Stacy Vandenput MARA CPM LM

11/06/2025

November 6, 2025

An essential read from the New York Times today on the widespread use of continuous fetal monitoring and the growing role of AI in interpreting those data streams.

From a records and information management perspective, this isn’t only a clinical problem, it’s a data governance problem.

Every second of electronic fetal monitoring generates protected health information (PHI) that must be stored, transmitted, and interpreted responsibly.

These data are often streamed to remote “monitoring hubs,” sometimes located dozens or hundreds of miles away, raising new questions about chain of custody, secondary data use, HIPAA compliance, data security, and record retention.

Historically, the paper monitor strips, sometimes annotated by nurses, were treated as short-term records, often destroyed within a 30 days despite their evidentiary and medico-legal value. The move to continuous digital monitoring expands this risk exponentially: terabytes of sensitive biometric data now pass through commercial platforms with unclear retention, access, security, and destruction policies.

If we reframe this issue as a records problem, all stakeholders, clinicians, patients, administrators, and vendors — share exposure.

Hospitals that view continuous monitoring as a legal safeguard may, in fact, be multiplying their liability through insecure data flows, ambiguous custodianship, and noncompliance with retention laws.

Sometimes, the data meant to protect can itself become the risk.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/health/electronic-fetal-monitoring-c-sections.html

10/28/2025

Want to know what's really scary?
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10/24/2025

While the snow may not arrive for a little while, we are preparing to support Parkers at Safe Place Parking. Help folks stay warm while navigating the changing season!

Donations are accepted at Wise Women Gathering Place at 2615 S Packerland Drive, Suite B in Green Bay during office hours Monday - Thursday.

Thank you for supporting Safe Place Parking!

10/20/2025

This is an excellent 20-minute piece on living with botched circumcision, approached with humor and a candid look at the author's struggles.

I appreciate the perspective that the circumcision problem is uniquely American, which aligns with the historic narratives about early US medical propaganda around this unnecessary and brutal procedure.

I am inclined to believe those who theorize that some expressions of misogyny arise from feelings of being let down by one's mother due to the brutal act of neonatal circumcision. It instills terror and indexpressible pain when the infant is supposed to be navigating the critical stage of trust. The matrix, the one safe person, life-giving source, is not able able to protect the child from such an ordeal.

It's not an excuse for hatred, but understanding potential sources allows us to work towards at least one kind of solution. Many others are needed. Start with what CAN be done. End ge***al mutilation.

The author opens up—with pathos, humor, and props—about his experience receiving a botched circumcision.

10/18/2025

💜 Safety Planning 💜

Living in a close-knit community can bring unique challenges for those who have been harmed by someone they know. Relationships overlap—family, community, ceremony, work—and that closeness can make it hard to find privacy, safety, or support.

Creating a personal Safety Plan can help. When unsafe moments arise, fear and stress can cloud our thinking. Having a plan already written—with steps, supports, safe places—can help guide what to do next.

🪶 Writing a safety plan can help to create reminders for what matters most when mind or heart feels overwhelmed. A safety plan can be kept in a safe place, along with copies of important documents that may be needed in an emergency.

A Safety Plan helps identify:
• People to call or text for help
• Safe places to go in the community
• Important phone numbers and documents
• How to leave safely, if needed
• What to do to stay safe at home or work

📄 Safety Plan to download and fill in:
https://bit.ly/WWGP-safety-plan

Remember, you are not alone.
You deserve peace. You deserve respect. You deserve belonging.

10/14/2025

Hello Everyone,

I came upon this article and it seems like a potential intervention that could be initiated in the community setting to mitigate hemorrhagic loss while moving to a critical care setting.

I didn't see whether analgesics are a requisite for the procedure, as it may be quite painful, but when a persistent hemorrhage is happening, the temporary pain may be warranted, if not unnoticed due to shock/near shock.

This would be a good topic for a midwive's discussion group to hash out it's viability and/or issues in our OOH settings.

Here is the link. It is an open access, October 2025 journal article.

Vaginal clamping of uterine arteries: a temporary intervention to stop bleeding in postpartum hemorrhage

American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Volume 233, Issue 4, October 2025, Pages 341-344

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2025.06.060

Best,

Stacy V.

09/23/2025

✨ New Blog Post ✨

Since June, I’ve been taking time away after the loss of my beloved partner. As I reestablish my consulting role, I’m sharing my latest piece: a case study on how an independent midwifery practice navigated a Windows 11 system upgrade while securing client records on local devices and from a legacy EMR.

This kind of project highlights the real challenges small practices face when technology deadlines collide with recordkeeping responsibilities.

I’d be grateful if you could take a moment to read, share with your networks, or pass it along to anyone who might find it useful. Thank you for your support as I return to work. 💛

Tag a colleague who’s navigating the Windows 10 retirement!



🔗 stacyvandenput.com/2025/09/23/records-backup-windows11

08/25/2025

Happy Monday Everyone,

📢 New Publication in Archeota!

I’m honored to share my article, “Records Doulas and the Case for Patient Records Advocacy: An Emerging Role for Archivists.”

This piece explores how archivists can support patients and families as they navigate their medical records — helping to make sure their voices are heard, their choices respected, and their records truly serve them.

You can read the full article here:
👉 Link in the comments

08/07/2025

The National Association of Certified Professional Midwives (NACPM) honors and mourns the silencing of generations of Indigenous, Black, immigrant, enslaved, religious and rural midwives whose wisdom, devotion, and embodied care sustained families and communities long before midwifery was institutionalized in the United States. Their knowledge was not lost, but suppressed by colonization, by the rise of medical dominance, and by systems rooted in white supremacy. And yet, that wisdom persists. It lives on in ancestral memory, community care, and the ongoing resistance of midwives who continue to serve outside the bounds of state and institutional recognition.

Read our full statement : https://www.nacpm.org/news/acknowledgement-of-harm-and-national-call-for-decriminalization-of-midwifery

08/03/2025

What We Normalize at Birth Echoes Through Generations

In my decades as a midwife, I’ve witnessed seismic shifts—not only in how labor and delivery are managed, but in how our culture expresses suffering itself.

Epidurals have been routine since the 1980s. Cesareans have accounted for over 1 in 4 births since the 1990s, and over 1 in 3 births since the early 2000s. Nearly every labor involves substances: some to intensify contractions, others to blunt, erase, or manage the increased pain that ensues. Roughly 1 in 10 babies begin life in the NICU.

For most, being born today involves a cocktail of substances known to alter consciousness and trigger overwhelming somatic stress.

Birth is our first rite of passage. It lays the foundation for how we face pain, struggle, and transformation later in life.

Leboyer, Odent, Bradley, Arms, and others warned us: how babies are born matters. Birth imprints not only the mother’s body and psyche, but also the newborn’s developing nervous system and capacity to feel safe in the world.

When entire generations are imprinted with acceleration of their internal body process, followed by numbness, intoxication, and separation from family at the very beginning, is it any wonder that later expressions of pain follow that same pattern? That substance use, disembodiment, and disconnection feel not only familiar—but inevitable?

This isn’t simple cause-and-effect. Trauma, poverty, systemic neglect, and chronic stress all feed the crises we see.

But birth is where we begin.
It’s where we first learn (or don’t learn) that our bodies are wise. That pain can be moved through—not just muted. That difficulty doesn't mean danger. That we are connected in love.

When we strip birth of its depth, its rhythm, its sacred effort, we may also strip away the template for enduring life’s other hard rites of passage.

What if we met birth differently?
Would we meet the rest of life differently, too?

07/24/2025

Calling all photographers! 📸✨

BirthWise Wellness Center is looking to collaborate with a passionate photographer to capture the incredible journey of pregnancy, birth, and those first tender moments afterward.

We are looking for someone who can offer:

Maternity sessions celebrating the beauty of pregnancy

Labor & birth photography (in-home, birth center or hospital) capturing those raw, powerful moments

Fresh 48 sessions to document those precious first days

Our families deeply value these memories, and we’re looking for someone who loves working closely with growing families and understands the sensitivity and respect needed in birth spaces.

If you (or someone you know) would be a great fit, we’d love to connect! Send us your information via DM and we will connect with you soon!