AFE Courses
Knowledge and skills to help you make critical decisions when seconds matter
We are grateful to work alongside our clinician colleagues to enhance their knowledge of amniotic fluid embolism.
The educational content we provide is focused on:
- Increasing readiness to treat and support the AFE patient, their families, and one another during and after an AFE event.
- Equipping providers on their role in supporting vital clinical research needed to prevent, predict, and treat AFE.
Amniotic Fluid Embolism: A Practical Approach
This on-demand, self-paced 3-hour course will provide the foundational learnings needed to properly respond to an AFE. The course is designed for all scopes of practice including labor and delivery nurses, midwives, obstetricians, anesthesia providers, critical care, and emergency or code team responders.
Taught by leading experts in critical care obstetrics this course covers:
- General Understanding
- Pathophysiology
- Clinical Presentation
- Treatment and Management
- Diagnostic Criteria
- How to Best Support Patients and their Family
- Specimen Submission to Biorepository
- Case Enrollment into AFE Registry
This activity has been evaluated and approved by the Continuing Education Approval Program of the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health for 3.0 continuing education contact hours including 0.5 hours of pharmacology content. NPWH Activity number 23-11. CA CEP Number 13411.
Disclaimer: NPWH and AFE Foundation are committed to ensuring that educational activities are balanced, free from commercial bias, and product promotion. Any commercial products, goods or services displayed or discussed during this CE activity should not be interpreted to imply endorsement by NPWH and the AFE Foundation.
AFE Simulation Implementation (Coming July 2024)
An in-depth review of our AFE Simulation Toolkit which offers foundational learnings needed to properly and effectively respond to an AFE. The course is designed for healthcare educators and those providing simulation based training. It is recommended to take the AFE: A Practical Approach course prior to any AFE simulation based training.
Taught by leading experts in critical obstetrics this course covers:
- Overview of Simulation Based Training
- Ways to Use the Toolkit
- Preparing for SBT
- Role of Deliberate Practice
- Using the AFE Checklist
- Scenario Review and Use
- Facilitating Debriefs
- Establishing Simulation Metrics
- Analyzing your Simulation Based Training
Course Instuctors
Stephanie Martin, D.O.
OB Critical Care, Course Instructor
Dr. Martin is Medical Director and co-owner of Clinical Concepts in Obstetrics, LLC. Through her consulting business she helps hospitals develop obstetric intensive care programs and improve care for critically ill pregnant women. She is also co-host of The Critical Care Obstetrics Podcast which has reached #4 on the Apple Podcast Charts in Medicine. In addition to her extensive clinical experience caring for critically ill obstetric patients, Dr Martin has helped lead and develop MFM practices in several states. Her passion for educating has also led to her role as Course Director for America’s Board Review MFM Oral Board Exam Review Course, helping MFM candidates prepare for the oral board examination.
She received her medical degree from the University of North Texas Health Science Center, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Ft. Worth. She completed her residency in OB/GYN at the University of California Irvine Medical Center where she also completed a fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine. She is board certified in MFM and OB/GYN.
She has served on the Board of Directors for the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and as Chairman of the Membership and Bylaws Committee. She is also a reviewer for several esteemed journals, including the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Martin’s particular clinical interests involve medical and surgical complications of pregnancy and critical care in obstetrics. She has authored numerous book chapters and articles and is a highly sought after speaker on Critical Care in Obstetrics.
Suzanne Baird, DNP, RN
OB Critical Care Nursing, Course Instructor
Dr. Suzanne McMurtry Baird is a graduate of Rush College of Nursing's DNP Executive Leadership track and Vanderbilt University MSN and BSN programs. Dr. Baird has extensive clinical experience in obstetrical nursing and currently works as a consultant with her company, Clinical Concepts in Obstetrics, LLC. Previously, Dr. Baird served as the Maternal Quality Improvement Specialist for the Tennessee Initiative for Perinatal Quality Care, as an Assistant Director of Nursing for Clinical Program Development at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, taught obstetric and critical care nursing at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, and worked in L&D at Vanderbilt Medical Center. Dr. Baird has served on numerous programs for AWHONN including CCOE and PEOP modules author and editor, review of the Obstetric Triage toolkit, the Implementation of Evidence Based Practice Advisory Board, and served on the Board of Directors. She is an editor/author for the 5th edition of the textbook Intrapartum Management Modules and AWHONN’s High Risk and Critical Care, 4th edition textbook, and has a podcast - The Critical Care Obstetric Podcast.
Julie Arafeh, RN
Simulation Course Instructor
Julie Arafeh received a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Evansville in Indiana and a master’s degree in perinatal nursing from Indiana University in Indianapolis. In the more than 40 years Ms. Arafeh has been in Obstetrical nursing, she has worked in a wide range of settings caring for low risk to high-risk women including working as an advanced practice nurse in an OB-ICU in both in-patient and out-patient settings.
Ms. Arafeh has been a national speaker on a variety of obstetrical topics since 1989. The topics of her publications include sepsis, cardiac disease in pregnancy, maternal cardiac arrest and simulation-based training. Ms. Arafeh was a member of the multidisciplinary obstetric simulation team at Packard Children’s Hospital on the Stanford University campus for over 15 years and has served as a simulation expert for the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative. She is a member of the expert panel for Obstetric Life Support (OBLS), a national certification course under development on maternal cardiac arrest.
Ms. Arafeh is currently Simulation Director for Clinical Concepts in Obstetrics and is a Simulation Specialist in Obstetrics at the Center for Advanced Pediatric and Perinatal Education at Stanford University.
Miranda Klassen
Founder/ Executive Director
Miranda Klassen is the Executive Director of the Amniotic Fluid Embolism Foundation, a non-profit organization she founded in 2008 after surviving an AFE during the birth of her son. Miranda is the co-investigator for the Amniotic Fluid Embolism Registry and Biorepository. She has authored several papers including the Support After Severe Maternal Event AIM Safety Bundle. Additionally, Miranda serves as the patient advocate for the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative, Institute for Perinatal Quality Improvement, and the National Obstetric Life Support Program. She is also a reviewer for the Pregnancy Associated Mortality Review for the state of CA. Miranda is the co-founder of MoMMA’s Voices, a national coalition of maternal health advocacy organizations training and matching maternal health advocates to safety and quality initiatives.
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