RISE Conference Schedule | Midwives Alliance of North America

RISE Conference Schedule

This schedule is tentative. Final schedule is in process!

MANA #RISE2020 is an online conference produced by the Midwives Alliance of the North America on the GOLD Learning platform. The Pre-recorded pre-conference Workshop by Breech Without Borders is a two-day offering that is eligible for 12 CEUs and that will be available throughout the month of October with additional availability through November for those who also register for the live conference. The live conference will be held on October 27 and 28, 2020, and will include 10 CEU eligible presentations and 6 interactive discussion options.
Events marked CEUS will be recorded and available to registered attendees after the live event is over. Discussion sessions will only be available during the live event.

MANA Vaginal Breech Workshop with David Hayes, MD and Rixa Freeze, PhD
2 – day Pre-conference

This is a two-day add-on workshop available throughout the month of October.

Session 1: Rixa Freeze
Evidence on Term Breech Since the 2000 Term Breech Trial

Session 2: Rixa Freeze
Outcomes of community breech birth

Session 3: Rixa Freeze
Breech maneuvers from 1609 to the present

Session 4: David Hayes
Clinical aspects of physiological vaginal breech birth

Session 5: Rixa Freeze
Classification, nomenclature, and the risks of different types of breech presentations

Session 6: Rixa Freeze & David Hayes
Breech simulations: Recognizing and correcting abnormal breech labor

See video interview

Rixa Freeze, PhD

Dr David Hayes, MD

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

All times are Central Standard Time

9:00 am

Breakfast with the MANA Board

Join the members of the MANA Board to start the event with a special presentation by singing artist, Kirsten Marion, followed by the MANA Annual Business Meeting. The board members will each give a brief report to bring you up to date with what they have been doing for you and what they have planned for the coming year. MANA is all of us and it is important for members to understand all of the recent changes as well as how the board sees the future of the organization. We are looking forward to sharing both the ups and downs of the past year and our excitement for moving MANA forward.

MANA Board

10:30 am

(CEUS) - Recordings will be available on GOLD

How to Get Back to Naturalistic Midwifery

"How to Get Back to Naturalistic Midwifery" 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 health care. This session will also demonstrate 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 solutions to the problems caused by these practices.

See Video Interview

Maria Milton, LM

12:00 pm

(CEUS) - Recordings will be available on GOLD

New York: a Beacon and Shame of Midwifery

Certified Professional Midwives remain illegal in several states, including New York, where one CPM is currently facing 95 felony charges. From the 1970s through the 1980s, home birth midwives flourished across the state, especially around the Syracuse area. In the early 1990s there was promise of a licensed direct-entry midwife credential that would benefit home birth midwives as well as nurse-midwives, who desired a pathway separate from nursing. In this session, I share from my reporting on how and why the Certified Midwife credential was created, what it meant for community birth, and how it fares today. As COVID surged through New York in April and women scrambled to find community midwives, the harms of this history were laid bare: demand for home birth far outpaced supply, and hospital maternity care providers lacked the skills and training to safely support physiologic births in out of hospital locations with the least exposure to COVID. We also saw women isolated from partners and doulas and restricted from other physiologic labor support. What lessons can be drawn from the 1990s? How can midwives with different philosophies and lineages work together to elevate the model of care?

Jennifer Block

Jennifer Block

1:30 pm

(CEUS) - Recordings will be available on GOLD

You've Been Served

Not a matter of if, it is a matter of when. Midwives must be prepared well before someone comes knocking on their door with papers. This class is about knowing what are common ways midwives can get entangled with the law, resource savaiable to them and helpful steps of what to do if you've been served.

Wendi Cleckner, LM, CPM, JD

Tuesday Breakouts

All times are Central Standard Time

3:00 pm

(CEUS) - Recordings will be available on GOLD

Trauma and Anxiety in Pregnancy

Anxiety is an ever-present blight on the lives of many expecting mothers today. Increasing concerns of adequate resources, fears of birth or problems with baby, negotiating the needs of employers, partner, family, and the new baby can be overwhelming. Anxiety is a threat to the well-being and happiness of the pregnant woman as well as her baby. There are biologic and environment causes of anxiety. Past trauma is a major cause of anxiety in the present. We will look at how the brain changes after trauma as well as in pregnancy and how these changes can be not only survived, but mom can learn to thrive in spite of anxiety.

See Video Interview

Sherri Daigle

Sherri Daigle, LM, CPM, MSW

3:00 pm

(CEUS) - Recordings will be available on GOLD

Robust Research through Statistics

Much of the research around maternal and fetal health is conducted by physicians. However, midwives should feel equally empowered to own their data and shape the scientific story developing from that research. Developing skills that enable midwives to conduct and publish scientific manuscripts has the potential to change the established science surrounding birth and labor. In this interactive session, delegates will develop their understanding of quantitative data distributions, create a flowchart as a learning aid for selecting the most appropriate statistical approach, and implement best practices for reporting statistical results.

See Video Interview

Marieke Jones, PhD

3:00 pm

Live Discussion - only available on day of event

Traditional Midwifery: Discussion with Renata Hillman and Maria Milton, LM

Renata will lead a discussion with Maria Milton, LM on Traditional Midwifery. Renata was self taught and utilizes the older methods of Naturalistic Midwifery Care. Maria was trained by and with her Mother Gladys Milton. Maria’s passion is to see Traditional, Naturalistic Midwifery return to the Modern Midwifery Profession.

What did Midwifery look like 100 years ago.
How has Midwifery evolved in the past 25 years.
How do we return to a more Traditional/Naturalistic Midwifery?
What does that mean to our midwifery families?
Where do you get those skills and that wisdom?

Maria Milton, LM

Renata Hillman, CPM

MANA Secretary

3:00 pm

Live Discussion - only available on day of event

More Solutions, Less Complaining: Conflict resolution for PEP Preceptor/student relationships

Establishing the issue: Currently there is no complaint / resolution process for PEP students and preceptors of PEP students.
What protocols or guidelines have other schools put into place?
Brainstorm a pathway for PEP students and preceptors to air grievances
Who would be responsible for this process: NARM, MANA?
Establish a work group to help further this process and implement solutions

Yesenia Guzman

MANA Director of Professional Development

Nichole Feinauer

3:00 pm

Live Discussion - only available on day of event

State Leadership Meeting (with Discussion)

Wendi Cleckner, LM, CPM, JD

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

All times are Central Standard Time

9:00 am

Breakfast with the Board Open Forum

Open Forum is a follow up to the Annual Business Meeting, as always. It is an opportunity for members to give feedback to the board about what was presented in the business meeting and to speak on any important organizational or professional topic. To stay in compliance with Open Forum policies, the speaker is expected to state their name, place of practice, membership status and limit their comments to 2 minutes. If the speaker would like to speak again on a topic, they are expected to wait until all others have also taken their opportunity to speak. This is an important event that keeps the membership voice front and center which is essential to a membership organization like the Midwives Alliance of North America. The MANA Board looks forward to hearing your voice.

MANA Board

10:30 am

(CEUS) - Recordings will be available on GOLD

Physiologic Vaginal Breech

This lecture documents a physiological approach to vaginal breech birth: upright birth with mother and baby actively participating in the process. This biodynamic method combines gravity, maternal movement, and a baby assisting in its own birth to create optimal conditions for a successful vaginal breech birth.

A discussion of the key principles of physiologic birth; resent studies documenting how upright breech birth leads to shorter labors, fewer birth injuries, fewer maternal injuries, and fewer maneuvers compared to supine breech birth; and 10 steps of physiological birth.

I will demonstrate how what we see on the outside tells us what’s happening on the inside.

See video interview

Rixa Freeze, PhD

12:00 pm

(CEUS) - Recordings will be available on GOLD

Fetal Auscultation in Labor: When to Pay Attention

Karen Strange offers midwives a new way to think about Fetal Heart Tones (FHT). She teaches how to accurately listen to FHTs, and identifies when to listen more. Karen breaks down the ominous signs and flags to watch for during labor. Then takes us through a few labor stories with examples. And as always, Karen teaches in her no-nonsense way while instilling clarity and confidence, that you can apply immediately to your practice.

Karen Strange

1:30 pm

(CEUS) - Recordings will be available on GOLD

Panel: Black Maternal Mental Health

Tomasina with panel including Dr. Kimberly Sanders, Dr. Sal Corbin, Bri Mobley, Weluna Finley

Tomasina's discussion with our experts will touch on "the health state of the mind and it's processes for women of childbearing age" (and other definitions of black maternal mental health). Our discussion will further look at stressors, trauma and influences that impact black maternal mental health and in bringing awareness to the masses. We will ask if there are solutions that can yield a more hopeful, positive outcome as we look into these disparities.

See Video Interview

Thomasina Oliver, DEM, LM, CPM, HHC

Tomasina Oliver, DEM, LM, CPM, HHC

MANA Vice President

Wednesday Breakouts

All times are Central Standard Time

3:00 pm

(CEUS) - Recordings will be available on GOLD

Chagas Disease: Pregnancy-Based Screening to Benefit Mother and Infant

Chagas disease is a parasitic infection caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. Chagas disease is endemic in Mexico, Central America or South America. Approximately 8-10 million people in Latin America and 300,000 people in the United States have Chagas disease. Chagas disease damages the heart and causes approximately 10,000 deaths yearly. Approximately 30,000-45,000 people in the United States have Chagas cardiomyopathy. Most are unaware of the infection and have no symptoms. The common mode of acquiring Chagas disease is vector-borne. Acute infection is often asymptomatic. Infection is life-long if untreated and, over years or decades, 20% to 40% of people develop Chagas heart or gastrointestinal disease. Infection is also transmitted congenitally. In the United States there are ~40,000 women in the childbearing years with Chagas disease who give birth to ~63-315 infected infants each year. Some infants have signs of infection at birth but none is specific for Chagas disease. Maternal infection can be diagnosed by a commercially-available ELISA testing for T. cruzi IgG. At its cost of ~$50, screening would be cost-saving, whether implemented universally or for at-risk women. Treatment of confirmed infection is curative for infants, prevents transmission in future pregnancies and reduces risk for cardiomyopathy in women in the childbearing years.

Dr. Morven Edwards, MD

3:00 pm

(CEUS) - Recordings will be available on GOLD

The Science of Safety and Trauma Specific Recognition to Improve Birth Outcomes: How You Can Integrate Resilience Into Your Practice

Welcoming a child into one’s life with pregnancy and childbirth is a “threshold moment” for everyone involved. As practitioner, the continuity of care you provide, the space that you create and the quality of relationship you establish with birthing parents are all tools to for better outcomes. Doulas, midwives, maternal health specialists, obstetricians and others who attend pregnant and birthing families know that their presence means a lot in the process, whether it is explicitly named or not.

The science of safety is about recognizing the ways people feel safe on every level, implicitly and explicitly. This talk will present this science, often called the polyvagal theory, and help craft ways for professionals to better support birthing families based on knowing a unique map of the autonomic nervous system for each family. This understanding will help professionals create more resilience for birthing parents, and improve birth outcomes in the short and long term.

See Video Interview

Kate White, MA, BCBMT, RCST®, CEIM, SEP, PPNE

Kate White, MA, BCBMT, RCST®, CEIM, SEP, PPNE

3:00 pm

Rise of the Traditional Community Midwife

Tomasina Oliver, DEM, LM, CPM, HHC with Shafia Monroe (Discussion)

How much time has Shafia invested in birth work and when did it begin.
Defining Traditional Community Midwifery
What is your vision for how/why SMC Doula Training exists and how that relates to The Rise of the Traditional Community Midwife?
The importance of our Elders and Matriarchs "passing torches" to the next birth leaders
What thoughts would You, Shafia want to share about black maternal mental health; especially with all that is happening right now within our communities

Shaifa Monroe

Shafia M Monroe

Thomasina Oliver, DEM, LM, CPM, HHC

Tomasina Oliver, DEM, LM, CPM, HHC

MANA Vice President

3:00 pm

Live Discussion - only available on day of event

Balancing the Business of Midwifery

Renata with Sherri Daigle, CPM, LM, MSW will be discussing how to start and maintain your profession as a Midwife and your Business for the long run.

Talk Points:

Start up: Training (self, online, MEAC, college/Mentors/PR)
Your Practice: Solo/Partner/Group, Office or home, Birth center/hospital/home births
Paperwork: Charts, Contracts, Insurance
Boundaries: How many births? Office days and hours? On-call?
Self-care: Helpers, vacations, time off, restrictions

Renata Hillman, CPM

MANA Secretary

Sherri Daigle

Sherri Daigle, LM, CPM, MSW

3:00 pm

Live Discussion - only available on day of event

Separating the Midwifery and Nursing Professions

ICM topic (discussion)

Separating the nursing and midwifery professions was a major topic discussed by representatives attending the International Confederation of Midwives during the virtual 2020 Council meeting. The overall sentiment from around the globe appeared to be that separating these two professions was what midwives felt was best for midwifery. This discussion option will be your opportunity to give feedback and hear others discuss how this would impact midwifery in the USA and how we might work together to accomplish this change. Consider these questions:

How has combining the two professions impacted midwifery?
How has the USA midwifery profession been impacted by having multiple credentials?
What would separating the two professions in the USA look like?
What would be the action steps to accomplish this?

Sarita Bennett, DO, CPM

MANA President

MANA News

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Posted: 08/11/2020 - 11:12am