As part of my role as a midwife working in a rural maternity unit I have been enrolled in a lactation course. I have only just enrolled and have not traveled very far with the course yet, however there are a couple of things I want to comment on at the moment.
The course has been developed by a group called Health E learning and has been developed on the Moodle platform. This interests me as we are developing our new midwifery programme through Moodle. The course looks professional and engaging and may have some ideas which I can incorporate into the work I am doing.
Health E learning seem to be a commercial group who are engaged with producing learning resources for lactation consultants. These courses are available for a fee. I realise that there is a cost in developing these resources, however it does seem a shame that only those who can afford to pay will have access to them. In my case my employer is paying.
The Health e learning group are running an online conference (Gold 09)which can be attended, once again for a fee. As they say, the cost will be significantly cheaper than actually flying overseas and attending a conference. I am very interested to see how this goes and to find out how the networking opportunities compare with face to face opportunities at a conference.
It is exciting to see that rural health groups are taking advantage of the learning opportunities afforded by the internet. This is the third year that the Gold conference has been run but it is the first time I have heard of it. I think this is a great initiative and hope that all midwives have an opportunity to attend, supported by there employers, not only with the fees but also with time off for the conference.
I will let you know how i go with the course as I work through it.
Image: woman breast feeding baby, from hdptcar's photos on flickr.com
