In community birth, midwives care for two patients—the birthing person and the baby. Assessing fetal well-being is a critical skill that all midwives must master and continuously refine.
Every year, approximately 140 million births occur worldwide, with most being low-risk vaginal births at the onset of labor. While midwives conduct risk assessments throughout pregnancy, complications can still arise during labor (Danilack et al., 2015). Even in low-risk populations, nearly half of all stillbirths and a quarter of neonatal deaths result from labor and childbirth complications. This underscores the need for every midwife to be highly skilled in fetal heart rate assessment (Lawn et al., 2016).
Over the past two decades, the WHO has encouraged birthing in healthcare facilities to ensure access to skilled providers and timely referrals when needed. However, facility-based birth does not always guarantee high-quality, respectful care. Many individuals, particularly from underprivileged communities, experience disrespect, mistreatment, and loss of autonomy during facility-based childbirth (Bohren et al., 2014). Additionally, the medicalized model of intrapartum care in many parts of the world often subjects even low-risk pregnancies to unnecessary interventions that disrupt the physiological process of birth.
Midwives play a crucial role in ensuring safe, evidence-based, and respectful birth care. Strengthening your ability to assess fetal well-being is essential to providing safe and empowering care for families in all birth settings.
This Workshop Includes Evidence-Based Instruction On:
- Equipment review, care, and maintenance
- How to establish baseline
- How to assess variability
- The four types of decelerations
- When and how often to listen
- How to defensively chart FHT monitoring
- Communicating abdominal FHTs and transporting
- Guidance on effective midwifery team management
- Plus auditory examples and practice
Course Curriculum
Safe Fetal Monitoring Protocols
The World Health Organization (WHO) framework for improving maternal care emphasizes that the experience of care is just as crucial as clinical care in achieving person-centered outcomes (Tunçalp et al., 2015).
For this reason, home births and birth centers staffed by skilled midwives remain a valid and evidence-based choice for low-risk labors and births. This course is designed to equip midwives with the tools and skills necessary to implement effective, timely, and safe fetal monitoring protocols in the community birth setting.
Birth workers of all skill levels, from any country, are welcome to choose the observer ticket, while only practicing midwives are invited to participate fully with a participant ticket.
"Just wanted to say another thank you to Augustine Colebrook for her heart and passion for teaching midwives! I just basically want to download your brain and feel like a big fan-girl! I also have so appreciated classmates perspectives and questions that gave us further insight. Thank you everyone!"
-Crystal Pena, Arizona midwife.
Your Mentor | Augustine Colebrook, MA-MCHS
Augustine is no stranger in the birthwork community. An internationally recognized midwifery educator, seasoned business executive, and veteran midwife having attended the births of 1000s of babies, Augustine brings a wealth of experience from attending births in hospitals, birth centers, and homes across the U.S. and abroad. Deeply committed to serving underserved and marginalized communities, she honors the balance between the sacredness of birth and the reality of clinical practice. With a master's degree in Maternal/Child Health Systems, she has dedicated her career to transforming maternity care.
Her mission? To mainstream midwifery and dismantle the fear and misinformation that surround birth. Through education, consulting, product development, podcasts, business coaching, and site visits, she empowers midwives, students, birth center administrators, and maternity practice owners to create sustainable, thriving practices. Augustine doesn’t just teach midwifery—she midwives the midwife, guiding the next generation toward a fulfilling and impactful career.
"If you have the chance to learn from Augustine Colebrook, do whatever you can to get there. You will not regret it. I sincerely appreciate her honesty and her ability to teach to all levels of midwives simultaneously. My mind and heart are beyond full."
- Cara Gwizd
