The Benefits & Challenges of Preserving Physiologic Birth

	Hosted by The Midwifery Program at the University of British Columbia and the North American Steering Committee of this series founded at the University of Central Lancashire

Conference Background

The first International Normal Labour and Birth Research Conference was held in 2002 at the University of Central Lancashire, Grange Over Sands, England. Since then, the event has been held there three times, in 2004, 2006, and 2009. In 2009, attendees included over 200 of the world’s leading researchers, academics, policy makers and strategists in the field of normal birth research. This conference facilitates inter-professional dialogue, and knowledge translation related to physiologic labour and birth. Leading researchers from midwifery, obstetrics, family practice, public health, and nursing present data and discuss the implications of findings for maternal/fetal outcomes, professional education, patient experience, inter-professional collaboration, health care reform, and health policy.

In 2006, the UCLan conference organizers invited North American researchers and educators to participate in the international series. A joint steering committee was formed to plan and deliver the series events in North America.

In acknowledgement of the leadership and innovation represented by the midwifery model of care and inter-professional collaboration in Canada, the Midwifery Program at UBC was selected as primary host for the 5th International Normal Labour and Birth Research Conference. We are pleased to be co-hosting this session of the series and look forward to seeing you there.

Confirmed Speakers

Keynotes

Cathy Warwick, CBE
General Secretary, Royal College of Midwives, UK

Simone Buitendijk, MD, MPH, PhD
Professor of Maternal and Child Health, Dept of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Amsterdam University Medical Center/TNO Institute for Applied Science, The Netherlands

Plenary Speakers

Professor Soo Downe
Director of Midwifery Studies University of Central Lancashire,
UKFounder, Normal Birth Conference Series

Eugene Declercq, DrPH
Assistant Dean, Doctoral Education
Professor, Community Health Sciences
Boston University School of Public Health, USA

Holly Kennedy, FACNM, CNM, PhD
Helen Varney Professor of Midwifery, School of Nursing, Yale University, USA
President elect, American College of Nurse-Midwives

Patricia Janssen, RN, BSN, MPH, PhD
Associate Professor and Director, Master of Public Health Program
Co-Director, Women’s Reproductive Health Research Training Program, Child and Family Research Institute, University of British Columbia, Canada

Conference Objectives:

The conference will provide the opportunity to develop and disseminate evidence related to the benefits and challenges of preserving normal labour and birth with a particular focus on the multidisciplinary perspectives on the implications for clinical practice, perinatal outcomes, education, management, collaboration, and policy.

• To engage multidisciplinary international stakeholders in the discussion and debate around physiologic labour and birth
• To disseminate recent, relevant research on effective strategies to promote normal labour and birth
• To facilitate multidisciplinary collaboration in designing maternity care models, policies, and practices reflective of best evidence.
• To provide a foundation for future collaboration in research efforts that examine and document models of maternity care that support of normal labour and birth.
• To identify relevant curricula components for maternity care professional education programs specific to normal birth.
• To develop an international multidisciplinary research agenda focused on normal labour and birth

Conference Themes:

This session will specifically focus on concepts and controversies around the experiences of physiologic birth by providers, women, families, and systems of care within the current social, political, and economic context.

Defining and Describing Normal Birth

• Development and modulation of belief systems in maternity care
• Descriptive data on characteristics of normal, undisturbed labour and birth
• Physical and psychosocial consequences of physiologic birth

Practice

• Practice model or components of care that promote physiologic birth
• Multidisciplinary strategies to promote physiologic birth
• Conflict resolution in labour and delivery
• Impact of obstetric interventions and/or pharmacologic agents in labour and birth
• Measuring outcomes of physiologic labour and birth

Public Information

• The bioethics of provider interactions with women’s choices
• Social and cultural implications of optimal childbirth
• Evaluations of client satisfaction
• Client-led/community-based research
• Public perceptions of use of pharmacological agents in birth care

Education

• Curriculum to enhance knowledge about physiologic birth
• Strategies to develop knowledge, skills and confidence to support physiologic birth
• Interprofessional education

Policy

• Cost-effectiveness of normal birth care
• Access to maternity care resources
• Linkages between normal birth and primary health care reform
• Initiatives aimed at low-intervention care and undisturbed birth

Normal Labour and Birth Conference Links
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