And a BOLD performance this weekend in Paris...

BOLD Paris rocks this weekend! What a moment. This is the first time the play will be done in another language. "Birth" in French is called naissance...so the play is called Naissance. I like the sound of that!

I'm sending lots of BOLD vibes to the women in Paris who made this happen...Dali and her entire cast and crew. You all ROCK!

Check out their website: www.boldparis2008.org

BOLD Red Tent in Spain last weekend...

I love the BOLD Red Tents...they are such a rockin' way for mothers to tell their birth stories, enjoy the innate sisterhood that exists in women, and start healing the birth wounds of mothers and celebrating the powerful births. I just love it! To me BOLD Red Tents are acts of bravery...peaceful resistance to the current medical system that does not put women at the center of their birth experience.

I believe our global whispers will be heard!

Here are some photos from a BOLD Red Tent held in Girona, Spain last weekend. I couldn't resist sharing them!

Yes, BIRTH is coming!

Waa-hoo!

After a tough pushing phase I'm happy to announce that a very special paperback edition of the play will come out this summer. Yes - Birth is coming to a bookstore near you!

This edition will include the entire play, emails and stories from BOLD locations, photos of performances, commentary by me and a very special foreword by womens health and wellness expert Dr. Christiane Northrup. In her foreword Northrup calls Birth, "The Vagina Monologues for birth." She also says a whole lot more...but you'll have to buy the book to find out!

Wanna purchase a copy? Keep checking our website! You'll be able to get it online this summer or order it from your bookstore or even host me to come and do a book signing in your community. I'll be making it out to several BOLD locations to do book signings this September to promote the book and the local BOLD performances. I can't wait!

Waa-hoo! (that's a line from the play!)

Doula - again - Installment #1

Last night I received a very special call. My childhood friend, a guy who has always been like my second big brother, is married to a wonderful woman and after years of infertility she will give birth around the end of July. She called me last night to ask if I'd be their doula at the birth. I'm deeply touched, filled with joy that I will be there with my brother and his wife for the birth. But also I'm preparing myself for being a doula again; this time for a unique situation.

Ty and Kat created two beautiful babies, and now, at nearly 30 weeks pregnant, just one lives. So on the day they will birth one daughter they will also be saying goodbye to their other daughter, a girl they named Summer, who passed at 15 weeks. I have heard many birth stories (ones like this included), but I have never been asked to be present at such a humble moment.

How does a pregnant mother prepare for birth and death? On the two hour phone call I spent with Kat last night it was obvious they knew very little about birth or death. And that while I know alot about birth, I too am on a learning curve when it comes to supporting them through this death.

I hung up the phone last night feeling electricity in my body from Kat's pain and joy, her need to birth a healthy, live baby, and her gut sense that birth is natural and she can give birth on her terms.

"I want to have a natural birth," she told me. So I told her to read Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, Birthing From Within and rent The Business of Being Born. This is a great start.

But death? I'm searching...wondering if there's any ritual we can do to honor Summer's passing...to celebrate the life that wasn't to be.

I keep reminding myself: present moment, Karen. Stay in the present moment. And that's what I'll do. For Kat, my brother, little Summer and their new arrival...

20/20 piece postponed to June...

Yikes! I never posted a blog entry last week telling all of you that the 20/20 birth segments have been postponed until a date in June. I got an email last week from a producer at 20/20 telling me about this...but forgot to post it!

The air date is still not determined so stay tuned. I will post it!!!!

(I was a bit distracted last week between so many exciting BOLD happenings and my son winning his class' school-wide raffle...6 chicks!...so we were making plans to build a chicken coop on our property!)

BOLD 2008 Performance and Talkbacks heating up!

What a great BOLD Organizers' teleconference we had last week...got me pumped for all the performances in September! You can imagine, the BOLD staff feel passionate about what we do, but since we're an online organization it can get a bit lonely...no voices of enthusiasm or live stories of people's BOLD journeys. That's why the monthly BOLD Teleconferences with BOLD Organizers is one of the highlights of my BOLD experience.

I was a bit amazed at how many locations are already pretty organized considering it's only May! Vivian, our BOLD Organizer in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and the first BOLD Organizer who is not a mother (hooray for you Vivian!), is a theatre person who got inspired to do the play after seeing it in New York City. She says she plans to stage a really creative production of the play (I can't wait!). Cincinnati, Ohio had a production crew member call in - the first man on a BOLD Organizers call! - who did a great job holding his own and getting us psyched about all that will be happening in Cincinnati this September.

Seattle's Lynn Hughes was on the call too. Lynn organized a spectacular 11 performances in the Pudget Sound area last year. Yes, I think she's in the running for BOLD Rock Star status! This year she'll tone it down a bit (not 11 performances!), but if I know Lynn it will still be "out there" in the Seattle area.

Emily in Charlotte, North Carolina is bursting with energy and lots of enthusiast BOLD supporters in Charlotte for their performances this September. And the BOLD Organizers in Denver are planning a fabulous three-city run of the play in conjunction with a birth conference.

Oh, and check out BOLD Paris' premiere performance of the play this month on their website: www.boldparis2008.org. Even if you don't speak French I think you'll love it! Those women definitely do ROCK...

Every day I'm blown away by the activism taking place by women with the intention to shift birth back to one where women know their choices and can clearly envision a birth where they are at the center of their experience. There are so many great educational artistic expressions out there begging pregnant women today to take back their birth experience. It is possible to have a powerful birth.

Reach out for these inspiring birth resources...

watch the new birth films out there (Business of Being Born can now be ordered from Netflicks! Orgasmic Birth screenings are just beginning to take place throughout the world)...

and go see a BOLD event this year...take a friend - or two...

...WAAA-HOOO!

Happy Mothers Day to me...and YOU!

I had a great mothers day, just chillin' with the kids..they made me a huge plate-size pancake, then we went to their soccer game, and ended the day with a fabulous hike through the mountains near our house...and Thai food!

What a day.

Happy Mothers Day to all! Let's never forget the mothers...

Be BOLD and show Orgasmic Birth documentary in your community!

Just like theatre-for-social-change, showing a documentary is a great way to raise consciousness around childbirth. And Debra Pascali-Bonaro (a doula and now filmmaker) is putting her documentary Orgasmic Birth out there for communities to show so that an important message about the power of birth gets out to women.

Orgasmic Birth shows us that birth isn't a 911 incident and that, if we can erase all the "scary birth image" programming done to our minds, our bodies are able to birth babies in beautiful, powerful, and sometimes orgasmic, ways. It's not just hippie babble...it's scientific. The same hormones released in lovemaking are also released when a woman gives birth without drugs. That makes the potential for an orgasm - or at least a euphoric, pleasurable state when giving birth - possible.

Check out www.orgasmicbirth.com for details on how you can bring this powerful documentary to your community!