Participants who register for this course have the option to attend the course live and/or watch the recorded sessions later. The recording will be available to all registrants for a 2-week period after the course/each session. This allows participants who may not be able to attend the live sessions to still benefit from the course content. To facilitate attendance tracking, please indicate on your registration form if you won't be attending live.
Course Description:
This course is intended for healthcare and wellness professionals that work with pregnant individuals and are looking to help improve their clients labour and birth experience. This course will guide participants to empower their clients to have a positive birth experience using a blend of current evidence and standard birth care practices, using compassionate and trauma-informed care.
Course Objectives:
- To review current standards of care and practice for birth.
- To review different birth interventions.
- To learn and understand the anatomy and physiology of birth including the nervous system, pelvic anatomy, hormones, fetal positioning, and cardinal movements.
- To learn practical steps to provide care that is trauma-informed for people in the perinatal phase.
- To understand the complex nature of pain in birth.
- To briefly explain the role of the different birth care providers and birth workers.
- To learn and understand the stages of labour, pushing, and birth.
- To learn and practice comfort measures for birth.
- To learn the evidence around positions for and types of pushing.
- To provide some practical ways to implement this knowledge into a clinical practice.
- To provide a variety of ways to help your clients/patients to advocate for themselves during pregnancy and birth.
- To provide a framework to help your clients partners to become active participants in the birth process.
- Discussions around current birth trends and myths about birth.
This course includes access to a pre-recorded workshop on how to structure a Birth Partner Labour Preparation Appointment.
Audience: This course is open to all healthcare and wellness professionals.
Prerequisites: None
Registration Form
Labour and Birth Preparation for Clinical Practice April 2025
Schedule
Date/Time: April 2, 9, 16 & 23, 2025, from 5:30pm - 9:00pm ET (Toronto). Please convert to your local time zone.
Delivery Format
Live attendance is not mandatory for this online course. Enjoy a 2-week window to access and review the course recording, which is sent out on the next business day. Please note - if you do not attend live, there will be approximately 10 minutes of images shown which will not be recorded for privacy reasons. We understand that life can be busy, which is why we offer you the freedom to access the course recording(s) during the time-limited viewing period.
Instructors
Anita Lambert
Anita Lambert is a pelvic health and orthopaedic physiotherapist with a focus on perinatal care. She’s the owner of Holistic Health Physiotherapy, the creator of the Bump to Birth Method, cohost of the To Birth & Beyond podcast, mentor and coach to pelvic health physiotherapists around the world and mom of 2 energetic little ones.
Growing up as a ballet dancer and athlete, Anita was always fascinated with how the body moved and healed. Her love for dance and sport led her to become the team therapist for the McMaster University women’s rugby and basketball teams, and later, President of Healthy Dancer Canada and an on site physiotherapist for Canada’s Ballet Jörgen.
Five years into her physiotherapy career, her clinical practice niched down to focus on pregnancy, pelvic health, birth prep and postpartum recovery while still working with dancers and athletes of all levels during these stages of life.
Anita is passionate about helping pregnant clients connect more with their body including pelvic floor plus help them stay active during pregnancy while providing evidence based birth education and strategies as they prepare for an informed and empowered birth.
She is equally passionate about empowering her postpartum clients to navigate their recovery and return to activities they love including all forms of exercise, sports and dance without pain and pelvic floor symptoms whether they are 10 days or 10 years post birth.
Having worked as a physiotherapist for nearly 15 years, she enjoys coaching and mentoring pelvic health physiotherapists who are diving into the area of perinatal care to help them increase their skill set and confidence in this area as well as to build a thriving clinical practice.
Outside of work, you can find Anita strength training, practicing yoga or Pilates or enjoying the outdoors and spending quality time with her husband, daughter and son.
Robyn Synnott
Robyn Synnott believes in taking an evidence-based, holistic approach to the care she provides. Integrating lifestyle medicine, mindfulness, yoga, physiotherapy and osteopathic techniques, and pelvic health knowledge, she considers the impacts that our body, mind, and spirit have on the way we feel, move, and interact. She aspires to help people learn to trust and connect with their body, to empower them to take charge of their health, and to focus their treatment on what is most important to them. She believes strongly that humans are powerful and resilient. She strives to approach all her interactions with a trauma-sensitive perspective. She also has a passion for helping womxn to feel confident in themselves and their innate abilities in pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and parenting.
Robyn has worked as a physiotherapist in the Halton region (Burlington, Oakville, and Milton) for the past 10 years. She began working as an orthopedic physiotherapist with a strong focus on osteopathic techniques and pain science. In 2014, she began to narrow her focus to women’s health. Since then, she has focused her training in healthy menstrual cycles, fertility, pregnancy, labour and birth, postpartum, pain science, and breastfeeding support. Her training also includes methods to help infants with the mechanics of breastfeeding. Most recently, Robyn has extended her training and research into the area of stress and the effects of trauma. She likes to connect with curiosity and compassion, and to meet each person where they are at, focusing on what matters to them. She operates a small practice, Ebb + Flow Wellness, within the OnePlan business collective.
She enjoys spending time with her husband, dog, and son, as well as yoga, mindfulness, and hiking in her spare time. She loves to garden and cook. When she gets the chance, she loves to travel and explore new places.