Want to know why story telling is important and why a movement like BOLD is critical? This week an article in the NY Times said,
Researchers have found that the human brain has a natural affinity for narrative construction. People tend to remember facts more accurately if they encounter them in a story rather than in a list, studies find; and they rate legal arguments more convincing when built into narrative tales rather than on legal precedent.
Yes! Exactly. We must tell stories. Birth stories. It's through story that people learn on a profoundly different level than any other way of delivering information.
BOLD is all about story telling. If anything I feel as though maternity care in the political and policy realms has lost the realness of the issues when they produce reports in jargon that, if even understood, certainly doesn't convey where birth is at today in a way that will have impact on people.
When I think back to Ricki Lake's film this was the one problem I had with it. The maternity care crisis was primarily told to us by experts, not real people. It really softened the urgency of the issue. Real people are being affected every day by childbirth nightmares and they need to be heard. I love projects like Debra Pascali-Bonaro's upcoming documentary Orgasmic Birth (www.orgasmicbirth.org) because we need a strong voice on normal birth in the hope that the majority of people can see the benefits of birthing like this, but women who have experienced traumatic births also need to tell their stories.
To me it's quite similar to Truth Tribunals that many countries have had after a devastating war. In the maternity care world we must lovingly record the stories of the injured so we can then heal and move on (and improve maternity care for mothers). It is a crime to hide the traumatic birth stories. They are happening every day.
Using stories to educate people is what BOLD is all about. I've seen it happen again and again in communities. People know the statistics, they may have even seen someone talk about the issue, but hearing birth stories brings out a whole new sense of understanding.
Let's make maternity care real...and heal...and make maternity care mother-friendly together!
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Thursday, May 03, 2007
A Birth Fantasy
We all have a fantasy about what kind of birth world we want. Given the realities of birth today, the following "Birth Fantasy" was recently sent to me by Angela Lauria (former BOLD 2006 Coordinator). When I read it I thought, yes, just tell mothers the truth. In today's birthing climate, while my fantasy for the future is much more than this, Angela's birth fantasy for the here and now is an important one to heed.
When a woman gets pregnant today she is told:
Congratulations you are pregnant (or thinking about getting pregnant) You have an important decision to make.. There are two main ways people have babies. Now within each of those two ways there is lots of variation but the first decision you have to make is this - DO YOU WANT A MEDICAL BIRTH OR A NATURAL BIRTH?
Both of these options almost always lead to healthy babies but they have lots of positive and negatives. Only you can make this decision but it will effect everything about how you experience your pregnancy, labor and delivery.
If you choose the medical model we'll start today by picking your babies birthday. You'll receive a range of birthdays to pick from and with friends and family you can select the day that is right for you. On that day we will perform a c-section. A c-section is major abdominal surgery and as such has many negatives. You'll be required to sign a release and other medical paperwork at that time like you would any other surgery. In addition to the physical risks to you and your baby, studies show there is a much higher percent of women who get post partum depression so we require 3 months of counseling for everyone who has a c-section. You will also be required to have someone home with you with the baby for 3 weeks after your birth as you will be recovering from major surgery and won't be getting around much. During your pregnancy you will be treated like you have a medical condition and like you are a patient in a hospital. We believe in treating symptoms and preventing them so we'll pull out all the stops for you. You can think of your pregnancy like a disease - but one we know we can cure in 10 months!
Some people choose to see their birth as a natural event. They equate it to flowers blooming, cats having kittens, or even getting their period. Since they see their pregnancy as a normal part of the human experience, they are in harmony with their body as much as possible and would not want medical care which undermined that relationship. These women prefer to limit medical interventions to when they are needed but not in advance of a problem or based on statistics. These women like to give birth in a home-like setting. They often have support systems with them to manage pain during the process - and there are lots of pain management techniques that will make this experience easier. Should something go awry, you'll have a plan for how to intervene with the natural process and move you to a medical situation to keep you and your baby safe. But in this model your condition is not seen as a disease so there are no preventative strikes. Women who have natural births experience more pain at the time but often more joy as well! Incidents of post partum depression are lower and recovery is shockingly quick - sometimes just a day!
No matter which type of birth you choose, you will still be a wonderful mom! This is an exciting time and you should take extra time and care to make sure you select the model that works for you.
What's your birth fantasy for the here and now? And what would it be for the future? Click on comments and tell me! I'll post mine soon!
K
When a woman gets pregnant today she is told:
Congratulations you are pregnant (or thinking about getting pregnant) You have an important decision to make.. There are two main ways people have babies. Now within each of those two ways there is lots of variation but the first decision you have to make is this - DO YOU WANT A MEDICAL BIRTH OR A NATURAL BIRTH?
Both of these options almost always lead to healthy babies but they have lots of positive and negatives. Only you can make this decision but it will effect everything about how you experience your pregnancy, labor and delivery.
If you choose the medical model we'll start today by picking your babies birthday. You'll receive a range of birthdays to pick from and with friends and family you can select the day that is right for you. On that day we will perform a c-section. A c-section is major abdominal surgery and as such has many negatives. You'll be required to sign a release and other medical paperwork at that time like you would any other surgery. In addition to the physical risks to you and your baby, studies show there is a much higher percent of women who get post partum depression so we require 3 months of counseling for everyone who has a c-section. You will also be required to have someone home with you with the baby for 3 weeks after your birth as you will be recovering from major surgery and won't be getting around much. During your pregnancy you will be treated like you have a medical condition and like you are a patient in a hospital. We believe in treating symptoms and preventing them so we'll pull out all the stops for you. You can think of your pregnancy like a disease - but one we know we can cure in 10 months!
Some people choose to see their birth as a natural event. They equate it to flowers blooming, cats having kittens, or even getting their period. Since they see their pregnancy as a normal part of the human experience, they are in harmony with their body as much as possible and would not want medical care which undermined that relationship. These women prefer to limit medical interventions to when they are needed but not in advance of a problem or based on statistics. These women like to give birth in a home-like setting. They often have support systems with them to manage pain during the process - and there are lots of pain management techniques that will make this experience easier. Should something go awry, you'll have a plan for how to intervene with the natural process and move you to a medical situation to keep you and your baby safe. But in this model your condition is not seen as a disease so there are no preventative strikes. Women who have natural births experience more pain at the time but often more joy as well! Incidents of post partum depression are lower and recovery is shockingly quick - sometimes just a day!
No matter which type of birth you choose, you will still be a wonderful mom! This is an exciting time and you should take extra time and care to make sure you select the model that works for you.
What's your birth fantasy for the here and now? And what would it be for the future? Click on comments and tell me! I'll post mine soon!
K
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Business of Being Born ...Rocks!
Just saw Ricki Lake's new film, The Business of Being Born, and wow - it rocks! For anyone who knows about birth in America it's not jaw-dropping...but that's the point, most people don't know a thing about birth in America and for those people this film is about as jaw-dropping as it gets.
I loved how despite expert after expert really painting a bleak picture of birth in America today the film was able to show just how beautiful birth is (there were several natural home births in the film) -how normal it is - and how very few hospitals today are even seeing normal birth. One clip in the film shows doctors on a Labor and Delivery floor talking very nonchalant and impersonally about hooking mothers up to machines, giving them pitocin to increase contractions. It's not that these doctors and nurses want to treat women poorly; that point is very clear. It's just shows that the medical model of care is really little about the mother's experience.
I had the opportunity on line waiting to get into the film and in my seat to talk to a few people who were seeing the film without much knowledge about birth. The woman sitting next to me, probably in her late 20s, said that she had no children but thought that when she did she would probably have a c-section because "it's alot easier" than other methods of giving birth. Alot easier? When I mentioned the risks for having a c-section she nodding politely. Halfway through the film I noticed she was crying and by the end of the film I asked her if she was still thinking of having a c-section and she said, "Absolutely not, I want a waterbirth!" Then she said, "I really didn't know a woman could have a birth like that." THIS convinced me that this film must be seen by everyone in America! And that the arts has the power to change childbirth (support BOLD!).
My one hope is that The Business of Being Born doesn't end up just playing at a few film festivals. Everyone needs to see this film. Get it to the grassroots. Let's have mothers showing this movie in every community to their neighbors. I don't think a Showtime of HBO special is enough. People need to talk about and process this film.
I hope Ricki Lake and her fabulous director Abby Epstein (she deserves alot of awards for this one) will be BOLD and get this film out there!
I loved how despite expert after expert really painting a bleak picture of birth in America today the film was able to show just how beautiful birth is (there were several natural home births in the film) -how normal it is - and how very few hospitals today are even seeing normal birth. One clip in the film shows doctors on a Labor and Delivery floor talking very nonchalant and impersonally about hooking mothers up to machines, giving them pitocin to increase contractions. It's not that these doctors and nurses want to treat women poorly; that point is very clear. It's just shows that the medical model of care is really little about the mother's experience.
I had the opportunity on line waiting to get into the film and in my seat to talk to a few people who were seeing the film without much knowledge about birth. The woman sitting next to me, probably in her late 20s, said that she had no children but thought that when she did she would probably have a c-section because "it's alot easier" than other methods of giving birth. Alot easier? When I mentioned the risks for having a c-section she nodding politely. Halfway through the film I noticed she was crying and by the end of the film I asked her if she was still thinking of having a c-section and she said, "Absolutely not, I want a waterbirth!" Then she said, "I really didn't know a woman could have a birth like that." THIS convinced me that this film must be seen by everyone in America! And that the arts has the power to change childbirth (support BOLD!).
My one hope is that The Business of Being Born doesn't end up just playing at a few film festivals. Everyone needs to see this film. Get it to the grassroots. Let's have mothers showing this movie in every community to their neighbors. I don't think a Showtime of HBO special is enough. People need to talk about and process this film.
I hope Ricki Lake and her fabulous director Abby Epstein (she deserves alot of awards for this one) will be BOLD and get this film out there!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
