Midwifery Today Conference
“Birth Is a Human Rights Issue”

Strasbourg, France
29 September – 3 October 2010

• View the full conference program • Register to attend • View/download press releases • View/download conference program PDF • View/download advertising flyer PDF • View the conference program PDF en français

JOIN US! Walk ins are welcome. There is still plenty of space to register for this important event. Preregistration deadline is 13 September in office (see details).

SPEAKERS      CLASSES      LOCATION      ACCOMMODATIONS      TRAVEL      TESTIMONIALS      MORE INFORMATION

©Harriette Hartigan—harriettehartigan.com Thanks to Harriette for the use of her photos in the Strasbourg conference promotion. Bring Harriette’s photos into your life with Brought to Earth by Birth. “It is my aspiration that health finally will be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for.” ~ United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan We want to invite you to join us in the beautiful city of Strasbourg, France, for what is sure to be an amazing conference. The right to have the most joyous and healthy pregnancy, birth and postpartum time possible should be a human right for both mother and baby. This conference is going to be an exceedingly powerful event. We will bring Birth Rights into the human rights arena. Women and babies are suffering abuses at the hands of medical professionals. Many of these abuses are similar to the travesties done to women in Africa and the Middle East. It is also similar to domestic violence. Women’s voices are being squashed. Though these issues can be daunting, Midwifery Today conferences are about hope and solutions as well as carrying out visions and dreams. Though we will highlight the issues we will give optimism and the possibility of a bright future. When we all join our creative birth minds the synergy will produce solutions and a path on which to place them. We can then go back into our sphere of influence and make change. Moreover, we will ask that you enlarge your sphere of influence and change the world for motherbaby. We need to work at all levels from the personal one-on-one to changing governments and organizations. In addition to this issue we will, as always, have a rich offering of practical midwifery and birth classes designed to make you a better birth practitioner so you can continue to change the world, one birth at a time. love, jan P.S.—Please read the testimonial below, as it represents so well my reasons for putting on conferences!

Confirmed speakers include:

Ina May Gaskin Naolí Vinaver Carol Gautschi Harriette Hartigan Robbie Davis-Floyd Elizabeth Davis Debra Pascali-Bonaro Gail Hart		Eneyda Spradlin-Ramos Michel Odent Verena Schmid Tine Greve Cornelia Enning Agnès Keller Jan Tritten Martine De Nardi
Please click linked names for biographies.

Classes will include the following topics.

Please see program for full listing of classes. Please note that all general sessions and most classes will be translated (English and French) and are noted (Bilingual) in the online program. Updates to the printed version and original PDF of the program can be found on our updates page.

Birth Is a Human Rights Issue Mothers’ Birth Rights Babies’ Birth Rights Models that Work Maternal Mortality Is a Pressing Human Rights Concern Changing Birth Practices Solutions Roundtables Prolonged Pregnancy		Prolonged Labor New Revelations in Waterbirth Cultural and Clinical Roundtables Mexican Rebozo Techniques for Improving Birth Outcomes Preventing and Managing Birth Complications at Home Managing Hemorrhage Posterior Position The Cesarean Epidemic
PLEASE NOTE: The International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative (IMBCI) Meeting is happening Tuesday, 28 September 2010, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm, the day before the Strasbourg conference, in the same location. Please view complete agenda.

Location

Conference Hotel: Ciarus 7 rue Finkmatt F-67000 Strasbourg, France Learn more about the city of Strasbourg here: http://www.strasbourg.eu/en/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strasbourg

Accommodations

Ciarus
7 rue Finkmatt
F-67000 Strasbourg, France
Phone: +33.(0)3.88.15.27.88

Update on room availability at Ciarus: All rooms at the conference hotel are fully booked for the duration of the conference.

If you do not already have accommodations, you may find it nearly impossible to find a place to stay in Strasbourg. All available rooms appear to have been booked. Some registrants are finding space in nearby towns accessible by train or bus.

These Web sites have been suggested as possible resources:

• From the Office of Tourism: www.otstrasbourg.fr—click on "Your stay" then on "Accommodation." Also try around Strasbourg, like Tourist Office Obernai, Phone: 00 33 3 88 95 64 13 (30 km in the south) or Tourist Office Haguenau, Phone: 00 33 3 88 93 70 00 (30 km in the north).
• As of 9/9/10, we heard there was availability at this hotel: www.starstay.com/en/hotel-59446/europehaguenau.html
• Google Maps
• Hostels.com
• Lonely Planet

Midwifery Today does not make hotel reservations or find lodging for registrants. If we get updated information, we will post to this page and to Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119210834769440#!/group.php?gid=119210834769440&v=wall

General Information about Ciarus (including information for those already registered)

Participants who book rooms with half-board will benefit from group rates for combined room and meal. Half-board "Grand Plateau" served in self-service restaurant includes starter, hot dish, dessert, and non-alcoholic beverage. Participants staying in another hotel may take meals together with hotel guests for €10 per meal.

The Ciarus hotel is located on Rue Finkmatt, south of the intersection of Avenue des Vogses and Boulevard Clemenceau.

Accommodation Cancellation Policy: Cancellation of reservations without penalty must be done no later than 30 days prior to arrival. Accommodations cancelled after that time will be charged 50% of the total cost.

Children at the Conference

Attendees must make their own arrangements for childcare. Mothers may sit with babes in arms in the classrooms. However, out of respect for others, if a baby makes any noise, we must ask mother and baby to leave the room.

Getting to the Conference

By air: Strasbourg International Airport (SXB, 15km) is served by the following airlines: Air France, Air Littoral, Air Mauritius, Air Nostrum LAMSA, Alitalia, Alsair, American Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Blue Air, Brit Air, Brussels Airlines, Czech Airlines, Delta, Iberia, Khalifa Airways, KLM Exel, Luxair, Olympic, Regional, Royal Air Maroc, SNCargo, THY-Turkish, Transaero, Tunisair, Tyrolean. (http://www.strasbourg.aeroport.fr/index.php/accueil?lang=E)

In addition, Lufthansa (XER) flies into Frankfurt and travelers are transported by bus to the Strasbourg bus station; (see Lufthansa Airport Bus). Budget airline Ryan Air flies into Baden Airpark (FKB), Karlsruhe/Baden Baden, Germany; easyJet goes into the Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg airport (BSL) near the border of France and Switzerland.

By train from airport: Enzheim Station (tel: 08 92 35 35 35) is a 5-minute walk from the airport terminal. Trains depart every 30 to 40 minutes to the Strasbourg Train Station / Gare Strasbourg (Address: 20, Place de la gare, 67000 Strasbourg). From Strasbourg station, at the exit of the central hall, cross the street, take bus no.10 to "Brant Université" and get off at the third stop, "Place de Pierre." Busses run daily, but less frequently on Sundays.

By car: From the airport, take route D221 and then onto the D400; take exit 8 onto the A35 motorway east to Strasbourg. From the North (Metz-Paris), take exit "Strasbourg centre—Avenue des Vosges" and follow the signboards to "Ciarus." From the South (Colmar-Mulhouse), take exit "Wacken" to "Avenue des Vosges" and follow the signboards to "Ciarus."

View Scrapbooks of Previous Conferences

Please click here.

Read What Others Have Experienced at International Conferences

"I am a student of midwifery in the UK, and am frequently confronted with birthing and pregnancy environments that are almost totally void of the kinds of sensitive touch that I know can be vital to beautiful physiological, and beautiful non physiological births. Since returning from the gathering in Copenhagen, I have fed and been nourished by my experiences and memories from those wonderful five days…I was so inspired. I felt that much of what I had intuitively believed about birth and what is possible, was confirmed and held in the highest esteem there. I felt more like I had found my tribe than ever before. "So, I want to thank you from the deepest part of me for holding and creating that space, and I look forward to reconnecting in person with all and any of the amazing people I met and came into contact with there. I only wish that my colleagues here could have been there too! It can be so disheartening to be surrounded by such disillusioned and disconnected midwives…but actually, since Copenhagen, I haven’t been dragged down by those energies anyway nearly as much. I think Copenhagen grounded my belief even more firmly. Deep down I feel excitement and trust beaming brightly." – Copenhagen 2009 attendee [ OTHER TESTIMONIALS ]

More Information

• To receive a printed program by mail, please e-mail us with your request.
• Attend other Midwifery Today Conferences around the world!
• Learn more about birth resources in France.