Next Thursday!

Next Thursday, I'll be at the second day of the Midwifery Today Pre-Conference!

Here's what I'm signed up for:

Midwifery Skills

These classes are designed to improve and enhance your midwifery skills and knowledge. This is a great class for beginning and advanced midwives.

9:00 am – 10:00 am
Keeping Birth Normal — Sister MorningStar
Midwives are the protectors of normal birth. Keeping birth normal is the biggest challenge in childbirth today. Learn how nutrition, love, communication, continuity of care, intervention and other factors can affect the normal birth process. Learn why pregnancy care is essential for preventing complications.

10:10 am – 11:10 am
Third Stage Difficulties — Marion Toepke McLean
While the placenta usually comes out easily and in a timely fashion, there are problems that can occur which demand immediate action. Learn what problems may arise in third stage and how to be prepared to attend them. Bleeding, various problems with placenta retention and other issues will be discussed.

11:15 am – 12:15 pm
HIPAA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — Maryl Smith
Maryl will discuss protecting the privacy of the families we serve and how to integrate privacy law into a midwifery style of practice. How does this affect what we do?

1:45 pm – 3:15 pm
Hands-on Midwifery — Carol Gautschi
Don’t let technology make you lose your hands-on skills. Midwives “see” with their hands. Hands and senses are our best tools. Carol will explain the true art of hands-on care, including the why, what and how of working with women in a way that utilizes our hands, senses, intuition and the ability to observe.

3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
How Is the Baby? — Carol Gautschi
We will learn about Leopold’s maneuvers as well as other fetal palpitation techniques to determine both position and station, including how to check for the cephalic prominence. Carol will explain how to listen to the fetal heart with a fetoscope or pinard horn, how to do a home Non-Stress Test and Fetal Movement Counts and how to use these tools successfully.

4:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Suturing Overview — Marion Toepke McLean
The purpose of this session is to increase knowledge in the recognition and repair of lacerations. Preventive care will be discussed along with new ideas for types of repairs.

7:30 pm – 9:00 pm General session

Eneyda Spradlin-Ramos and Jan Tritten
Tricks of the Trade
Share the techniques you’ve perfected in your practice or bring your burning questions to this roundtable of pertinent tips on a wide variety of topics. Previous sessions have included facilitating effective contractions, dealing with prolonged labor, preventing perineal tears, helping the slow-to-start baby and holistic first aid. This is always a much-appreciated session, for its sense of sisterhood as well as its information. “Worth at least two weeks of academic training,” said one participant

--------------------------------------------------------------------

I am both looking forward to the week of learning and hoping that Tim and the kids will be ok for the time I'm way. I've never been away from them for this long. Tim is a great dad (and obviously a wonderful husband since he's letting me go). I'm going to miss all of them a lot.

I'm trying to get in "quality time" with the kids this week; even though I'm on here blogging, James is sitting on my leg and Ben is playing with Legos on the floor in front of me. This afternoon, I'm going to fit in taking them to the zoo before tonight's Doula Connection business meeting.

Like the ladies on Wife Swap, I'm tempted to write out everything that needs to be done with the house and the kids while I'm away. I don't think that I'll get around to writing anything comprehensive, but I will be leaving notes.