Connect with your QMNC Community – Watch Party with Melissa Cheney

Learn about current research and deepen your connections in the QMNC research community at our first-ever watch party!

Feel free to wear your casual clothes, grab a cup of tea (or even a glass of wine!) and join us for a small gathering (limited to 25 participants). At each watch party, we will hear from a researcher on a recent article and enjoy a relaxed conversation about the presentation.

As this will be our first presentation, expect this to be a “beta” version where we learn more about what works well – and how to improve our watch parties in the future.

At this watch party, Melissa Cheyney will be presenting on pre-gravid obesity and cesarean birth rates by birth setting and provider type. For this study, Cheyney and colleagues created a propensity score matched cohort of 59,800 community and hospital births from the Midwives Alliance of North America Statistics Project (2004–2009) and the Consortium on Safe Labor (2002–2008) datasets and compared the effects of pre-gravid obesity (body mass index ≥30) on cesarean birth rates by planned place of birth and provider type at the onset of labor. Results highlight the effects of fat stigma and provider bias relative to inherent risk among birthing people of size. This research aligns with priorities 1 (Midwifery and Other Care Models) and 2 (Optimizing Childbearing Physiology).

In this 90-minute session, expect 30 minutes of presentation and one hour of discussion, facilitated by Micknai Arefain.

Micknai Arefaine (she/they) is a cultural organizer, educator, chef, and doula. She holds a Masters in Applied Anthropology from Oregon State University. She is the owner of Za Gualay Consulting, where she works with organizations that are looking for deeply transformative and holistic experiences that center justice, equity, belonging, healing, and dismantling the systems of oppression.

Speaker: Melissa Cheyney PhD, LDM, Professor of Clinical Medical Anthropology at Oregon State University (OSU); co-director, Uplift Lab; co-chair, QMNC Interim Steering Committee.

Free, registration is limited to 25 participants. Register HERE