IPOV Secondment Supports Hospital Training for a New Generation of Healthcare Professionals in Argentina

On 3 September 2026, the Hospital Materno Infantil de San Isidro, together with Nacer con Amor, is hosting the Hospital Training Sessions “Knowledge for a New Generation”, an educational initiative aimed particularly at sixth-year medical students from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and residents in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the institution.

The session takes place from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in Buenos Aires and provides a space for training, reflection and professional exchange around pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period.

The programme approaches maternity and perinatal care from a perspective that combines physiology, scientific evidence, respect, empathy and practices capable of transforming healthcare. Particular emphasis is placed on connecting evidence-based clinical practice with respectful care and on encouraging future healthcare professionals to critically reflect on how maternity services can respond more effectively to the needs, experiences and rights of women and pregnant people.

An IPOV secondment connecting Barcelona and San Isidro

The training session is organised within the framework of the secondment of Dr Alba Casellas, obstetrician at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, at the Hospital Materno Infantil de San Isidro in Argentina.

Her stay forms part of IPOV – International Platform on Obstetric Violence, a European research and knowledge-exchange project implemented under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Staff Exchanges (MSCA-SE) programme.

Secondments are a central component of the IPOV project. They enable researchers, healthcare professionals and other members of participating organisations to spend periods working within partner institutions in different countries. Through these exchanges, the project promotes international and interdisciplinary knowledge transfer, mutual learning and the sharing of professional experiences and good practices.

Dr Casellas’ secondment offers an opportunity to connect the clinical experience of Vall d’Hebron University Hospital with the work carried out at the Hospital Materno Infantil de San Isidro, while also creating spaces where this knowledge can be shared with professionals at different stages of their careers.

Bringing respectful care into medical education

One of the most significant dimensions of the initiative is its focus on students and residents who are still developing their professional practice.

Transforming maternity care does not depend exclusively on introducing new protocols or clinical procedures. It also requires addressing how future healthcare professionals are trained, which values are incorporated into clinical decision-making, and how communication, respect and patient autonomy are understood within everyday practice.

By engaging medical students and residents directly, the sessions seek to encourage an approach to obstetric and perinatal care in which scientific evidence and clinical expertise are integrated with respectful communication, empathy and recognition of patients’ rights.

This educational dimension is closely aligned with IPOV’s broader objective of contributing to the development of respectful, evidence-based and rights-centred maternity care, while facilitating dialogue between healthcare practice, research and professional education.

Knowledge exchange as a tool for change

The “Knowledge for a New Generation” sessions illustrate how international staff exchanges can generate impact beyond the professionals directly participating in a secondment.

Knowledge acquired and exchanged during these stays can be transferred to students, residents, clinical teams and institutions, creating opportunities for wider reflection on how maternity care is organised and delivered.

In this way, the secondment becomes not only an individual professional experience but also a mechanism for institutional learning, capacity building and the dissemination of practices that support respectful care.

The initiative reflects a fundamental principle behind this work: improving the experience of pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period also requires investing in the education of those who will provide care in the future.

Because another way of being born is also built by teaching another way of caring.

Event schedule

Thursday, 3 September 2026

• 8:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. — Argentina & Uruguay
• 5:30–9:00 a.m. — Costa Rica
• 12:30–4:00 p.m. — United Kingdom
• 1:30–5:00 p.m. — Spain, France, Italy & the Netherlands