CAPPA Introduces Two New Branches

Posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 · Permanent link to the post

CAPPA is proud to introduce two new branches, CAPPA Israel and CAPPA India. These branches will allow CAPPA to better serve its membership, as well as provide resources for expectant and postpartum families within these two countries.

Georgia, USA, October 20, 2009. The Childbirth and Postpartum Professional Association (CAPPA) introduced today Sonali Shivlani, Executive Director CAPPA India, and Ruti Karni Horowitz, Executive Director CAPPA Israel.

The CAPPA vision is one in which women are encouraged to trust their bodies, and myths about childbirth and breastfeeding are dispelled. CAPPA asks us to imagine a world where women are given the tools they need to make informed decisions about their pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and postpartum experiences; where women are surrounded by caring, compassionate support throughout the childbearing year.

“I am extremely excited about these two new branches. Both Sonali (Shivlani) and Ruti (Karni Horowitz) are committed to the CAPPA vision and mission. They understand the needs within their respective countries and are willing to do the work to make a difference,” said Tracy Wilson Peters, CAPPA Founder and Chief Executive Officer, when talking of the branches and their executive directors. Wilson Peters says that “healthcare outside the USA can be very different. CAPPA feels that it is important to offer our programs from within these countries, by professionals who are actually living and working there. All CAPPA members will benefit from CAPPA’s global expansion.”

Carolyn Thompson, CAPPA Canada Executive Director said, “New CAPPA branches will recognize the common experiences of the country and education will therefore be tailored to regional needs. Using global CAPPA standards, different regional medical models, cultural and historical practices and experiences that are specific to each branch will be used to create certification and advanced programs to meet the client needs of the area. This will increase confidence in the birth and postpartum information and resources shared with expectant and postpartum families.” Thompson continued, “Promoting a culturally safe environment, recognition of changing demographics, and implementation of support strategies for growing diverse and vulnerable populations will also bring positive changes. Each CAPPA branch is better suited to be a change agent in a local and national capacity. Positive changes can increase the health and well-being of families and also facilitate nation to nation implementation. What helps one birthing family in effect helps the global family.” CAPPA has produced a video called Imagine a World, which you can view here.

Meet the Directors
Ms. Ruti Karni Horowitz brings to CAPPA Israel extensive experience and knowledge, and we are honored to have her join team CAPPA as the Executive Director of CAPPA Israel. Experienced in birth classes as well as education, she is a certified childbirth and lactation educator, doula, yoga teacher and pregnancy yoga teacher. She is the Founder and Director of the Israeli leading birth professions school The Art of Birthing, and Editor and Manager of the sites The Art of Birth Support and The Art of Birthing. Ms. Karni Horowitz is the author of the books Omanut Haleida: The Art of Giving Birth, The Next Step and The Art of Birthing, and of the guided imagery relaxation CD, The Art of Birthing, and author and narrator of the audio relaxation disc for birth Omanut Haleida: The Art of Giving Birth.

For more than a decade, as a birth theoretician writing articles that embody the very heart of contemporary birth perception and managing The Birth Forum, Ms. Karni Horowitz forms a major juncture for knowledge and public opinion which helps shape birth for both mothers and professionals. Ms. Karni Horowitz is a graduate of the Israeli Center for Birth Education. She is one of the founders of the Women Taking Birth movement for freedom of choice in birth in Israel, and is one of the establishers of The Roof Organization for Accompaniment and Instruction around Birth and Life Circles Professions, and is co-founder of the Israeli organization for Free Choice in Birth, and founder of the Israeli Organization of Birth Professions. She is the creator of the system for training doulas and birth course instructors and developer of the unique curriculum which combines a huge and up-to-date body of knowledge with group and individual coaching and intensive referents. The practical and theoretical knowledge have combined into the strong ideological motivation to change the face of birth and to improve the well-being of mothers and newborns in Israel.

Ms. Karni Horowitz said of her new position, “I feel great, inspired and lucky. Israel is an intensive place. Birth is in the eye of the storm. It integrates historical, cultural, medical, political, religious, and so many other fields that affect and shape it, that only international collaboration, and the blessings the Internet brings, can change things rapidly and make it happen in our era.”

Karni Horowitz explains, “We (Israel) shall assimilate CAPPA’s manuals and features within our studies program, which contains at the moment a 350 academic hour course for training childbirth instructors and labor doulas in a one year long combined program.”

Ms. Karni Horowitz continues, “We have to act in favor of founding a unique status for birth and postpartum professionals. As the humanist oriented birth professionals, we must create that status with our bare hands; no one will recognize us as such if we won’t create it from the thin air.” She explained, “In order to enhance birth we have to be pioneers and activists. We have to aspire to be the first to formulate some detailed protocols in order to organize relationships in order to solve interpersonal communication difficulties. CAPPA has already made huge steps toward the goal of professionalism and communication protocols. By assimilation of protocols Israel and worldwide we shall promote humanistic and healthy birth more efficiently.”

We welcome Ms. Sonali Shivlani to team CAPPA as the Executive Director of CAPPA India. We are honored to have her experience and expertise. Ms. Shivlani holds a degree in business management. She is an internationally certified childbirth and lactation educator (CAPPA), and a La Leche League Leader and is in charge of the suburbs group in Mumbai, where she also introduced a training program for those women who would like to become lactation counselors. Post-certification, Ms. Shivlani put together a birth preparation program, which was suited to the urban Indian scenario. This unique course helps to prepare couples not only for the pregnancy and the birth but also for the months thereafter. She has been associated with BEAMS, a specialty hospital for women in Khar, Mumbai, since April 2004. In August 2005, she joined with the CLAY Institute for Wellness and Lifestyle Enhancement, which is based in Mumbai, and has a lactation counseling program for expectant women and moms. This program is the first out-of-hospital breastfeeding support group in India. She opened her private practice center (2005) where she introduced the concept of the same program in a work shop format which was especially suited to the working woman. 2006 saw the introduction of the program at Sujay Hospital at Andheri W. Ms. Shivlani is part of the expert panel for pregnancy and child care at INDIWO.com (CNBC TV 18).

Ms. Shivlani explains, “I live in a metro city and there are services available for pregnant families in the form of classes, although they are few in number and concentrated in only a few areas. Also I have conducted workshops in Raipur, Ludhiana, and Kolkata, etc., and my workshop was the first of its kind happening in the city. Women were so eager to attend and wanted to know when the next one will happen. They want them on a more regular basis and every location invited me to come back at least once a month. Imagine what we can do now. With CAPPA being in India, we can now offer the possibility for these remote areas to also have trained practitioners providing these services,” she continued to explain, “I would also like to look at the possibility of offering the manuals, and the option of doing the program in regional languages, but that would be at a later date. As we have more and more birth professionals, there will be more contact options for families and the information supports that will be in place, along with the emotional support will be available on a broader spectrum.”

Ms. Shivlani explains, “Birth is universal. But there are more and more instances of women going into the process uninformed, and hence they are having an unsatisfactory experience. The cesarean section rate is alarmingly high, especially in the metro cities. Myths and misconceptions are rampant. Women do things during pregnancy and in the postnatal period purely based on what they are told at home, which might not be accurate. If we can create professionals who are a one-stop resource guide providing emotional support as well as information, it will make pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period much easier.” She says, “I have seen the affect of my programs on the families with whom I have worked. I just want to make this more large scale for the entire country.”

Wilson Peters said, “These new branches mean better births—pure and simple. New and expectant parents will benefit immediately from the increase in trained birth and postpartum professionals.”

“As CAPPA grows globally we have the incredible opportunity to have a positive affect on more and more families. CAPPA India and CAPPA Israel will provide excellent training and certification options to those who would like to become childbirth professionals within these two countries. CAPPA has always been an international organization, but we feel by actually having branches within these countries we can make more of an impact,” said Wilson Peters.

Carolyn Thompson, CAPPA Canada Executive Director said, “The global expansion of CAPPA will mean a greater standardized level of professionalism in the childbirth and postpartum support fields. Each country in which CAPPA Creates a unique and individual branch will promote a national infrastructure; oversee the planning and implementation of program specific manuals and standards and recommendations are included. National organizations are also often better placed to locate funding opportunities from Federal, Regional and local sources.”

Thompson continued, “CAPPA recognizes that the unique and individual voices within each country can develop inter-professional, intergovernmental, and community-based stakeholder coalitions. Global expansion and the creation of national branches, like CAPPA Canada, can help to create a stronger nation-wide vision. A stronger local and regional organization is better positioned to network and support our world support philosophy. CAPPA professionals will be able to cooperate on a global level. Each new expansion will have the extensive knowledge and expertise of the current professional leadership and membership. We will have well-established and respected national branches with a global networking focus. It is with the growth of our international branches that we in CAPPA can work in unison towards our global vision.”

The CAPPA vision asks us to imagine a world where new mothers are equipped to embrace pregnancy, birth and motherhood with confidence. CAPPA is a volunteer organization that works every day to make this a reality. CAPPA is an international organization, with a presence in more than twenty countries with the goal to continue to add branches in countries all over the world. CAPPA was launched in April 1998, by Tracy Wilson Peters, and CAPPA Canada, under the direction of Carolyn Thompson was officially launched in December 2003. Operation Special Delivery (OSD) became a part of CAPPA in January 2005 under the direction of MaryBeth Nance. CAPPA is proud that CAPPA Israel and CAPPA India are now an extension of this journey. “We really do ‘imagine a world’”, says Tracy Wilson Peters, CAPPA Founder and Chief Executive Officer.

Please join us in welcoming Ruti Karni Horowitz, Executive Director CAPPA Israel and Sonali Shivlani, Executive Director CAPPA India.