Saturday, February 2, 2008

Trust Birth Initiative

I discovered the Trust Birth Initiative several years ago through their "Take Birth Back" movement which meshes nicely with birth activism and also with supporting consumer interests in birth (the basic activity of "Take Birth Back" is handing out awareness cards on Labor Day). I distributed several hundred cards during 2006 (see image to right--front and back of card shown side by side).

Inspired by this card idea, advocates in Missouri designed a card for our own awareness-raising efforts for midwifery legislation. We distributed more than 10,000 of them around the state! Advocates threw them in parades, left them on tables in fast food restaurants, posted them on all kinds of bulletin boards etc. The cards are business card sized and the vertical format makes them stand out from other business cards. We ordered them from vistaprint for "free" (plus shipping cost) and found it was a low cost and effective tool.

In addition to Take Birth Back, Trust Birth has a powerful statement of beliefs as well as local facilitators who hold woman-to-woman support groups.

I deeply connect with the vision here and there are two statements I often quote from the beliefs statement: "birth should not be a time in a woman's life when she has to FIGHT for anything." I use this quote particularly when women are talking about how they are going to "negotiate" the hospital system and "advocate" for what they want and be "strong" about expressing their wants/needs for birth. I also like the statement that "interference with birth begins the moment she leaves her home and the minute she is in the hospital she is no longer in charge."

Trust Birth is also having the first ever Trust Birth conference in March!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

is the a place/website where you can get order invitations for free? i only need like 20.

i know www.dcp-print.com has this for promotion of 250 free buisness cards but not for invitations. do you know where i can find it maybe?

Unknown said...

you can also order free business cards at http://www.dcp-print.com/.
you will only need to pay for the shipping. There are many designs you can use for any purpose, you should try it next time you order card

Carla Hartley said...

Thank you. I love to talk about birth truth and birth trust.....Would like to invite you to participate in an initial interest call for Trust Birth Facilitators this week. Email me if you are interested!

and PLEASE come to the conference!
www.trustbirthconference.com
Carla

Sarah Stewart said...

I am a midwife and midwifery educator in New Zealand. Just popped by to saw hello and say I have enjoyed having a look at this blog. cheers Sarah

CfM Molly said...

Vistaprint often has free notecards, which I believe come in a set of 10. I am fond of ordering their postcards--which are either 50 oversized cards or 100 regular cards--when I need an invitation/announcement/greeting card.

CfM Molly said...

Thanks for stopping by, Sarah!

Best wishes,

Molly