Hello again everyone. It’s been a long time since my last visit amongst you, so some may think the following request for your help is a bit ‘rich’.
I emailed the moderators 4 days ago asking if this post would be appropriate & haven’t received a reply. As 17 April is final day for voting, thought I’d give it a go.
Your ‘help’ would be voting for my entry (see below for my idea + link)) into Richard Branson’s competition ‘Screw Business as Usual’.
My idea is called ‘Screw Business as Usual for Newborn Services’ – it’s about building a new kind of maternity facility that would be the centerpiece of what I have called a Human Ecology Hub.
Virgin Unite is the not-for-profit foundation that promotes a philosophy of caring for people, communities & the planet by trying to change the way government, business & the social sector work together ie using business as a force for good.
The winner will be chosen from those ranked in the ‘Top 10’ ie with the most votes - Like/Tweet/+1
PS So sad to hear about the death of Brian Palmer.
Take care, Julieanne
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Here’s my idea to ‘screw business as usual’ for maternal & newborn services. It’s motivated by my desire to improve maternity services locally & globally and speaks to the heart of Millennium Development Goals 4 & 5: Reduce Child Mortality & Improve Maternal Health. Local for me is the Hunter Valley, northwest of Sydney, Australia. My name is Julieanne Hensby & I have been a Lactation Consultant IBCLC (International Board Certified) for 19 years.
As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the ‘Every Woman, Every Child’ summit in September last year, “...we believe now that the health of women and children is essential to global development and our future prosperity.”
In this spirit I would like to build a Human Ecology Hub that is purpose-built & energy-efficient. Human ecology is about the interaction between people & their environment and what we need to be physically & emotionally healthy.
Central to the Hub would be a Research Centre for Maternal & Newborn Health. The evidence tells us that what happens when we’re born (our first environment), how we are fed, and the quality of our interpersonal relationships from 0-3yrs have the most significant impact on our lifelong physical & emotional health and that these processes greatly influence the way developing brains are ‘wired’.
Evidence also tells us that when possible, uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact as soon as possible after being born (lasting ideally for about 60-90 minutes) triggers the mammalian feeding sequence common to all species of mammals. This optimizes the chance of being fed breastmilk, maintains the production of ‘nurturing’ hormones in mothers & enhances positive interactions ie bonding. I call this the Mammalian Matrix©.
HOW IS MY IDEA DIFFERENT?
Firstly, the Centre would provide the full spectrum of pre & postnatal services, but also include:
1. donor human milk bank
2. facility for breastmilk stem-cell research (as begun by Uni Western Australia) & other relative research
3. baby-friendly café open to the public
4. retail outlet selling maternity products eg the Mothers Direct shops run by the Aust Breastfeeding Assoc (ABA)
5. multi-purpose training/continuing education facility eg for health workers from both developing & developed countries to visit, learn and share knowledge re new research findings & best-practice
Secondly, and this is the tricky bit - the financial structure of the Human Ecology Hub would need to enable universal access to maternity services regardless of income. Perhaps the Hub could operate under a combination of for-profit, not-for-profit & profit-for-purpose enterprises. High hopes I know, but where there’s a will...
Thirdly, the maternity services of the Research Centre would:
1. Operate under the guidelines of the WHO/UNICEF Global Strategy for Infant & Young Child Health and its facilitator - The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health
2. Encourage Kangaroo Mother Care (skin-to-skin) as the norm for all newborns, including those born prematurely and combine high-tech incubator care when necessary. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation promote the use of Kangaroo Mother Care and also recently announced a new commitment to maternal, neonatal and child health, family planning and nutrition of $1.5B over 5 years.
As Richard Branson said in his 60th Birthday video, “The 3 most important things in business are people, people & people.” I am confident that I can bring together a team of people for the Research Centre who have the required expertise & whose hearts are in the ‘right’ place.
I began thinking about this in 2008. I know it’s big & I’ll need lots of help but bottom-line, I don’t want to have lived without having tried.
If your votes get me ranked in the ‘Top 10’ I’ll have a chance of being able to elaborate further with Mr Branson about my ideas for both the Research Centre and other ‘ecological’ enterprises which could be included in the Human Ecology Hub.
Here’s the link: http://virginunite.screwbusinessasusual.com/videochannels/?c=3
Thanks for your time, Julieanne
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