Birth Survey at CIMS Forum

Results of The Birth Survey to be featured prominently at the 2010 CIMS Forum!

Plus... Don’t Miss Ricki Lake , Judy Norsigian, Rima Jolivet, Penny Simkin, and many more!

Where do we begin? We have a spectacular line-up planned for the 2010 Mother-Friendly Childbirth Forum and Annual Meeting, Feb. 26-27, in Austin , Texas . Start planning now to attend this important conference--learn more at www.motherfriendly.org.

CIMS proudly announces that acclaimed actress, filmmaker, family advocate and author Ricki Lake , along with 15 distinguished faculty, will address attendees at the 2010 Mother-Friendly Childbirth Forum and Annual Meeting. Lake, an integral figure in the birthing community since the 2007 debut of the documentary The Business of Being Born and subsequent projects that encourage childbearing women to become informed maternity care consumers, has traveled tirelessly around the United States to discuss the state of the birthing “industry” in an effort to demonstrate how all parents-to-be can benefit from taking a more active role in their birth experiences.

CIMS' [and CfM's] own Nasima Pfaffl will present an important session titled "Thank You for Listening to Me: Trends and Patterns in the Results of The Birth Survey." As you know, The Birth Survey has been collecting national data on women’s birth experiences for the last 18 months. This presentation will provide information on the patterns and trends in the data captured through The Birth Survey. Questions such as, how do different provider types compare; do women who had a c-section or an induction report feeling pressure to have these procedures; patterns of responses about midwifery care; and how women have reported they feel about the quality of the care they have received. Data will be presented that is not available via the public website!!

Online registration to open soon. Please visit www.motherfriendly.org for additional program details, travel/lodging information, and to sign-up for our electronic newsletter.

Hope to see you there!

The Birth Survey is One!

One year ago, The Birth Survey launched nationwide! What an exciting project this is. I felt honored to take the survey earlier this year and I hope many people continue to do so and help make transparency in maternity care a reality.The Birth Activist blog is having a birthday giveaway in honor of the special occasion. For details check out this post.

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Molly
CfM Blogger

Effectiveness of Childbirth Education

A recent study has been picked up by the media as proving that childbirth education "doesn't work" and this has been popping up in my Google Alerts all week. The BJOG study compared two groups of women--one group had 8 hours of childbirth classes that also included information about natural childbirth. The other group had classes that did not include natural childbirth information. The epidural rates for the two groups were the same and the couples' satisfaction levels with their births was also the same. Several birth bloggers have addressed the study in depth. The Science and Sensibility blog in a post titled Do Breathing Exercises Work? and The Family Way Publications in Natural Childbirth Class Not Useful?

What stood out to me in the article was the emphasis on breathing techniques. There is a lot more to childbirth education than "the breathing" and if that is all the “natural birth” classes had to offer, no wonder the results were what they were! As was noted in one of the blog cited above, it is also significant that the women were randomly assigned to either group, indicating that they did not have a strong interest in natural birth (if they did, why risk being assigned to the non-natural birth classes!), so that perhaps the personal investment element was missing. A woman has to want to experience natural childbirth in order to do so!

Another birth educator commenting on The Family Way's blog post, made an excellent observation that I think really got to the true heart of the issue. She said, " Until childbirth educators emphasize this key component of CONGRUENCY in their classes women will continue to seek 'care' from professionals and institutions incompatible with their professed desire for natural birth. (emphasis mine) All this study proved to my mind it that both types of classes offered were ineffectual in promoting the with-women model of care in labor and birth... Both types of classes failed to address the real crux of the matter…are you receiving care from a provider/institution compatible with the kind of birth you want?" I explain to people in my classes that in the hospital women’s coping mechanisms are often stripped away from them-–sometimes by force, sometimes by misinformation, sometimes by excuses. I tell them over and over again to “ask questions before their chile is roasted” (Pam England). People tell me they can fight for what they want or that their husbands are good at “standing up for me” and I remind them that birth is not a time in a woman’s life when she should have to fight for anything! The time to get good care is NOW, not while "fighting" during labor and not during the "next birth" either (see more thoughts about "the next birth" here).

I recently finished reading the very firey and passionate 1990's manifesto on VBAC, Open Season. The author bluntly addresses the issue of transparency in maternity care and also the effectiveness of childbirth education in this quote: "If childbirth classes really 'worked,' more women would be having babies without interference. More women would be recognizing the complete naturalness of birth and would remain at home, delivering their infants with feelings of confidence and trust. More and more, midwives would be demanded. The names of those hospitals and doctors who treated women and babies with anything less than absolute respect would be public knowledge, and childbirth classes would be the first place these names would be discussed. 'You're seeing What's-His-Face? He's a pig! In my opinion, of course,' I tell people who come to my classes. I then proceed to give them the names of people who have used Pig-face. They can always ask Dr. P. for the names of people who have used him and been satisfied with their births, for balance."

Speaking of Open Season, another quote in it addressed the idea of being in the "same camp" or having "opponents." I found the perspective really useful for thinking about maternity care issues: “The moment you start thinking about other people as opponents it becomes impossible to find a solution. ‘There are no opponents in a disagreement; there are simply two [sides] facing a common problem. In other words, they are not in opposite camps, there are in the same camp. The real opponent is the problem.’” The Woman-to-Woman CBE blog mused on something similar recently in this post: Same Team...Same Team?

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Molly
CfM Blogger

Grassroots Network: Tell Obama about Midwives Model of Care!

Dear Friends,

If you haven’t heard yet, President-Elect Obama has invited YOU to tell him what you’d like to see in health care reform.

Thank you to everyone who has brought this to our attention!

Read about Obaman’s propososals for health care here. Click on the paragraph under "Present Your Ideas." This will take you to an online form you can use to offer your ideas on health care to the new administration.

You can urge the administration to support increased access to midwives and to take a look at the Midwives Model of Care page on CfM's website (http://www.cfmidwifery.org/mmoc). Issues that could be brought up: The need for accountability for outcomes and costs in maternity care; the need for transparency so women can find out accurate information about the practices of maternity care providers; the need to address disparities in access to care and effectiveness of care. A policy for evidence-based practices in maternity care, including the Midwives Model of Care, would help to address these issues. We also encourage you to suggest that the new administration implement the recommendations of Childbirth Connection's "Evidence-Based Maternity Care: What It Is and What It Can Accomplish." This will bring this comprehensive policy report to their attention.

The more the campaign hears from us about the problems in maternity care and the SOLUTIONS, the better!

Sincerely,
Susan Hodges, "gatekeeper"

Grassroots Network--CIMS Forum

From CfM President Susan Hodges posting to the Grassroots Network email list:

Calling All Maternity Care Activists!

Dear Friends,

We do not "advertise" every birth and midwifery-oriented conference on the Grassroots Network, but here is an opportunity especially for birth activists, in conjunction with the Forum and Annual Meeting of the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS).

The message below, from the CIMS Grassroots Advocates Committee, is about an opportunity to get involved by participating in a training that will take place on the first day of the forum, Thursday, March 6, in Orlando. This is an exciting opportunity to get involved in real
grassroots, bottom-up, projects that will help pregnant women get the information they need about their local maternity care providers in order to make informed choices.

The 2008 CIMS Forum: Mother-Friendly Care By All, For All, will take place on Thursday, March 6 - Saturday, March 8 in Florida (near Orlando). Find complete information here.

Please feel free to forward this message!

Sincerely,
Susan Hodges, "gatekeeper"

Original message:

Calling All Maternity Care Activists! Enjoy a Family Vacation and Reinvigorate Your Birth Activism! You are invited to attend the "CIMS Grassroots Advocates Ambassador Training for The Birth Survey" and become a project ambassador at the CIMS Forum in Orlando, Florida.

Interested in gathering obstetric intervention rates for the hospitals and birth centers in your area? Become a GAC STATS Ambassador and work with us to collect obstetric intervention data at the facility level for all 50 states. The public has the right to know what is happening
in our hospitals. We will provide you with the support, tools and guidance you will need to connect with the right people in your state, access the data, and get the data out to the public.

Want to help spread the word in your community about The Birth Survey? A consumer feedback tool similar to "Angie's List" or "Consumer Reports," but for maternity care where women provide and view feedback on specific doctors, midwives, hospitals and birth centers in their local community. Join the GAC Marketing Ambassadors and help make The
Birth Survey a success in your area. We'll provide you with marketing tools and materials designed to engage the public and generate excitement.

If these activities are of interest to you, please come to the GAC Ambassador Training at the CIMS Forum. Thursday, March 6th from 9am-3pm in Orlando, Florida. Click here to register.

Scholarships: A limited number of need-based full registration scholarships are available for the forum and training. Apply online for a scholarship.

CIMS Forum: To learn more about CIMS, the 2008 Forum, and to register for the CIMS Forum and the included GAC Ambassador Training please visit CIMS online.

For more information on the GAC Ambassador Training and The Birth Survey visit The Birth Survey site.

Please pass this announcement along to other interested activists, listserves, etc. Thank you and we hope to see you at the CIMS 2008 GAC Ambassador Training- CIMS Grassroots Advocates Committee.