Breastfeeding Basics – 11:00 a.m.
with Nursing Mothers Counsel
What happens in your first few days with your baby can be crucial to your breastfeeding success. Breastfeeding peer counselors from Nursing Mothers Counsel will present information every mom needs to get breastfeeding off to the right start. Learn what you can do before, during, and after your birth to help establish breastfeeding. Hear how skin-to-skin contact, laid-back nursing positions, and biological nurturing can help with both mother-baby bonding and the establishment of a healthy milk supply. Know what to expect in the first few days of breastfeeding and how valuable colostrum, your first milk, is for your baby’s health.
Since 1955, the mission of Nursing Mothers Counsel (NMC) has been to support the personal breastfeeding goals of mothers with free, one-on-one assistance and education by highly trained volunteer counselors who have also breastfed. NMC also supports Bay Area families through free breastfeeding classes and low-cost breast pump sales and rentals. For more information please visit www.nursingmothers.org. Register now
Birth Options and Alternatives – 12 p.m.
with Nancy Myrick
Midwives, Doulas, and Doctors – Oh My! We have so many options in childbirth. Midwives or doctors? Home, hospital, or birth center? Epidural, doula, or both? How do you choose what is right for you? The choices you make on these issues will likely have an enormous impact on how your labor and birth proceed. We will look at what research says about these choices and what mothers have said about their decisions. Come review the benefits and costs of various options, and delve into what influence your choices may have on your birth, your baby, and your postpartum.
Nancy Myrick is a midwife and has been the director of San Francisco Birth Center since 2015. She has practiced home birth midwifery since 2003 with Rites of Passage Midwifery. She began attending births as a doula in 1993, received her RN in 2000 and completed her training in midwifery in 2003 through the UCSF Nurse Midwifery Education Program. She has attended hundreds of births in homes, birth centers and hospitals and believes that choice in childbirth helps parents begin the long path toward building great humans! Register now
Perinatal Mental Health – 1:00 p.m.
with Jillian Cauley CNM
Having a baby is much more than a physical experience. Feelings may range from joy, fascination, and excitement to exhaustion. It is the beginning of a parenting role that will continue for a lifetime. Make sure you take care of yourself so that you are in good shape to take care of your new little one. Understand your risks for perinatal and postpartum depression, what to look for, and how you and your support group can navigate this diagnosis. Tools and resources, signs and symptoms and treatment options will be discussed.
Jillian Cauley is a Certified Nurse Midwife with SPMF OB/GYN group. She is the Northern California representative to the California Nurse Midwife Association, a founding member of the Anti-racism and reproductive justice committee and helped re-write the Association’s 2019 bylaws for more gender inclusivity. She specializes in LGBTQ reproductive care, family planning, trauma informed pelvic care, and support of the birth process for all families. Register now
Bundles of Sleep: How to Gift Your Newborn the Love of Sleep for Expecting Parents and Babies 0-8 weeks – 2:30 p.m.
with Sarah Mitchell
Sleep is essential to everyone, yet often with the arrival of a new baby, it becomes the first thing to disappear! In this workshop you’ll learn:
- How to create a flexible schedule to your day, knowing when your baby needs to eat and sleep
- An understanding of how much sleep your newborn needs and when.
- Long age appropriate stretches of night-time sleep with the goal of 6- 8 hours
- Skills to prevent the fussies and tactics on how to handle them if they occur
- The feeling that you are rocking this parenting thing
A chiropractor by training, Sarah found her passion for empowering parents to teach their little ones to sleep after her first baby just would not sleep. She’s on a mission to help parents be proactive in setting up healthy sleep habits for their newborns and avoid sleep disasters. Register now
Demonstrations
Baby Sign Language – 10:30 a.m.
with Bill White, Author of Happy Baby Signs
Stop guessing what your baby is trying to tell you and start spending more time fulfilling your child’s specific needs! Baby Sign Language gives babies the opportunity to communicate long before babies can verbalize their wants and needs. Signing with babies accelerates language development, reduces frustration, and deepens the bond between parent and child. Happy Baby Signs program is based on American Sign Language (ASL) and is designed for parents with babies who range in age from birth to 18 months. Fun activities and songs will show you how easy it can be to integrate baby signs into your daily routine and jump-start your child’s verbal skills. Babies are welcome but not required to attend. For more information please visit www.HappyBabySigns.com.
Bill White, is the founder of the Happy Baby Signs and co-author with Kathleen Harper of the internationally best selling book, Signs of a Happy Baby. He facilitates baby sign language programs at Kaiser Permanente, Dignity Health, Sutter Health, DayOne Baby, Harmony Birth and Family, Blossom Birth Services, Stanford Work-Life, Cisco Sytems, Children’s Creative Learning Centers, Genintech, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Healthy Horizons, and many other locations. Bill is passionate about the benefits of signing with babies and is the proud father of two hearing sons who both sign. Register now
Core Strength for Every Mother – 11:30 a.m.
with Leah Keller, founder of Every Mother
Core strength is essential in pregnancy, recovery and virtually every stage of motherhood. Leah Keller, creator of the EMbody Program® by Every Mother, will teach class participants how to perform Core Compressions; the revolutionary exercise featured on NPR as an effective solution to “mummy tummy”. In addition, Leah will incorporate Core Compressions into an express workout, and will remain available after the workout to answer questions and provide 1:1 checks for diastasis recti (abdominal separation). Exercise gear is not needed and the audience can participate or observe as they wish. .
Leah is a certified personal trainer and the founder of Every Mother® (formerly The Dia Method®), a exercise program endorsed by medical and birth professionals worldwide. With over two decades of fitness experience, Leah empowers and equips women to prepare for labor and restore core strength and function postnatally – no matter how long it’s been. Leah has been featured as a women’s health expert by major media outlets, including NPR, Goop and Good Morning America. Register now
Vendor Showcase and Raffle – 12:30pm
Meet some of our amazing vendors and momprenuers, check out demos featuring their products and win some great products!
Creating a Meaningful Birth Plan – 1:15 p.m.
with Hannah Epstein, CNM and Jacqueline Candido, CNM
No matter where or how you plan to have your baby, your birth plan can be an important tool for communicating your hopes and expectations to your obstetric providers. But labor and birth are so unpredictable, making a plan of any kind can be daunting, overwhelming and sometimes disappointing. In this talk we’ll look at examples of different approaches to creating a birth plan and offer the OB providers’ perspective on the common pitfalls in creating a birth plan as well as the keys to leaving your birth experience feeling like your birth plan was honored.
Jackie is a Certified Nurse Midwife at the Women’s Clinic at Mission Bernal Campus (formerly St. Luke’s Women’s Center) where she provides care to women across the lifespan including a collaborative approach to pregnancy care. Jackie joined the CPMC Mission Bernal Women’s Center team in January 2018 after relocating to SF from the East Coast. She has worked in the birth world for the past 10 years, as nurse and then midwife, and is thrilled to be part of a Midwifery-led team focusing on providing evidence-based care to women throughout the lifecycle. Register now
Meet the Gear! – 2:15 p.m.
with Jamie Mamikunian, founder of Stroller Spa
Are you expecting your first baby and feel daunted by all of the baby gear choices? Is baby number two on the way and you have questions about doubles? Finding that perfect pram (and car seat!) for your family should not be difficult! In this helpful workshop, we will demystify the baby gear shopping process and have fun! We will cover single and double single stroller selection by going over key questions and hands-on demos to help find the best stroller for your family’s needs. We will also incorporate car seat selection including types, safety, usability, ease of install, top brands, stroller compatibility and more! Have questions about specific brands/models of gear? Be sure to email jamie@strollerspa.com so that Jamie can bring the gear that your are inquiring about. The workshop will culminate with a special, not-to-be-missed, give away!
Vendor Showcase and Raffle – 3:00pm
Meet some of our amazing vendors and momprenuers, check out demos featuring their products and win some great products!
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