The Midwifery Program at the University of British Columbia is pleased to be co-hosting the fifth session of the International Normal Labour and Birth Research Conference Series with the North American Steering Committee of this series and in collaboration with the University of Central Lancashire.

In response to growing interest from the international research community, this annual conference will be hosted by an international partner university biannually.

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.

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.

Conference Objectives:

• 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:

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

Participants

This conference will be of interest to:

• Maternity care professionals who are interested in maximizing normal birth
• Clinical leaders, managers, and heads of service
• Service users
• Lecturers at all levels in maternity care
• Managers of maternity care education
• Academics and researchers working in the area of maternity services, birth, and women’s health
• Policy makers with an interest in maternity services

Sponsors

Final Plenary Session:

A facilitated session in which this diverse participant group will collaborate to develop:

1. A strategic research agenda; and
2. A knowledge translation plan to share key findings with clinicians, institutions and policy makers

Impact

4 newly formed, self-populated, interdisciplinary working groups will collaborate over 2 years to develop 4 specific knowledge translation plans for normal birth research:

1. Public Information: methods to disseminate data to maternity care consumers;
2. Practice: modifications in practice guidelines and hospital protocols;
3. Education: modifications to curricula in health professional programs;
4. Policy: applying evidence to health policy, incentive and reimbursement schema.