Covid-19 has been a game-changer. While health disparities faced by women and children worldwide have reached a new level of urgency, women’s leadership has shone. Maternal and Infant Health Canada's panel discussion, co-organised with the Global Health Centre, sheds light on this global crisis through dynamic and thoughtful discussion among experts in global women’s health and social issues. Women in communities all over the world have illustrated the public health principle that women uplift communities so it is vital to support women’s education and human rights. Our speakers will address the strengths that women have brought to this time of crisis, offering visions of a more egalitarian post-pandemic world.
In 1991, the WHO and UNICEF launched the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) to promote quality breastfeeding care and to increase breastfeeding rates worldwide. The BFHI outlines 10 steps hospitals must follow to be awarded the title of Baby Friendly and is the gold standard for breastfeeding care in hospitals. This webinar will explore the effect of baby-friendly hospital steps and other maternity care practices on breastfeeding outcomes using the findings of several large longitudinal cohort studies among pregnant Chinese women. Greater adherence to the baby-friendly steps, even in the absence of BFHI designation, improves exclusive breastfeeding rates and overall breastfeeding duration.
Dr. Brenda Leung (ND, PhD) presents on Whole Systems research, Patient-Oriented research, as well as the use of acupuncture in the treatment of adolescent anxiety.
Speaker: Dr. Emilie Salomons (Dr. TCM, R.Ac, FABORM, OBAAM, Doula). Dr. Emilie Salomons introduces the role that Traditional Medicine and it's practitioners can play in improving maternal and infant health, especially in the global south.
Speaker: Dr. Henrietta Ezegbe (MD, MPH with a Global Health concentration)
Dr. Dorothy Shaw discusses why advancements are needed for improving maternal and infant health and the necessity of continued focus on the reduction of preventable maternal and infant mortality.
The work of Dr. Mistry and her colleagues is leading to innovations at the intersections of scientific and traditional medicine. Under Dr. Mistry's guidance, doctors at the Foundation for Medical Research are reaching new understandings of how some traditional medical treatments work for the human body, and are providing support for the continuation of effective traditional medicine among the people who use them.
The experience of pain during childbirth can be amplified by emotional, physical and psychological factors. There is a growing interest in utilizing non-invasive, non-pharmacological methods of pain management, including the use of acupressure. Pain management in labour through non-pharmacological means offers many benefits to both the patient and the medical facility. Acupressure offers a tool that is simple enough to be taught to partners, doulas and birth support workers via an afternoon workshop, or one on one in conjunction with prenatal visits. Preliminary reviews show that acupressure can be a helpful tool in the management and experience of pain in labour, that it is cost effective, that it does not require equipment and most importantly, that it is safe.
This course will review the current body of evidence for acupressure in labour as well as review the techniques and functions of each point and how to properly administer acupressure as cervical ripening and birth preparation, as well as in labour.
