Women's Equality Day

It was on August 26, 1920, that women finally obtained the right to vote with passage in the U.S. Congress of the 19th Amendment!

According to the website of the National Women's History Project:

"The observance of Women's Equality Day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, but also calls attention to women's continuing efforts toward full equality. Workplaces, libraries, organizations, and public facilities now participate with Women's Equality Day programs, displays, video showings, or other activities."

You've probably guessed what I'm going to say, but I would love to see all women have equal access to to quality birth care--that would include the Midwives Model of Care (equally applicable in hospital settings as well), the Six Healthy Birth Practices (Lamaze) as the standard of care, and simple respect of women's voices about their wishes in birth. As it is now, women are limited in this equal access by geographic region, insurance coverage, financial need, legal restrictions, VBAC bans, and lack of available midwives to name a few. Some people take a, "where there's a will there's a way approach--I'd do anything it took to pay for my midwife and have my baby at home," but I believe it is much more complicated and multifaceted than that.

As I think about Women's Equality Day, I also think about this quote from Raven Lang in her 1972 classic, Birth Book:

“Birth has not only reached the absurdity of having to be relearned, it also has the absurdity of becoming a criminal offense if we are to go ahead with our ideals and do things the way we desire. And so, because of the system, midwifery as practiced in this book is against the law. It has become political. We didn’t make it that way. For us it is a beautiful, personal, spiritual, sexual experience. And for us to have that, we become criminals.”

I shared this quote on the CfM Facebook page and several people commented that not much has changed today...

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Molly
CfM Blogger

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!

It is National Midwifery Week!

The American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) has a nice planning kit available on their website with tools and ideas for promoting and celebrating National Midwifery Week this week, October 4-10. There are several templates for articles as well as press releases and scripts for talking to reporters. There is also a list of twenty things you can do to acknowledge midwifery week in your community. I liked the idea mentioned of having a birthday party for babies born over the last year.

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Molly
CfM Blogger

World Breastfeeding Week!

Today is the first day of World Breastfeeding Week, celebrated annually around the world August 1-7 since 1990. (Communities can choose to celebrate WBW on other dates, as needed.)



The theme of this year's celebration is Breastfeeding: Prepared for Life and focuses on the lifesaving nature of breastfeeding, in emergencies and in everyday life. Breastfeeding or not breastfeeding has lifelong implications for both mother and child.

I always like to use WBW as an opportunity to draw attention to the relationship between birth and breastfeeding--put simply, undisturbed birth leads to undisturbed breastfeeding, disrupted birth contributes to disrupted breastfeeding.

More good information and ideas for acknowledging World Breastfeeding Week can be found at the following:

La Leche League in the USA Web site: WBW 2009 Celebrations: "Breastfeeding: Prepared for Life"

World Breastfeeding Week website

World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA)

United States Breastfeeding Committee: Breastfeeding: A Vital Emergency Response. Are you ready?

National WIC Association Flyer: Action Ideas for WBW 2009

More information about the theme, from WABA:

OBJECTIVES OF WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK 2009

• To draw attention to the vital role that breastfeeding plays in emergencies worldwide.
  
• To stress the need for active protection and support of breastfeeding before and during emergencies.
  
• To inform mothers, breastfeeding advocates, communities, health professionals, governments, aid agencies, donors, and the media on how they can actively support breastfeeding before and during an emergency.
  
• To mobilise action and nurture networking and collaboration between those with breastfeeding skills and those involved in emergency response.

RATIONALE

• Children are the most vulnerable in emergencies – child mortality can soar from 2 to 70 times higher than average due to diarrhoea, respiratory illness and malnutrition.
• Breastfeeding is a life saving intervention and protection is greatest for the youngest infants. Even in non-emergency settings, non-breastfed babies under 2 months of age are six times more likely to die.
• Emergencies can happen anywhere in the world. Emergencies destroy what is ‘normal,’ leaving caregivers struggling to cope and infants vulnerable to disease and death.
• During emergencies, mothers need active support to continue or re-establish breastfeeding.
• Emergency preparedness is vital. Supporting breastfeeding in non-emergency settings will strengthen mothers’ capacity to cope in an emergency.

Breastfeeding is a critical public health issue around the world. Breastfeeding matters!

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Molly
CfM Blogger

International Birth Wisdom Week

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, beginning on May 9th, birth bloggers around the world will be acknowledging International Birth Wisdom Week. Read more about this cyber-event in the message below. And, of course, check back here for my Birth Wisdom post on the 9th!

Molly

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We are holding a cyber event next week. We would love all birth bloggers to join!

All you have to do is blog about birth wisdom whether it’s refuting an obstetrical myth or sharing a birth story of a woman who experienced spontaneous birth outside ‘textbook’ birth (i.e. a posterior birth, cesarean prevention, VBAC, twins, international birth voices are of great need, etc.). In your post link back to the independent childbirth blog post on birth wisdom (it is not yet on the site [but will be on May 9th]).

When you complete your post send us a link to it to view it for inclusion in the IC blog post. In addition, if you visit those posts that are listed on the IC blog post and leave comments on a couple that inspire you to comment we’ll send you a ‘button’ for your blog that you may wish to include on your blog.

Many of us have readers who follow our blogs but may not be aware of other blogs that also have great information to share. Together we are an awesome resource is what the IC birth wisdom cyber event is about. The birth community is global yet we, what we know, are/is all available wherever a mother resides.

If you are interested in joining the event please email us at births @ comcast dot net. Please feel free to forward this email to other birth groups.

Thank you in advance for sharing what you know and inspiring mothers in your neighborhood and “ours.”

Dale

http://independentchildbirth.wordpress.com

www.independentchildbirth.com

International Day of the Midwife

Today is International Day of the Midwife! There is an interesting roster of online events and activities available here. Florida Friends of Midwives is selling some cute commemorative t-shirts highlighting the theme: The World Needs Midwives Now More Than Ever.

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Molly
CfM Blogger

Celebrate!

May is a month for celebrations! On May 5th, International Midwives Day (also called International Day of the Midwife) is recognized around the world. The theme this year is: the world needs midwives now more than ever. Absolutely! On this midwifery blog there is a post about a 24 hour virtual event honoring this day. On an email list I belong to, the suggestion was made that it would be the perfect time to drop a quick thank you note to your midwife in the mail. Or, perhaps you had a very helpful doula or childbirth educator who would appreciate some words of appreciationas well :) You can read other ideas for recognizing International Midwives Day on the MANA site or in my post from last year.

May 9th kicks off the first International Birth Wisdom Week (the women at Independent Childbirth are planning an exciting cyber birth expo! Make sure to check their blog for updates). This is an exciting event and I will be posting more about it, so stay tuned!

May is International Doula Month too! DONA International offers these ideas of how to celebrate:

• Write an article for a local publication or send a press release to your local media.
• Host a free doula info night at a library or community center to let parents know about your services, which might also be a great reason for your local press to do a story on doulas.
• Have a movie night for parents and/or doulas. Show the latest movies, such as "Orgasmic Birth," "The Business of Being Born" or "Pregnant in America," or revisit some of the classics.
• Create a birthing circle where women can share their birth stories to support each other and/or heal from their birth trauma.
• Organize a networking day for local doulas to meet, network and support each other with new ideas and co-opetition.
• Host an at-home spa party for local doulas.
• Put together info packages that hospitals and birth centers can hand out to expectant parents and/or laboring mothers with suggestions for position changes and comfort measures.
  

Find more ideas for recognizing Doula Month in your own community in this post.

And, of course, Mother's Day is recognized on May 10th! Enjoy all the celebrations!

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Molly
CfM Blogger