Creating a Nest of Care Cohort: Monthly Consults on Perinatal Loss for Birthworkers

This training centers, and is free for, BIPOC birth workers in King County, WA. If you are neither, please complete the survey for more information about sliding scale options.

The Creating a Nest of Care: Perinatal Loss for Birthworkers Monthly Consults (NOC) follows and accompanies the 3-Day Foundational training on Perinatal and Infant Loss (register separately here.)

This series encapsulates what happens when loss of life is intertwined with the womb and birthing.  Join 30 local birth workers in a nine-month commitment to growing the web of care necessary to support someone through this loss.  Each month, we will delve deeper into specific topics around supporting families through perinatal loss and bereavement- from disposition choices, to shrouding, to donor milk options and more.   

Creating a Nest Cohort is a 9-month project provided for free in partnership with Imani’s Light and Perinatal Support WA for BIPOC birthworkers serving families in King County. Please note this training is free for BIPOC King County birth workers. If you are neither, please complete the survey for more information about sliding scale options.

“Birthworkers” are defined as those who are helpers/providers/carers working with people during the childbearing period. They include, but not limited to: doulas, peers, WIC counselors, case managers, nurses, home visitors, perinatal mental health providers, etc

Dates and times:

Weekly on the Third Wednesday of the month from May to December.

Doors open at 10:00am with brunch provided. Content will begin promptly at 10:30am

(Foundational training: April 22-24th: register separately here)  

Dates and times:

Wednesday, 5/20; 10-1:30pm 

Wednesday, 6/17; 10-1:30pm

Wednesday, 7/15; 10-1:30pm

Wednesday, 8/19; 10-1:30pm

Wednesday, 9/16; 10-1:30pm

Wednesday, 10/21; 10-1:30pm

Wednesday, 11/18; 10-1:30pm 

Wednesday, 12/16; 10-1:30pm

Location: In-Person; due to the nature of the content and curriculum, the sessions necessitate in-person attendance. The experiential learning and community building fostered in this space are not replicable in a virtual format (for months 1, 6, and 7 hybrid options will be a permissible accommodation for health reasons only, not convenience) 

Casey Family Programs 1123 23rd Avenue Seattle, WA 98122

Please see the list below and register for as many sessions as you will attend. Space is limited and meals will be provided, so please register accurately for your availability.

Consultation Group structure:

Month 1: 5/20 Getting the News, PMADs, and Medical Advocacy* 

• How to deliver and receive life-changing news with sensitivity and support.  
• Empowering families to understand and navigate medical information and decisions early in diagnosis or complications.
  • Continuing support and advocacy for families post-loss, including follow-up care and memorial planning
  • Grief Therapy options

Month 2: 6/17 Ambiguous/Disenfranchised Grief Support*
*hybrid accommodation available

• Strategies for supporting families through the intersections of ambiguous/disenfranchised grief support (families with experience with incarceration/ICE, child removal, loss due to overdose, unhoused)  Hybrid accommodation available.

Month 3: 7/15 Perinatal and Infant Disposition Choices /Shrouding and Care After Death* Empowering families to honor their children with a disposition choice that honors a family’s beliefs/wishes.

• Techniques for shrouding and caring for the deceased with dignity, including cultural practices and hands-on training.

Month 4: 8/19 Community Wellness

• Art and community building 

Month 5: 9/16 Bereavement Photography*  
– Bonus Session: Field Trip to Return Home Funeral Home (Date TBD)

• Best practices for bereavement photography, training on creating meaningful memories through photographs, handprints, locks of hair, and other keepsakes.
• Private tour for our cohort of the Return Home Funeral Home about green disposition options, address & details in email to participants

Month 6: 10/21 Pregnancy after Loss & Stories of Loss: Cultural Care Practices*
*Hybrid accommodation available
– Bonus Session: Infant & Perinatal Loss Awareness Walk (Date TBD)

• Parents Panel
• Volunteer opportunity at the Infant & Perinatal Loss Awareness Walk

Month 7: 11/18 Breast/Chest Feeding After Loss*
*Hybrid accommodation available

• Guidance on navigating the physical and emotional aspects of working with lactation after perinatal loss 

Month 8: 12/16 Building a Community Network & Graduation

• Closing of the series with reflection and pulling together strategies for building and sustaining a supportive network for ongoing community and professional support.

Please note this training is free for BIPOC King County birth workers. If you are neither, please complete the survey for more information about sliding scale options.

If you already registered/attended the foundational 3 day: please REGISTER HERE.

If you have not registered (but will attend the initial 3 day) please also REGISTER HERE.

Facilitators: 

We will be joined by various community members and guest presenters during the 9-month sessions, but all training will be guided by our main facilitators.

*Continuing Education Units:

• 18 CEUs approved for LICSW, LMHC, LMFT for sessions denoted with an asterisk (*)
• This Program has been approved for 18 CEUs for Licensed Social Workers, Mental Health Counselors and Marriage and Family Therapists by the Washington State Society for Clinical Social Work.
• 18 Contact Hours approved for RNs: Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number 17084 for 18 contact hours for sessions denoted with an asterisk (*)

About the Facilitators: 

Marquita Straus, MSW, LICSW is a Perinatal Grief & Trauma Therapist, Death Doula, and founder of Imani’s Light Grief & Wellness Center. Marquita has over 15 years of serving BIPOC families. She has served as a full spectrum doula (birth, postpartum, and bereavement), breastfeeding peer counselor, childbirth educator, perinatal bereavement group facilitator, and is a trained midwife. She aims to inspire and empower people to show up authentically, while fiercely advocating for those navigating spaces that are not traditionally occupied by people of color.

 

 

La Tonia Bussell-Packard (they/she), Parent Resilience Specialist, Traditional Midwife is a queer Black femme who supports pregnant and parenting families as a Parent Resilience Specialist in King County. They serve as an encouraging resource and witness for parents navigating the perinatal mental health landscape by using their firsthand experience as a parent who has lived with anxiety and depression. La Tonia knows firsthand the barriers that exist for Black and queer folx seeking support for their mental health. La Tonia has experienced personal and professional loss, which allows them to offer supportive tools and skills that are based on lived experience and shared community ways of ‘knowing’ and processing grief and loss. 

La Tonia has spent the last 7+ years advocating for families, attending births, and providing compassionate care as a birth doula and student midwife. They graduated from midwifery school in June 2021 and now practice and attend births as a traditional midwife. In all their work, La Tonia centers Black, Indigenous, and QTPOC families in their role as a midwife, doula, and peer. They use the framework and lens of reproductive justice, the intersections of race, class, gender/sexuality, and ability, and radical rest politics when supporting families in their community.