Have You Submitted Your Abstract for the 2016 Lamaze International Conference Yet?

Have you blocked out the dates of October 20-23rd and starting shopping for air fares?  Are you making sure your calendar is clear of work and personal obligations  so you can join hundreds of other Lamaze Childbirth Educators and birth professionals in West Palm Beach, FL at the brand new Palm Beach County Convention Center and connected to the Hilton hotel?

© Jeanette McCulloch

Planning is well under way and the conference committee is hard at work reaching out to the general session and keynote speakers who will share innovative and relative topics that we all want to hear about.  The theme of the 2016 conference is “Lamaze Is” and Lamaze would like to invite you to submit an abstract to be considered for a concurrent (90 minutes), early morning (60 minutes) or a poster presentation.  The theme “Lamaze Is” honors all the many professions and practices that intersect with childbearing families to promote safe, healthy birth. Abstracts are submitted through the user friendly online submission portal and the deadline for submission is February 17th, 2016. Notifications will go out on March 18th to those who submit.  You can find all the details including instructions and guidelines here.

Conference Objectives

• Describe evidence-based practices from a variety of disciplines that can be integrated into childbirth education to promote normal, satisfying and healthy birth.
• Apply current adult education theory and facilitation skills into childbirth education in order to engage learners, increase learner satisfaction, and promote shared decision-making between childbearing women and their health care providers.
• Create strategies to reach the dynamic and diverse population of childbearing women and their families.
• Develop and grow a successful birth-related business.

Jeanette McCulloch & Sharon Muza present in 2015

There are three presentation categories that you may choose to submit under:

1. Evidence-Based Practice – For this track, Lamaze seek presenters who will share new research, practice guidelines and/or collaborative efforts published in the last seven years that are relevant to educators and the individuals and families they work with.
2. Innovative Teaching – For this track, Lamaze seek presenters who will inform participants about current successful education principles and creative teaching strategies and formats. Potential topics include methods to address generational gaps between educator and audience, as well as niche classes to meet the needs of diverse family, cultural, socioeconomic, age, and gender populations.
3. Strategic Outreach and Business Development – For this track, Lamaze seek presenters who will discuss techniques for developing a business and/or building collaborative partnerships with others that seek to reach the needs of childbearing women and their families, including regulatory agencies, hospital staff, health departments and other birth professionals.

There is an honorarium of $300 per accepted session, and presenters also receive $175 discount on the full conference registration.

Are you curious how the selection process works?  Each abstract is initially reviewed and ranked by an Abstract Review Taskforce and session selection is conducted by the Conference Planning Committee. The committee ranks abstracts based on:

• Completeness: Inclusion of all required information presented in a clear manner
• Quality of presentation: Abstract is grounded in current evidenced based information.
• Innovation: Presentation introduces a new or unique insight to the childbirth profession
• Relevance: Abstract meets the conference purpose and theme.

Presenting at Lamaze 2015 was eye opening. © Katie Rohs

I have been honored to present at previous conferences, and I have to tell you it is a lot of fun.  The attendees are very participatory and engaged and the support from the conference staff is outstanding.  Even if you are new to speaking in this format, please consider submitting an abstract to speak.  The diversity and variety of speakers is what makes this conference simply fantastic.  We need you and want to hear what you have to say!  If you need a little push or want to bat an idea around before submitting, I am happy to be your cheerleader!  Reach out to me!  I will help you or send you to someone who can. Questions about submitting in general, compensation, the conference or the submission tool should be directed to speakers@lamaze.org or by calling  202-367-1128.