therapist specializing in pelvic floor therapy with a focus on the perinatal population.
In her practice, she uses awareness training, targeted exercise, breath work, yoga, manual therapy and lifestyle modification to help her clients find relief from conditions such as pelvic girdle pain, prolapse, dyspareunia, incontinence, constipation, diastasis recti and general deconditioning connected to pregnancy and postpartum. Sonia is skilled in helping her clients navigate the psychological and social impact that pelvic floor issues have on relationships and day to day life. In addition to her work as a pelvic floor therapist, Sonia teaches pre/postnatal yoga classes and leads new parent support groups. She is also a part of the continuing education program at Ancient Song Doula Collective and teaches workshops on the pelvic floor for Doulas and pregnant and postpartum people.
Sonia graduated from SUNY Downstate with a Master’s of Science in Occupational Therapy and received a Bachelor of the Arts in Dance from Oberlin College. Sonia trained in pelvic floor rehabilitation with Herman & Wallace Institute and Lindsey Vestal of the Functional Pelvis.
Sonia lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and two children.
Pain with sex and sexual activity postpartum is common. This can have a profound impact on quality of life and relationships during a period of time when birthing people are already managing seismic changes to both identity and intimate relationships. Birthing people deserve education around what to expect, how to prepare and how to address any discomfort and pain with return to sex postpartum. Too many providers are not given knowledge, tools and strategies to support their patients with resuming this important activity of daily living. In this interactive and embodied presentation, I will share how to talk about the return to sexual activity with your patients, what preparation may be helpful, and strategies for addressing and treating different categories of sexual pain.
Nikki Hunter Greenaway is a board-certified family nurse practitioner and internationally board-certified lactation consultant in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 2011, she founded Nurse Nikki Family & Maternity Services, a health consulting firm where she educates and counsels women, families, schools and businesses about pregnancy, birth, postpartum, breastfeeding, and new baby care. October 2018 she opened Bloom Maternal Health, a women’s health clinic that provides prenatal counseling and postpartum recovery care. Nurse Nikki is the co-founder of Louisiana’s first free-standing infant feeding clinic, the New Orleans Breastfeeding Center. She also co-created Café au Lait Breastfeeding Circle for Families of Color and Nikki & Nikki Lactation Career Consultants two important resources needed to improve breastfeeding outcomes specifically in the Black community. Nikki is a wife and mother of 3 mini breastfeeding activists.
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.
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