Good bad news? A recent media advisory sent out by the Society of Obstetricians and Gyns of Canada tells us that Canada's c-section rate has risen to nearly 1 out of 4 mothers (better than the US I should point out, but still pretty horrible for an industrialized country). That's the bad news.
So what's the good news? Well, after last week's AMA/ACOG craziness declaring American hospitals (with over 1 and 3 women having c-sections) as the only safe place to give birth in America it was astounding to read a media alert coming from the Canadian equivalent of ACOG showing concern over the rising c-section rate, not trying to blame it on women, and urging the importance of reduce cesareans in Canada.
Why would Canadian obstetricians care about reducing the c-section rate when American ones seem less concerned (the day ACOG releases a media advisory like that I may faint)? It's clear that having a national healthcare system is the key - medicine that isn't about making money, it's about keeping people well so they don't need invasive surgeries.
Have a read of the media alert...and enjoy today's good bad news...
http://www.sogc.org/media/advisories-20080625_e.asp
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
ACOG, Ricki Lake and The Perfect Pitch
If you're wondering in any way why now is the time to be BOLD read on...
In America childbirth politics is heating up, and not surprisingly thanks to a celebrity's heavy-hitting documentary on childbirth in America. Ricki Lake's film The Business of Being Born (www.buisnessofbeingborn.com) has got on ACOG's radar (well, we already knew this when several month ago they made an official statement slamming homebirth and referring indirectly to Lake's documentary). And this week we found out ACOG felt it had to propose a resolution for the American Medical Association to adopt a policy against "home deliveries" and in support of legislation "that helps ensure safe deliveries and healthy babies by acknowledging that the safest setting for labor, delivery, and the immediate post-partum period is in the hospital" or accredited birth center.
The nutty policy was adopted this week.
Lake, along with the film's director Abby Epstein and Pushed author Jennifer Block shot back immediately in a letter posted on The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ricki-lake-jennifer-block-and-abby-epstein/docs-to-women-pay-no-atte_b_107845.html
The letter claims American MD's are "spooked" by the ground swelling of films, books and statistics that all point to a medical system that is not only not offering adequate birth choices for mothers, but actively standing in the way of women's civil rights.
A turf war between people who support birth choices for women and ACOG? That's what Lake, Epstein and Block suggest.
I'd like to think of it as the perfect pitch. ACOG has thrown American women The Perfect Pitch - a fast ball forcing women to stand up and actively speak out and demand better childbirth options for women.
As Lake says, and has always said, her film is not telling women how to give birth it's telling women to investigate their choices. And that if they want a powerful birth to not settle for less. This is the kind of BOLDness birth needs today.(I can't resist using the words of Lake's talk-show followers: Go Ricki!)
It's not surprising that BOLD performances are probably going to double this year despite a conscious decision inside BOLD to not grow much this year. You can't stop the pendulum once it's moving. The climate is right for people to get out and make some noise about childbirth in America.
The Perfect Pitch.
It's about time.
In America childbirth politics is heating up, and not surprisingly thanks to a celebrity's heavy-hitting documentary on childbirth in America. Ricki Lake's film The Business of Being Born (www.buisnessofbeingborn.com) has got on ACOG's radar (well, we already knew this when several month ago they made an official statement slamming homebirth and referring indirectly to Lake's documentary). And this week we found out ACOG felt it had to propose a resolution for the American Medical Association to adopt a policy against "home deliveries" and in support of legislation "that helps ensure safe deliveries and healthy babies by acknowledging that the safest setting for labor, delivery, and the immediate post-partum period is in the hospital" or accredited birth center.
The nutty policy was adopted this week.
Lake, along with the film's director Abby Epstein and Pushed author Jennifer Block shot back immediately in a letter posted on The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ricki-lake-jennifer-block-and-abby-epstein/docs-to-women-pay-no-atte_b_107845.html
The letter claims American MD's are "spooked" by the ground swelling of films, books and statistics that all point to a medical system that is not only not offering adequate birth choices for mothers, but actively standing in the way of women's civil rights.
A turf war between people who support birth choices for women and ACOG? That's what Lake, Epstein and Block suggest.
I'd like to think of it as the perfect pitch. ACOG has thrown American women The Perfect Pitch - a fast ball forcing women to stand up and actively speak out and demand better childbirth options for women.
As Lake says, and has always said, her film is not telling women how to give birth it's telling women to investigate their choices. And that if they want a powerful birth to not settle for less. This is the kind of BOLDness birth needs today.(I can't resist using the words of Lake's talk-show followers: Go Ricki!)
It's not surprising that BOLD performances are probably going to double this year despite a conscious decision inside BOLD to not grow much this year. You can't stop the pendulum once it's moving. The climate is right for people to get out and make some noise about childbirth in America.
The Perfect Pitch.
It's about time.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
BOLD goes to college
From Elizabeth Becker, a college student at SUNY Albany...
"I am pleased to announce that the essay, entitled, "Birth: Eight Women Tell the Truth about Birth in America", was selected for publication in the University's undergraduate feminist e-journal, transcending silence.... You can find the essay at: http://www.albany.edu/ws/journal."
I found her academic observations quite interesting... she seemed to get the concerns I wanted to address in the play like, "empowerment, privilege, womanhood and identity." That's it! And I loved when she pointed out that something seriously overlooked by many people is that pregnant women are being asked to consent to medical treatment often when they are in full labor, in an altered state...heavily sedated or excruciating pain. That's something people need to think about, for sure.
I also enjoyed that she really got the message of the play: not that every woman should have a home birth, but that women should be allowed to chose how and where they want to give birth and allowed to not be rescued from the pain of labor if she so wishes.
These are all wonderful points. And it was great to read about her experience seeing the play, what struck her and her description of the BOLD movement in action. (The only factual errors I saw was that the character Jillian only had 4 births (she said 5) and that although the woman playing her in the production she saw was in her late 50s Jillian was not a product of the sixties...she was more a product of the seventies where there was less of a natural birth movement, more drugs in labor, etc..)
What fun to see the play and the BOLD movement entering academia...and how BOLD of Elizabeth to write about it!
"I am pleased to announce that the essay, entitled, "Birth: Eight Women Tell the Truth about Birth in America", was selected for publication in the University's undergraduate feminist e-journal, transcending silence.... You can find the essay at: http://www.albany.edu/ws/journal."
I found her academic observations quite interesting... she seemed to get the concerns I wanted to address in the play like, "empowerment, privilege, womanhood and identity." That's it! And I loved when she pointed out that something seriously overlooked by many people is that pregnant women are being asked to consent to medical treatment often when they are in full labor, in an altered state...heavily sedated or excruciating pain. That's something people need to think about, for sure.
I also enjoyed that she really got the message of the play: not that every woman should have a home birth, but that women should be allowed to chose how and where they want to give birth and allowed to not be rescued from the pain of labor if she so wishes.
These are all wonderful points. And it was great to read about her experience seeing the play, what struck her and her description of the BOLD movement in action. (The only factual errors I saw was that the character Jillian only had 4 births (she said 5) and that although the woman playing her in the production she saw was in her late 50s Jillian was not a product of the sixties...she was more a product of the seventies where there was less of a natural birth movement, more drugs in labor, etc..)
What fun to see the play and the BOLD movement entering academia...and how BOLD of Elizabeth to write about it!
Doula, again (or maybe I should say "Help me, I'm a doula again!") - installment #3
I feel like I'm living a cliff hanger. After speaking to Kathy and Ty for nearly 3 hours last week about their upcoming birth, explaining to them how low their chances of having natural birth with a high risk doctor is in New York City, they then went to the birth class at their hospital this weekend and got further confirmation of the obvious - that natural birth rarely happens at their hospital. The childbirth educator told them that the hospital had a 97% epidural rate. Yep, no natural birth.
Kathy said not one parent asked questions to the childbirth educator. And most of the class was about the different medications they had to offer. She did, however, decide to pose this question to the childbirth educator: "What if I stay home and labor at home for as long as possible before going to the hospital? Will this increase my chances of natural birth?" She said the childbirth educator gave her a smile and a wink, which Kathy interpreted as a "you go girlfriend!"
Next steps?
1- they're getting a second opinion from a more natural birth oriented doctor....but I don't know if they will switch at this point (due date August 5).
2- Kathy seems pretty determined to labor at home as long as possible no matter what.
3- I called Debra Pascali-Bonaro - well known doula, friend, and filmmaker of Orgasmic Birth (www.orgasmicbirth.com - check it out!) and she has agreed to be at Kathy's birth with me...the two of us trusting her body, cheering her on... telling her that her body rocks.
I'm away on holiday until June 23...stay tuned!
Kathy said not one parent asked questions to the childbirth educator. And most of the class was about the different medications they had to offer. She did, however, decide to pose this question to the childbirth educator: "What if I stay home and labor at home for as long as possible before going to the hospital? Will this increase my chances of natural birth?" She said the childbirth educator gave her a smile and a wink, which Kathy interpreted as a "you go girlfriend!"
Next steps?
1- they're getting a second opinion from a more natural birth oriented doctor....but I don't know if they will switch at this point (due date August 5).
2- Kathy seems pretty determined to labor at home as long as possible no matter what.
3- I called Debra Pascali-Bonaro - well known doula, friend, and filmmaker of Orgasmic Birth (www.orgasmicbirth.com - check it out!) and she has agreed to be at Kathy's birth with me...the two of us trusting her body, cheering her on... telling her that her body rocks.
I'm away on holiday until June 23...stay tuned!
Our first BOLD Baby!
BOLD 2007 Organizer Robin Garrison in Maui called me last night. Conceived during BOLD 2007, Robin had her baby boy at home last night surrounded by her husband and kids at 12.35am. She said she Waa-hooed for alot of the pushing phase...
Robin, you ROCK!
Waa-hoo!
Robin, you ROCK!
Waa-hoo!
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Doula, again (or maybe I should say "Help me, I'm a doula again!") - installment #2
Okay,I just received an email from my friend Kathy who asked me to be her doula at the end of July and...well...let's just say there's writing about childbirth and then there's being in the trenches - and I definitely feel like I'm in the trenches at this moment. Hearing the every day words that come out of the mouths of the people providing care for pregnant mothers is shocking and, let me tell you I've heard plenty of inappropriate comments to mothers, but this one is near the top of the list. I'll let Kathy take it from here:
We were also able to ask the doctor a few questions at our appt last week and I think the strangest or scariest answer I got back to my expressing to have a natural delivery was "do you know how to push?" What kind of question is that? Is there a masters degree out there that I need to obtain in order to birth a baby?
DO YOU KNOW HOW TO PUSH? What century are we in here?
The great news, though, is that Kathy and her husband Ty spotted how inappropriate this language was because they had just rented...da da da!...The Business of Being Born. (Ricki Lake, can you see me down on my knees thanking you?). I had sensed when Kathy first called to ask if I'd be her doula that they needed a cold shower when it came to birth. Actually, I don't like to do that to mothers who are two months from delivery, but Kathy stressed she wanted a natural birth yet she is going to a high risk doctor in a New York City hospital.
Let's do the math together...
High risk doctor + hospital = natural birth
Okay, stop laughing. I trust you get how this equation has very little probability of working. Hence, the cold shower childbirth education method for people wanting a natural birth in a hospital: rent The Business of Being Born.
After Kathy's doctor visit and watching The Business of Being Born not surprisingly she and Ty are fired up. ("I didn't know a movie about childbirth could be a horror flick," writes Kathy) We're going to talk on the phone tomorrow. But what are her options? Home? (I doubt they'd go for that, as I mentioned in installment #1 Kathy is carrying two babies, one that passed away at 15 weeks so she will be birthing twins which has them understandably both not wanting to go too radical). Or will they continue to plan a hospital birth with Karen-the-doula (me!)who hasn't been a professional doula for over five years?
Yikes...anyone have a vodka tonic?
We were also able to ask the doctor a few questions at our appt last week and I think the strangest or scariest answer I got back to my expressing to have a natural delivery was "do you know how to push?" What kind of question is that? Is there a masters degree out there that I need to obtain in order to birth a baby?
DO YOU KNOW HOW TO PUSH? What century are we in here?
The great news, though, is that Kathy and her husband Ty spotted how inappropriate this language was because they had just rented...da da da!...The Business of Being Born. (Ricki Lake, can you see me down on my knees thanking you?). I had sensed when Kathy first called to ask if I'd be her doula that they needed a cold shower when it came to birth. Actually, I don't like to do that to mothers who are two months from delivery, but Kathy stressed she wanted a natural birth yet she is going to a high risk doctor in a New York City hospital.
Let's do the math together...
High risk doctor + hospital = natural birth
Okay, stop laughing. I trust you get how this equation has very little probability of working. Hence, the cold shower childbirth education method for people wanting a natural birth in a hospital: rent The Business of Being Born.
After Kathy's doctor visit and watching The Business of Being Born not surprisingly she and Ty are fired up. ("I didn't know a movie about childbirth could be a horror flick," writes Kathy) We're going to talk on the phone tomorrow. But what are her options? Home? (I doubt they'd go for that, as I mentioned in installment #1 Kathy is carrying two babies, one that passed away at 15 weeks so she will be birthing twins which has them understandably both not wanting to go too radical). Or will they continue to plan a hospital birth with Karen-the-doula (me!)who hasn't been a professional doula for over five years?
Yikes...anyone have a vodka tonic?
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Saying YES to a BOLD movement
Well, I just had to share this with y’all…from BOLD Paris organizer, Dali, after their performance and red tents last weekend…
“… the experience was amazing, absolutely crazy; don't have enough words to describe it! At the end of the performance, people were crying, not only women but some men also. And the Red Tents! Something incredible happened, a mystic experience!”
And she concludes…
“You were right: the artistic medium is so powerfull. I think I didn't really believe it before but now I do!”
Yes! Dali’s note just reaffirms in me that now is the time to be BOLD…to use the arts to build a movement of people who say YES to maternity care that deeply listens and honors mothers, who say YES to media that doesn’t use inaccurate “birth as entertainment” material just to get a laugh, who say YES to just how powerful and pleasurable birth can be when we let go of societal expectations and remember that women’s bodies are not lemons…that our bodies can ROCK when we give birth.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)