Growing Forward Together

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Ann Arbor, MI
Growing Forward Together

Creating and Advancing Trauma-Specific Education
- Survivor Moms' Companion
- Trauma & Society

03/25/2026

New Course Alert! ✨

We're excited to launch "Provider Update on Perinatal PTSD" — a 2-hour self-paced online course for health and perinatal professionals who want to stay current on the latest research and best practices for screening and supporting perinatal clients experiencing trauma and PTSD.

- 2 CE Contact Hours (NASW MI & ACNM accredited)
- Self-paced & online | 30 days to complete
- Only $24

🔗 Sign up here: https://growingforwardtogether.org/gft-launches-new-provider-update-on-perinatal-ptsd/

03/20/2026

Growing Forward Together is helping expand trauma-informed support for mothers across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

With support from the Superior Health Foundation, partners across the region brought the Survivor Moms’ Companion (SMC) program to the U.P., training doulas and community health workers to better support pregnant and postpartum women who may be survivors of trauma.

🔗 Read the full story in the Superior Health Foundation newsletter: https://lnkd.in/decQAndx

02/09/2026

We're excited to be opening up our next Survivor Moms' Companion (SMC) Tutor Training to the public. It's going to be a virtual training! Anyone who is interested in training to become a SMC Tutor can join. As a bonus, upon completion of SMC tutor training the learner will earn 17 continuing education credits!

The Survivor Moms’ Companion (SMC) Training is a structured, trauma-informed training designed to prepare participants to use the SMC program in their work with birthing people and early parents.

To make the training more accessible, sliding scale pricing is given based on if you are a solo practitioner or a part of an organization. See link for more details. To make the training more personal and interactive, we will cap training at 30 students. So register before March 31st!

To register or to get more information see comment for link! Share this post to share with anyone you know that would be interested in joining this training!

02/06/2026

We have launched a new self-paced online professional development course for perinatal professionals called "Survivor Moms' Companion (SMC) Study Guide." Upon completion of the course, Learners will earn 5 continuing ed credits. 🎉

This course uses Growing Forward Together’s Survivor Moms’ Companion® (SMC) program materials (including the workbooks) as a basis for teaching learners to recognize signs of PTSD in patients and how to help support those patients throughout their pregnancy, birth, and early parenting. The learners will learn how to refer to SMC Tutors or help discern if they themselves want to become a SMC Tutor.

More information at:
https://growingforwardtogether.org/growing-forward-together-launches-new-survivor-moms-companion-study-guide-trauma-education-course-for-perinatal-professionals/

02/04/2026

Here's what a parent had to say about Survivor Moms' Companion program and the impact of a SMC tutor.

Are you interested in becoming a SMC tutor? Stay tuned! We have an announcement to make about an upcoming SMC Training!

01/29/2026

Congrats to our very own Julia Seng! She has been invited to be a keynote speaker at an International Conference in September! The Normal Labor & Birth Conference will be in Berlin, Germany!

Her talk will be about Addressing Traumatic Stress in Pregnancy to Advance Normal Birth

Julia Seng, PhD, CNM, FACNM, FAAN is a nurse-midwife from the U.S. She studies the impact on experience and perinatal outcomes of childhood trauma and complex posttraumatic stress. Currently she is advancing use of interventions for maltreatment-related traumatic stress that can be delivered by perinatal staff (Aka Survivor Moms' Companion!) .

Her talk will cover
--what you need to know about PTSD in pregnancy--including physiology
--theoretical implications for birth, bonding, and lactation
--therapeutic responses for parents with trauma
--gaps in the intrapartum research to fill

If you want to register to attend the conference in person go to https://nlbc-berlin-2026.de

01/26/2026

Having a bad day doesn't mean you're a bad mom. It just mean it was a challenging day! Everyone has bad days. Some feel worse than others especially if you're caring for a baby or a toddler while recovering from birth and exhausted. The hormone fluctuations during pregnancy and postpartum doesn't help! No wonder why parents feel overwhelmed. It is a lot to raise a kid(s)!

If you find that you have more bad days than good, then it may be a good time to ask for more support, learn coping strategies (our Survivor Moms Companion does this!), and if you are worried about the way you feel on most days - talk to a mental health professional or your doctor about options.

01/23/2026

ACOG (American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists) has chosen "Holding Ground on Maternal Health" as the theme for their observance of this day. They asked for community and organizations to share how they're helping to hold ground on maternal health.

We're holding the ground by our flagship program - Survivor Moms' Companion. We know that trauma held in the body can impact pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience. We have a program that helps pregnant moms and those who are in the "early parenting" stage to help address this by empowering them to recognize what may be happening in their own bodies, to practice coping strategies, improve communication skills with their medical provider, and feel more confident as parents. This can be a heavy topic which is why each parent goes through the program with a "Tutor" who goes through the chapters at the parent's pace. This program improves the mental health of those parents while increasing their confidence level as parents.

01/20/2026

Nurses - do you need Continuing Ed hours? Consider taking one of ours! "Trauma-Informed Care and Pain Management in Labor and Delivery" is 3 contact/credit hours.

The bonus is that this course meets the 2-hour annual pain and pain management education requirement for RN license renewal in some states. 🎉

https://growingforwardtogether.org/professional-development/tic-and-pain-management/

01/15/2026

Did you know that the “4 trimesters” of the childbearing year—from early pregnancy to the postpartum period—is the ideal time to break the cycle of abuse and maltreatment?

Survivor Moms' Companion is a unique program that teach survivor moms coping strategies to minimize their symptoms of trauma in their body to enable them to be more present for their kids.

01/13/2026

Let's help out the pregnant and newly postpartum moms who will see this post! What advice would you give to a new mom? What's something you wish you heard before you become a mom? Share in the comments!

Address

1684 Warren Road
Ann Arbor, MI
48105

Telephone

+17342727653

Website

https://www.growingforwardtogether.org/

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