Speaker: Jessica Brumley
Facilitator: Caitlin Goodwin
Midwifery has played a critical role in maternal and newborn care throughout our history, yet its integration into the healthcare system has been marked by challenges and transformation. This presentation explores the historical trajectory of midwifery. The current landscape highlights a growing recognition of midwifery’s benefits, including improved maternal outcomes, reduced interventions, and enhanced patient-centered care. Despite this progress, barriers such as restrictive regulations, inconsistent legislative policies, and disparities in access persist.
Looking ahead, the future of midwifery integration depends on policy reform, interprofessional collaboration, and public awareness to strengthen midwives’ role in addressing the maternal health crisis. A strong professional association is critical in advancing the midwifery agenda and strengthening the profession.
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Speaker: Red Miller
Facilitator: Linda Deys
As a home birth midwife with nearly 2 decades of experience working the continuity of care model, I have found the word that most relates to my practice style is Biodynamic Midwifery. In my practice, I also have a strong focus on addressing fears to create space for ultimate outcomes.
Fear exploration is such an essential process for the birthing women and also the birthing partner, the older sibling, the grandparents, the doulas, whoever will be present and surrounding the mother at the time of birth.
This presentation will explore:
- the word biodynamic and introduce the concept of biodynamic midwifery.
- An introduction to the concept of relational field dynamics and explore how to hold a field of integrity and trust.
- An exploration of the role we carry as midwives to help shift a family from fear to love, including practical, applicable tools for self-exploration as well as for use with the families. We will explore how this practice is the fastest way to return a mother to their intuition.
I want to leave the participants with a renewed sense of passion for this sacred work and give them new ways of BEING within it!
Speakers: Erin Gilmer and Zahra Mirzaei
Facilitator: Isabella Garti
Background: In December 2024, the Taliban banned women from attending midwifery and nursing institutes in Afghanistan, cutting off the last remaining avenue for women’s higher education. This policy threatens maternal and newborn health in a country where the maternal mortality ratio at 620 deaths per 100,000 live births, one of the highest in the world. Afghan midwives are essential frontline providers, particularly in rural areas; therefore, sustaining midwifery education is vital to ensuring continued healthcare access for Afghan women and families.
Purpose: In response to this crisis, Kabul Online Medical University in Exile (KOMU-E) has launched an innovative online midwifery education program. This initiative aims to preserve academic continuity for Afghan midwifery students, sustain their engagement with the midwifery profession, and provide a critical lifeline for education and wellbeing.
Focus of Presentation: This presentation explores the implementation of KOMU-Es online midwifery education initiative. Grounded in the Afghan midwifery curriculum and aligned with ICM Essential Competencies, the program is delivered by experienced Afghan midwives in the diaspora. Currently, the program focuses on theory-based coursework while KOMU-E explores strategies for safe and effective hands-on learning and clinical experience. Importantly, the program integrates psychosocial support to address the mental health impact of educational exclusion.
The session will highlight the challenges, strategies, and impact of delivering midwifery education in a highly restrictive environment. We also hope to connect with audience members with experience in blended learning models for midwifery education.
Speaker: Yvonne Meyer
Facilitator: Celine Lemay
Sages-femmes dans certaines publications. C’est le cas pour l’inscription de notre activité professionnelle au patrimoine immatériel UNESCO où, dans l’annonce en français, le mot sage-femme est absent du titre. Comment sont présentées les sages-femmes ailleurs ? Neuf documents ont été repérés qui ont pour titre l’art, les soins, la pratique, les sciences ou la profession de sage-femme. Les résumés de ces documents seront présentés, ainsi que l’analyse réalisée, basée sur les critères de soins centrés sur le patient (Rycroft-Maloine, 2004). Les résultats montrent que toutes ces formulations sont polysémiques et qu’elles n’ont pas exactement la même portée. Par contre, toutes présentent haut et fort les sages-femmes et ce qui les caractérise. Si UNESCO avait titré « Les soins de sage-femme : connaissances, savoir-faire et pratiques », les sages-femmes seraient visibles partout dans le monde francophone.
The theme of the intervention is motivated by a regrettable problem of visibility of midwives in certain publications. This is the case for the inclusion of our professional activity in UNESCO’s intangible heritage list, where, in the French announcement, the word sage-femme is absent from the title. How are midwives presented elsewhere? Nine documents have been identified that deal with the art, care, practice, science or profession of midwifery. Summaries of these documents will be presented, along with the analysis carried out, based on the criteria of patient-centred care (Rycroft-Maloine, 2004). The results show that all these formulations are polysemous and do not have exactly the same scope. However, they all make a strong case for midwives and what characterises them. If UNESCO had published the title « Les soins de sage-femme: connaissances, savoir-faire et pratiques » (‘Midwifery: knowledge, skills and practices’), midwives would be visible throughout the French-speaking world.
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