Grassroots Network: PushNews Response to ACOG

Dear Friends,

Following up on ACOG’s anti-home birth press release, The Big Push Campaign has posted a press release--"ACOG: Out of touch with Needs of Childbearing Families." It does not address every objectionable point in the ACOG press release, but it presents a strong message that is positive about home birth and challenges ACOG’s position.

I will still post more “talking points” later tonight or tomorrow. It will be interesting to see just how much press attention ACOG’s press release actually gets…

Sincerely,
Susan Hodges, “gatekeeper”
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A few quotes from the PushNews press release:

"Trade Union claims out-of-hospital birth is “trendy;”
tries to play the “bad mother” card"

“'It will certainly come as news to the Amish and other groups in this country who have long chosen home birth that they’re simply being ‘trendy’ or ‘fashionable,’” said Katie Prown, PhD, Campaign Manager of The Big Push for Midwives 2008. “The fact is, families deliver their babies at home for a variety of very valid reasons, either because they’re exercising their religious freedom, following their cultural traditions or because of financial need. These families deserve access to safe, quality and affordable maternity care, just like everyone else.”

"Besides referring to home birth as a fashionable “trend” and a “cause célèbre” that families choose out of ignorance, ACOG’s latest statement adds insult to injury by claiming that women delivering outside of the hospital are bad mothers who value the childbirth “experience” over the safety of their babies."

"The Big Push for Midwives calls on ACOG to abandon these outdated policies and work with CPMs to reduce the cesarean rate and to take meaningful steps towards reducing racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes in all regions of the United States. CPMs play a critical role in both cesarean prevention and in the reduction of low-birth weight and pre-term births, the two most preventable causes of neonatal mortality."

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