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This
program prepares you to differentiate yourself from the rest
of the doulas/labor
support out there.
BIRTH WISDOM provides one of the highest quality trainings
available with 36 hours didactic under the nurturing guidance
of our faculty.
We
are
committed to educating from a balanced perspective, presenting
both alternative and medical modalities.
We will explore proven alternative therapies, as well
as provide an extensive understanding of medical views on
obstetrical complications and their ramifications.
Our desire is to instill a healthy respect for what
each has to teach us in providing optimal care for mom and
baby.
Comprehensive
curriculum content and invaluable information is given through lecture, and
through:
- Interactive
participation
- Obstetrical medical
textbooks/midwifery textbooks/labor and nursing textbooks,
cutting edge journal articles.
- Hands on clinical
instruction
- Panel interaction
with your instructors with diverse training, experience
and perspectives.
-
Over
100 hour of directed
self study.
- A business plan to
take your knowledge to turn it into a viable and lucrative
career.
- An intern client
referral network.
- A apprenticeship
program for students with little or no experience in labor
and birth.
- Upon completion of
the series interns must attend and receive evaluation for
a minimum of twelve births to receive certification.
Are
you exploring a new career as a
Professional
Labor Support Specialist/Certified Perinatal
Support Specialist (CPSS)?
-
You
could be embarking on a wonderful adventure--one of the most
challenging and rewarding life callings you could pursue.
Very rarely does a career choice
- involve
this depth of relational intimacy with
each
client and family, creating lifelong cherished memories
- necessitate
such abundant resources of intellectual, physical,
interpersonal, emotional,
spiritual understanding,
knowledge, and skill
- provide
constantly changing and stretching circumstances, ever
demanding creativity, and growth
- give
you the opportunity to serve others, and in doing so, to
empower individuals and families for
a lifetime
- place
you in an environment where you may be able to influence
and effect change on every level:
from the client’s perspective of herself and a
couple’s relationship with each other, to a local
hospital’s perspective on birthing practices, to an
established national healthcare system’s view of safe,
economical, and optimal care for childbearing women.
You
can and will make a difference in this role.
What
would be my role as a CPSS?
By
becoming certified as a CPSS, you would enter an age old, but
in its modern format, a cutting edge profession.
In
recent years, the mainstream of obstetrical care in the US has
begun to recognize an undercurrent of a paradigm change in our
view of labor and birth. Rather than approaching childbearing from a bio-medical
perspective as a disease process, it more appropriately can be
seen as a bio-psycho-social model of care.
This is where the focus is on creating health, by
emphasizing the normalcy of pregnancy and the process of
birth.
There
is also a growing awareness (backed up by research based
evidence) of the advantages that an educated, well-trained
continuous caregiver provides to the laboring woman, her
partner, the health care team, and the hospital’s fiscal
bottom line.
Due to the great
responsibility and potential of influence as a CPSS, it is
imperative that you understand your purpose and the
limitations of your role in order to be effective for your
clients, not burn yourself out, and to keep both yourself and
your client safe -
from a health, as well as legal standpoint.
The
CPSS makes available an experienced, knowledgeable, familiar,
and trusted woman at the side of the childbearing woman
/couple throughout her pregnancy, continuing through the
duration of her labor and delivery, and into the early
postpartum period as the transition into parenthood takes
place. Her
presence gives the couple needed confidence to face the task
of labor and delivery with the carefully informed goals they
have set for themselves, as they retain a sense of control and
collaboration through the process.
Her emotional, physical and informational anticipatory
guidance can help reduce fear, awkwardness, and vulnerability.
Thus, enabling them to achieve the safest, least
interventive, most comfortable, and shortest labor possible,
resulting in empowerment to succeed in their new parenting
role.
The
father specifically benefits by being relieved of the
expectation of mastering labor support with little or no prior
experience, freeing him to do what he does best -love her.
The tremendous pressure placed on him to “get her
through” can cause unnecessary tension between them, which
can taint their intimacy and entire experience. This memory
can be destructive, leaving lasting repercussions on both
their relationship and parenting partnership.
The
client with special circumstances (such as a single mother,
traveling partner, VBAC, high risk status, etc.)
will
also dramatically benefit from the individualized
attention of this service.
As
a CPSS, you would not only be an asset to the childbearing
couple, but also an asset to the obstetrical team.
You would provide a knowledgeable continuity of
involvement that enhances their expertise through improved
communication, preparation, and compliance in the clinical
management of your client’s obstetrical course.
Obstetricians
and busy midwives benefit from the increased
satisfaction of their clients.
A more personalized approach of constant care and
companionship produces a more favorable labor and delivery
experience, which reflects
positively on the health care providers.
Also, research shows that the presence of trained
continual labor support reduces the need for obstetrical
interventions and resultant complications, therefore achieving
better outcomes overall.
The
nursing staff benefits with added skilled help.
With staffing frequently short, nurse/patient ratios
declining, abundant technical and clinical skills to perform,
as well as documentation to attend to, it is a blessing to
have extra hands available to assist with the high level of
needs of a laboring couple.
It is also much more pleasant and rewarding to work
with a patient who is truly prepared, relaxed, and under
control.
The
hospital also reaps the benefits
of the involvement of a
CPSS in that there is generally a significant reduction of
health care costs due to fewer medical interventions,
including anesthesia and cesarean section.
The hospital also becomes known as a birthplace that
goes beyond the norm in encouraging and providing
comprehensive, personalized, and quality care.
As a
CPSS, you might frequently be questioned as to what you do,
and how your function differs from that of a doula, nurse, or
midwife. This is
exciting as people begin to comprehend how beautifully your
training could complement and complete the health care team.
Most often you will hear a response very similar to
this, “Wow. I
wish I could have had someone like you when I had my babies.
It would have made such a difference in my birthing
experiences!”
You
can be one who will make a difference!
Unfortunately,
most people assume that a CPSS’s only purpose is to “keep
someone from having drugs” during a delivery.
While our underlying philosophy is that birth is a
normal and healthy process that the female body is inherently
and uniquely well equipped to carry out, we also recognize
that there are both physical and emotional issues that can
arise in pregnancy and birth that complicate this process;
many of which require specific medical and psychological
attention and intervention for safe passage to becoming a
family.
We at Birth Wisdom are committed to
educating you
from a balanced perspective, presenting both
alternative and medical modalities, all from a
foundation of evidence-based practice.
We will explore proven alternative therapies, as well
as provide an extensive understanding of medical views on
obstetrical complications and their ramifications.
Our desire is to instill a healthy respect for what
each approach has to teach us in providing optimal care for
mom and baby.
The
overriding role of a CPSS is to address each client and birth
on an individual basis, taking into account her history,
family situation, personal beliefs, dreams, fears, medical
circumstances, choice of caregiver and place of birth.
Then, empower her to safely orchestrate her own birth
experience, in collaboration with her obstetrical healthcare
provider, with
knowledge, confidence, and flexibility in the event of an
uncomplicated or complicated delivery.
This event is not about what we as CPSS’s would think an
“ideal” birth should look like, reflecting our personal
preferences or biases. Rather,
it is solely about providing the knowledge, resources,
listening ear, support, guidance, hands on assistance,
encouragement, and nurture that would enable your client and
her partner to grow into truly informed, active participants
in decision making, sharing the responsibility for their
health care choices as adults and parents.
A
CPSS’s more tangible role will be to provide constant,
contraction-by-contraction, support for the laboring woman.
This is similar to the service provided by a doula.
However, the approach is somewhat different.
A
doula is trained primarily from an emotional perspective,
providing essential emotional as well as hands-on physical
support and coping techniques as the woman responds to her
labor.
In
contrast, the registered nurse assigned to the laboring mother
is trained to approach her from a primarily clinical
reference. She
has a keen eye for assessment and is most intent on the safety
and progress of her patient.
The
CPSS will differ by taking the doula’s role and expanding
upon it. She will
offer her time, energy and knowledge to provide the vital
emotional and physical support, but implement these skills
with a much broader and more thorough understanding of the
technical processes and concerns that the medical team is
evaluating and preparing to implement should complications
arise.
The
medical knowledge base of the CPSS is not intended to rival or
conflict with the attending nurse, midwife or physician’s
evaluation of the situation.
Rather, it is intended to better equip the CPSS to
intelligently recommend appropriate alternative therapies at
times of collaboration, and, because of understanding the
medical team’s point of view, be able to be the best
advocate for the physician/midwife and RN, should medical
intervention become necessary.
She would be able to give her client the confidence
that the appropriate use of technology is a safeguard for
herself and her baby, while maintaining her client’s
confidence in nature and her own ability to give birth.
In effect, the CPSS would be uniquely positioned,
prepared and qualified to be the “interpreter” for both
the client and staff; thus fostering greater trust and
cooperation, with confidence that both perspectives were
“heard” and understood.
The
CPSS then continues her role by walking closely with the
family as they make their transition into parenthood (or
expand their family) at home.
They provide encouragement and self-care instruction to
tired and many times overwhelmed parents, breastfeeding and
infant care teaching and support, as well as assisting with
sibling adjustment.
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Page | The
Series | The
Faculty | Registration
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| Intern
Referral | Training
Workshop |
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