Trauma-Informed Care and Epigenetics

The course “Trauma-informed Care and Epigenetics" is an introductory course for those already professionals in the fields of Maternity Care or students from the disciplines of Psychology, Medicine, Midwifery, Nursing, Social Work and/or Pedagogy. It aims:

1. To familiarize participants from birth-related environments with concepts like birth-trauma, PTSD, Trauma-Informed Care, Epigenetics, Transgenerational trauma.
2. To help them recognize causes and the related impact for all involved. They will be able to Identify Trauma in maternity services.
3. To let them know how to assess birth trauma and PTSD in research and clinical practice.
4. To help participants apply principles of trauma-informed care to maternity services.

Epigenetics as a Lifelong Record of the Early-Life Environment

The course: Epigenetics as a Lifelong Record of the Early-Life Environment is the second course based on the 2nd Training School organized by the COST ACTION CA18211, DEVOTION.

The aim of this course is to support health professionals that come from other disciplines, esp Midwifery, Obstetrics, Social Work, Nursing, Psychology to familiarize themselves with the findings of Epigenetics, so that they can provide better quality of care in their environments. At the same time, this 2nd course takes the attendees to a higher level of understanding, especially interesting for those who are also engaged in research and (academic) education.

There are three main axons of structure:

1. Understanding the language, principles and ways of the dialogue between the Early Life Environment and the changes that may be the person’s reality years after birth.
2. Designing an epigenetic study.
3. Getting into the statistics in the field of epigenetics research and explore parameters.

The course provides very interesting lessons as concerns the natural and the psychosocial environment influence and analyses significant aspects as concerns the embryonic/ fetal/ birth trauma and its lifelong impact.

 

Birth Trauma from a life-span perspective

The course: Birth Trauma from a Life-span Perspective is the third course based on the 3rd Training School organized by the COST ACTION CA18211, DEVOTION.

The aim of this course is to support health professionals that come from various disciplines better understand the impact of primal trauma and birth trauma across the life span of the individuals involved. At the same time, this 3rd course takes the attendees to a higher level of understanding of how longitudinal studies are designed, supporting them with tools and resources available to find and use.

The main objectives:

1. Establishing a common language in problem conceptualization, study design, and critical appraisal
2. Link longitudinal study design to understanding the impact of birth trauma across the life-span, for parents and children
3. Become aware of tools and resources and learn how to find these
4. Becoming familiar with experience sampling methods for short-term longitudinal research
5. Become adept in causal modelling for conceptualizing research
6. Understand role of conceptualization in designing longitudinal research
7. Understanding special problems in longitudinal research and their possible solutions:
   – testing causal models using the cross-lagged panel design
   – missing values and imputation
8. Understanding the strengths and limitations of selected longitudinal studies on birth trauma

The Course Trainers:

Carlo Schuengel is a Full Professor, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Clinical Child and Family Studies at Vrije University in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Prof Schuengel aims is to contribute insights into family relationships and the development of mental health and resilience, and into interventions that can support at risk parents and other caregivers in fostering high quality relationships with children. This goal is pursued by a combination of research on the Generations² longitudinal pregnancy cohort study, creation and synthesis of practice based and research based evidence, and intervention studies in partnership with intervention services and care organizations that support families, children, and people with disabilities. Attachment theory has been a major theoretical basis for this work since our program started in 2000.

Marleen de Moor is an Associate Professor at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences Research, department of Methods and Techniques. Dr De Moor’s research revolves around the questions how biological factors such as (epi)genetics and hormones are related to child development and parenting, and how we can apply novel methodologies to enhance our understanding of parenting in relation to child development.

 

Course Lecturers:
Olga Gouni: Olga has been the founder of the Prenatal Sciences Research Institute SOPHIA and was the owner and director of cosmoanelixis, Educational Organization of Prenatal and Life Sciences for many decades. For over 10 years active member of COST ACTION [CA18211 (Perinatal mental health and birth-related trauma: Maximising best practice and optimal outcomes (management committee for Greece and STSM coordinator). She served as Communications and Project Management Officer for the partner organisation cosmoanelixis in the Erasmus+ project entitled Baby Buddy Forward. Author and co-author of books, editor of collective authorship projects, editor -in-chief of the academic journal The International Journal of Prenatal & Life Sciences (IJPLS), designer of educational programmes in Prenatal Psychology and pedagogical programs, instructor of many successful educational training courses in the field of prenatal psychology internationally. Olga created the Health Advancement Program “WELCOME” designed for pregnant couples with a focus on the (unborn) baby. Her vision is to synthesize and organize the acquired knowledge in the field of Prenatal Psychology and link the Academia with the Community.

Katharina Hartmann
Dr. Phil. Katharina Hartmann (doctorate with a dissertation on “I Cantici di Fidenzio”, homosexual love poetry of the Italian late Renaissance)
– former political activism coordinator of Human Rights in Childbirth,
– Initiator of the Roses Revolution Germany, the day of action against obstetric violence, and its moderator from 2013 to 2018,
– Founding member of Mother Hood e.V., German parents organisation around pregnancy, childbirth and the first year of life; Mother Hood responsible for science and international network, currently project manager of binational ERASMUS+ Project “PregChiLi – Parents for parents courses on pregnancy, birth and the first year of life”
– CA 18211 Member and working group leader
– Member of the consensus group of the German S3 guideline “Vaginal birth at term”
– Activist, lecturer, speaker, writer, WHO Maternal & infant health expert consultant, … – still wholeheartedly teaching German as a foreign language, if it somehow works and fits in between
– Mother of 3

Martine Verhees
Martine Verhees is a postdoc researcher at the research group of Quantitative Psychology and Individual Differences at KU Leuven. Her research interests lie in the domain of attachment relationships, with focus on dynamic processes in these relationships, links with (mal)adaptive functioning, parenting, and the role of hormones.

Susan Garthus-Niegel
Susan Garthus-Niegel is a Psychologist and a Professor at the MSH Medical School Hamburg at the Faculty of Medicine. She also maintains a part-time position at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health as well as at the University of Dresden, where she is the Head of the “Public Mental Health” research unit. She and her team conduct epidemiological cohort studies as well as systematic reviews and meta-analyses on women’s and family mental health and wellbeing, e.g., during the perinatal period or with regard to the interface of work and family roles.