COMING SOON
Restorative Peer Review™
A TRAINING IN A TECHNOLOGY - An Internal Accountability System
Restorative Peer Review ™ as a Foundational Concept grew out of our own review experiences - both positive and negative. The development of the framework is based on understanding that a healthy review can lead to growth while a dysfunctional one can lead to increased trauma for the midwife, birth team, and community. With careful attention to creating an environment that fosters vulnerability, Restorative Peer Review ™ has been structured to promote introspection by reviewing birth experiences with curiosity, rather than a judgmental attitude
To increase access to Restorative Peer Review ™ options, Foundational Concepts for Midwives is committed to training facilitators who achieve core competencies in Restorative Practice Principles, Consensus Decision-Marking, Systems Thinking, and Trauma-Informed Strategies. A Restorative Peer Review ™ Facilitator Certification course is in development and will be available soon
We aren't looking to place blame, or to award a gold star - we are striving for community accountability
Systematic Breakdown of the story
Gather your team once more to go through the details
Tell the story, see what was done well, and what knowledge gaps or system breakdown occured
Invitations for continued growth and team development
Follow up meetings to mentor and deepen your findings if applicable
We recognize that accountability through peer review is at the heart of community midwifery and is a key to maintaining integrity within this sacred vocation. Based on the principles of restorative practice - restoration, voluntarism, neutrality, safety, accessibility, respect - Restorative Peer Review ™ uses a Restorative Justice approach to shift responsibility inward to the midwifery and birth community as an alternative to external accountability systems
MEET the facilitators and teachers
Rowan & Sarita
60+ years of Traditional Midwifery Experience combined with Osteopathy insights
Education and Restoration are our top priorities
Action steps for how to continue growing
Who This is For
TRADITIONAL MIDWIVES
MIDWIVES SEEKING RESTORATIVE FEEDBACK NOT PUNITIVE critisicm
registered MIDWIVES
ANYONE STRIVING TO PROVIDE ETHICALLY DRIVEN CARE
U.S. AND OUT OF COuNTRY MIDWIVES
BIRTHKEEPERS
TRADITIONAL BIRTH ATTENDANTS
DOULAS
ANYONE WILLING TO question what they THINK THEY know
The purpose of Restorative Peer Review ™ is practice improvement through identifying system breakdowns and/or knowledge gaps that can be addressed. A Restorative Peer Review ™ is intentionally planned and facilitated to give the midwife and birth team the opportunity to discuss their experience within a container of confidentiality and safety that allows us to learn together with room for asking the hard questions. Restorative Peer Review ™ concludes with a facilitated consensus decision leading to recommendations for action steps to close any identified knowledge gaps and/or remedy any system breakdowns
From Past RPR PARTICIPANTS
Learning the technology of a Restorative Peer Review as taught by Rowan and Sarita has been a game changer for me. I’ve been blessed to have been held twice in this sacred container and have also been a part of a few others for other midwives.
These are not just mere punitive reviews that we typically see being held elsewhere. They really are a sacred and safe space for a Midwife to share her story fully and openly, while being witnessed, loved and supported by her peers.
The stories are received without judgement and in their entirety and wholeness. We try to be in the same room with the person sharing the story and understand their emotional and thought processes. We strive to see where the person has already learned some lessons. And then we try to see if there have been any system breakdowns and whether or not we would recommend further education or exploration.
For me, restorative means in a way that health and wholeness can be regained. Especially for us who tend to families within the childbearing continuum, and specifically during the time of birth where the potential for very intense events to happen is high, events that may reignite or be interpreted as trauma by our bodies.
By way of participating, holding or being held in a container like this, a Midwife who has been through a very intense situation has the opportunity to stop and take an honest brave look at the situation and see where there has been growth and where new learning and understandings can happen. This way, she can look back and learn from her story and support or start her healing process, thus restoring her wholeness.
For me, this is a most loving and respectful way of holding stories and the carriers of those stories, the birth attendants, the midwives, so that we all continue to grow collectively, thus taking further small steps to heal the current nervous system of midwifery in general. Sarita likes to say we learn midwifery mostly from stories and it’s true. Because everyone taking part in a RPR learns from the stories shared. In addition to that, we also learn to be and stay more human, fostering power within instead of power over and deepening sisterly bonds, so necessary for the continuation of this ancient art of midwifery.
- Anonymous Traditional Midwife
The Restorative Peer Review process is every bit as brilliant as it sounds. Complementary to the Restorative Justice model, it upholds a similar ethos that is deeply needed in the midwifery community. Current peer review practices are often lacking substance at best, and are actively harmful at worst. In contrast, the Restorative Peer Review model offers accountability, compassion, and community weaving — the kind of relationship-centered modeling that midwifery truly needs. Participating in this process felt like a warm hug paired with a deeper understanding of my skills and areas for reflection. If you’re seeking peer review that genuinely transforms your care, look no further.
- Sarah Braun
I've experienced several RPRs over the years, and each time I'm invited in, I learn more. More for my own practice and more on how to bring this into my own community for accountability and restoration. My practice protocols have shifted and my knowledge gets broadened. I'm constantly challenged towards betterment - it's truly something else to have elders invest in you and truly care
- Anonymous Traditional Midwife
I am so grateful for the time and effort that the Foundational Concepts team put in for our peer review. We were able to tell our story, without being interrupted, or talked down to. I was given the opportunity to go in to depth on how the labor and birth experience unfolded, and what was felt intuitively in those intense moments. I felt so seen and held by these women. And I walked away from this peer review feeling like I could stand confidently on my own two feet again. I am so grateful to have a team of women with integrity, and who truly want Midwives to succeed.
The work you women are doing is unmatched, thank you for all that you do ladies
- Kirsten T., Traditional Midwife
What I have witnessed with the monthly Restorative Peer Review in this group is that each storyteller is reflective and learning something from the experience they are sharing.
- FC Collective Participant and Traditional Midwife
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