NURSE MIDWIFE with training and experience in physiological births and water births
WHO/UNICEF BREASTFEEDING ADVISER
TRAINER IN PRE-NATAL AQUATIC PREPARATION AND AQUATIC BABIES by Aquanatal – Oostend
INSTRUCTOR OF INFANT MASSAGE by APMI
EVIDENCE BASED BIRTH® CERTIFIED TRAINER
MASTER IN NURSING, with the thesis Empowerment: Pregnant Women’s Preference and Appreciation of Prenatal Nursing Care
Member of the Internacional Confederation of Midwives European Regional Professional Committe
The area of health and training has been a source of motivation for me from an early age. I am passionate about female physiology and the recognition and recruitment of internal processes of self-regeneration and healing, from a global and integrative perspective.
Choosing a nursing degree was one of the options that most complemented this motivation, above all because of the role of nurses in promoting health, empowerment, quality of life, self-determination and free and informed decision-making in the context of their health.
It was during my basic nursing course that I had my first contact with obstetrics: during ERASMUS, in Finland, I had the opportunity to attend a special birth – a couple, sitting on a birthing stool (father at the back and mother at the front), in a deeply intimate relationship, pushed their baby into life with confidence and strength, supported by a calm and respectful team. Looking at the newborn baby, still attached to its mother by the umbilical cord, being hugged and cuddled by both parents, I felt that this was one of the paths I identified with.
As my knowledge deepened during my specialization and master’s degree in maternal health and obstetric nursing, I was extra motivated to start searching, both inside and outside the country, for intervention models driven by scientific evidence and human values.
As a nurse midwife, I had the opportunity to develop and perfect skills related to supporting and accompanying couples during pregnancy and physiological childbirth, in and out of water, complemented by support after childbirth and breastfeeding advice, following the Midwifery Model of Care.
More than a decade’s experience in running courses and workshops for couples on preparing for childbirth and parenthood, as well as experience and postgraduate training in maternal and fetal health, have helped me to hone empowerment and self-empowerment strategies and to build my own method, centered on the woman, the couple and the family.
My passion for integrative women’s health also led me to deepen my knowledge and develop skills in promoting sexual health and self-knowledge related to female sexuality.
Today, in addition to providing health care to women and their families, I also run postgraduate training courses for health professionals, having been invited to teach at different universities across the country in recent years.
My mission to promote the quality of sexual and reproductive health care and to defend women’s rights led me, together with my dear friend and teammate Diana Lopes, to create the Vozes da Mulher Association, which I currently lead, and to take on the challenge of vice-presidency of the Portuguese Association of Obstetric Nurses.
RELEVANT TRAINING
_ Curso 5P LOGSURF: Método Proprioceptivo Abdomino-pelviperineal, 2020
_ Reanimação Neonatal Integrativa com Karen Strange, 2019
_ Gestão Natural da Fertilidade, 2019
_ Spinning Babies®, 2018
_ Ciclo Parir em Movimiento: Anatomia Funcional del Parto Fisiologico® com Núria Vives, 2015-2028
_ Perspectiva Psico-Neuro-Endócrino-Imunológica e Modelo Salutogénico aplicados à Gravidez e ao Parto por Verena Schmidt e Anna Rossetti, 2013-2017
_ Título de Especialista em Enfermagem, 2013
_ Mestrado em Enfermagem de Saúde Materna e Obstétrica, 2012
_ Formações internacionais relacionadas com a assistência ao parto na água, 2008, 2009 e 2013
_ Rebozo Technique pela ENCA, 2011
_ Massagem Tailandeza na Gravidez, 2010
_ Formações internacionais relacionadas com a assistência ao parto domiciliar e cuidados holísticos para situações de emergência em partos domiciliares, 2008
_ Preparação pré-aquática, aclimatização de bebés na água e iniciação da prática do parto na água, pela Aquanatal, 2008
_ Instrutora de Massagem Infantil pela APSI, 2007
_ Especialidade em Enfermagem de Saúde Materna e Obstétrica, 2007
_ Conselheira em Aleitamento Materno segundo a OMS e a UNICEF, 2006