Standardizing Care for Healthy Beginnings: A Healthcare Professional's Guide to Conversations with Expectant Parents on Counting Kicks and Fetal Monitoring to Save Babies

Megan Aucutt, Program Director, Healthy Birth Day, Inc.

Over 21,000 babies are stillborn yearly in the United States – 60 babies a day – yet stillbirth has remained in the dark. It is time to shine a light on this tragedy and share evidence-based prevention methods preventing stillbirths. Research has shown that tracking fetal movement during the third trimester can help prevent stillbirths. We must ensure providers know the research and evidence-based practices of how expectant parents can track fetal movement.

There is also a strong connection between stillbirth and maternal mortality – we can help bridge the gap between patient and maternal care provider and save thousands of lives. The disparities that exist and persist around stillbirth are unacceptable. Black parents, Indigenous parents, and Pacific Islanders are at a greater risk of suffering a stillbirth – they are two times more likely to experience a stillbirth compared to white women – we will build an equity and inclusion module with this training for providers. Another critical component is the latest research and evidence on preventing preventable stillbirths – we now have that. We will provide recent data and research on the evidence of our program. This training will help create a standard of care around fetal movement monitoring. 

The campaign started in Iowa, where the stillbirth rate has dropped nearly 32% in 10 years! If this success is replicated in all 50 states, over 7,500 babies will be saved annually!

1. Implement Count the Kicks into their practice to improve birth outcomes. 
2. Utilize the free kick-counting tools and resources available to them.
3. Retell the powerful stories of what happens when expectant parents, particularly at-risk populations, learn to track fetal movement and how they can use that knowledge to help save babies.
4. Recognize and reflect on their own implicit biases and how biases and racism have shaped maternal healthcare and demonstrate ways to counter implicit biases in their own lives.

Lunch

Breastfeeding: What Parents Need to Know    

• Valencia Moore, RN, IBCLC, Lactation Consultant Team Lead, John Peter Smith Hospital, Fort Worth, TX
• Veronica Beltran, RN, IBCLC, Lactation Consultant, John Peter Smith Hospital, Fort Worth, TX
• Lucinda Garcia, IBCLC, Lactation Consultant, John Peter Smith Hospital, Fort Worth, TX
• Gina Larobina-Lewis, IBCLC, Lactation Consultant, John Peter Smith Hospital, Fort Worth, TX
• Shaina Starks, MPH, CPH, Executive Director, Mother’s Milk Bank of North Texas, Benbrook, TX

This session will cover education in infant feeding recommendations, the composition of human milk, benefits and infant health outcomes of an exclusive human milk diet, identifying the relationship between prescribed medications and breastfeeding, and best practices for supplementation when a mother’s milk is not an option. Participants will be taught skills to promote breastfeeding within the first hour of life, hand expression, pumping, latch techniques, assessing breastfeeding problems, and counseling. 

1. Describe three benefits of breastfeeding for both the mother and the infant.
2. Counsel mothers about the benefits of breastfeeding.
3. Identify common breastfeeding problems. 
4. Explain and demonstrate hand expression.
5. Explain and demonstrate the proper use of a breast pump.
6. List three key roles that healthcare workers play in supporting breastfeeding.

Safe Infant Sleep    

• Isel Collazo, MSW, CPST, Prematurity Prevention Health Educator, Tarrant County Public Health, Fort Worth, TX
• Ashley Hatten, RN, Nurse Educator, North Texas Area Community Health Center, Fort Worth, TX

Safe infant sleep is a national and state public health priority. “In 2022, about 3,700 infants died from sleep-related death in the United States."  The topic of safe infant sleep is complex and nuanced, adding importance to consistent messaging that goes beyond campaign slogans. Providing information on risk reduction strategies alone will not improve outcomes. Conversations that include real solutions tailored to meet the needs of parents and everyone caring for infants offer a comprehensive approach to saving infant lives. This session will give providers resources to have these conversations with patients.

1. Describe evidence-based recommendations for parents and caregivers that reduce the risk of infant sleep-related deaths.
2. Demonstrate culturally supportive conversations to support caregiver knowledge intake of safe infant sleep practices.
3. Model the Let’s Talk-Safe Infant Sleep toolkit resources that may be used in community trainings.
4. Develop a Let’s Talk Circle of Support diagram of stakeholders within your organization.