October 2016

Newsletter
Newsletter Editor Dr Heather Rowe
Logo based on painting by Omar Biscotti

Presidents Report
Dear ISPOG members,
In May of this year at the occasionof our triennial international
congress I have taken over thepresidency of our society. Thanks
to all of you for your confidence
and your support!
First of all, I want to thank Carlos
Damonte Khouri, my predecessor
and our immediate past-president for his tirelessengagement for and his dedication to ISPOG, not only
during his presidency, but also in the years before as
secretary general and as president elect. He is anextremely skilled networker and has built a perfect basis
for me as his successor. Together with the national
Spanish POG society, he also organised our ISPOG
congress in Málaga. Find below a report authored byClare Willocks about her personal impression of thisevent. I am very grateful to Carlos for all he did for us,
not only as a precious and loyal colleague, but also asa good friend to me.
Aside from building up on Carlos’ achievements, myfocus during the term of my presidency will be on
expanding our initiatives in education.
There were some changes in the ISPOG board: while the
Past President Marieke Paarlberg joined the Board ofFellows, the Treasurer post was handed over from Beate
Wimmer-Puchinger to Vivan Pramataroff-Hamburger
from Germany and Leroy Edozien from the UK joined us
as the new President Elect. I am happy that I still have
Heather Rowe on board and at my side, who was reelected to the responsible position of our Secretary
General for another term. I am also glad that we
officially have the support of three elected Members-atLarge now: Dov Feldberg from Israel for international
relations, Jonathan Schaffir from the USA for education
and Jacqueline Pieters from the Netherlands forcommunications.
A major aim of ISPOG is to facilitate communication
between us health professionals and our patients, butalso among ourselves. This is a precondition to shareknowledge and to make available education andtraining in psychosomatic skills to all our members andall health professionals who are engaged in women’s
health. The internet and the ISPOG website are thebuilding blocks to make available educational offerings
worldwide to everyone interested.

During the past months my efforts were in giving our
website a new look and updating the information. Thisaction is still in progress, but I invite you to have a firstlook at it!
Our intention is that the homepage becomes a lively
platform for exchange among us and with all healthprofessionals interested in psychosomatic andpsychosocial obstetrics and gynecology. We intend topost regular news updates, which might be interestingfor our members, to inform about current and future
congresses, which are relevant for us, as well as
education modules.
We also invite you to contribute actively! Under the term
“education” on our homepage you will find our
educational aims and an outline of our idea of an Elearning academy. There is more detailed informationon the current activities of the educational committee
in the section on education in this Newsletter.
Aside from or in addition to the internet there are otherimportant media to share clinical experience andscientific knowledge.
For ISPOG this is first of all our journal the JPOG. We arevery grateful to Pauline Slade and Shaughn O’Brian,
who resigned end September of this year, for their
engagement
as
Editors-in-Chief.
A
detailed
acknowledgment of their work is in Carlos Damonte’s
separate report below. At present, applications for thepost of new Editors are under evaluation and we hopethat we will soon be able to announce a new pair ofEditors-in-Chief.
There is not only our journal, however: I am very pleased
to inform you about the launch of a very practical textbook
onbio-psycho-social
Obstetrics
andGynaecology edited by Marieke Paarlberg and Harryvan de Wiel (see more detailed information below).
To conclude, we can look back on remarkableachievements and look ahead to a promising end of
the current and start of the next year. We will be backto you with the next Newsletter at the latest in the firstmonths of 2017. This next newsletter will be dedicatedmainly to the reports of the national societies, morenews about education and an outlook on what’s up in
2017, including our ExCo-meeting during the World
Congress of Women’s Mental Health in Dublin fromMarch 6-9.
Last but not least and in order to keep in touch without
obstacles, please be aware that we have a new
Email address: admin@ispog.org
Sibil Tschudin
President of ISPOG

Special
Acknowledgment
and Gratitude
As President of ISPOG in the last
3 years’ period and of the
Málaga International ISPOG
Conference 2016 and in thename of the Board and all
members I want to thank very
specially to four VIPs in our organization, Marieke, Beate,
Pauline and Shaugn.
Dr Karen Marieke Paarlberg, The Netherlands,
Gynecologist and Perinatologist, has been the mostactive and helpful Immediate Past President ISPOG has
ever had. At the same time, she was immersed in thegreat task of producing a practical Book on
Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynaecology, she hascollaborated with the Board, participated actively inthe meetings and was a brilliant speaker in many
Congresses all over the world. All of this was done in her
style: positive, practical, avoiding conflicts andfacilitating the officers’ work.
Dear Marieke, thank you for being such a goodcompanion, long life to your Book and all the successyou deserve, welcome to the ISPOG Board of Fellows as
the youngest member!
Prof Beate Wimmer-Puchinger, Austria, ClinicalPsychologist, Gender and Public Health Expert, has
contributed immensely to ISPOG financial stability. In her
first term as Treasurer she worked hard to formalize thelegal address of the Society. She agreed to take on thetask again after the resignation of Barbara Maier. This
was a relief for myself, the Board and the Society in adifficult moment. Dear Beate please feel our gratitude,and extend it to your efficient secretary Gerda Matejik.
It is always good to have your knowledge and will to
help.
Prof Pauline Slade, UK, Professor and Consultant ofClinical Psychology has been very committed with thebest possible relationship between ISPOG and theJPOG, our official Journal. She also presented her workin our Congresses and Symposia everywhere. Within her
term as Secretary General she negotiated successfully awithdrawal from the previous status, which had beenclearly disadvantageous for our organization. In the last
three years as Editor–in-Chief the Journal achieved a
50% increase in the Impact Factor and a big increase insubscriptions, including the “online” one with a very
reasonable price for ISPOG members. She instituted
several important strategy initiatives, like theappointment of Associate Editor to manage workload
and broaden theprofessional basis of the editorial team; clear
contractual arrangements with publisher support ofmanaging editor, which was previously ISPOG’s
responsibility, statistical review of all papers prior to
publication, etc. Thank you very much Pauline for all ofthese achievements.
Prof Shaugn O’Brien, UK, Professor in Obstetrics andGynecology, has been an excellent joint Editor-in-Chiefand helped with his work and ideas the achievements
led by Pauline, at the same time he actively contributed
to the successful management of the British POG
Society and its recognition by the Royal College ofObstetricians and Gynaecologists. Thankyou Shaugn foryour collaboration and your participation in our Málaga
Congress.
Carlos Damonte Khoury
Ob Gyn. Spain
ISPOG Past President

Announcement of
The New JPOG Editors
Taylor and Francis, the publishers of JPOG haveundertaken a rigorous search and recruitment process,and interviewed a short list of candidates for the joint
Editors-in-Chief of the journal. The final decision isimminent and a special announcement will be made assoon as the successful candidates are known.

Education
By Jonathan Schaffir
The ISPOG Educational Committee had a meeting at
the occasion of the ISPOG congress in Málaga. It has
been discussing how to provide instruction on
psychosomatic elements of women’s health to ourmembers. They propose to issue brief modules on avariety of topics that will be focused, case-based, andpractical. These modules would be peer-reviewed by
specialty editors, and accessible on the society’s
website under a separate heading of educational
modules. ISPOG members with expertise in particularareas will be invited to submit modules for review. A
description of the module format and a first sample
version can be found on our ISPOG website. Other
examples of formats for less clinical areas may follow.
Here is an example of what a module may look like:
Please follow the link here:
http://www.ispog.org/education/educational-modules

ISPOG 18th International
Congress - Building Bridges toBetter Care - a Personal
Reflection
By Clare Willocks
I had no doubt about whether I would to sign up or not
for the 18th ISPOG Congress in Málaga, having
thoroughly enjoyed the 16th and 17th ISPOG
Congresses in Venice and Berlin respectively. I did notwant to miss out on this one in “sunny” Spain. My
expectations (other than for brilliant and un-relenting
sunshine) were all fulfilled. Perhaps the rain was just as
well, as the hotel I chose and the auditorium were
opposite the beach, and I might have missed some ofthe educational aspects in pursuit of sun, but I was
pleased to catch a few great rainbow pictures! Malaga
as a city has so much more to offer than just sunshine,
and you could spend days there learning about thehistory of the city and visiting all the art museums. The
conference venue was the beautiful Centro Civico,
apparently a paediatric sanatorium in a past life.
I have been a member BSPOGA since 2010 (Secretaryfrom 2010-2015), and aware of the strong need to foster
links with international societies and meet othercolleagues who share similar aims – to improveawareness, recognition and healthcare for women
during their reproductive lives.
I was privileged to join the pre and post ISPOG ExComeetings and the General Assembly which helped melearn more about the society, collaboration with otherorganisations including FIGO , EBCOG and NASPOG,
and to welcome new members from exciting places
such as Brazil, Turkey, Slovenia, Russia and Dubai, not tomention ISPOG’s ambassadorial activities in recruiting
new member “states”!
ISPOG has always attracted me, understanding a
different model of care in Europe, with strong input frompsychiatry and psychology, which are often integrated
into Obstetrics and Gynaecology practices - many
clinicians being dual trained. I would dearly like to see
us building more bridges towards greater integration
between psyche and soma and invite more body
workers (not just physiotherapists) who have a goodunderstanding of the physical, emotional andpsychological aspects of women’s reproductive health.
So what did I choose to attend?
In the pre-congress Train the Trainer - dealing with thedifficult patient workshop, it was great to meet likeminded multi-professional colleagues from Australia,
Austria, Norway Russia, Slovenia, Spain, NL, Switzerland,
and I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction between us.
We look forward to receiving the presentations by email
to help us prepare our own

workshops. Participants all received a pocket card withhandy acronyms - which you will learn if you attend the
Joint BSPOG/RCOG workshop on 31 March 2017!
I then heard Croatia present on fetal programming andepigenetics and, being patriotic, attended the British(BSPOGA) symposium - interventions to promote
perinatal wellbeing. The lecture on Personal Academies
with Harry van der Weil was for me the most
motivational. His vision is for a massive open online
course / ISPOG wiki, incorporating elements of knowhow (competency), content and clinical reasoning. “Ifyou can dream it, build it!”. The forthcoming Springer
textbookon
BioPsychosocial
Obstetrics
andGynaecology – a Competency Based Approach is agood example of what can be achieved.
A keynote lecture then followed entitled “Psychologicaland biological response to traumatic stress in women”.
My main memory of this was the picture of the presenter- Miranda Olff (NL) parachuting - with the caption “I
happen to like stress”, highlighting that the physiology ofstress can build resilience! Then the Australia POG
society symposium on pelvic pain- beyond infection, thesymposium on expectations and birth, and ourcolleagues from Austria on influences on CS decision
making. I would then have liked to go to cancer
survivorship (NL) but was drawn to other go to the other
NL symposium on trauma, helping us understand how
we can prevent traumatic delivery experiences. It is “notnecessarily the intervention but the way it was handled”.
This was then followed by the innovative and muchneeded Mind to Care web-based intervention
developed by ISPOG Past President Marieke Paarlberg
and colleagues on screening for vulnerabilities in the
Netherlands.
The Friday started at 0830 with the Netherlands again,
this time on vaginal penetration disorders and the pelvic
floor, covering sexual pain disorders and the efficacy oftherapist aided exposure for reduction in fear andavoidance of coitus, something I was required to attend
after stating my wish for more integration with oursomatic therapists! Needless to say it was excellent andthought provoking.
Presentations recognised the importance of fathers andthe need to engage partners in childbirth, and posttraumatic stress among fathers following childbirth.
Unfortunately, I was so engaged in these topics that I
then missed most of Denise Defey (Uruguay) - always apassionate and engaging speaker.
I went to my second workshop of the Congress - Tools for
wellbeing and prevention of burnout and stress in birthattendants. This was absolutely excellent with thoughtfulreflection and discussion, the archetypal divisions
between obstetrician and midwife, and the importanceof the culture of the workplace in an organisation that
responds to stress. It is important that we focus on
positive aspects of the care we provide – saving
women’s lives.
Topics throughout the day included PMS, termination ofpregnancy, the Spanish symposia, psycho-oncology,
and a joint Sweden / USA symposium on theidentification and therapeutic management of
traumatic relations among vulnerable patients – theTiger in the Room! And yes, I managed to catch someof the oral communications, and see the last of theposters on the Saturday before the EBCOG – ISPOG joint
symposium too!
With such a great program, I have not yet mentioned
the social events – which included a great pre-congressdinner in the Restaurant José Carlos García – mostdefinitely the first time I have seen a garden growing on
the walls! I enjoyed the Flamenco dancing in the
opening ceremony, and the congress dinner outing to
the beach (thankfully in an inside restaurant as theweather was rather forbidding!) was a wonderful, warmand friendly event.
All in all, it was a fantastic Congress. The
accommodation and transport links were excellent,
although sadly there was little time to spend wandering
around Malaga as I had to get back to work, taking timeout of course for the RCOG congress in June where
BSPOGA hosted a symposium.
ISPOG Seoul 2019, here we come!

Psychosomatic Medicine inGermany: More Timely Than Ever
This is an interesting article contributed by Professor
Heribert Kentenich, Germany. It is an outline of thehistory and practice of psychosomatic medicine inGermany. An interesting read, and food for thought for
those interested in the meanings of the term
‘psychosomatic’
Stephan Zipfe, Wolfgang Herzog, Johannes Kruse, Peter
Henningsen. Psychosomatic medicine in Germany:
More Timely than ever. Psychother Psychosom
2016;85:262–269 DOI: 10.1159/000447701

Marieke Paarlberg, Past ISPOG President andHarry van de Wiel, Past Editor-in-Chief of the
Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology areproud to announce that the book written withmany other contributing ISPOG members will
be launched later this year:
Bio-psycho-social Obstetrics and Gynaecology
A Competency-oriented Approach
Editors: Paarlberg, K Marieke, van de Wiel, Harry B.M.
(Eds.)
Explains
bio-psycho-social
care provision through aproblem-oriented and casebased
approach.
Emphasizes the role ofeffective
communication
andmultidisciplinary
collaboration.
Providesnumerous tips of practicalvalue to the busy clinician.
This book will assist the reader
by providing individually
tailored, high-quality biopsycho-socialcaretopatients with a wide range ofproblems within the fields ofobstetrics, gynaecology, fertility, oncology, andsexology. Each chapter addresses a particular theme,
issue, or situation in a problem-oriented and case-basedmanner that emphasizes the differences between
routine and bio-psycho-social care. Relevant facts andfigures are presented, advice is provided regarding the
medical, psychological, and caring process, andcontextual aspects are discussed. The book offers
practical tips and actions within the bio-psycho-social
approach, and highlights important do’s and don’ts. To
avoid a strict somatic thinking pattern, the importanceof communication, multidisciplinary collaboration, andcreation of a working alliance with the patient isemphasized. The book follows a consistent format,
designed to meet the needs of challenged clinicians.
ISBN 978-3-319-40404-2
For more information see:
http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319404028
www.ispog.org

New ISPOG email address
Please note that as part of the website upgrade,
ISPOG now has a dedicated email address.
Please use this address for all future correspondence:admin@ispog.org