By Tanya Olson, Conference Coordinator

The 2008 Healthy Birth + Healthy Family Conference sponsored by SDSCO was held this year at the beautiful Crazy Horse Memorial conference center near Custer. Despite the opening day snowstorm on October 10th, many families attended and all of our speakers and vendors cheerfully shared the stormy day with us. We had single sessions all day on Friday and concurrent sessions on Saturday, giving us 14 separate educational sessions! Chiropractor Dr. Laura Prunty kicked off Friday’s session with a fascinating talk on pregnancy nutrition which led very naturally into her second session on chemical stresses on the unborn and newborn. Dr. Prunty was an excellent speaker with practical nutritional advice for everyone trying to improve their diet and health.

If you have never seen dynamic speaker Dr. Ben Rall, we highly recommend attending one of his health education sessions held in Sioux Falls. We were honored to have him and our attendees were enthralled with his talk about antibiotics and how to reduce their use. Dr. Rall presented the research (or lack of research) behind commonly held medical beliefs and practices in a way that kept us on the edge of our seats.

Dr. Rall got us all fired up for “Lobbying for Better Health Care” presented by Dr. Heather Margaret, Debbie Pease and Paul Levijoki which was the perfect introduction for Renee Ann Cramer from Drake University in Des Moines, IA. Ms. Cramer has been researching the homebirth and midwifery movement in preparation for her upcoming book. She gave us a national perspective on this movement and its key players and applauded SDSCO’s commitment and organization; a real pat on the back to all of you who have put in your volunteer time toward our efforts in South Dakota! I found her talk very encouraging and inspirational.

I had so much information swirling around in my head by Friday night that I wasn’t sure anymore would fit on Saturday! Thankfully I was wrong and was ready Saturday morning for Pam Barickman’s presentation on Love and Logic Parenting. Meanwhile Dr, Heather Margaret gave a special extended session on fertility health in another conference room. Dr. Rall returned to show us “Foodmatters” a documentary film on nutrition and lead a discussion about the film and gentle detoxification for better health.

Ola Christenson gave a presentation and demonstration on Craniosacral Therapy for babies and mothers, making it very clear to us all how strong the connection between a mother and child remains throughout childhood. In the main room Debbie Pease presented on the History of Midwives in South Dakota.

While Alaina Kerkove taught a new generation of babywearers the art of babywearing, Vern Thorsentson gave a very interesting talk about wills, trusts and estates for families with children. He removed some of the stigma around wills and talked about the importance of having a will particularly with children still living at home. Closing out Saturday was our enormous silent auction; about twice as big as last year. We even had some Crazy Horse employees bid and win in the auction!

Despite the challenge of the terrible weather, we had many compliments on the conference location, presenters, food, and vendors. I have to admit, the Black Hills does look beautiful with a fresh coat of snow. Many thanks to all who attended, spoke, donated for the silent auction and helped with the organization of the conference. Special Thanks to Treese Morford DeBoer, Chandelle Brink, and Nadine West for putting so much time into organizing and fundraising to make the conference possible.