Advancing Your Skills: Tools for a Culturally Aware Midwifery Practice - Bay Area

  • 02/24/2018
  • 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
  • Bay Area - San Leandro Senior Community Center

Registration


Registration is closed


Midwives, are you considering accepting Medi-Cal and want to increase your toolset for serving a more diverse community of clients? 

Were you at MANACAM17 and looking for a safe space to exhale and process the experience? Want to gather tools to advance the cultural awareness of your midwifery practice? 

Join us for a 4-hour workshop designed to help us better support the diverse families that may seek midwifery service.

We know that the work of increased cultural awareness is deeply rewarding and benefits all families served by midwifery. We also know it can feel challenging, which is why we chose the gracious and supportive Heather Thompson of Elephant Circle to present this workshop.

This training will provide you with:  

  • some skills and language to discuss race and racism so you feel more confident when these topics arise
  • an understanding of the relationships between race, racism, and birth disparities and your role in changing the situation
  • why being "colorblind" doesn't work and how seeing race is a benefit to your community
  • a place to process some of what felt unresolved after MANA/CAM and deepen your understanding of the issues raised at this conference so you can take away what resonates with you and leave the drama behind
  • a community of folks who are interested in discussing these issues so you feel supported and we can move forward as a united midwifery community
  • tools on how you can improve maternal health outcomes among families of color so you can better serve your community
Most who have begun the work of cultivating cultural sensitivity and awareness realize that they must become lifetime learners and that this work requires on-going effort. This workshop is designed for all learning levels, including those who are just beginning and those who have participated in cultural awareness work for many years.

Details:

4 hour workshop

CAM CEUs (MBC approved) available
Lamaze educators can use this activity toward their recertification hours

CALM member rate: $75
Non member rate: $105
Student midwife rate: $45
Non-midwife birthworker (doula, CBE, or lactation consultant) rate: $45

Includes light snacks

Two locations.  9am to 1pm.

February 24th - Bay Area - San Leandro Senior Community Center

13909 E. 14th Street San Leandro, CA 94578 

February 25th - San Diego - Marina Village  (click HERE to register)

On-call? Please see below.

Sponsored by CAM.

This workshop is sponsored by The California Association of Midwives Foundation (CAM). As an integral part of CAM's mission, this workshop is not a fundraiser, and we have priced it as competitively as possible while still breaking even on the costs. CAM is committed to providing safe, evidence-based midwifery for all families in California. We envision a future where we can embrace and welcome our differences and unique assets to improve birth for all families. CALM is endorsing this training as a part of CALM's mission to bring tangible benefits to its members and to advance the LM profession through education, quality improvement initiatives and advocating for access to midwives for all California families.


What past participants have had to say:

"Heather's training helped me to understand that we all have blind spots and bias and her loving delivery of information provided a welcome space that allowed me the freedom and safety to truly deepen my cultural sensitivity. 

I came away with tools to incorporate into my daily life and have made strides in understanding because of her training."

"Have you ever had a moment where you learned something and then all these other things just clicked into clarity for you? That's how I felt throughout Heather's training. 

Within the warm and welcoming space she creates within her heart, Heather enabled me to really see things that had been invisible to me before. I left the training with a deeper understanding of myself as well as others. I also now feel more confident speaking about disparities and inequities. 

If you wish you fully engage and serve the various families in your community, I highly recommend attending Heather's training."

About the facilitator:

Heather Thompson, MS, PhD, is a molecular and cellular biologist, clinical researcher, birthworker and queer parent. She has worked on issues related to reproductive health for more than 25 years, advocating for equity, access and autonomy in childbirth. From 2010-2017 she was the Research Director at a freestanding birth center in Colorado, advocating for midwives and community birth through data generation, analysis and dissemination. 

Currently she is the Deputy Director of Elephant Circle, a reproductive justice organization where she gets to combine her background in birth justice with science and community organizing. She is passionate about supporting the family unit and helping families navigate their own journey, particularly as it relates to maternity care, birth choices and legal marijuana in Colorado. Heather has been called to engage in racial justice and live from an anti-oppression perspective from the time she was a child, but in recent years she has increased the time she spends creating conversation with white people about whiteness and racism. 

Born and raised in Colorado, Heather enjoys being outside around a campfire with her partner, two kids and larger community.

On call? Please go ahead and register:

Your registration helps us plan for the day and secures your spot when CAM workshops fill.

Refund policy: midwives and birth workers who are unable to participate because they are attending a birth are welcome to choose:

  • to hold their registration until the next time the session is scheduled in the area
  • to receive a refund minus a processing fee to cover CAM's costs



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