Newborn Care Specialist Association

Today we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day — a day rooted in Irish history, resilience, and cultural pride. 🇮🇪

Beyond the green and the parades, this day is about heritage, storytelling, and honoring where we come from. In care work, cultural awareness matters. Families bring their traditions, values, and histories into the homes we serve — and those deserve respect, curiosity, and care.

May today be a reminder that connection is built when we honor culture thoughtfully, show up with intention, and leave room for meaning beyond the surface.

Wishing everyone a day filled with warmth, community, and maybe a little extra green. 🍀

📣 Today’s Webinar: Staying in Scope — Navigating GLP-1 Medications & COVID-19 Conversations with Families

Join us today for an important conversation with Chris Stallman, MLS, MS, CGC (they/them) from the University of Arizona.

Chris serves as Director of MotherToBaby Arizona and Program Director of the Genetic Counseling Graduate Program at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. Through their work with MotherToBaby, Chris supports families and healthcare providers with clear, evidence-based guidance about medications and exposures during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

In today’s session, we’ll explore how newborn care professionals can stay within scope while navigating complex conversations with families, including questions about GLP-1 medications and COVID-19.

✨ If you work with newborns and postpartum families, this is an incredibly valuable topic you won’t want to miss.

📩 Members: Check your email or our Members-Only Facebook group for registration details.

Not a member yet? Join today:
newborncarespecialist.org

Let’s clear this up real quick:

🛑 Newborns don’t need strict schedules.
✅ They do benefit from gentle, predictable rhythms.

Rhythms look like familiar sequences — feed, change, cuddle, rest.
Schedules look like stress when babies don’t read the memo.

As Newborn Care Specialists, our role is to help families understand what’s developmentally appropriate, not sell them a fantasy where a 3-week-old sleeps on command.

Structure should support the baby — not the other way around.

Predictability isn’t just comforting — it’s neurological.

When babies experience repeated, responsive patterns, their brains learn:
💡 The world is safe
💡 My needs will be met
💡 I can relax

That’s not spoiling. That’s building regulation from day one.

Calm doesn’t come from forcing independence — it comes from consistency, connection, and caregivers who know when to hold the structure and when to let it bend.

🚨 TONIGHT: Milk, Myths & Member Mingling 🚨

Yes. Tonight. As in… put the bottle warmer down and log in.

If you’ve been craving real conversation with people who understand cluster feeds, overtired babies, and that one family group chat that should absolutely not exist — this is your sign.

Milk, Myths & Member Mingling is our casual NCSA Member Meetup.
No slides.
No CEUs.
No performance reviews.

Just connection, conversation, and community with other Newborn Care Specialists who get it.

Bring:
☕ Coffee
💧 Electrolytes
🍷 Your emotional support beverage
🧺 Laundry you’ve been meaning to fold

Cameras optional. Multitasking encouraged. Scope questions welcome.

Sometimes the most valuable professional development is just remembering you’re not the only one doing this at 3am.

📩 Registration details are in your members’ email or inside the Members-Only Facebook Group.

See you tonight. Let’s mingle.

🧬 Upcoming Webinar: Staying in Scope — Navigating GLP-1 Medications & COVID-19 Conversations with Families

Join us for an important professional conversation with Chris Stallman, MLS, MS, CGC (they/them) from University of Arizona.

Chris serves as Director of MotherToBaby Arizona and Program Director of the Genetic Counseling Graduate Program at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. Since 2009, Chris has worked with MotherToBaby, helping families, patients, and healthcare providers navigate questions about medications, exposures, pregnancy, and breastfeeding using clear, evidence-based guidance.

In this webinar, Chris will explore how newborn care professionals can stay within scope while navigating complex conversations with families, including questions about GLP-1 medications and COVID-19.

With expertise in embryology, teratology, prenatal care, and health literacy, Chris is passionate about improving access to reliable reproductive health information and helping professionals communicate evidence-based information with confidence.

When not working or teaching, Chris enjoys a universally respected form of self-care: watching adorable cat videos on the internet. (Honestly, same.)

✨ This is a valuable learning opportunity for anyone working with newborns and postpartum families.

Today we celebrate women — not just for what we do, but for what we carry.

Women hold families together in the most invisible ways. We regulate nervous systems, translate needs that don’t yet have words, and show up steady in moments that are tender, chaotic, and life-changing.

In newborn care, women lead with skill, science, intuition, and grit. We advocate when it’s uncomfortable. We set boundaries when it would be easier not to. We raise standards in an industry built on trust, professionalism, and care work that has historically been underestimated.

This work is not “natural instinct.”
It’s learned. It’s practiced. It’s earned.

Today we honor the women who mentor, challenge, protect, educate, and elevate — and the ones quietly doing the work when no one is watching.

Strong doesn’t always look loud.
Power doesn’t always look polished.
But it always shows up.

Happy International Women’s Day. 💪✨

🎥 FEBRUARY WEBINAR REPLAY IS LIVE 🎥

Missed it live?
Need to rewatch because your brain was running on caffeine and vibes?
We got you.

Our February webinar dove straight into the heart of the work—connection, attachment, and what responsive care actually looks like in the fourth trimester (not the Instagram version…the real one).

✨ Watch on your own time
✨ Pause, rewind, take notes
✨ Apply it directly to your work with families

This session was thoughtful, practical, and grounded in the kind of care that builds trust and confidence—for parents and professionals.

Free for NCSA members.
Because continuing education should actually support you, not just check a box.

👇 Tell us in the comments: what was your biggest takeaway?

☕🥛 Milk, Myths & Member Mingling: An NCSA Member Meetup

No slides. No CEUs. No pretending you got 8 hours of sleep.

Grab your beverage of choice (coffee, electrolytes, or your emotional support drink of the week) and join us for a relaxed, virtual NCSA Member Meetup created purely for connection and community.

This is your space to:
✨ Talk shop
✨ Swap resources
✨ Share what’s working (and what absolutely is not)
✨ Meet new faces or reconnect with familiar ones
✨ Or just listen in while folding baby laundry for the 47th time

There’s no formal agenda. No presentation. Just real conversations with people who understand night feeds, family dynamics, milk debates, and the “is this normal?” texts at 2am.

Cameras are optional. Multitasking is encouraged. Scope questions are welcome.

Because you are not doing this work alone — even when it feels like you are.

📩 Registration details are in your members’ email or inside the Members-Only Facebook Group.

🌿 Upcoming MEMERS ONLY Webinar: Perinatal Mental Health & Resources from PSI

Join us for an important conversation on perinatal mental health and available support resources with Elizabeth Thomas, MPH, PMH-C, Peer Support Programs Outreach Manager at Postpartum Support International (PSI).

Elizabeth’s journey into this work began after becoming a mother herself. What started as a personal passion grew into a decade of hands-on support as a birth doula and hospital-based lactation consultant, where she also trained other doulas in breastfeeding support through DONA International.

Her experience on the front lines of postpartum care revealed how deeply systems of care and community support impact family outcomes, leading her to pursue a degree in maternal and child health and transition into public health work. Today, Elizabeth focuses on building community support networks, expanding access to care, and connecting families to meaningful mental health resources.

When she’s not working to support families, you can find her curled up with a mystery novel, exploring museums, volunteering in her community, or adventuring with her husband, three kids, a house full of pets, and a rotating cast of foster kittens.

✨ Don’t miss this opportunity to learn more about perinatal mental health, risk factors, and the resources available to support families.

Members check your email or our facebook members only group for registration details.

Not a member? Join today! newborncarespecialist.org

Women’s History Month isn’t about being inspirational — it’s about being recognized.

Women have always done this work.
The caregiving. The teaching. The organizing. The regulating. The advocating.

What’s changed is that we’re finally naming it as skilled, professional, essential labor — not “natural instinct,” not a side role, and definitely not invisible.

In newborn care and beyond, women build systems, raise standards, mentor the next generation, and hold families through the most vulnerable transitions of their lives. We lead with science, compassion, and boundaries — often all at once.

This month, we honor the women who paved the way, the women doing the work now, and the women who will continue pushing this field forward with integrity and intention.

Not because it’s easy.
Because it matters.

🎉 NOW AVAILABLE: Certificates of Attendance

You show up. You learn. You invest in your professional growth — and now it’s officially recognized.

Certificates of Attendance are now available for NCSA webinars, reflecting your participation and commitment to continuing education and professional standards in newborn care.

This update is about more than paperwork. It’s about accountability, growth, and honoring the time and effort you put into staying informed and aligned with best practices. This will also include past recordings!
Members: be on the look out for an email with more details!

Not a member? join today at https://newborncarespecialist.org/

Because showing up matters — and now, it counts.