I just finished reading a Time Magazine piece, "Choosy Mothers Choose Caesareans" (April 17). Okay, I don't like the title, and the ending isn't great either, but I actually thought this piece says alot about childbirth today. And the journalist did a pretty good job at laying out the issues. (when I saw Eugene Declercq quoted I knew the piece was going to be more well-thought out that most mainstream articles on childbirth today).
The piece asks two good questions: "How did a procedure originally intended as an emergency measure become so popular? And is the trend a bad thing?"
Declercq's answer really said it all. He says that - as the article states - "the biggest change may simply be in the way we think about labor and delivery." Yes...got it. And then the article turned to a deeply frightening point...that childbirth may be losing some of its magic. Ouch! That our society is now so technological and medicalized it has perhaps reduced childbirth to "less about the miracle of life and more about simply getting a baby out safely and without incident." Double ouch!
Why does this "childbirth losing its magic" scenario scare me so much?
Once again, I bring you back to power. If we lose the magic of childbirth we lose a power within ourselves - that connection to our True Self - that translates BIG TIME into the choices we make in society. If everything - birth, death, relationships, family life, business decisions - gets reduced to "simply getting the baby out" then the magic in our society - the power we can feel within ourselves that cultivates compassion, goodness, kindness, empathy and peace - is lost. And what kind of life is that?
Tragically, I do think the magic of childbirth hasn't been embraced by the current generation of birthing women. As Dr. Christiane Northrup said at a BOLD Talkback in New York City two years ago, "women are more interested in a Prada bag then tuning into that core power that's available to them when they give birth."
A Prada bag beats out childbirth? Ladies and Gentlemen, if this is where you lie I BEG you to stop watching "birth as entertainment" media and run to see the documentary Orgasmic Birth. Or Ricki Lake's film, The Business of Being Born. Both films, while different, show the power of what childbirth is for women who want it. (okay, yes, the reality is that in today's birthing climate there isn't alot of magic available in the hospital...you've got to go home) Both films show that the magic of childbirth is alive, kicking and desperately needs to stay alive.
Oh yes...and go to a BOLD event! BOLD events are all about the magic of childbirth. (and for those of you who read that as "only mothers who deliver naturally" think again - BOLD is about women making choices about how they give birth that give them power...move them forward, towards a birthing culture that is women-centered. Now that's BOLD!)
Monday, April 28, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Women, Power and Birth
I can't stop thinking about it, reading about it, and feeling passionate that a BOLD course like this - called Women, Power and Birth - must happen on every college campus!
So I'm being BOLD and putting together a curriculum....one that I'm going to pilot the next school year because I feel so strongly that if we're going to improve childbirth for mothers we must start talking about this with the next generation.
Do I have the time to do this? No. But I didn't have the time to write a play either...and I did it.
What do I mean by power? Usually we think of power as simply the struggle for control and authority. That kind of power will be addressed in my course, but I am also interested in introducing another definition of power. The kind of power that comes from within, that we already have - we don't need to seek. Having a birth where you go within on a deeply profound level is a form of power that doesn't get alot of air time - but needs to.
It's interesting to examine how power - the struggle for control and authority - permeates every aspect of our private and public lives these days. And even more noticing within this definition of power is how this kind of power has in many way prevented us from attaining true happiness. A me-first mentality is causing stress, fear and anxiety in so many people.
And that's why this other definition of power (are you still with me?) - the one inside of us - is so important to remember today. And to know that childbirth offers women the gift of accessing this kind of power. You don't have to go sit on a mountain and meditate, you don't need to find a Guru and travel to India (thank you Eat, Pray, Love)...pregnant women can get it right now.
So that's what I'm thinking about today.
And now it's time to go pick up my kids (7 and 8 years old)...who will surely have a few power definitions of their own to show me on our ride home!
So I'm being BOLD and putting together a curriculum....one that I'm going to pilot the next school year because I feel so strongly that if we're going to improve childbirth for mothers we must start talking about this with the next generation.
Do I have the time to do this? No. But I didn't have the time to write a play either...and I did it.
What do I mean by power? Usually we think of power as simply the struggle for control and authority. That kind of power will be addressed in my course, but I am also interested in introducing another definition of power. The kind of power that comes from within, that we already have - we don't need to seek. Having a birth where you go within on a deeply profound level is a form of power that doesn't get alot of air time - but needs to.
It's interesting to examine how power - the struggle for control and authority - permeates every aspect of our private and public lives these days. And even more noticing within this definition of power is how this kind of power has in many way prevented us from attaining true happiness. A me-first mentality is causing stress, fear and anxiety in so many people.
And that's why this other definition of power (are you still with me?) - the one inside of us - is so important to remember today. And to know that childbirth offers women the gift of accessing this kind of power. You don't have to go sit on a mountain and meditate, you don't need to find a Guru and travel to India (thank you Eat, Pray, Love)...pregnant women can get it right now.
So that's what I'm thinking about today.
And now it's time to go pick up my kids (7 and 8 years old)...who will surely have a few power definitions of their own to show me on our ride home!
Friday, April 18, 2008
BOLD Organizer to talk about her orgasmic birth
I just heard this week that BOLD 2007 organizer in Memphis, Tennessee - Kimberly Baker - will be one of several women on 20/20 May 16 talking about her orgasmic birth experience. Waahoo!You rock Kimberly!
Kimberly produced and played the character Jillian in the Memphis production of the play. She told me (and the 20/20 producer) that her orgasmic births with her children helped her to get into Jillian's final scene of the play...when Jillian has an orgasmic birth! Kimberly is giving 20/20 a clip of her playing Jillian and that too may be in the segment.
So be sure to watch 20/20 on May 16th! There will be so many great segments!
Waa-hoo!
Kimberly produced and played the character Jillian in the Memphis production of the play. She told me (and the 20/20 producer) that her orgasmic births with her children helped her to get into Jillian's final scene of the play...when Jillian has an orgasmic birth! Kimberly is giving 20/20 a clip of her playing Jillian and that too may be in the segment.
So be sure to watch 20/20 on May 16th! There will be so many great segments!
Waa-hoo!
Friday, April 11, 2008
The Whistle Blower
Several weeks ago I went to a showing of Ricki Lake's film at Cornell Medical Center in New York City, followed by a discussion with doctors and others. The discussion was really why I went to the event (I had seen Ricki Lake's film many times). What an opportunity an event like this could be - to get obstetricians talking about childbirth that is mother-friendly. What did they think about a birth that was centered around a woman? How could we make birth as mother-friendly as possible?
Well, the moderator, a senior obstetrician at Cornell, started off by stating, "I believe home birth is not right." And he went on to say mothers who give birth at home are not doing what's in the best interest of their child.
Deep breath...
As you can imagine, that set the tone for the discussion, a tone that was disturbing on many levels...an obstetrician standing up and aggressively telling the film's director that the film was doctor-bashing...more and more doctors claiming women giving birth at Cornell are happy with their childbirth experiences...in fact, they said, women routinely use doulas at their hospitals and get on birthing balls. Throughout this "discussion" doulas and midwives and the film's director politely pointed out inaccuracies in the pictures they were painting, but perhaps most damaging was when a labor and delivery nurse stood up. The Whistle Blower.
Every movement needs whistle blowers - people from the inside to tell the truth about what's going on - and with birth today I feel the most credible whistle blowers around are the labor and delivery nurses. They know what's going on.
When the labor and delivery nurse stood up she said very clearly - wait a minute, from what she sees most obstetricians do not support doulas coming in to support mothers, she rarely sees a mother on a birthing ball, and in fact she almost never sees a natural birth. Was she nervous when she said this? You bet. After the discussion she told me she could potentially lose her job for saying what she said. This is a true Whistle Blower...and the reason why birth today needs more of them.
I'm wondering how many more Whistle Blowers are out there? When I was writing my play, and when it started getting produced, I spoke with many labor and delivery room nurses that told me stories about birth today that I'd sure like to print...but I can't get any of them to go on record. One time, the night before my play opened, a labor and delivery nurse emailed me asking me to meet her for dinner so she could tell me what was happening at her local hospital. I had hoped she would blow the whistle on the abuse of women's rights she was seeing, but she had a family, she needed her job, and I understood...who could blame her for not wanting to loose her job?
I have deep compassion for the doctors who were in the room that night. They were not bad. In fact a male OB I spoke to after the discussion was delightful and I believe he really wanted the women who had babies with him to have a good birth experience. But my compassion rises for their collective aggressive stance on defending childbirth today when they had just seen a movie that shows a way of giving birth that honors women and instead of embracing this as a goal for all low-risk women they chose to attack it. To say it's wrong. That women should not be birthing this way.
There must be something wrong inside of a culture that acts in a way that has little faith in women and their power. I believe we need to shower this collective consciousness with compassion...not more aggression. We must work for what we are for, not against.
I'm for compassion. And for more Whistle Blowers!
Well, the moderator, a senior obstetrician at Cornell, started off by stating, "I believe home birth is not right." And he went on to say mothers who give birth at home are not doing what's in the best interest of their child.
Deep breath...
As you can imagine, that set the tone for the discussion, a tone that was disturbing on many levels...an obstetrician standing up and aggressively telling the film's director that the film was doctor-bashing...more and more doctors claiming women giving birth at Cornell are happy with their childbirth experiences...in fact, they said, women routinely use doulas at their hospitals and get on birthing balls. Throughout this "discussion" doulas and midwives and the film's director politely pointed out inaccuracies in the pictures they were painting, but perhaps most damaging was when a labor and delivery nurse stood up. The Whistle Blower.
Every movement needs whistle blowers - people from the inside to tell the truth about what's going on - and with birth today I feel the most credible whistle blowers around are the labor and delivery nurses. They know what's going on.
When the labor and delivery nurse stood up she said very clearly - wait a minute, from what she sees most obstetricians do not support doulas coming in to support mothers, she rarely sees a mother on a birthing ball, and in fact she almost never sees a natural birth. Was she nervous when she said this? You bet. After the discussion she told me she could potentially lose her job for saying what she said. This is a true Whistle Blower...and the reason why birth today needs more of them.
I'm wondering how many more Whistle Blowers are out there? When I was writing my play, and when it started getting produced, I spoke with many labor and delivery room nurses that told me stories about birth today that I'd sure like to print...but I can't get any of them to go on record. One time, the night before my play opened, a labor and delivery nurse emailed me asking me to meet her for dinner so she could tell me what was happening at her local hospital. I had hoped she would blow the whistle on the abuse of women's rights she was seeing, but she had a family, she needed her job, and I understood...who could blame her for not wanting to loose her job?
I have deep compassion for the doctors who were in the room that night. They were not bad. In fact a male OB I spoke to after the discussion was delightful and I believe he really wanted the women who had babies with him to have a good birth experience. But my compassion rises for their collective aggressive stance on defending childbirth today when they had just seen a movie that shows a way of giving birth that honors women and instead of embracing this as a goal for all low-risk women they chose to attack it. To say it's wrong. That women should not be birthing this way.
There must be something wrong inside of a culture that acts in a way that has little faith in women and their power. I believe we need to shower this collective consciousness with compassion...not more aggression. We must work for what we are for, not against.
I'm for compassion. And for more Whistle Blowers!
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Pass the groaning cake...
Just returned from Vermont where I was invited to talk with undergraduates about BOLD and more specifically the current birthing climate in America. I told the instructor, a wonderful human rights lawyer who SO gets that childbirth today is a human rights issue, that after everyone introduced themselves I planned to ask them to tell me about their births. Don't worry, I promised the instructor, that should take about five minutes or less. Which it did. Not one person offered the story of how they were born. They didn't know. They never asked.
I showed them the being BOLD video and when I asked what people got out of it one woman answered "that my body rocks." Yes! That's right!
We read a couple of scenes from the play starting with Natalie's story...who was given a forced episiotomy...which took us straight into the politics of childbirth today, a topic none of them had even thought about.
We ended sitting on comfy chairs, eating groaning cake (a cake made for a birthing mother), reading Jillian's final birth story at the end of the play...her last birth...definitely a pleasurable one...and one they had never heard of before. Birth and pleasure?! I was actually surprised at how many questions were asked after Jillian's scene. Of course the first thing many of them asked was, could this really be safe? and what kind of support would women get from having a birth like this? It was interesting to me that birth being unsafe is the typical fear people have.
In the end the primary point I made was for them to remember that that Birth i safe! In virtually every case the complications for low-risk pregnant women start when they are given an intervention. This is a critical connection that all pregnant women must make. Also, I stressed, that the childbirth crisis today needs a re-framing from the us/them, natural/medical tension. The maternity care system is broken and this affects all care providers. If childbirth is going to improve all care providers must "break bread" together, put down their criticism, and start taking about how birth can work for mothers.
Maybe a bit of groaning cake for everyone is all we need!
I showed them the being BOLD video and when I asked what people got out of it one woman answered "that my body rocks." Yes! That's right!
We read a couple of scenes from the play starting with Natalie's story...who was given a forced episiotomy...which took us straight into the politics of childbirth today, a topic none of them had even thought about.
We ended sitting on comfy chairs, eating groaning cake (a cake made for a birthing mother), reading Jillian's final birth story at the end of the play...her last birth...definitely a pleasurable one...and one they had never heard of before. Birth and pleasure?! I was actually surprised at how many questions were asked after Jillian's scene. Of course the first thing many of them asked was, could this really be safe? and what kind of support would women get from having a birth like this? It was interesting to me that birth being unsafe is the typical fear people have.
In the end the primary point I made was for them to remember that that Birth i safe! In virtually every case the complications for low-risk pregnant women start when they are given an intervention. This is a critical connection that all pregnant women must make. Also, I stressed, that the childbirth crisis today needs a re-framing from the us/them, natural/medical tension. The maternity care system is broken and this affects all care providers. If childbirth is going to improve all care providers must "break bread" together, put down their criticism, and start taking about how birth can work for mothers.
Maybe a bit of groaning cake for everyone is all we need!
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