Hilarious YouTube teaser for BIRTH!

I just loved this YouTube video for BOLD Ottawa...short, sweet and to the point!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMo2CUMFCmA

BOLDer and BOLDer!!!!

Just about every minute I can't believe all the fabulous things happening at BOLD locations this year. Okay, to name just a few:

BOLD Ottawa...oh my, if you're on Facebook, YouTube or just about anywhere on the internet you've got to check out BOLD Ottawa's BOLD efforts this year. There August performances of BIRTH raised money for a huge Breech Birth Conference in Ottawa in October where the play will be done again for participants.

BOLD Palo Alto...it's a first (and I'm leading another one in October at George Mason University!) audience led performance of BIRTH. Yes! The audience will read the script together, make the sounds, feel the impact of the words. I love it!

BOLD New York City...is getting ready to bring diverse performances of BIRTH all over the city to teenage women and more.

BOLD Fort Collins, Colorado...will have Mothering Magazine founder Peggy O'Mara at their talkback. BOLD Atanta will have Henci Goer at their talkback.

and there's a whole lot more BOLDness going on!

Check out our locations online here.

Why the House's Health Care Reform bill works

I really enjoy just about anything coming out a Childbirth Connections. Check out their Executive Director, Maureen Corry's thoughts on why health care reform will improve maternity care.

Health Care Reform Will Improve Maternity Care
By Maureen Corry
Created Aug 27 2009 - 7:00am

As the nation's media remain thoroughly transfixed by health care reform and battles over expanding health coverage, containing costs, wild allegations about death panels and the like, H.R. 3200, the House's version of health care reform, currently ordered to be reported (amended) by voice vote, remains a solid piece of legislation.

And I'm not referring to the fact that with over 1,000 pages, it weighs in at over 13 pounds. America's Affordable Health Choices Act is our best bet for bringing high-quality affordable health care to all Americans. Yes, it requires much up-front cost, but it has rational mechanisms for funding its provisions, including savings realized from a better way of doing health care.

Childbirth Connection [1], the national organization advocating high quality evidence-based maternity care for all women, babies and families, has thrown its support behind H.R. 3200 because it takes a big step toward widening access to evidence-based maternity care [2]that is safer and more effective than the prevailing style of care most pregnant women experience today.

Maternity care is big business. Childbirth is the number one reason for being hospitalized, and maternal and newborn charges are the runaway leader in hospital charges: $86 billion in 2006 ($39 billion of which was publicly funded by Medicaid). A major problem is that costly childbirth procedures that entail risk are being overused, wasting precious health care resources. Meanwhile, proven methods, generally safer and cheaper, aren't being used enough. Perverse incentives that encourage overuse of inappropriate procedures have contributed to the sad fact that while per capita health expenditures in the U.S. far exceed those of all other nations, our performance lags distantly behind other developed nations on quality indicators including low birthweight, c-section and maternal death rates.

H.R. 3200 addresses many of the problems inherent in the U.S. maternity care system through private insurance system reforms, better access to primary maternity care, especially in underserved communities, and improved coverage for prevention and wellness services. This makes perfect sense considering that most childbearing women and their fetuses/newborns are healthy and at low risk, and thereby best served by safe, low intervention primary maternity care, which offers better value for payers over present approaches.

This legislation also goes a long way toward achieving Childbirth Connection's eight steps to reform maternity care [3]and helps ensure that all pregnant women and babies receive high quality maternity care.

In particular, the bill would:

1. Prohibit the use of pregnancy as a pre-existing condition by health insurance providers.

2. Widen access to certified nurse-midwives by eliminating inequities in how they are reimbursed under Medicare;

3. Measure and report publicly the performance of maternity care facilities and providers and use results to improve care;

4. Pay for home visits by nurses for families during or after pregnancy by Medicaid;

5. Expand access to primary maternity care by improving Medicaid coverage of freestanding birth centers;

6. Provide incentives to maternity care providers under Medicaid to provide care to underserved women and their families.

Kudos to the leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee for passing H.R. 3200. Let's work to make health care reform become a reality, finally.

Advocates Spotlight Absence of "Beginning-of-Life" Provisions in House Bill

From The Big Push for Midwives...

Advocates Spotlight Absence of "Beginning-of-Life" Provisions in House Bill
Maternity Care Crisis Ignored as Controversy about End-of-Life Issues Continues

Washington, DC (August 17, 2009)­As the controversy over the inclusion of end-of-life provisions in the House health care reform bill continues, questions emerged about the lack of "beginning-of-life" provisions in the bill that would expand access to maternity care providers and settings and ensure that patients receive adequate care across their life span.

"The U.S. has one of the worst infant and maternal mortality rates in the developed world," said Elizabeth Allemann, MD. "The cesarean section rate has skyrocketed to more than a third of all births in the country, and with nearly half of all births being paid for by Medicaid, taxpayers are getting hit hard. We have a crisis on our hands and we need to start paying as much attention to beginning-of-life issues as we do to end-of life-issues."

Among the measures being promoted by advocates seeking to reform the maternity care system is the addition of a provision to the House bill that would provide access to out-of-hospital birth and the services of Certified Professional Midwives, who are specially trained to provide it, for women receiving Medicaid.

"We know that women cared for by Certified Professional Midwives experience significantly reduced rates of low birth weight and preterm births, two of the leading causes of cost increases and growing racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes," said Jane Peterson, LM, CPM. "Moreover, Certified Professional Midwives are able to produce these outcomes at a fraction of the cost of traditional maternity care. The House bill represents a golden opportunity for us to embrace maternity care reforms that truly can make a positive impact on our health care system and on the lives of mothers and babies."

David A. Anderson, Professor of Economics at Centre College, calculates that if the rate of births that take place in private homes and in freestanding birth centers increased by less than ten percent, we would realize an annual savings of more than $9 billion. A 2008 study commissioned by the state of Washington found that its licensed midwife program generates a savings of more than $3 million to private and public insurers each biennium.

"With all of the talk about the importance of end-of-life issues," said Dr. Allemann, "It's time for us to also recognize that giving everyone a good start at the beginning of life has far-reaching implications for our health care system. Including out-of-hospital maternity care and Certified Professional Midwives in health care reform is a small but very important first step."

The Big Push for Midwives Campaign represents thousands of grassroots advocates in the United States who support expanding access to Certified Professional Midwives and out-of-hospital maternity care. The mission of The Big Push includes educating the public and policymakers about the reduced costs and improved outcomes associated with out-of-hospital birth and Certified Professional Midwives, the maternity care providers trained to provide that service. Media inquiries: Katherine Prown (414) 550-8025, katie@thebigpushformidwives.org

If you care about healthcare watch this

This film is important and makes it clear that our health care system is failing mothers and babies and suggests what we can do about it!

Click here

Wilmington, NC organizing protest

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the only hospital midwives in Wilmington, NC were just abruptly fired this month. Luckily, BOLDness abounds and not only will this issue be addressed during performances of the play this Labor Day weekend, but right now - TODAY through Friday - people are picketing the OB/GYN practice that fired the midwives.

Check out their event posted on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=116235701073&ref=nf

Read an article on the recent hospital protest HERE!

BOLD Bermuda in the news

Just received a hard copy of a front page article on the play when it was performed in Bermuda on May 15 this year. You ROCK BOLD Bermuda!


May 15, The Bermuda Sun...


Play delivers on the celebration of childbirth

From a water delivery to a caesarean section, an international play aims to show women they have many options when it comes to giving birth.

The play, simply called Birth, is written by childbirth advocate Karen Brody and follows the birthing stories of eight real-life American women.

The women in the play are actors but don't think for a second they will scrimp on any sound

effects.

Moaning, chanting and swearing all help to transport audiences right there to the delivery room - or, birthing pool in one case.

In the play, you will meet women like Amanda who roars "my body rocks!" throughout her birth; Vanessa and Janet, both drawn to an epidural; Lisa, who says her c-section felt like "the death of me and my baby"; and Jillian, whose journey through four different births shows women how to get "an orgasmic birth."

The play, performed as part of a global activist theatre movement known as BOLD, uncovers the secret lives of low-risk women in labour as some of them confront coersion in the hospital.

"Childbirth today is a human rights issue for low-risk pregnant mothers," said Ms Brody who spent a year interviewing more than 100 low risk women before writing her play. "Choices in childbirth have been severely restricted for this large population of pregnant women despite strong evidence-based research supporting a wide variety of birth choices."

Khalilah Smith, 33, from Devonshire, plays a character called Jillian.

"Jillian has been through everything." Ms Smith said. "She gives birth four times in different ways and learns from each experience.

The brink of death

"She talks about what she thought birth would be all about - the mad rush to the hospital, the emergency room, being on the brink of death - everything.

"If I ever did have another child what I have learned here, through taking part in this play, has definitely influenced what I would do.

"The first time around for me I was uninformed. To hear different women's birth experiences creates a sense of camaraderie among the women."

Unfortunately, in Bermuda the birthing choices are not as vast - and low-risk mothers often have no choice but to use the 'lie-on-your-back-in-hospital-and-push' method.

Lisa Bagchi, 38, plays the character Beth who decides to have planned c-section.

In real life Ms Bagchi says in the future she plans to have her children outside of Bermuda so that she has more options when it comes to where and how she gives birth.

"I don't even want to have my baby at the hospital," Ms Bagchi said. "So I know that I will have to go outside Bermuda to give birth.

"Right now they're building a new hospital, which I know will take years, but my greatest hope is that we have some water birth options and a birthing center with mid-wifery-centered care outside of the

hospital."

Danika Pereira, 37, who plays the character Lisa in the play, said that after the birth of her daughter she decided she "wanted to improve the experience the next time around."

Ms Pereira said: "I didn't start looking at my birthing options until I was about five months pregnant. Personally, from my own experience, I think I would have benefited from a water birth."

"I would really like for this play to generate some positive energy so we can have a conversation to increase options in Bermuda and the stories from women about their births can be more empowering.

"In this culture it seems like we're told to ignore anything negative about the birth - that anything bad that happens is just a part of birth. But it's not just about making babies, it's about making mothers.

"Every woman's birth should be like the 24th of May - you have a route mapped out, roads are closed down for you and lots of people are cheering you on."

Local doula and childbirth educator Sophia Cannonier helped to organize the play in Bermuda.

"We want to create an environment where people feel comfortable discussing when things haven't gone right during childbirth," Mrs. Cannonier said. "Women spend more time choosing a wedding dress than they do looking into their birthing options. And the truth is, there aren't that many options to research in Bermuda. And if we don't demand them, we won't get them.

Blank it out

"People will blank out the birth of their child because it maybe wasn't pleasant, and that's not healthy. My mother gave birth to me on Cedar Hill in Warwick. I know that during my birth there was a midwife sitting at the end of the bed knitting a sweater and that my mother had just cleaned the kitchen floor.

"Women suddenly stopped telling positive stories about birth."

Birth's author Karen Brody founded BOLD in 2006 with the intention to use her play to raise awareness and money that promotes childbirth choices that work for mothers.

The BOLD performance in Bermuda will benefit doulas of Bermuda whose mission is to increase birthing options in Bermuda including the design for the new maternity wards.

A book of the play, including stories from the BOLD movement are available for purchase at the event.

my new play on motherhood!

Here's the poster for my new one act play on motherhood! If you're in the DC area Labor Day weekend come to the first reading at the Kennedy Center.

For more info go to:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=115314206333&ref=mf#/pages/Taskmaster/121677756629?ref=ts

Blog: http://www.taskmastertheplay.blogspot.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/TaskmasterKaren

South Dakota mom Walks for Midwives

I love this...local South Dakota mom, Debbie Pease, has organized several BOLD Red Tents with BOLD and now she's walking 44 miles through 11 communities in South Dakota to raise awareness that South Dakota has a severe shortage of midwives and birth options for mothers.

You ROCK, Debbie!!!!!!

Here's a press release from The Big Push for Midwives:

South Dakota Mother to Walk Across the State to Raise Awareness About
Lack of Access to Certified Professional Midwives
Hundreds to Join Her in Show of Support for Change in State Law

CENTERVILLE, SD (August 12, 2009) – Beginning on August 21, local mother Debbie Pease will walk four miles in 11 communities across South Dakota, completing the 44th mile of her journey on her 44th birthday just six days later in Sioux Falls. She and hundreds of citizens from across the state, who are joining her along
the way, are walking to raise awareness about the need to change state law to authorize Certified Professional Midwives, who are specially trained to provide out-of-hospital maternity care, to practice legally. “Families in Minnesota, Montana, and Wisconsin have been benefiting from the services of Certified
Professional Midwives for years,” said Ronda Kvigne, who was forced to cross state lines in order to deliver her last baby under the care of a Certified Professional Midwife. “It is high time that South Dakota families
had the same opportunities.”

Certified Nurse-Midwives are trained to provide hospital-based care and are legally authorized to practice in all 50 states. Fewer than 1% of nurse-midwives nationwide provide maternity care in private homes or freestanding birth centers, and only one nurse-midwife in South Dakota provides out-of-hospital care. As a
result, families in most parts of the state who choose to give birth outside of the hospital—most often for religious, cultural or financial reasons—are left with no access to legally-practicing midwives with expertise in out-of-hospital delivery.
“The first step is to license and regulate Certified Professional Midwives so that families who choose out-of-hospital delivery have access to providers who have met the appropriate educational, training, and credentialing standards,” said Travis Brink of SD Safe Childbirth Options, Inc, a consumer advocacy group that is working to expand maternity care options in the state. Demand for the services of Certified Professional Midwives is on the rise throughout the country, while The Big Push for Midwives, a national campaign to license them in all 50 states, has been making steady progress.

Since 2005 six states have passed legislation legally authorizing Certified Professional Midwives to practice, and last year Idaho became the 26th state to do so. Legislation is pending in an additional 18 states.

“The research consistently shows that Certified Professional Midwives have excellent outcomes at significantly reduced costs,” said Pease. “The state of Washington commissioned a study that found a biennial savings to public and private insurers of more than $3 million. My hope is that the incredible outpouring of energy generated by the Walk for Midwives will compel policy makers in South Dakota to take notice and to recognize the need to change our laws so that families in our own state have access to the safe, proven, and cost-effective care offered by Certified Professional Midwives.”

Pease will begin her walk at 8 a.m. on Friday, August 21 in Spearfish at WomanKind Midwifery located at 544 N 7th Street. Everyone is invited to walk a distance that is comfortable for them and learn more about this issue. There is no fee to join the Walks, but everyone is encouraged to buy a T-shirt and/or make a donation
to SD Safe Childbirth Options, Inc.

For more information about each of the 11 Walks and to download photos, please visit WalkForMidwives.com.

Midwives in Wilmington, NC fired!

Just got an email from our BOLD Wilmington Organizer, Kirsti, that the two midwives in their local hospital were just fired this week. On the eve of their BOLD performances of my play BIRTH (On Labor Day weekend) birth advocates are now very busy organizing a response to this huge loss in their community.

How can midwives be fired if we're ever going to improve maternity care and cut costs? It makes NO sense!

Here are two links with more info:

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20090805/ARTICLES/908054006

http://www.wwaytv3.com/node/17524

Please if you live in North Carolina near Wilmington or know people who do go out and support BOLD Wilmington's performances! They're organizing a great week long birth festival for mothers and others! Click here to go to their website.

ACOG and AMA: “Join the 21st Century”

Jennifer Block is at it again. Her new piece, “Birth Wars,” explains the hostile position ACOG and AMA take towards giving birth outside the hospital.

Basically, despite the evidence, they just won’t support it and have worked openly and aggressively to block mothers from having the choice to give birth with midwives at home. Meanwhile other obstetric associations and doctors outside of the United States have, as Canadian obstetrician Andrew Kostaska, MD says, “Joined the 21st Century.” Not only do they encourage healthy mothers to give birth at home, they recognize that the research is the best we’ve got and reliable enough to conclude homebirth is safe.

Bottom line? Every woman needs to be offered informed choice. ACOG and AMA are obstructing this right from American mothers.

To read Block’s full piece click here.

How to save $86 billion in healthcare costs

I've always liked Jennifer Block's non-nonsense approach to writing about maternity care. Basically, midwives make sense....and cents. Yes, as she says in her most recent piece "Over here, Mr. President" if you want to cut healthcare costs just look at maternity care.

"Childbirth, in fact, costs the United States more in hospital charges than any other health condition -- $86 billion in 2006, almost half paid for by taxpayers," Block says.

And here's the kicker:

"Yet we have among the worst outcomes: high rates of preterm birth, infant mortality, and maternal mortality, with huge disparities by race."

It's a no-brainer that maternity care needs reform, but ironically as Block points out the women's health community has never fully embraced this cause. Why? One word: abortion. Reproductive rights advocates need ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gyns) on their side. You lose them and you could jepordize women's access to abortions. This, Block asserts, is the reason reproductive rights advocates haven't been knocking doors down to complain that one in three women are c-sectioned in the United States, that mothers who had C-sections are being denied vaginal birth as an option in at least half of the hospitals in the US.

Hearing all of this is painful and tragic.

And, women's health advocates aside, there's more worrying feedback mothers are getting about their maternity care. Block attended Childbirth Connection's symposium on maternity care and...

"An executive from Geisinger Health System made a startling admission:

"There are many healthcare organizations across the country [that] have become, unfortunately, dependent upon NICU [Neonatal Intensive Care Unit] volumes to fund many of their other services."

In other words, our for-profit system not only rewards the overuse of intervention even if it leads to more sick babies; in some cases, it depends on it."

These are hard words to swallow, especially if you're pregnant today. But do not despair. BOLDness is out there! As Block points out, midwives are offering outstanding care for low risk mothers. And if 10 percent (instead of the current 1%) of the population in the US used midwives we'd save $9.1 billion in healthcare. It just makes CENTS!!!

To read Jennifer Block's full piece click here.