Different Baby Different Story with Joann O’Leary

Session One: Perinatal Loss and The Pregnancy that Follows 

12 pm Est

When an unexpected outcome occurs, families are forever changed. This course provides an interdisciplinary model of understanding the parent-infant relationship, beginning in pregnancy. Professionals working with childbearing families can play a key role in supporting and guiding families as they incorporate a deceased baby into their family and move into a new pregnancy.  Using relationship- based prenatal attachment focused intervention course content includes how to support parents understand their parenting role to a deceased baby as they work to embrace a new unborn baby in the pregnancy that follows. Within each session the father/partners experience, often overlooked, will be addressed as well as children and extended family.

Dates

Session 1 Thursday May 4: 1 -3 EST Perinatal Loss and The Pregnancy that Follows

Session 2 Thursday May 11 : 1 -3 EST Conception to 24 weeks gestation

Session 3 Thursday May 18:  1 -3 EST CT 32 weeks to Early Postpartum

Session 4 Thursday May 25:  1 -3 EST  The Ripple Effect of Unexpected Outcome

Joann O’ Leary has a PhD, MPH from the University of MN, and MS in Psychology from Queens University Belfast, NI.  She began her career as an LPH in NICU, then an infant teacher in birth to five, special education program where one of her jobs was to do Gesell development assessments. After becoming a Parent-Infant Specialist in a High-Risk perinatal center with nurse colleagues, Lynnda Parker and Clare Thorwick,  she integrated Gesell’s developmental assessment into the prenatal period alongside the medical model of care.  Her research focuses on how perinatal loss and the pregnancy that follows impact families, including children and extended family members. Endorsed as a Level IV research mentor in Infant Mental Health she was 2018 Fulbright Specialist at University College Cork, working alongside Dr. Margaret Murphy. She has been a member of APPPAH for over 40 years, authored over 40 articles, three books on this topic, has spoken nationally and internationally and continues to facilitate groups for families who are in a pregnancy and parenting following loss.