The Lamaze Conference 2013 in Review

Social media (and the relationship with childbirth education & marketing) was THE hot topic at the 2013 Lamaze Conference - Let the Good Times Roll - held last weekend at the Astor Crown Plaza in New Orleans!

My session on adding social media to enhance learning and marketing with childbirth education programs lead the weekend that saw several other speakers either focusing completely on social media or having some portions of their presentation feature social media. From Facebook, to Twitter, Blogs, to hashtags to LinkedIn, registrants left with useble skills for adding social media to their education arsenal. Even the closing speaker, Amber McCann, regaled the benefits of social media.

Tweeters tweeted via #Lamaze13 and #LamazeNOLA to keep both attendees and those at home updated on all of the action!

Another hot topic was research via the internet.  Andrea Lythgoe, who is a doula/birth photographer and teacher for the Midwives College of Utah spent two sessions helping attendees find, then

Andrea Lythgoe

completely understand birth research, abstracts and listed the "Dirty Dozen" - her fav 12 websites from which to gather research.  Thanks so much to Andrea for listing my website www.thebirthfacts.com as one of her favs!

Another hugely popular topic was Breastmilk Sharing, presented by Rebecca Law LCCE, FACCE, RN, IBCLC from Texas.  Breastmilk sharing is not a new concept but the access to social networking has taken it outside the realm of families and small circles of friends to strangers, states, and countries apart!

Melinda Delisle LCCE from Pocket Pregnancy and Birth of a Family LLC shared "What Live Classes Offer that Digital Ones Can't" - almost an antithesis to the underlying theme of the conference. Tackling the problem of diminishing attendance at childbirth education classes, Melinda shared the results from the Listening to Mothers' Surveys I, II, and III as well as lessons learned from her fantastic website, app and blog.  It is so true, education through social media, no matter how effective it is, will never replace person to person childbirth education!

We all look forward to the next conference, scheduled for September 2014 in Kansas City!  Get your BBQ on and I'm sure we'll all have a great time!