CLASSES-Pre Conference

PRE-Conference

So You Want To Be A Midwife-Taught by Ireena Keeslar CPM and Jill Whitfield CNM
 We will discuss what being a midwife means for your life, and especially what a out of hospital midwife goes thru. What are the different routes to being a midwife, including the CNM and the CPM route. What about your family? What about time management? What books do I need or want? What if I am a doula, or a child birth educator? How does all of that 'fit in'?

What  Does It Mean To Be A Student? -Taught by Ireena and Jill
What does a midwife want in a student? What about the 'money'? What will this cost me? What classes or seminars will help me? What books will help me? When I find the apprenticeship, what is required of me at a prenatal appointment? What is required of me at a birth? Where do I begin?

Blood Sugar-Taught by Ireena and Jill
What foods raise and lower blood sugar? What about supplements? Does anything help? How should you be checking a woman's blood sugar in the home environment? What about the glucose challenge test in the home? What should we be looking for in the pregnancy? What are the 3 types of diabetes? What does a woman's high sugar levels do to the baby in the womb? How do you evaluate a diet sheet and how do you design one for your practice? Do I really need one? We will also discuss case studies, and have time for a open discussion.

What It Is Like To Be A Community Midwife? -Taught by Ireena and Jill
The "calling" to be a midwife. The journey to be a midwife. Years as the Community midwife.  Come hear a midwives story.  Taking the good with the bad. Pressing on. There will be time for questions!

Herbs Vs Medicines. -Taught by Ireena and Jill  (Approved for 1 contact hour/.1 CEU from MEAC)
Herbs that are safe for Pregnancy and Birth and their side effects and interactions. We will discuss medications that are commonly used during labor and delivery in the home birth or birth setting environment, their side effects and their interactions with other medications, herbs, and foods. We will also discuss medications that should NOT be used in the home-birth setting that are used in the hospital setting. How to assist a midwife with using herbs, and medications in the home birth setting.

Setting Up At The Home Birth, Lets Keep It Sterile?-taught by Ireena and Jill
What does it mean to keep things sterile? What is sterile and what is clean? What is the real difference? Discussion of different examples of set ups for deliveries. How to really use sterile gloves, packages, are you doing it correctly? Discussion of various methods of cleaning and sterilizing your instruments and discussion of why or why not they are sterile.

Transfers-What Does The Hospital Really Want? -Taught by Ireena and Jill
Case studies will be discussed, both positive and negative examples. What is expected by the out of hospital midwife, how do we prepare and execute that plan.  There will be time for questions and discussion.

Chart Right! -Taught by Ireena and Jill
Why is charting so important? What is medical terminology, and what are the most common medical charting symbols used? What about my own abbreviations? Why can't I use those? What to chart and what to NOT chart? Practice chart review, and time for discussion and questions.

Placentas-Taught by Ireena and Jill
What is the role of the placenta? Unusual placentas and their stories. Bleeding, post-partum hemorrhage, practice guidelines, time for discussion and questions.

Now What? How Do I Keep Records For NARM?  Where Do I Go From Here?
'The mess'-discussion. How to find information in a midwives chart. How to organize your information so you are ready for NARM. Discussion about  classes, student choices, apprenticeships, and more!

Blood Loss. -Taught by Ireena and Jill
Discussion of clots, blood, chux, and what is a hemorrhage? This class will be a hands on example of blood loss.  Often midwives under estimate or over estimate the blood loss.  How can you be sure of the actual amount?

Vitals! Vitals! Vitals! and Urine! -Taught by Ireena and Jill
DO you know how many times I have witnessed people including nurses take a blood pressure and you know they are doing something wrong? Why is this so important? What about the old guidelines vs the new guidelines for a blood pressure? What helps regulate the blood pressure.
~What about the heart? What about normal functioning of the valves, and what about heart sounds, what is normal what is not?  Where are the correct places to listen to the S1 heart sound, or the S2 heart sound?
~Lung sounds-what are crackles, rales? Stridor? Where do you hear bronchial and bronchial vesicular lung sounds?
~ We will be doing a hands on for this class.  Bring your stethoscope and blood pressure cuff.  Bring a plain white t-shirt, (no V-necks) a permanent black marker, a blue and red one too!