"Moi J'Accouche!" - inspired by BIRTH

This Friday in South of France...a theater piece called "Moi J'Accouche!" (I give birth?) will be performed.The producers did my play this summer and said BIRTH inspired them to create "Moi J'Accouche!"

The goal of their creative theater piece is for the people presenting their birth stories to ultimately be giving birth to themselves - their true nature. Sounds alot like The My Body Rocks Project workshops I"m about to start offering in 2010! I love it!

I'm desperately trying to post the flyer because it's gorgeous...but it won't post!

BOLD 2010 Guidelines!

Well, BOLD 2010 is off and running! We've had lots of inquires and yesterday our first location, in Birmingham, Alabama, registered. Waa-hoo!!! Their performance will take place January 30th at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. The performance will raise money for the Alabama Birth Coalition.

Labor Day 2010 will kick-start BOLD's FIFTH year. I can hardly believe it. Lots of BOLDness is planned to kick off our 5th year so keep checking here for details!

Here are the new BOLD 2010 Guidelines - for both performance and Red Tents: (they'll hopefully be on our website by early December!)

REQUIREMENTS FOR HOSTING ANY BOLD EVENT

Most Important:

* You must complete an application for the rights to host ANY BOLD event EVERY year.
* Registration fee for our events are as follows: BOLD Performances: $50 per performance (only except includes "out of the choir" performances where no ticket fee is charged - ie, for students, etc) ; BOLD Red Tents: $25 for the year.
* All registration fees are non-refundable except for unique circumstances.
* Maximum of 8 performances for each event.
* You must work collaboratively with all other BOLD events in your area.


Money:

o Organizers and all supporting teams should NOT be paid. (Union technical staff contracted by venue are the only exceptions.)

o Tickets should be charged for performances of Birth & suggested donations for BOLD Red Tents are at your discretion.

o Keep production costs down. Donation goal should be 94 cents of every dollar.


Beneficiary:

o Donate profits to local group that specifically works to make maternity care mother-friendly (preventative, educational, supportive, empowerment).\

o Include your beneficiary in your activities, outreach and publicity.


Organizer requirements:

o Only 1 organizer is approved for each event. (must be 18yrs & older)

o We require an active email address that can be shared publicly.

o We require you to respond promptly to all BOLD communication.

o Sending us BOLD Follow up materials that include: raw film footage (for performances), photos from your event and completing the BOLD Organizers Report.

o Incomplete BOLD Organizers reports will result in denial of any future applications.


Outreach:

o Strive for diversity of all kinds.

o Think of ways to attract people to your event who do not know about childbirth options/issues.


Publicity:

o You must use your official event name, BOLD “Your location” in all publicity.

o BOLD’s website must be on all your publicity. (you can also put your local website, if applicable)

o When referring to the play it must be publicized as “Birth, a play by Karen Brody”

o No posting excerpts of the play on YouTube (or any other medium) without written consent from BOLD.


BOLD Performance and Talkbacks:

· Use ONLY the 2010 version of the scripts for your event. NO books or previous scripts are authorized.

· No edits are allowed AT ALL without special approval.

· No additions to the scripts are allowed unless specified.

· Do not reproduce any scripts for any purpose other than BOLD events.

· A BOLD Talkback (post-show discussion) must be held after each performance of the play.

· You may take back no more than 25% of the gross profits for expenses incurred holding the event (for example, rental of performance space).

· Performances do not need to be done in a theatre space.

· You can do a staged reading or full production (without scripts).

· Strive for diversity in your cast.

· No acting experience is necessary to perform in the play.

· BOLD provides you with a BOLD Organizers Handbook, graphic design images, contact with other BOLD organizers, and ongoing email support.


BOLD Red Tents:

· You can organize a BOLD Red Tent without producing the play.

· Strive to organize events in diverse communities.

· You must record your event. You do not have to film it, but if you don’t then please send us photos or consider making a short photo montage with quotes from the mothers who attended (click here to see BOLD Kelowna’s YouTube piece)

Want an application? Email Jennifer at performance@boldaction.org.

BOLD Red Tents rocks Spain - do men need a "blue tent"?

I received such wonderful feedback from Isabel Vidal Font our BOLD Red Tent Organizer in Girona, Spain.

She writes:

If there is one word to summarize the environment in Girona it was "familiar." They toldthe stories, one after another without anticipation of the other, with sweet and emotional silences smiles and tears...


Isabel also brought up the issue of men attending BOLD Red Tents...


In Girona, our BOLD Red Tent made an exception: there was a man involved. The reason that justify his participation: He is midwife, he spends his time lovingly accompany professional women in their labor, to both hospital and home.

It appears there is an importance of creating a "Blue Tent" where men too can tell their experiences, or a multi-color tent, where the experiences of men and women together can be told. This is an issue that arose since the previous Red Tent and now we’re thinking about it…


If you speak Catalan you can read her online blog about BOLD Spain's red tent experiences! And even if you don't speak Catalan look at it to see her fabulous photos.

Isabel has been doing BOLD Red Tents for several years now...and they are spreading throughout her area! She hopes to bring it to even more to communities in 2010!

Thanks for your wonderful postings!

Thanks for your responses to the Psychology Today blog!

Loved them all...I'm moved by how much the play and the BOLD movement has meant to many. And how necessary it is!!

Here's one comment:

Having been involved in this play for several years, I came away from this article with a feeling of being condescended to by the writer, with the impression that she views Ms. Brody and others involved in BOLD as fringe types unconcerned with facts and modern realities, when this couldn't be further from the truth.

The overwhelming medicalization of birth in this country is not a rebuttal to the comfort of or the 'New Agey' wishes of the mother so much as it is about money, fear, trauma and rising death rates. For a country that spends far more than nearly any other on birth, we have staggeringly poor maternal and fetal outcomes. Nearly every time that birth is portrayed in our media, it is done so as an emergency, something that women and their babies must be rescued from or face the direst of consequences. It makes you wonder how we ever survived as a species.

Women and even girls in the United States and elsewhere are being taught that their bodies are defective, incapable of safely delivering a baby without huge risks and increasingly invasive medical procedures. I've met teenagers who are already being told by MDs that since they are 'small', they must have a c-section, and I've heard far worse. Anyone who does the research will discover that this is nonsense and seriously undermines a woman's confidence in herself. I'll be the first to admit that there are well-intentioned, skilled MD's involved in the birth process. But aside from true high-risk cases--not the artificially inflated labels granted today--physicians and operating rooms should not be involved in normal births.

Birth is a natural process, not a medical emergency and should not be routinely treated as such. Yet that is the reality in most cases these days. Women are belittled, ignored and harmed every day as they strive to fulfill their biological and maternal duties. In nearly every major hospital today it is extremely difficult to have an unmedicated, interference free birth and nearly impossible to have a VBAC. Hospitals and physicians dealing in childbirth are far more concerned today with lawsuits and bottom lines than with the rights of women and their families to make informed decisions about their bodies and healthcare.

Without pushing an agenda of midwife vs. physician or medicated vs. un, BOLD seeks to inform, empower and heal women, as well as the state of childbirth in the world today.

I have repeatedly seen audiences moved to laughter, tears and outrage by this play. And to second another's comments--the Red Tent (it's not a so-called Red Tent) is not filled with hordes of angry women, but of educated, empowered and caring women sharing what are generally overwhelmingly positive stories of birth. I took exception to the author's tone in that regard especially.

As a woman who suffered two hideous and deeply traumatizing hospital births, I feel compelled to point to the previously unheard of rates of Postpartum Depression and Postpartum Psychosis in this country and in others where medicalized birth has taken over as the new 'norm.' When birth is allowed to unfold as the complex physiological and mental process that it is, without being artificially rushed by drugs and other interventions, when it isn't interrupted constantly by unfamiliar people, when it is allowed to remain a peaceful, private event, rates of PD and PP become almost nonexistent. That cannot be a coincidence and those of us that have been there and back again have learned the truth of it.

When I became pregnant a third time, I was informed by an MD who is actually supportive of VBACs that if I intended to deliver in a hospital, I would have to arrive as late in labor as possible or be forced to succumb to myriad restrictive hospital policies that invariably end in c-sections. I further learned that if I refused to allow a perfectly healthy baby to be parted from me and my husband by arbitrary and scientifically unfounded hospital policies, that child protective services would be called and our child could be removed from our custody. After exhaustive, extensive research, we safely, peacefully and joyfully birthed our new baby in the privacy of our home, with a birth attendant more comprehensively trained in physiological birth than any OB. Not only was it far less painful and faster than previous hospital experiences, there was no risk of or subsequent infection, no unnecessary and painful procedures inflicted upon our healthy son and no fear, no postpartum depression. This baby came naturally into this world after I banished the sneering, patronizing words of a former OB from my mind--in an effort to validate the unnecessary surgical birth that he forced upon me, he subsequently informed me that my pelvis was far too small to deliver a baby larger than several pounds.

My son weighed nine pounds.

I was blatantly lied to. There is nothing wrong with me. There is nothing wrong with modern women in the US and elsewhere. We can give birth. It is what we are born to do. I thank Karen Brody and all of the other strong, informed women striving to return sanity, safety and life to the process of birth in the world today. We must not let greed and complacency continue to kill and traumatize women and babies. Education and compassion will do more good than any other tools in this fight. Kudos to Karen for wielding them so mightily and to BOLD for bringing such a deeply affecting, balanced portrayal of the true state of modern birth to the attention of us all. Please don't let those trapped in fear and ignorance rob you of the opportunity to experience the play. Please don't let anyone else dictate your choices to you--only you can inform yourself and make the best choices, for yourself, for your families, for your childrens' futures. For that is above all, what mothers do and for most, that journey truly begins with birth.

Psychology Today blog - please respond!

I wasn't too please reading a blog piece in Psychology Today about the play, primarily because alot about it felt inaccurate. (the writer has not seen the play) If you think so too please comment! If you've seen the play you'll know what I'm talking about. I made a comment today.

Click here to view the piece.

MAMA campaign: Great News and Webinar!

If you're an American and don't know about the MAMA Campaign you should. They're working hard right now to secure inclusion of CPMs (certified professional midwives) into Federal legislation.

Here's a recent update from the MAMA Campaign:

Congress takes an important step forward for CPMs!

MAMA’s hard work, with your intrepid support, is paying off! The Senate Finance Committee has included language in their bill that will advance the interests of CPMs and the women they serve - thanks to the support of a key Senator secured by MAMA!
On Friday, November 13th, MAMA representatives met with a top health aide to Senator Maria Cantwell from Washington State. In direct response to MAMA advocacy, Senator Cantwell has included a provision in the Senate Finance Committee bill that will require Medicaid to reimburse licensed birth attendants (which would include state-licensed CPMs) who provide services in licensed birth centers. We were told that the Senator feels strongly about including CPMs in the health care bill and recognizes that her home state of Washington has played a leading role in demonstrating the high quality and low cost of CPM care. The Senator has heard the call from MAMA loud and clear and committed to finding a way to move the ball forward for CPMs.

Building from language crafted by the American Association of Birth Centers for legislation that will require that birth centers receive payment for facility fees, Senator Cantwell was able to add language specifying payment to the providers - licensed birth attendants - as well. Other Finance Committee members, including the Chairman, lined up with Senator Cantwell in support of her provision, demonstrating that our outreach to those offices has also borne fruit. Of great significance, she has also secured the commitment of Senator Reid, the Democratic Majority Leader at the center of crafting the final health care bill this year, to keep her language in this year’s final bill. Inclusion of this language represents a significant commitment on the part of the Senator, and we are very grateful to her for this important step forward for CPMs and for expanded choice for women and families!

As a key member of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Cantwell has a limited number of initiatives that she can champion herself, but she has offered to fully support any other Senator who will file MAMA’s original provision on the floor of the Senate to require that Medicaid reimburse all CPMs in all settings.

We are proud of and grateful to all of the midwives and mothers in action in Washington State for the successful outreach to their Senator! And we are grateful to all of you who have helped to secure the wide support that the MAMA Campaign and CPMs enjoy in the Senate!

The provision included in the Senate Finance Committee bill will provide a strong legislative platform for further action to secure access to CPMs for all childbearing women, both in the current health care bill and in the years to come. It is interesting to note that a number of states have first secured just a portion of their initial legislative “ask” , and then accomplished their original goal in a subsequent year. In New Hampshire, for example, the midwives went to the legislature to mandate that all insurance carriers in the state reimburse the licensed midwives. That year, a mandate was passed that only reimbursed midwives operating out of licensed birth centers. The following year, the midwives were successful in having the mandate expanded to cover all licensed midwives offering services in all settings.

What is next for MAMA this year?
MAMA remains committed to including our original provision to mandate Medicaid reimbursement for all CPM services, regardless of site of birth, in the health care bills this year! We are in negotiation with Senate Finance Committee offices in the effort to secure a champion to file our amendment on the floor of the Senate. In addition, we have a strategy to leverage our support in both chambers to include our provision in the final bill that will be signed by the President, whatever the outcome in the Senate.

We need your help!
Please keep those letters to your Senators coming! You never know which letter will take us over the top and into the bill! Write today!

And please keep your dollars coming! You have made possible the most successful fundraising campaign for midwives ever! Now we are asking that you dig just a little deeper to fund us through the end of this legislative session. We have raised $140,000 to date! Washington State donors have been especially generous, accounting for 20% of this amount. We must raise an additional $30,000 in the next few weeks. If you have not given yet, please make a donation today. If you have given, please consider an additional gift today.

Join MAMA in a Webinar about the Campaign next Monday!

Please join the MAMA campaign steering committee for an informational webinar on the MAMA Campaign on Monday, November 23rd from 8-9 PM EST. Register at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/709957571. Come learn about our strategy, about exciting new developments in the campaign and about how you can support the Campaign’s efforts to secure federal recognition of Certified Professional Midwives. The webinar will also strive to answer questions from supporters, so please submit questions ahead of the webinar by emailing info@mamacampaign.org, subject line” Webinar Question Submission.” Click https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/709957571 to register for the webinar.

MAMA thanks you for your support. If you have any questions, concerns or comments please contact the campaign at info@mamacampaign.org.

US Health Care Reform Legislation without CPMs: What You Can Do Now

Important news from The Big Push for Midwives for all Americans:

Now that the House has passed health care reform legislation WITHOUT CPMs included, it has become clear that we need our OWN bill. The Senate is our best hope to do that.

Please call your Senators today and ask them to take the lead in introducing a BILL to provide Medicaid payment of Certified Professional Midwife services.

To find your Senators and their contact information, go to:

http://tinyurl.com/b1lm

OR


Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your Senators' offices.

Midwives and other childbirth professionals: It's very important to pass this action alert to your clients and ask them to make calls TODAY!

A separate bill for CPMs gives us many more options for ensuring that their services are federally recognized and covered and it allows us to recruit supporters from BOTH parties!

Keep trying if you don't get through. Call AGAIN even if you've called already-it takes more than one call! LOTS of groups are calling their Senators about health care reform today-support for Certified Professional Midwives and out-of-hospital maternity care needs to get heard through all the noise!

Ask to speak with your Senator's legislative health assistant. Be sure to get his/her name. This is critical information for us to follow-up with the staff.

Please note that emails and messages left with receptionists are not effective!

Ask that your Senator take the lead in introducing a bill to provide Medicaid payment for the services of Certified Professional Midwives, who are the only type of midwife in the U.S. with specialized training in out-of-hospital maternity care.

Call or email Karen Fennell and tell her who you talked with and any comments or additional information requested so she can follow up with offices. Call 301-830-3910 or send an email to karenfennell50@yahoo.com

Some background information and talking points to add if you wish:

1. Pregnant women are being denied access to maternity care thanks to an oversight in Medicaid law that denies low-income women who seek out-of-hospital maternity care access to Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all but 11 states.

2. Because of this gap in Medicaid law, thousands of women in states across the country unable to utilize the services of providers with a proven record of improving outcomes.

3. Denying pregnant women access to Certified Professional Midwives saddles our health care system with hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs each year.

4. Across the country in rural and urban communities, Certified Professional Midwives are already meeting the needs of pregnant women and their infants who have nowhere else to go at a time when many other maternity care providers have abandoned these communities to practice in more affluent suburbs and exurbs.

5. Demand for access to out-of-hospital birth under the care of Certified Professional Midwives-who are specially trained to provide it-has increased 27% since 1996.

6. Research consistently shows that low-risk women who plan out-of-hospital births under the care of Certified Professional Midwives experience outcomes equal to low-risk women who give birth in the hospital, but with far fewer costly and preventable interventions, including a five-fold decrease in cesarean surgery.

7. Certified Professional Midwives have a proven history of reducing low birth weight and preterm birth, the main causes of neonatal death in the United States and two of the primary contributing factors to racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes, as well as to the costs associated with long-term care.

BIRTH rocks Maui

There have been so many fabulous performances happening this year...I keep wanting to post more but find the laundry (ie everything else) finds its way to the top of my list. This week BOLD Organizers received this special message from BOLD Maui Organizer, Robin Garisson, on their performance last week:

Aloha~ Divine Angels,

Just came home from our Maui performance. I think it was definitely one of a kind since Jillian was performed in pidgin (Hawaiian dialect) ... our all local cast (of Hawaiian or partial Hawaiian descent) was full of grace, beauty and wisdom. The crowd laughed, cried and was full of appreciation for the messages.

We started with a circle and Hawaiian Chant ... as the actresses went into a semi-circle, I moved to the front of the stage and introduced it. Kathy Collins, who played Jillian opened the play with such power that the audience could not help but to continuously ride the wave. Each and every performance was unique, moving and impactful. I couldn't wait until it was done (with full time nursing school, 5 kids, producing and directing BIRTH) ... but now it is like ... what's next?! We only had one formal performance scheduled but now I know we need to do more. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

The talkback was great as well. One of our local OB's attended as well as a Nurse, Midwife, Doula and a Hawaiian mother from the community. The biggest issue that came up was the fact that there are rules and regulations in the hospital which only allow 2 people in the room with a laboring mom ... we are going to make a movement to change that ... a woman should be able to have whoever she wants at her birth. The third one might be the crucial person to get her past that hurdle and the fourth might be the one to inspire. I will let you know how it unfolds.

In a nutshell it was fantabulous and I feel very proud to be part of this global movement.

Love and Blessings to all.


All I can say is Maui - and Robin - you ROCK!

PS: The photos above are these fabulous Maui women rehearsing the play. (performance photos aren't ready yet!)