Perinatal Care conference 2021
Abstracts
Claire Eccleston - Physiology before force, applying a Spinning Babies ® approach to birth
Human bodies are innately intelligent. Spinning Babies® seeks to optimise ease in birth by supporting physiology via anatomical understanding and simple hands on skills to support the birth process. This is particularly useful in regards to posterior positioned (OP) babies. Posterior births have higher maternity and neonatal morbidity rates. A baby who has experienced a posterior labour may have physical discomfort from birth that may affect breastfeeding.
Dr Deborah Fox - Midwives, mothers and machines
Increasing rates of intervention during childbirth are drawing attention to the deficits in the way we currently care for women giving birth. Over emphasis and reliance on technology has reduced the humanistic aspects of maternity care, focusing on machines rather than mothers, to the detriment of their wellbeing. There is an urgent need to reflect on our relationship with technology, particularly electronic fetal monitoring, so that physiological processes and positive experiences for women remain paramount.
Shawn Walker - Improving the safety and accessibility of vaginal breech birth through research
Qualitative research can give us insight into how professionals acquire vaginal breech birth skills. Detailed, systematic observation of breech birth videos can help us understand what is ‘normal for breech,’ and therefore help professionals know when intervention is indicated. This presentation will discuss how we can combine novel research findings in order to create an innovative care pathway that may improve outcomes and experiences for women and their babies.
Hazel Keedle - The four factors and models of care that impact women planning a VBAC in Australia
The majority of women who have had a caesarean go on to have a repeat caesarean, however vaginal birth after caesarean (VBAC) can be a safe and healing experience. A mixed methods study explored women’s experiences of planning a VBAC in Australia, the results of the qualitative and quantitative parts of the survey will be discussed. Findings indicate that those who have had a caesarean go on a journey during their next pregnancy with both positive and negative experiences.
Milli Hill – Feminism and birth
Birth is the feminist issue nobody’s talking about. For too long women have been told, ‘a healthy baby is all that matters’. Milli Hill dares to say women matter too. Finally blasting the feminist spotlight into the labour ward, she encourages women everywhere to stand and deliver, insisting that birth is no longer left off the list in discussions about female power, control and agency. From the importance of birth plans to human rights in childbirth, women are urged to reclaim their bodily autonomy in birth in line with the #metoo movement.
Mark Williams - The importance of fathers mental health
As an international campaigner for fathers' mental health, Mark Williams shares his story of coming through depression following the birth of his son, and how this experience inspired his fight to raise awareness and bring about change. Supporting all parents has far better outcomes for the whole family and the development of the child.
Julie Brill - Building on What Came Before: How Birth Impacts Breastfeeding
Many parents are often unaware of how their decisions during pregnancy and labour might impact breastfeeding. Common interventions can impact when mature milk transitions, milk production even beyond the postpartum period, how well babies can latch and transfer in the early days, newborn weight loss, and even the composition of human milk. We will explore how birth interventions effect breastfeeding and techniques that can help mitigate these impacts.
Jen Kamel - The VBAC Imperative: The Intersection of Reproductive Rights and Public Health
The desire to plan a VBAC is sometimes dismissed as simply a “birth preference” whose end goal is reduced to a “birth experience,” - a very narrow perspective of a complex issue. The truth is, VBAC access is interwoven with public health outcomes. Research is clear that the risks significantly increase with each prior caesarean. In this session, we will compare and contrast the most serious complications of VBAC and repeat caesarean: uterine rupture and placenta accreta. Informed consent, the obstacles of hospital policy and provider preference will also be examined.
Neel Shah - Building Trustworthy Systems for Childbirth
People who are starting or growing their families are uniquely vulnerable during humanitarian disasters, and history indicates that their wellbeing is an important bellwether for the wellbeing of us all. During the period spanning pregnancy through parenthood, daily life is disrupted by shifting biological and social circumstances. Without attention, care, and support, these disruptions lead to multiple forms of suffering: undertreated illnesses, economic disempowerment, isolation. People of colour, immigrants and those living in underserved settings suffer most.
Nicky Hartney – Breastfeeding; the physiology that underpins the support.
When offering support and advice to women who are breast feeding, it’s vital to have a sound understanding of breastfeeding physiology. This presentation will draw on the instructional animation, “Breastfeeding hormones in Play” as a foundation to explore how breastfeeding physiology translates to clinical practice when supporting women to breastfeed.
Elizabeth Newnham - Risk and safety in midwifery practice: navigating the institutional paradox
This presentation will focus on the nuances of risk and safety discourses within contemporary maternity care settings. After presenting a broad outline of historical and socio-political contexts, I discuss ways in which particular practices and technologies are represented as either safe or risky, and how knowledge around these is constructed, arguing that this knowledge impacts on the writing of policy documents, which in turn affects practice. These are important considerations for midwifery, given that the professional philosophy is based on central tenets of woman-centred care, the midwife-woman relationship and informed consent.
Matthew Appleton – Birth from the baby’s perspective
Babies reveal a lot about their experience of birth and prenatal life through their body language (Baby Body Language). This is an introduction to baby body language and is of interest to anyone who works with babies and their parents. This enables a greater empathy for babies and insight into how they show their ‘birth stories’ and can also support parents to understand behaviours and emotional expressions that may otherwise leave them bewildered. Drawing from more than 20 years of working therapeutically with babies and their families, this talk is supported by film clips of working with babies.
Karen Strange – Supporting the golden hour and fostering baby-parent communication and connection
In reviewing the education surrounding birth, there seems to be a lack of understanding of the emotional/psychological needs of the dyad. Currently, all dialogue is from the mother’s perspective of prenatal, labour, birth and immediate postpartum. Very little attention is paid to the growing body of evidence regarding the psychological dynamics of the baby’s journey and experience. Karen explores the importance of the breast crawl and discusses healing methods for babies who have had complications, interruptions or interventions in their birth journey.
Karen Strange – Integrative neonatal resuscitation
Karen sheds light on the most common failures and misconceptions that come up for midwives and birth professionals around neonatal resuscitation. She focuses on what gets missed, what is misunderstood and the role of fear and panic. In this lecture, she’ll explain the key failures as well as the key components to successfully breathing for a newborn.
