Life Balance Parenting Breastfeeding Spirituality Life Balance Improving the Quality of Your Journey This informative, entertaining, and inspiring message is Dr. Mom’s most frequently requested program. Virtually everyone knows the feeling - too much to do and too little time or energy to do it all well. Juggling professional and personal responsibilities can create stifling overload that jeopardizes both roles. Drawing from her own experience of giving birth to 5 children in 7 years, while completing her medical education, Dr. Mom shares hard-earned wisdom gleaned from her personal journey and professional encounters. In addressing the universal quest of contemporary life - finding a balance - Dr. Mom offers practical strategies for clarifying governing values, establishing priorities, reducing stress, encouraging healthy risk-taking, and promoting self-care. Come prepared to laugh and learn - leave rejuvenated and re-energized!  back to top Parenting Self-Esteem and Emotional Health Of all the awesome responsibilities parents assume, few are more daunting than helping children develop healthy self-esteem. Self-esteem - a composite inner picture about one’s worth and competence - is one of the most important, and yet misunderstood, concepts in parenting! Our children's self-evaluation will impact their happiness, academic success, relationships, creativity, ambitions, perseverance, resilience, and problem-solving. The conviction that one is both loveable and capable does not make children conceited, selfish or spoiled, or engender a sense of entitlement. Rather, healthy self-esteem describes appropriate self-acceptance, self-love, and self-confidence that serve as the foundation for self-improvement and the basis for all social concern for others. No wonder instilling healthy self-esteem in our children has been called the ultimate yardstick of parenting! In this presentation, Dr. Mom provides practical strategies for helping children feel infinitely worthy and able to handle life’s challenges. Parents, teachers, coaches, counselors - all stakeholders in children’s wellbeing - will learn how their daily interactions with children can either enhance or undermine self-esteem. Positive Discipline Few aspects of parenting provoke as much trepidation as managing children’s behavior - and for good reason. Ineffective discipline methods can leave parents feeling frustrated and children feeling misunderstood, causing damage to the parent-child relationship. Dr. Mom offers practical strategies to make discipline a positive learning experience that fosters cooperation, responsibility, and self-control, while strengthening the parent-child bond. Learn specific techniques to promote desired behavior and how to choose a suitable response when rules are broken. Whether dealing with a toddler or a teen, participants will be empowered to enforce limits consistently in an atmosphere of love and affection, with respect for the individual child and her emerging independence. Learn how to equip your children to handle difficult feelings, make good decisions, and solve tough problems. Ten Essentials for Effective Parents Contemporary parents face unique pressures and role overload that can undermine family life and jeopardize children’s outcome. This presentation offers practical suggestions for improving parenting skills and strengthening families. Topics to be addressed include: making child rearing a high priority; creating a balanced parenting team; communicating unconditional love and enhancing children’s self-esteem; minimizing sibling rivalry; preventing and handling misbehavior; using traditions and familiar routines to convey a sense of belonging; dealing creatively with the inevitable disappointments of parenting; and practicing self-care. Participants will leave equipped to decrease the stresses and maximize the rewards of parenting. Raising Amicable Children in Today's Society Youth violence has become a national epidemic, causing parents to worry about their child’s safety and to be concerned about aggressive tendencies they may observe. Fortunately, through their routine daily interactions, parents can begin in the early years to protect their children from being either predators or prey. In this program, Dr. Mom provides practical strategies for raising peace-loving kids, who are able to handle difficult feelings, control their impulses, empathize with others, and brainstorm creative solutions to life’s inevitable conflicts. This empowering presentation teaches professionals and parents how to confront the antecedents of aggressive behavior and lay the foundation for peace and non-violence.  back to top Breastfeeding Critical Factors for Early Breastfeeding Success Human milk provides optimal infant nutrition and offers compelling health benefits for infants and mothers. Fortunately, widespread promotion efforts have contributed to a steady rise in U.S. breastfeeding initiation and continuation rates in recent decades. Yet, many women encounter early breastfeeding difficulties that jeopardize long-term success. This presentation will equip health professionals to promote and support the successful onset of breastfeeding and effectively troubleshoot early lactation difficulties. Program content includes correct breastfeeding technique and appropriate feeding routines, the principles of autocrine control of lactation, and the recognition of mother-infant pairs who are at-risk for inadequate breastfeeding. Emphasis will be given to the role of the early follow-up visit in preventing maternal complaints, such as sore nipples, and infant morbidities, such as malnutrition, dehydration, and hyperbilirubinemia. Participants will learn specific maternal and infant criteria for evaluating the successful onset of breastfeeding and effective early intervention strategies for common lactation difficulties. Troubleshooting Breastfeeding Problems This presentation covers the prevention, recognition, and clinical management of the common maternal and infant breastfeeding difficulties that lead to early weaning. Maternal problems to be addressed include: breast variations, postpartum engorgement; acute and chronic sore nipples, including super-infection with bacteria and/or candida; plugged ducts and mastitis; and maternal employment. Infant breastfeeding problems include a discussion of breastfeeding-related jaundice; infant latch-on and suckling difficulties; and the “colicky” breast-fed infant. Participants will learn how to perform and interpret the results of infant feeding test-weights to measure milk intake during a breastfeeding session. Insufficient Milk Syndrome Lack of milk is the most common reason women give for discontinuing breastfeeding early, yet this frequent complaint is poorly understood. This presentation reviews the magnitude of the problem of lactation insufficiency and distinguishes rare "primary" (non-preventable, non-remediable) causes of insufficient milk (including breast surgery and breast variations) from common, often remediable, "secondary" causes attributed to poor breastfeeding management. Participants will gain an understanding of the mechanisms by which lactation difficulties become complicated by low milk, and review common maternal and infant factors contributing to insufficient lactation. Clinicians also will learn specific management strategies for increasing maternal milk production and improving the nutritional status of underweight breastfed infants. Prevention of Breastfeeding Tragedies Although successful breastfeeding confers compelling advantages to infants and mothers, inadequate breastfeeding can result in critical infant failure-to-thrive and hypernatremic dehydration. This presentation will explore how catastrophic infant outcomes can result when enthusiastic promotion of breastfeeding outpaces necessary support services and management. Those who vigorously promote breastfeeding for its many health benefits must confront the reality of breastfeeding failure and implement necessary changes in medical education and support services to foster successful outcomes in breastfed infants.  back to top Spirituality Female Role Overload and the Quest for Balance Even women of faith know the feeling - too much to do and too little time or energy to do it all well. Expanded role opportunities, combined with unattainable standards of perfection in appearance and performance, produce toxic stress for many contemporary women. While the “Superwoman” label provides a special identity, we earn this title at the expense of our emotional and physical wellbeing. Like the Biblical Martha, many overwhelmed Christian women wonder, “Lord, do you not care?” Drawing from her own life experience with stress and over-commitment, Dr. Neifert shares the reassuring message that God cares deeply about the predicament of female role overload. Feeling chronically stressed and over-extended is not God’s will for our lives, and incessant “doing” conflicts with the Biblical message of an alternating rhythm of serving and being filled. This presentation will examine sources of female role overload and empower women to confront the human fear of “not good enough” that lies at the heart of our search for significance through “busyness.” All in the Family Parenting Series Parenting is not an ancillary role to be penciled into the available openings in our day planner. Rather, being a parent is both a divine blessing and a holy obligation. When Jesus said “Let the little children come unto me,” He was not only making a theological statement about the inclusiveness of the Kingdom of God, He was providing a powerful example about making time for children - amid our weariness, worries, and multitude of competing priorities. This series of classes is aimed at helping parents fulfill their responsibilities and reap the abundant rewards of the important stewardship and awesome privilege of parenting. Dr. Mom will explore how responsible parenting provides a sacred opportunity to become co-creators with God in shaping the lives of the youngsters entrusted to our care. Learn to apply Biblical principles to foster your child’s self-esteem, promote desired behavior, effectively handle misbehavior, and teach responsibility. Teaching Children About Faith Young children, with their unbridled imagination and magical sense of wonder, have an innate desire to know God. In addition to promoting children’s intellectual, physical, and emotional development, we are called to nurture their budding spirituality and help them begin a lifelong faith journey. In addition to maintaining the continuity of our faith heritage, sharing our spiritual beliefs offers children many concrete benefits that enhance their daily lives. Spiritual education is not something to be abdicated to the leaders in your faith community. Rather, it can begin in the cradle, as babies first learn about the goodness of God from the loving model of their own mother and father. Learn how to transmit spiritual beliefs as a routine part of daily life and help children formulate a positive image of God. back to top
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