Birth is unpredictable and can cause both great joy and stressful disappointment. Our goal at Happy Birth Day is to make every birth a happy day and memory.
About Happy Birth Day
The inspiration behind Happy Birth Day was a combination of Elle's own traumatic birth experiences as well as her loved ones'. After having 4 children, she went back to school with one mission: helping moms. Although she was unsure of herself, Elle's commitment to her mission propelled her through her occupational therapy doctorate program at Touro University Nevada and put her on a collision course with her community partner Centennial Hills Hospital. Together they have made a difference in the lives of countless moms.
The program is built on the Information Processing Theory and the Psychospiritual Integration Frame of Reference. You can learn more about these theoretical approaches here. Based on these theoretical approaches, a three-tier strategy was constructed: 1.) Preventing PP-PTSD among newly delivered mothers, 2.) Educating healthcare providers on the role of occupational therapy in maternal health and on postpartum conditions, 3.) Creating and disseminating resources for both mothers and healthcare providers.
Women's health generally, and maternal health more specifically, are emerging practice areas within occupational therapy. Of course, if there wasn't a need for occupational therapists, their emerging role wouldn't exist. However, there are many holes within American maternity services--particularly when it comes to mental health, function, transition planning, and musculoskeletal issues. Unfortunately, the United States is the most dangerous industrialized nation to give birth in, further speaking to the need for additional and varied healthcare services.
While occupational therapists play an important role throughout the maternal period--whether it be in obstetrics offices, outpatient clinics, community settings, or in the hospital--it is clear that visibility, current occupational therapy practitioner staffing, and resources make the hospital an ideal place to grow this emerging practice area. Additionally, since a 2016 article indicated that occupational therapy was the only profession that higher healthcare spending resulted in cost savings and lower readmission rates among patients who had a heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia.
Occupational therapists provide quality healthcare services with a uniquely holistic lens. By seeing the bigger picture, we are able to impact the fit between the person, environment, and occupation (meaningful activities) throughout the lifespan. This is exactly the big picture professionals that maternity services are currently lacking.
When looking back at my own pregnancies, births, and postpartum periods; I can see a myriad of occupational approaches that could have benefited me in profound ways, and my own grief propels me forward--energized to leave the maternal healthcare system better than I found it.
Happy Birth Day Approach
Mission
Through positivity, prevention, and promotion, protect mothers from experiencing intrusive traumatic birthing memories. Foster joyful vibes during the postpartum period and beyond by boosting moms’ mental health. Give them the experience they wished for through snapshots of sunshine that last.
Vision
Mothers without intrusive traumatic memories. Empowerment through joyful occupation.
Strategic Plan
1.) Advance the understanding of antepartum and postpartum women’s psychological risk factors, preventative treatments, and outcomes among maternity healthcare workers and mothers alike.
2.) Strengthen maternal care providers' and mothers' access to education and resources regarding difficulties during pregnancy and the maternal period as well as preventative approaches to adverse mental health outcomes.
3.) Enact a sustainable and effective approach to postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder prevention to be utilized within the first 6 hours following birth.
Strategic Plan
Goal 1
Advance the understanding of antepartum and postpartum women’s psychological risk factors, preventative treatments, and outcomes among maternity healthcare workers and mothers alike.
Goal 1: Objective 1
Objective 1: Culture and mental health in the maternal period
Objective 1.1 (cognitive): By the end of the first session, participants will be able to outline 5 contextual and environmental factors that leave women susceptible to developing postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder (PP-PTSD).
Objective 1.2 (affective): By the end of the first session, participants will be able to distinguish between personal and cultural factors that complicate the maternal period.
Objective 1.3 (psychomotor): By the end of the first session, participants will be able to deconstruct their own cultural factors that would threaten their mental health during the maternal period.
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Goal 1: Objective 2
Objective 2: Occupational therapists' role in maternity care
Objective 1.1 (cognitive): By the end of the first session, participants will be able to outline 5 contextual and environmental factors that leave women susceptible to developing postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder (PP-PTSD).
Objective 1.2 (affective): By the end of the first session, participants will be able to distinguish between personal and cultural factors that complicate the maternal period.
Objective 1.3 (psychomotor): By the end of the first session, participants will be able to deconstruct their own cultural factors that would threaten their mental health during the maternal period.
Goal 1: Objective 3
Objective 3: Risk factors for developing PP-PTSD and universal screening
Objective 3.1 (cognitive): By the end of the third session, participants will be able to identify 5 risk factors that make women susceptible to developing postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder.
Objective 3.2 (affective): By the end of the third session, participants will be able to explain why perceived traumatic birth experience (TBE) is vital to universally screen for.
Objective 3.3 (psychomotor): By the end of the third session, participants will be able to hypothesize which women will be most likely to develop intrusive traumatic memories based on their risk-factors.
Goal 1: Objective 4
Objective 4: Transition planning during the prenatal and postnatal periods
Objective 4.1 (cognitive): By the end of the fourth session, participants will be able to classify maternal difficulties by the prenatal, antenatal, and postnatal periods.
Objective 4.2 (affective): By the end of the fourth session, participants will be able to survey a mother’s plan for biopsychosocial changes associated with pregnancy and the first year after birth.
Objective 4.3 (psychomotor): By the end of the fourth session, participants will be able to compile a list of common transitioning concerns and potential solutions.
Goal 1: Objective 5
Objective 5. The Sacred Hour Intervention
Objective 5.1 (cognitive): By the end of the fifth session, participants will be able to observe and identify each of the nine instinctive phases of infant development within the first hour after birth.
Objective 5.2 (affective): By the end of the fifth session, participants will be able to illustrate to expecting and newly delivered mothers the importance of skin-to-skin contact (SSC) for at least the entire first hour following birth.
Objective 5.3 (psychomotor): By the end of the fifth session, participants will be able to adapt methods for SSC to mothers of various ability levels.
Goal 1: Objective 6
Objective 6: Neuroscientific approach to PP-PTSD prevention
Objective 6.1 (cognitive): By the end of the sixth session, participants will be able to compare the neuroscientific understanding of PP-PTSD development compared to the traditional physiological understanding.
Objective 6.2 (affective): By the end of the sixth session, participants will be able to put in order the steps of the Information Processing Theory.
Objective 6.3 (psychomotor): By the end of the sixth session, participants will be able to use a persuasive argument in recommending a visuospatial cognitive intervention within six hours of a mother giving birth .
Goal 2
Strengthen maternal care providers' and mothers' access to education and resources regarding difficulties during pregnancy and the maternal period as well as preventative approaches to adverse mental health outcomes.
Goal 2: Objective 1
Objective 1: Reflection and discussion of healthcare workers’ experiences
Objective 1.1 (cognitive): By the end of the video conference and training, participants will be able to connect ideas from the podcasts to their role as healthcare providers.
Objective 1.2 (affective): By the end of the video conference and training, participants will be able to simplify the main ideas presented in the podcasts into a short discussion.
Objective 1.3 (psychomotor): By the end of the video conference and training, participants will be able to originate plans to effect profession-level change in regards to PP-PTSD prevention.
Goal 3
Enact a sustainable and effective approach to postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder prevention to be utilized within the first 6 hours following birth.
Goal 3: Objective 1
Objective 1: Universal assessment of traumatic birth experiences
Objective 1.1 (cognitive): By the end of the period of intentional universal traumatic birth assessment, maternity care nurses will be able to compare their preconceived notions of who experienced traumatic birth compared to those who actually did.
Objective 1.2 (affective): By the end of the period of intentional universal traumatic birth assessment, maternity care nurses will be able to organize their schedule to accommodate universal screenings in the future.
Objective 1.3 (psychomotor): By the end of the period of intentional universal traumatic birth assessment, maternity care nurses will be able to justify to hospital administrators the need for ongoing universal screening.
Goal 3: Objective 2
Objective 2: Implementation of a predetermined visuospatial cognitive activity
Objective 2.1 (cognitive): By the end of the trial period of visuospatial cognitive interventions, maternity care nurses will be able to illustrate the qualitative aspects of the experience.
Objective 2.2 (affective): By the end of the trial period of visuospatial cognitive interventions, maternity care nurses will be able to speculate on the potential efficacy of diverse visuospatial cognitive activities.
Objective 2.3 (psychomotor): By the end of the trial period of visuospatial cognitive interventions, maternity care nurses will be able to invent new protocols for delivering the intervention.
Goal 3: Objective 3
Objective 3: Collection of baseline data, contact information, outcomes, and sharing of resources
Objective 3.1 (cognitive): By the end of the trial period of data collection and sharing of resources, the program developer will be able to report the trends observed throughout the process.
Objective 3.2 (affective): By the end of the trial period of data collection and sharing of resources, the program developer will be able to defend the methods used and identify limitations.
Objective 3.3 (psychomotor): By the end of the trial period of data collection and sharing of resources, the program developer will be able to suggest to future developers’ and researchers’ new directions for discipline growth.