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Volunteer Director of Business Development for Missing GRACE Foundation, Melissa is also an active member of the Board, serves as moderator for two online GRACE Support Groups, and has chaired the GRACE Conference Planning Committees. Melissa’s involvement began after she and her husband, Jason experienced the loss of their first-born son, Brendan in 2003 due to a umbilical cord issue and their miscarried baby, Hope later that same year. Her subsequent pregnancy, also had a cord issue that was identified through Dr. Collins' monitoring program, and her positive outcome, and the monitoring of daughter Milena, can be observed on the Silent Risk and Medical Educational DVDs. Melissa’s third and forth pregnancies were monitored as well by Dr. Collins with the forth pregnancy resulting in a healthy birth but with a cord issue present.
Melissa received her Bachelor of Arts in History at the University of Minnesota in 1999. She will share about how she has
learned about partnering with her health care providers in three subsequent
pregnancies to advocate for best care. She is currently authoring a book on
this subject for parents.
B2
Session Descriptions:
B2
Protecting Your Pregnancy: Parents will be empowered and given concrete ways to obtain best care and advocate for themselves and their babies while pregnant; through finding a greater understanding of the importance of partnering with care providers, listening to instincts as well as signs and symptoms of fetal stress including options available to moms for care such as home-fetal monitoring.