BOLD thoughts

BOLD Gratitude

2011-11-23T19:44:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to share my thanks to all the BOLD Organizers, casts, crew who have helped to change the culture of birth. You ROCK! You're going to love what's happening at BOLD in 2012!

FEAR to FREEDOM Birth Tele-Class starts November 11th!

2011-10-31T14:59:00.002-04:00

As many of you know I spent the summer working on the finishing touches to my FEAR to FREEDOM Birth Facilitator Training Program and training birth workers to teach this method to pregnant moms. Well, there are now over twenty certified FEAR to FREEDOM Birth Facilitators in just a few months all over the world and many more training.

Why did I create this training? I created it because I want to change the culture of birth. Because articles like today's UK Telegraph opinion piece suggesting c-sections should be offered on demand PISSES ME OFF.

Pregnant mothers and their bodies are better than jumping into the culture of fear.

But how can we expect pregnant mothers to make authentic birth choices in our fear-based climate? How can we invite them into their bodies, find their voice, and show them a path to having a birth where not just their baby is healthy, but they are too?

I believe FEAR to FREEDOM Birth has the solution.

On November 11 I am teaching a 4-week FEAR to FREEDOM Birth Tele-class for pregnant moms.

I also invite birth workers to take the class too. I am offering the following discounts to encourage birth workers to take the class and spread the word to pregnant moms:

- $100 off just because you're a birth worker
- If you refer 2 pregnant moms who register for the class you can take the class for free. (please tell your pregnant moms! And tell them to mention your name when they pay for the class)
- If you take the class and then decide within one year that you want to take the FEAR to FREEDOM Birth Training Program you can deduct tuition for this course from the training fee.

You can take the course no matter where you live. Overseas participants Skype in for free. One session each week is recorded and emailed to you, and another session is live (and also recorded).

I am offering a free information session about the class on November 4 at noon ET. Click here to register. (if you can't make it but want to listen register anyway to receive the recording).

To go register directly for the class click here.

I look forward to seeing you in class!

My Favorite Feedback From BOLD's 5th Anniversary

2011-09-17T11:11:00.009-04:00

Photo: Judith Rae http://judithrae.com/

I bet you can imagine I get alot of feedback from my play BIRTH and BOLD's 5th anniversary reading of BIRTH was no exception. People told me they cried watching the play, others said they were inspired to have a VBAC watching Sandy's story, many told me they were surprised how non-judgemental the play was, some didn't like the way certain characters were portrayed, or that the actors were holding scripts instead of off-book, and others told me they loved the grassroots nature of BOLD - that anyone anywhere in the world can do a play and have impact no-matter-what.

But there is one email I received that is my favorite. It comes from Dr. Beth Simon, one of the obstetricians in a New York City obstetric practice - OB-GYN Associates - who we honored with a BEing BOLD Obstetric Award. She wrote:

I just wanted to take the opportunity to let you know how much I thoroughly enjoyed your play. As an MD in the natural childbirth circle, I often hear "doctor bashing". It was SO refreshing to hear a play about childbirth that did not portray doctors as evil surgeons, always doing a cesarean section!

Instead, your play displayed the experiences of different women during their childbirth; their decisions regarding the birth of their children. It was about empowering women to make decisions that were good for them, not according to someone else's agenda. Unfortunately, I feel when some people try to promote natural childbirth, they do it with such enthusiasm, it comes across as the only option. It is so important to get the message out to women what natural childbirth is, and what their options are, so women can make educated choices about their pregnancies and their bodies. However, it is not for everyone, and women should not be made to feel badly if it is not for them, which is unfortunately the case sometimes. Instead, your play really focused on women's choices, whatever they were, their journey to discover what was good for them, and discovering their voice to be empowered, and advocate for themselves. In my opinion, THAT is what is important.

Shonda and I wore our "Putting Pregnant Mothers Center Stage" t-shirts to work last Friday, sparking a lot of conversation about your play.

It was a truly wonderful evening.

As you watch the re-broadcast of BOLD's 5th anniversary today my hope is that you too notice the points Dr. Simon makes. To me, this is what being BOLD is all about.

BOLD5 Rebroadcast This Weekend! Prizes!

2011-09-16T14:40:00.006-04:00

photo: Judith Rae http://judithrae.com/

BOLD-5 was such a great evening in NYC at the MOM Museum. The small museum was packed with nearly 100 people and over 500 people viewed the show in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, France, Finland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Uruguay, Mexico, and Bulgaria! (and that doesn't include multiple people watching at locations).

Tonight at midnight ET and on Sept 24 the re-broadcast starts! Twenty-four hours of on-demand viewing of BOLD-5 on the Internet. To register go to www.GetBOLDaboutBirth.com.

We're giving away lots of prizes including:

full tuition to my new FEAR to FREEDOM Birth Facilitator Training Program. The next training starts Sept 27.
Signed copy of Ina May Gaskin's new book, "Birth Matters: A Midwives Manifesta"
2 copies of Debra Pascali-Bonaro's "Orgasmic Birth" DVD and "Orgasmic Birth" book
a free online download of "More Business of Being Born"
1 copy of "The Business of Being Born"
"Where's My Midwife?" t-shirt
Orginial "Birth" mug with "My Body Rocks!" on it
Signed "BIRTH" book
and more!

Come party with BOLD tonight! www.GetBOLDaboutBirth.com.

Tomorrow I'll post my favorite feedback from the performance. If you have feedback email it to BOLD at info@boldaction.org.

BOLD Turns Five: Raffle with Prizes!

2011-09-03T10:58:00.005-04:00

Every party needs presents, right?

For BOLD's'5th Birthday this weekend we're giving away lots of them! If you're registered for the webcast or live at the event you will be eligible to win! There are going to be a ton of great prizes in a raffle that's only for people who are registered. You don't even have to watch to be eligible to win, you just have to register.

The Grand Prize is Full Tuition to my Birth Facilitator Training Program, FEAR to FREEDOM (www.FEARtoFREEDOMbirth.com)! And there are lots of other chances to win too. We've got a some terrific books, tshirts, mugs and more to give away. You do not want to miss this raffle!

Register at http://bold5webcast.eventbrite.com/ and let everyone know!

So many people from the world of birth have contributed amazing prizes. We want everyone to have a chance to win. We'll send out a list of all the prizes to registrants once we've got everything in.

Thanks for being BOLD with us this weekend!

BOLD5 Honoree: White Ribbon Alliance For Safe Motherhood

2011-09-03T09:30:00.004-04:00

I had the pleasure of chatting with BOLD5 Honoree Theresa Shaver this week, Executive Director of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood. I've been a fan of WRA for years. They just seem to get maternity care issues and creativity right. At BOLD's 5th we're honoring them for two films Playing Your Part and Avec Nous. Listen to our chat and find out about these two great film projects in Tanzania and Burkina Faso that show just how you can involve a community in telling their birth story.

Click HERE to list.

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On September 5 watch a reading of BIRTH via webcast for free to celebrate BOLD's 5th anniversary. Win prizes too! (Grand prize is full tuition for my new FEAR to FREEDOM Birth Faclitator Training Program!). Click here to register.

BOLD5 Honoree: Where's My Midwife?

2011-08-31T12:41:00.008-04:00

It was particularly exciting for me to invite Where's My Midwife? creators Kirsti Kreutzer and Anna Van Wagoner to be BOLD5 Honorees because they were already part of the BOLD family! You'll get to see them at BOLD's 5th anniversary reading and webcast of BIRTH on September 5. And now I can't wait for you to get to know how they use creativity to improve maternity care for mothers! Before you read anything you might want to click on their "Midwives Diner" video above to get a taste of just how clever these BOLD women are!

You guys organized a performance of BIRTH in Wilmington, North Carolina – in 2007 and 2009. Can you tell me more about that experience and why you were so motivated to bring BIRTH to Wilmington?

Anna: We were working with North Carolina Friends of Midwives to raise awareness about home birth and the lack of access to providers in our state. We saw the play as the perfect tool to raise awareness about birth and open a dialogue in our community. Our talk back panels were very successful. We had a diverse group of maternity care workers, including everyone from obstetricians to doulas. The audience asked really important questions, getting right to the heart of the problems we face. My favorite questions were from the people who were new to these issues. It was inspiring to see them connecting all the dots for the first time.

Kirsti: I think my favorite moment was when an obstetrician said, “These issues are legitimate, and it’s great to begin talking about change, but we (the doctors) are comfortable with things the way they are. We’re making money and the system is working for us. Things won’t really change until women demand something different.” That was a huge moment for me. It made me realize that trying to change things by talking to the professionals was not a real solution – we needed to reach the women. So, the second time we produced "Birth" we reached out even further into our community. We decided to make the play part of a weeklong celebration of motherhood called WILD, Women In Labor Daze. I kept coming back to your message, “My body rocks!” I felt that this was what we needed to be telling women. How or with whom you have your baby is your personal decision. We need to recognize where we are all the same – we all have the amazing ability to create life! There’s not a person alive now or ever in the history of humans that did not spend time growing inside of a woman. That’s an incredible fact, and it is sadly taken for granted in our culture. So, we reached out to the local YWCA and UNCW’s Women’s Studies and Resource Center, and put together a week of events for women to come out and celebrate being mothers. A concert, a night of comedy, a pizza party, panel discussions, and the finale was the play. We are currently working on our third year of WILD.

Anna: Both productions were a lot of fun. It is a wonderful feeling to be working on something big and creative and feel so connected to not only the people you are working with but also to the people who are doing the play all over the world!

You're being honored at BOLD's 5th anniversary this year because of your work with "Where's My Midwife?" Tell me about Where's My Midwife's mission and some of the projects you've done.

Anna: "Where's My Midwife?" is a grassroots organization seeking to increase access to midwives in hospitals, birth centers and at home through education and advocacy. It was born when the largest midwifery practice in our community was abruptly dismantled, right in the middle of our attempts to produce WILD! Overnight women were left without the care providers they trusted. We felt this required immediate public action. Mother's voices needed to be heard. We found out from the midwives that there was a policy place that required the backing obstetrician to be on site while a midwife labored with her patient. NC requires that CNMs get a physicians’ signature to obtain a license, but says nothing about those physicians being at the hospital while the patient labors. All physicians are required to live within a certain distance from the hospital for obvious reasons, so they are always a phone call away. Besides that, our hospital is a teaching hospital, so there is always a physician on-site in case of emergency. We attempted to deliver a letter to the head of the Dept. of OB/GYN at the hospital asking for a meeting to discuss why we felt their policy was inappropriate, but were basically given a brush off. If the physicians didn’t like waiting at the hospital while midwives were with their patients, and they made the rule, they could change it! We weren’t asking for much, just a meeting, and if they were going to act as if we were not there, we would make our presence known until we got our meeting! We began protesting at the hospital, everyday from 12 to 1pm. We tried to get our message out there as creatively as possible, whether that meant painting pregnant bellies at protests putting together a flash mob at the local farmers’ market. When we researched this issue on-line, we quickly realized the midwifery practices were being closed all over the place and no one was doing anything about it. We got our meeting and successfully got the hospital to change it’s policy. We have been reaching out to folks in other communities, helping them take action, and documenting their stories. We strongly believe that if maternity care is ever going to change women's stories need to be told loud and clear.

Kirsti: I made a documentary telling our story, and we were invited to show it to the North Carolina chapter of ACNM. Those midwives were so impressed with our story, they made some inquiries and helped us get on the agenda at the Annual ACNM meeting in D.C. I firmly believe our success is completely due to the fact that, for the first time, mothers were using their voices to affect change. The documentary is powerful because women are able to speak about how the actions of those who would run our maternity care system as a business is directly affecting how these women give birth. We started a virtual birth circle where women can tell their birth stories in their own voices. Reading a birth story is one thing, but listening to Jody in our documentary talk about her experience, hearing her get emotional, that is much more moving in my opinion. We are working on taking the virtual birth circle to the residents at our hospital so they can hear, first hand how their actions are affecting the women in their care.

Your short piece "Midwives Diner" is so clever. How did you come up with that idea?

Kirsti: Actually, Anna and Candice (one of our original members, and the first mom you see in the film) came up with the idea while we were protesting. I think it was Anna who said she kept imagining women sitting at a restaurant ordering the type of birth they wanted. Candice wrote about 3 pages of possible dialogue, and I edited the script into a two-minute short and shot it with my husband.

Anna: Midwives are best known for supporting women as they birth naturally. However they do so much more - they offer the full range of well-woman care, they support medicated births, too. The main difference is in their approach, the amount of time they will spend by your side. We wanted to convey all that information in a way that would be humorous.

What was the biggest challenge about making it?

Kirsti: The biggest challenge about making it was having my kids on set! We shot the video at a deli in town, where my sister is a manager. She ended up giving the girls a tour of the kitchen and getting them a cookie or two to keep them occupied.

And what was the funniest moment on the set shooting it?

Kirsti: I think the funniest moment on set was watching my midwife play the delivery lady! She was the one who told me about the bumper stickers that the medical community came up with (Home Deliveries are for pizzas!), so the fact that she was able to play that role really tickled me.

You two are also moms, of course. Tell us about your kids and birthin' 'em!

Kirsti: Katherine is six and was born in the hospital after a 25 hour home labor. I really wanted a home birth, and much like Natalie, I wanted to show my family that birth was normal so I invited everyone in my family and in my husband’s family over to the house. But, while I was in labor, I ended up holing myself up in the bedroom with my husband, my midwife and her apprentice. I could hear everyone laughing, watching “Anchor Man” in the living room! I think after 20 hours, the tone changed, and I could tell everyone was getting anxious. Instead of asking them to leave, I labored on until there was meconium in my amniotic fluid. I made the decision to transport, and Katherine was born after pushing at the hospital for about 20 minutes. The way I was treated at the hospital is really what made me an activist. The fact that my midwife had to pretend to be my doula, that she couldn’t give them my charts because her credential is not recognized by the state of North Carolina, really upset me. And my daughter had to have 2 rounds of antibiotics via IV because she had not had a Strep B test. The whole reason I wanted to give birth at home was to avoid having to spend time away from her when she was first born, to try to prevent her from being poked and prodded by strangers, but that was not meant to be. I see now how her birth had to happen exactly this way in order to get me so fired up! Her birth lit a fire in me that has led me to this very interview. My second daughter, Rose, was born at home after a short 4 hour labor! I woke up to my water leaking at 6am; ate a big egg breakfast; took a shower and the contractions started coming strong and quick. My midwife brought the pool over and set it up; I danced through contractions and in between, I would find Tom and Jerry videos on YouTube for Katherine to watch. Rose’s birth was so different because I knew what to expect, I understood what was going on in my body. As I had a contraction, I would focus on it completely and I could feel my muscles doing the work! It was incredible. I got in the tub for the last 45 minutes, and that’s where I did all of my pushing. I remember at one point, my midwife said, “If you reach down, you can probably feel her head.” When I did, I had to reach way back because my cervix was still facing backwards. I thought to myself, “On this next contraction, I need to move my cervix forward.” And I kept my hand there through the next contraction, and I felt my cervix move forward and open! She was born at 11:43am, just in time for lunch. If someone had asked me to write the perfect birth story, I could not have imagined anything as perfect as my second birth.

Anna: Both of my daughters were born at the home, the first one was an accidentally and the second intentionally. For the first I planned to give birth at this wonderful birth center. My labor started hard and fast, but it was manageable. When my midwife told me over the phone that I was in early labor and it was going to get much worse I believed her. I had heard such awful things about labor and birth that I was ready for anything. She told me I should try to get some rest. So that is exactly what I did. I stopped timing my contractions. I just focused on breathing fully and went into a very deep state of relaxation. I even slept. Labor was no longer painful once I turned off my brain and stopped wondering if this contraction was worse than the one before. I felt like I was simply an animal, doing what animals do. When I started vocalizing my husband called the midwife back and told her we were coming in. Shortly after that my vocalizations got graveley and my body was pushing. He called her back and told her that we weren't coming in because we knew we wouldn't make it and didn't want to give birth in a taxi. After five and a half hours of intense labor I squatted on the bathroom floor and she slipped right out into my husbands arms. It was so easy, my body did everything on it's own. It all felt so right. I felt so strong, like I could do anything. I was high for weeks. I wanted every woman to experience what I had!

My second birth was totally different. In addition to my husband, I had a midwife, a doula, Kirsti with her camera, and my six year old daughter. All of these people were dear friends. My labor was a lot shorter, only an hour and a half of it was serious, but boy was it serious. I had to use all my energy to ride the contractions and relax my body. I could feel each contraction pushing my baby down.

It all happened really fast. My mantra was, "This is so intense!" At one point my husband recommended that I go to the bathroom. I remember thinking "That sounds like I good idea, I feel like a lot of stuff needs to come out." So I walked across the house and in that short distance my body was ready to push. My baby came out easily with just a little extra effort on my part and again I had the feeling of total awe. Both births were absolutely prefect.

If I had a magic wand and could make your best-case birth world come true what would it look like?

Kirsti: My best-case birth world would be a place where all women were respected in their birthing. All professionals would collaborate together and place women in the center of their care. We are actually trying to create just that in Wilmington! We are going to build a birth center that is also a women’s wellness center. Imagine a campus – two buildings surrounded by trees with paths to walk around a body of water. One building is a birth center, where women of all ages can come and be cared for by midwives and counselors who will truly provide ‘health care’ instead of ‘practicing medicine.’ The other building is a wellness center. This building is home to a variety of classes and support groups (yoga, childbirth education classes, massage therapy, new parent support groups, breastfeeding support, self-esteem classes for young girls). There will be a café for folks to bring their children and meet up with the other mothers who (maybe) were in their Centering group at the Birth Center, a place where new moms can talk to the ‘veterans’ and ask questions, and see that things will get better. At the wellness center, teenage girls are partnered with doulas and attend births, so they can see what labor and delivery is all about. This will give them a respect of what their bodies are capable of, and help to normalize birth. They may also attend the new parent support groups so they can understand the amount of work involved with having a newborn! There could also be support groups for single moms; widows; women going through menopause; the possibilities are endless. The point is to create an alternative to the current medical model of birth in our culture. If we cannot convince a system that is based on greed and arrogance to change, we must create an alternative that honors women and places them at the center of their care.

What's Where's My Midwife up to next?

Kirsti: WMM? is going to continue working on the map on our website. We would like to have a link to an interview with a mom or midwife in every one of the communities on our map. We hope that hearing from the women who were affected by the closing of midwifery practices will help the professionals see that their actions have consequences. We are also working on a new campaign called ‘Pregnant Mayhem’ which is set to launch Labor Day Weekend. Once a month for the next year, we will use creative means to raise awareness (flash mobs, film screenings, art displays, etc.). We already have people signed up in communities all over the country (and Canada!) to participate in our first super secret act! Our goal is to reach out to all of the birth communities, to unite the advocates, the activists, and coordinate our efforts to educate the public about the maternity care crisis in our country. To find out how to get involved, go to pregnantmayhem.org

Anna: It was our experience that actively engaging the powers that be, that taking to the streets got our message heard! We hope that Pregnant Mayhem will inspire other activists to take this message to the streets, “We won’t take birth lying down!”

Anything else you want to add?

Anna and Kirsti: Thanks to Karen and everyone at BOLD for being trailblazers! Your play brought us together, and your creative activism has inspired us in all of our endeavors. YOU ROCK!

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To watch BOLD's 5th anniversary reading and webcast of BIRTH go to www.GetBOLDaboutBirth.com

BOLD 5: Meet Debra Pascali-Bonaro!

2011-08-26T14:48:00.006-04:00

I had the pleasure of speaking with Debra Pascali-Bonaro today, a BOLD5 honoree, about her powerful work taking the film Orgasmic Birth all around the world and making maternity care better for mothers and babies. I know you're going to love everything she talks about...from birthing her babies BOLDly beginning in Montreal to the importance of feeling one's labor - the pain, the pleasure (and the conscious choices we can make to be in pain or pleasure!).

Get a cup of tea and listen to our chat.

Click HERE to listen to our interview!

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Debra and the other BOLD5 Honorees will accept their awards and speak live on September 5 at BOLD's 5th anniversary reading and webcast of BIRTH in New York City. You can purchase tickets or watch it on the internet (it will be shown 11 times in September!). Click here for more information on the show.

Christy Turlington: Every Mother Counts

2011-08-24T14:20:00.007-04:00

In the lead-up to BOLD's 5th anniversary reading and webcast of my play BIRTH I have the priviledge of getting to know each BOLD5 Honoree even better. In this post, you'll get to meet Christy Turlington-Burns! Here's our interview:

Christy, thanks so much for "giving birth" to not only "No Woman, No Cry," but also Every Mother Counts. We wanted to honor you with a BOLD5 Award because you've used your film in a similar way to how BOLD has used the play Birth, to raise awareness about maternity care issue and help mothers have better birth experiences.

You show so clearly in your film how your birth experience so deeply affected your passion to make "No Woman, No Cry." In the developing world a mother could have clearly bled to death with the same complication. Why did you decide to do a film instead of, say, a book or simply become a spokesperson about this topic?

I wanted to bring audiences as close to other women around the world as possible and no other medium could transport them in the way film does. My goal was to have women virtually imagine what it would be like to be pregnant in common circumstance in the four countries to understand the vulnerability of so many.

Can you tell me what it was like film "No Woman, No Cry" and what the best moment and hardest moment was?

It was an incredible journey making this film. It took nearly two years to make. We met dozens of inspiring women who were so brave and so strong with little to no support and one of the hardest things was having to choose which stories to share in the film. We focused on barriers to accessing care at critical junctures in the pregnancies of four women. Some illustrated more aspects than others and so those became clear that they would convey the scope of the problem.

I know in any creative piece there are always stories you don't tell because there just isn't time in a film to tell them. What story - or stories - did you film that you wish you could have told?

We filmed with two other women in Tanzania and each of their stories were incredible. You can catch a piece of Lightness at the end of the Tanzania footage. She was 16 and three weeks overdue when we found her on the side of the road. Her mom flagged our car down and asked for a ride to the clinic. It turned out that she needed an emergency c-section but the hospital was an hour away and she had no transportation. She had yet to complete her primary school education when she got pregnant and had to leave school. The father of her baby had run away. Her own father abandoned the family because he felt shamed, so her mom, who was just 35 herself, and the mother of four other children was expected to care for the new baby with little means. We also filmed Agnes, who had lost her baby after a prolonged labor ten years before and was still suffering from obstetric fistula, which is one of the worst childbirth morbidities and one that 2 million women suffer with in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. We learned that she was eligible for a free repair surgery, which she has since received. She is now an advocate in her community.

When did you know your passion for better maternity care was going to go beyond making the film "No Woman, No Cry?" When did you know you'd also give "birth" to Every Mother Counts?

I became a maternal health advocate the moment I became pregnant. It was clear to me that women were not sharing their experiences enough with one another and that too many of us are scared or disconnected to our bodies and don't feel empowered in the experience when it is perhaps the most empowering experiences a woman can have. I had an amazing first birth experience event though I experienced a serious complication. I wish for every woman the same experience- to have access to information, services and the right to choose when and how she gives birth and the support she needs to have an empowering experience.

Can you tell me more about Every Mother Counts and its mission? What do you hope to achieve?

Every Mother Counts is an advocacy and mobilization campaign to increase education and support for maternal and child health. EMC seeks to engage new audiences to better understand the challenges and the solutions while encouraging them to take action to improve the lives of girls and women worldwide. The keystone of the campaign is www.everymothercounts.org, an interactive platform providing the tools to raise awareness, education and action. I hope that by using the film and my advocacy platform to engage families to join a movement and to provide people with educations, resources and actions they can take to participate in a meaningful way.

I know my kids know a lot about maternity care just from seeing my play Birth and being around the BOLD movement. What do your kids know about your work and what's their reaction to the reality of maternity care today? Any favorite things they've said?

My daughter Grace is almost 8 and she understands the work I do and how her birth inspired my current work. She is beginning to understand why I feel compelled to travel around the world to collect stories and highlight the individuals and programs that are making a difference. My son is five and still wondering how a baby can come out of such a small space...

Do you have any other creative projects around maternity care brewing that you'd like to share?

The EMC campaign is aligned with the Millennium Development Goals, which was established by the UN in 2000. There is less than four years to reach these goals and MDG 5-to improve maternal health and reduce maternal deaths by 3/4 by 2015 is the one that is lagging the most. We hope that our campaign will help to make an impact toward these goals and help to prevent senseless deaths in pregnancy.

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Christy along with 4 other outstanding arts-based maternity care activism will be honored as the BOLD5 for BOLD's 5th Anniversary Reading and Webcast of the play BIRTH. For tickets and to register for the webcast go to www.GetBOLDaboutBirth.com.

The MOM Museum: Putting Motherhood On the Map!

2011-08-22T10:02:00.002-04:00

I've never met Joy Rose, founder and director of the brand-new Museum of Motherhood in New York City, but I know I love her. And I know you will love her too after reading this candid interview with her. She's heart-based, funny, and intelligent all rolled into one. She's a divorced mom of four children who gave birth to each of her children with a midwife at a birth center in New York City.

BOLD is honored that she has gone out of her way to allow us to perform BIRTH at the MOM Museum on their inaugural weekend - appropriately Labor Day in the United States. Can you believe there is now a museum of motherhood? How cool is that?

Read on to hear Joy's thoughts on the museum, motherhood, and birthing babies.

BOLD is so excited about hosting our 5th anniversary performance and webcast of BIRTH at the MOM Museum. Can you tell me more about MOM's mission?

Our mission is to put Motherhood on the map! Museum Of Motherhood serves as a valuable resource for everyone including those who wish to honor mother-work and those who wish to study the cultural family, from lay-people, to school children to serious scholars. As an organization devoted to educating the world about the contributions of mothers both historically and in contemporary culture, we intend to fill a longstanding void by focusing on the many roles of mothers throughout history with our physical and virtual library, exhibit facility, traveling productions, and resource center. We honor the many unsung heroes as well as the famous and great and share the remarkable stories of how birthers and caregivers cope, inspire and prevail. There are all types of mothers here: stepmothers, adoptive mothers, activist mothers, mother artists, single mothers, divorced mothers and mothers who successfully navigated married life. The Museum of Motherhood is the house that is home to all their stories, and we are the first and only facility of its kind.

What inspired you to start the museum?

This legacy project is really the project of a lifetime. From the early days of the 70's and Dr. Phyllis Chesler's, 'Women and Madness' to a motherhood trip that lead me to create Mom Rock, and the first Mom Rock band, 'Housewives On Prozac' in 1997. That music was was born out of the recognition that not only did mothers have something to say, but the creative voices of mothers weren't being heard. A life-threatening bout with LUPUS ten days after my fourth and last child was born, set my course on a path that brought me full circle to my empowered womanhood. I recognized how quickly I'd become entrenched in a retro image of what motherhood, marriage and family-life was. If that kind of amnesia could happen to me, then I knew it could happen to others. It was happening to others. It's still happening to others. Thirty years after the women's-lib movement, we were still falling in love, popping out babies and running in the kitchen to strap on an apron and forget who we were. With very smart people as my allies through the years, we have honed and clarified a mission to study birthers and caregivers, so that we might learn something, and move forward with more deeply examined lives, and make informed choices, based on a vast collective of knowledge, that has been collected and articulated to the general public.

Can you tell us about some of the great exhibits people will see at the museum?

Our first exhibit is 'Mother The Job', by San Francisco artist Alexia Nye Jackson. It examines mother-work in the context of unpaid labor through a multi media art exhibit and speaks to the differences between human capital and economic capital. We will also have local Mother Art, a theatrical stage, a program room and a HER-storical surprise! In addition, children will be able to rent out a newborn baby (doll), and try on maternity bellies that simulate pregnancy. Families are invited to come and 'hang out', borrow books from our library (all of them written by mothers, or on the subject of birth and caregiving), and generally use the space and its ongoing workshops, performances and programming for education, community and well-being.

I've always loved how you so easily see childbirth as a motherhood issue. It seems like a no-brainer to me, but ironically it's not mentioned alot in motherhood literature. Can you say more about this?

Statistics and medical studies now support the view that what happens in utero and during the birth affect the children and mothers alike - not to mention the early days of a newborn's life. Having an elevated consciousness about birth practices and the interactions and intentions surrounding our child's 'introduction' to life, have repercussions that have long lasting effects. This is in no way 'Mother Guilt' but a cry to awaken to our goddess-nature and claim the inherent power in birthing and motherhood that has been diminished in patriarchal society.

I know you have kids. Can you tell me about your "babies" and birthing them?

Ha, ha... I have squatted in the dimly lit hallways of city hospitals to birth a future generation. They are: Brody (age 22), Blaze (age 20), Ali (age 18) and Zena (age 17). Three beautiful boys and a daughter -flower. I gave birth to each of the children, Bradley method, with midwife Maureen Rayson at one of the cutting edge birthing rooms at St. Vincent hospital a million years ago. The 'Birth Of Brody' was videotaped for teaching Bradley around NYC - and I'm told there were multiple boot-leg copies in circulation since people would recognize us in the playground! All the births were without the use of any drugs whatsoever. I didn't know it at the time, but LUPUS was already blossoming in my body during the last pregnancy. Zena is a miracle. Birthing 'naturally' was one of the most amazing journeys I've ever taken. Each birth was completely different. Completely incredible. I was scared, but I had a birth plan each time and everyone around me was instructed NOT to give me any drugs, even if I changed my mind during labor. I didn't. Each baby was born with a personality the moment they came out and I loved nursing and being a natural woman with a beautiful family. So blessed. I organized 'Prepared Parenting' classes at Maureen's space in NYC post-babies in the early 1990's.

Is there anything else you'd like BOLD supporters to know about MOM?

Yes! MOM was born of a dream to leave the world a little better than I found it. I'd like to encourage each and every mother to remember the importance of her work, not only raising good citizens, but to include spiritual kindness and self-care in her work. The only way to do that is to remember your personal value, worth and passion. The passion that brought your baby into the world - however it got here. Babies are a stage in a persons life. Literally a stage. From this stage, the most creative work on the planet takes place. Since we live in a capitalistic economy - one that values the work of migrant workers and fast food workers, more than it does the work of birthers and caregivers we must find other ways to empower ourselves. Once the truly hard work of labor is over, the marathon begins. Both jobs; the job of the birther, and the job of the caregiver are important. They are different and this confusing and ever-evolving society, we need to find ways to understand and honor both. But, since the days of Socrates (1), our mostly male dominated, patriarchal society, has put women into the 'housewife' role, especially after she is coupled with children. These roles are changing, but the economics and social systems are not. Domestic violence continues to propogate and has statistically higher rates committed on pregnant women. Women are still an economic underclass, with women facing the largest percentage of American's struggling. Motherhood is still the least understood and least studied occupation in our schools, universities and social/cultural structures. Why are we still taking motherhood for granted? I am a divorced mother of four children, with a LUPUS diagnosis and a kidney transplant, who's gift of carrying four fine citizens, resulted in the permanent physical damage I live with today. Unlike a war veteran, or a corporate executive who's given 20 responsible years of service, I am on my own, except for the circle of sisterhood I have spent my adult life creating. I stand by that, and I stand by the intention that no other woman will grow up uninformed, undereducated or unprepared for this most important role of creating the next generation of human beings.

To read more about Joy and the Museum of Motherhood check out a recent piece in Working Mother. To buy tickets or register for BOLD's 5th anniversary performance and webcast of BIRTH go to www.GetBOLDaboutBirth.com.

I've Got a Crush On Michel Odent

2011-08-21T17:44:00.006-04:00

Confession time. I'm totally hooked on Michel Odent. No worries, it's not a Fatal Attraction kind of obsession, it's a birth obsession. Because everything that comes out of this obstetrician's mouth is so birth-sexy it's hard for me not to crush madly on him.

I was just watching the trailer of "The Face of Birth," a powerful film that's coming in 2012 about the state of maternity care in Australia (did you know Australia is in jeopardy of having no midwives soon? It's astounding!) and they interviewed Michel Odent like he is interviewed in so many films including BOLD5 Honoree's "The Business of Being Born."

I always swoon when he talks about oxytocin - the love hormone - and shutter when he urges us to consider if we keep doing interventions in childbirth, if we keep encouraging pitocin (synthetic oxytocin) on pregnant mamas what is going to happen? What will happen to our capacity to love? He tells us in "The Face of Birth" that the number of women releasing the cocktail of hormones that are released in a natural birth is approaching zero.

Yes, zero.

Michel - if he doesn't mind me being so BOLD :) - has this capacity to tell us the truth, make it sound sexy and foul all in one sentence, and then tell us, as he does at the end of "The Face of Birth" trailer that birth must be a topic not just for mothers, pregnant women, fathers..."it is a topic for all those interested in the future of humanity."

Abso-BOLD-lutely.

This summer I've been in bed alot with Michel, reading his new book "Childbirth in the Age of Plastics" - a book that tells the story of how interventions in childbirth and the growth of plastics have paralleled and why this is alarming. I'm always turned on by his ability to be so eloquent and truthful about childbirth today. He is not angry; he is passionate. He is not brutally attacking; he is a peacemaker carrying an important message.

When I close his books I can hear him whisper: listen deeply people of this earth...honor childbirth for the act it is no matter what your birth choice...stop making birth jokes because birth is no joke. How could the future of humanity be a joke?

He is BOLD.

Guess that's why I have a crush on Michel Odent.

Talking Birth With Ina May!

2011-08-20T22:59:00.006-04:00

Who doesn’t love Ina May? Not only has she written Spiritual Midwifery, Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, and her most recent book Birth Matters: A Midwife’s Manifesta, but she has been an outspoken advocate for mothers and babies through her Safe Motherhood Quilt and is still helping mothers deliver their babies on The Farm in Tennessee.

Get a cup of tea and listen to a recent conversation Pathways to Family Wellness recorded between me and Ina May.

If You Want to Know More About BIRTH...

2011-08-04T18:21:00.003-04:00

Read the interview I just did with Lisa Reagan of Families for Conscious Living and Associate Editor of Pathways to Family Wellness Magazine. Lisa and I go way back, to when FCL produced the first theatrical performance of BIRTH in 2005…before BOLD.

You’ll learn in my interview with her that back in those days I didn’t even know what to charge people to do the play!

Click here to read our interview!

BOLD's 5th Anniversary at the MOM Museum!

2011-08-03T20:13:00.009-04:00

The excitement for BOLD's upcoming 5th Anniversary is palpable! Can it really be five years?

Yep. FIVE BOLD YEARS!

(I also know from the picture above of my son, who was seven at BOLD's big inaugural performance in September 2006....and now he's going into 7th grade!)

To celebrate, we're putting pregnant mothers center stage at the brand-new Museum of Motherhood in New York City on September 5th! (how cool is that?).

And, even better, we're WEBCASTING it for FREE over the Internet!

What if as many people knew about BIRTH as they do about What to Expect, When You're Expecting? How would the world be different?

If you want to make a difference in childbirth be BOLD and register to watch the webcast from the comfort of your home. It will be aired again but you'll only find out if you register now!

Or attend the live event in New York City. I'll be there with Ina May Gaskin, Debra Pascali-Bonaro and many more childbirth leaders!

Go to www.GetBOLDaboutBirth.com to register/buy a ticket.

And please be BOLD and help us spread the word to others!

The Birth Power Inside An 8th Grade Girl

2011-07-11T08:11:00.002-04:00

Got to see BIRTH in New Paltz, New York this weekend and meet the fabulous cast and director who put on a passionate performance that got the audience chanting "My Body Rocks!" not only during the show...but at the end of the show the entire audience and cast kept the "My Body Rocks!" going! I loved being there to witness theater-for-social change in action.

The post-show discussion was vibrant (practically the entire audience stayed!). There's so much I could share with you about the audience's thoughts on childbirth today and the need for access to better care for pregnant moms, and for the Medical Establishment to put mothers at the center of their birth experience - and mother to demand it. But the moment that moved me the most was when an 8th grader named Laura spoke up and said how because of this play she now KNOWS how powerful pregnant women are and that the wisdom to give birth is all there within women.

Hearing an 8th grade girl speak from her heart and say how she never thought the play was going to be so empowering ("Girl Power!") reminded me of exactly why I wrote BIRTH. To empower.

After the post-show discussion I pulled Laura aside (to the most quiet place we could find in a noisy theater!) so she could tell me a little more about how the play impacted her. Our interview is above.

Memo to the Medical Establishment: Time to Wake Up!

2011-07-07T09:41:00.013-04:00

There is nothing nicer than to get out of bed and hear good news. And that’s exactly what happen this week to me when I opened my local newspaper and found this AP Story:

Despite Skeptical Medical Establishment, More Women Choosing Natural Birth At Home

I re-read the article several times before the reality sank in. Then I told my oldest son, who is well-schooled in birth politics.

“I guess women finally get that that their bodies rock,” he said.

cue: tear drops.

If you’ve read about my experience trying to even write an article about the maternity care crisis a decade ago, how the door was sealed, nobody would believe a rising c-section rate was cause for attention so I decided to write a play and show how in the United States the medical model of care for pregnant mothers is deeply flawed and at times downright abusive. Maybe this would wake people up. Maybe this would be the fuel pregnant mothers could use to make birth choices that put them center stage.

I think it’s working.

Not just by showing the abuse, which I felt I had to, but also by showing the possibility women have when they are pregnant to touch their true nature and honor their wisdom. If you’ve seen the end of BIRTH – Jillian’s home birth scene – you get the feeling that this feminine knowing is not such a bad thing to embrace during pregnancy.

And that’s what I feel is shifting. More and more pregnant moms are ready to embrace the feminine….to literally wake up and be more conscious about giving birth.

While a 20 percent rise in home birth is great news, my goal in writing BIRTH has never been to tell women home birth is best. My goal has always been to wake pregnant mothers up, clue them in to how powerful they are, and then let them make the adjustments in their birth choices to have an empowered experience.

I don’t think it’s surprising more and more are choosing home birth as they’re waking up. This only points out the desperate need for better childbirth options for pregnant mothers. And this can only come when the medical establishment wakes up too.

The skepticism around models of birth that work for pregnant mothers must end.

Mothers are finally starting to speak up and make birth choices that work for them. Let’s be BOLD and work hard to wake up the medical establishment too so they create birth choices that put pregnant mothers center stage. It’s time.

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Photo credit: BOLD 2009 Charlotte, North Carolina

A What? Doula Now in Dictionary!

2011-07-06T11:23:00.003-04:00

Raise your hand if you’re diggin’ the Oxford English Dictionary! In June “doula” was officially entered as a word.

Doula, n.

A woman who gives assistance and advice to a new or expectant mother, either informally or professionally; esp. a woman (typically without formal obstetric training) employed to provide guidance and continuous support during labour.

It’s about time.

---

Go see BIRTH this September to see how I changed the doula reference in the play!

Childbirth: Revolution Is The Only Way Forward

2011-06-24T19:27:00.025-04:00

When I read the recent post by Dr. Micheal Klein in the Sense and Sensibility blog telling us that both OBs under the age of 40 and pregnant moms are fearful of childbirth today, and that this is deeply worrying if we want to have a women-centered model of giving birth, I had a flash back:

It was 2004, I lived in Takoma Park, Maryland, and had just learned that Dr. Marsden Wagner, former director of Women’s and Children’s Health in the World Health Organization for 15 years, lived three blocks from my house. Since I was writing a play on childbirth I thought it would be useful to speak to him so I called him up. He said come on over. He was finishing up the manuscript for his book "Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity Care System Must Be Fixed To Put Women and Children First " when I walked in holding my notepad. Within a minute I began scribbling furiously...the passion and urgency in his voice was palpable.

Why don't pregnant moms make better birth choices?, I asked.

They are being sold fear by the medical establishment, he said.

Why are they buying it?

Because power is sexy, he explained, and OBs have power.

How is this going to change?

Two things: First, the education of OBs must change. If all they get taught is fear that's all they will have to offer. Second, pregnant mothers have to change. Ultimately, they are the power brokers.

How do pregnant mothers have to change?

They have to say no, he said.

No?

Yes, no...no to a medical system that puts them last on the list, no to the lack of true midwifery options, no to the way they are spoken to at prenatal visits...or not spoken to and not given accurate information.

What do you think will change childbirth today?

A revolution led by mothers. It's the only way forward, he said.

At the time as a playwright interviewing my subject I thought Dr. Wagner was eccentric, and he is. But as a mother, birth activist and life-long community organizer I also knew he was right: revolution is the only way forward.

It was hard back then to find an OB who would echo Dr. Wagner's sentiment. Revolution was just too radical a term in 2004. Wasn't there a more polite way to call for social change? Well, today Dr. Wagner has a few obstetric friends in Camp Revolution. Dr. Klein is one of them.

rev·o·lu·tion/ˌrevəˈlo͞oSHən/Noun
1. A forcible overthrow of a government or social order for a new system.

Dr. Klein's recent blog post got me thinking again about the wisdom of this idea. How can we improve childbirth choices for pregnant mothers and start teaching pregnant moms and new OBs to trust childbirth, not fear it? How can we overthrow a maternity care order for a new system?

Revolution.

I think there are a few mini-childbirth revolutions happening in some communities - mothers are standing up for their childbirth rights (thank you Joy Szabo). And even attempts on a global stage (the Women Deliver conference, but having attended it last June I was let down by the 'show' of it).

Ultimately the community organizer in me knows that sustainable change has to come from a revolution by the grassroots - from the pregnant mothers themselves - a trickle up process - who must stand up and say they are fed up with childbirth models that for the most part don't work for pregnant moms.

If we want social change revolution is the answer.

My revolution looks like this: let's teach freedom instead of fear to pregnant moms and their partners today, and to the pregnant women and men of tomorrow, and to a new generation of OBs. Let's examine social change movements around the world, find the ones that work, and use these models to build a women-centered childbirth model that works.

Revolution up!

Why There Is No Excuse For Pregnant Mothers to Not Know

2011-06-17T10:09:00.017-04:00

A recent LA Times piece that reports "a shockingly high number could not answer basic questions regarding the pros, cons or safety issues associated with epidurals, episiotomies, Cesareans and other childbirth options" has got me thinking alot about why I wrote the play BIRTH.

Back in 2004-2005 when I was interviewing pregnant mothers about their birth experience I continually got the line "I didn't know."

I DIDN'T KNOW that there could be complications from a c-section.
I DIDN'T KNOW that if I had an epidural my baby may get a fever and me too.
I DIDN'T KNOW that once I had the baby they were going to take him from me immediately.

and one of my all-time favorites:

I DIDN'T KNOW midwives delivered babies other than out in a cornfield in Iowa.

I needed a deep breath. And that deep breath turned into my play BIRTH.

While I found it shocking 10 years ago that pregnant mothers did not know so much basic information about childbirth, today it's not only shocking it's inexcusable. Ten years ago women only had a few okay childbirth books and if they were lucky they got to see one of a few low-budget films on childbirth that talked about birth options. Today pregnant women can literally swim in an ocean of empowering childbirth information - both on the web and in the theatre. There is no excuse for not knowing your childbirth options today.

In addition to my play BIRTH which is performed in locations around the world as part of the BOLD movement, there are now widely distributed films like Ricki Lake's super-fantastic The Business of Being Born (and her online community My Best Birth), Debra Pascali-Bonaro's passionate boundary-breaker Orgasmic Birth.

The information is out there for pregnant moms. And these creative efforts have had impact. So the question I ask myself is what next? What is the next step so that even more pregnant women "know"? (so that every pregnant mother knows!)

For me, I have recently gone beyond my play BIRTH to train birth workers in my FEAR to FREEDOM Birth Facilitators Program which uses my play BIRTH and other tools to empower pregnant mothers. And I'm thrilled to hear Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein's next step is doing more too. I believe their soon-to-be-released More Business of Being Born films and my FEAR to FREEDOM Birth education will revolutionize childbirth education to become a hip, upbeat experience where childbirth empowerment is not a dirty word but celebrated as a woman's right.

So when I read the LA Times piece today it made me even more determined to wake pregnant mothers up. (and the young doctors, who the article said, prefer to c-section mothers than encourage vaginal births).

Your birth choice is your birth choice, but to walk into your birth uninformed is not a choice. It's a cop-out. I know pregnant women are better than that. Let's learn how to shed the fear about childbirth that we've been taught by our culture and educate ourselves about an act that affects not only our baby's body, but our body.

As Amanda says in my play, "My Body Rocks!"

Do you want to rock? Know your birth options.

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By the way, you can support More Business of Being Born to distribute it to the most people possible here.

The next FEAR to FREEDOM Birth Facilitators Training starts September 27! Our pre-launch class this summer has 31 women from 4 continents!

BOLD St Louis - At Home and On The Road!

2011-06-16T09:31:00.003-04:00

Every day another exciting BOLD idea comes into my inbox. BOLD St. Louis is now about to perform BIRTH for the 3rd year. I loved this poster I saw today. And I just loved hearing about their BOLD plans to take BIRTH on the road to college classes, OB residents, women's groups, and more. (and all attendees of these shows will not be charged!).

BOLD St. Louis start their performances this year on August 28.

St. Louis' initiative shows even more BOLDness in action!

"Waa-hoo!" to that.

BOLD and ICAN Team Up To Raise Awareness!

2011-06-14T09:53:00.009-04:00

Welcome ICAN (International Cesarean Awareness Network) of Juneau in Alaska to BOLD! ICAN of Juneau just registered to perform the new BIRTH script this September to raise awareness about VBACs. Waa-hoo to that!

While their birth community has many positive birth options, they told BOLD that:

"one failure that we are fighting right now is the VBAC Ban at our local hospital. Our ICAN Chapter is taking measures to see this change."

And that's why they are performing the play BIRTH.

This is BOLD-ness in action!

ICAN Juneau's application to do a performance of BIRTH is part of a larger BOLD/ICAN initiative this September to use the new BIRTH script as a vehicle to raise awareness about VBAC issues. Throughout the month of September ICAN and BOLD are asking all their locations to premiere BIRTH with the new VBAC story to celebrate BOLD’s 5th anniversary and promote awareness on this important issue.

Yes! A social-change-birthday-bash to make maternity care more mother-friendly!

Each ICAN location that performs BOLD will have the opportunity to raise awareness about VBACs as well as raise money for their local chapter to do the important support ICAN provides to mothers who have had cesareans and may be looking for options to do it differently for their next birth.

All the BOLDness will kick off this September on Labor Day Weekend! Keep your eyes open for locations to see the play near you (and, by the way, the ICAN locations will be in addition to our already BOLD locations in September in London, Leeds, Peterborough, Fort Worth, Texas, New York City, Bremerton, Washington, Austin, Texas, and Montreal).

Step into your BOLD-est self this September. Organize a performance of BIRTH or attend a performance.

See you there!

New BIRTH script! (VBAC-friendly!)

2011-06-01T12:01:00.006-04:00

Today I published the new BIRTH script. Whew! This BOLD mama is tired!

I can't wait for BOLD locations to start performing the new BIRTH script this September! As part of BOLD's 5th anniversary I've written Sandy's second birth story into the play - a VBAC!

The new story is gonna knock-your-BOLD-sock-off!!!! Especially the "Tiger in the Room" scene. (wink, wink to all you Birthing From Within instructors!)

Go see BIRTH this September to check it out! Or consider organizing a performance in your community to raise awareness and money to make maternity care mother-friendly.

The new script is as BOLD as ever!

Turning FEAR into FREEDOM

2011-05-20T12:38:00.015-04:00

Yesterday I spent an hour telling 141 people who registered for my FEAR to FREEDOM Birth Facilitator Training how much I believe we can change the culture of birth. Did I tell them it would be easy? No. Do I think I've found the secret ingredient? Yes and...

Let me explain. The way I see childbirth today pregnant moms have to play a big part in the shift towards a more mother-centered birth paradigm. We can get upset with OBs and hospitals and insurance companies...and I do think the shift needs to come from these and other forces as well...but the bottom line is that pregnant mothers need to take responsibility for their birth experiences. They need to own it. And right now most are not. Most pregnant moms are sitting in FEAR, big time.

And when you're in fear you are not FREE. Fear and Freedom rarely mix.

On the call yesterday I told the story of a woman named "Carol" in my recent pregnancy tele-course who wanted a natural birth, but also knew that where she lives the hospital is not used to supporting mothers to do it naturally. Carol was not able to be on our weekly live calls for the class because she worked during the day. But through the at-home exercises and through listening to the class recordings at 36 weeks she wrote me this:

” I went to register at the hospital and was really disappointed at the reaction to my desire to have a drug free natural birth even though I knew it wasn’t common at that hospital...(no one has requested the squat bar since they moved into this new facility- which was over a year ago...). I decided to use this experience as a “Body, voice, action” moment. So right there, in the way you taught me, I connected to the current in my body, found my authentic voice, and took some serious action! I officially requested the squat bar, told them I was bringing a doula with me, and walked out there feeling like this birth was MINE…and even if I decide to take drugs when I’m in labor NOBODY is taking my power away. I know I rock!”

This is what fear to freedom means to me. It means getting pregnant women like Carol to take the chains off their hands and legs and own their birth power no matter the outcome. Again, I’m not saying it will be easy - anyone who works in childbirth today knows all the forces that push against pregnant mothers to have empowered birth experiences (and I don't think an empowered birth is only a natural birth) – but what I am saying is that fear and freedom are choices in pregnancy (and in life!).

Let's teach pregnant moms to choose freedom! A pregnant mother always has a choice of her internal power: she can blow out her internal power and be fearful or keep her internal power source lit by choosing freedom. Changing the culture of childbirth is not about getting the perfect birth - it's about teaching pregnant moms how to have an empowered birth experience, which I believe lifts us up as a culture.

The problem is we haven't developed a comprehensive language and method to teach pregnant moms how to move from fear to freedom. I think it's time. That's why my FEAR to FREEDOM Birth Facilitators training combines the three main ingredients I think pregnant moms need to own their births: connection to their BODY, finding their authentic VOICE, and the tools to take ACTION.

My FEAR to FREEDOM Birth Facilitator training program pre-launches June 7. You can register now if you work with pregnant moms and want to receive this training...or if you're a pregnant mom in the fall contact me to find a certified FEAR to FREEDOM Birth Facilitator near you. So far registration is all over the world from Georgia to Dubai!

a new story in BIRTH for BOLD's 5th anniversary?

2011-05-13T15:17:00.006-04:00

I love being a mom, writer, and activist but most days I juggle the hats so many times I'm not sure who I am on any given hour. The past two days have been different. I'm in major writer mode. Of course dinner is still being cooked and I continue to answer to the tune of "Mommy!" - but what it does mean is that I have carved out a rare chunk of space to do nothing but write.

The result? A new story in the play BIRTH! I've been wanting to add this story for a while. What better way than to premiere the new story on BOLD's 5th anniversary - this Labor Day weekend! Thanks to this occasion and a gentle push from Maude Poulin, who has now produced BIRTH many times (and will do so again next week!) this week I sat down and wrote it.

I know you're wondering...is it a new character? No. Is it a hospital birth? Yes. A vaginal birth? Yes. A...VBAC? Yes!!!!!

It's the character Sandy's second birth story.

Sandy is such a joy to talk with. A few weeks ago I interviewed her about her second birth, an empowering hospital VBAC with midwives and a doula. I know her birth journey is one mothers need to hear.

As Sandy says, "My story was like a total Phoenix from the ashes type moment of moving from a birth that went so horribly wrong to a birth that went right."

She also says, "People said I was lucky to have a VBAC. I wasn't lucky, I was smart."

I can't wait to premiere Sandy's new story this September and raise awareness about VBACs and the alarming cesarean rate. It's time.

I hope you will go see the play this September! And if it's not in your area be BOLD and consider organizing a performance! For details on how to organize a performance check out the BOLD website.

(photo: me, Sandy and her husband Ralph in 2007 at BOLD Boston's performance!)

Touching That Empowered Place

2011-05-10T09:42:00.010-04:00

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about passion. My boys are now ten and almost twelve, an age where they are no longer saying they want to be a superhero when they grow up. Instead, as I watch them grow, I’m noticing more and more that the way to supporting them – and understanding them - is through their passions. Jacob’s is dance; Aden’s is sports. Now that I have them figured out for this moment, I keep asking myself what’s my passion? I’m answering this question more and more every day.

The day I gave birth to my son Jacob was a pivotal moment in my life and relates deeply to my passion. I can almost taste the day right now: it was humid, 105 degrees, and after the midwives arrived my husband Tim’s bread had finished baking and we sat out on our veranda laughing. I even remember saying, “Well, if the baby comes in an hour this will be a pretty easy birth!”

Well, the baby didn’t come in an hour, it came 12 hours later.

“I can do it!” I shouted late in my labor.

“You can do it!” the midwives and my husband chanted back to me.

It took me two hours to push my son out; two hours to totally empty of my self and fill with my True Nature – my essence.

Empty-fullness.

That is the moment I knew my passion. I want all pregnant mothers to touch this empowered place. I’ve never been hung up on the location of where they get it: I see mothers getting it in hospitals, birth centers, and home. Also, while I think it’s easier to connect with your body and sense that “empty-fullness“ in a drug-free birth, I absolutely think mothers who use drugs can get there too. It’s about being conscious. It’s about consciously connecting with your body, finding your authentic voice, and taking action to have your best birth possible.

This week my passion is coming to full fruition. First there was my play BIRTH, then the BOLD movement and the pregnancy empowerment classes I’ve taught to pregnant moms through My Body Rocks Project, and now I am ready to spread my passion wider…to a training program for doulas and birth workers that I think has the power to shift the cultural mindset on pregnancy and birth.

I am taking my experience as a community organizer with women, my alternative health background, and my knowledge as a playwright of birth through women’s stories straight to Doulas and Birth workers on the front lines of birth today. I’m doing it because it’s my passion, my dream, and my commitment to mothers.

If you'd like to be with me on this next leg of the journey. Or if you just want to eavesdrop on what I'm up to, please register for my preview call where I am going to give listeners the details of my new Doula and Birth Worker Training program. I'll reveal the components, cost, and all the other juicy details and I'd love the share it with you Thursday May 19th at 12:30pm or 8:30pm Eastern time.

Click here to sign up for the call.

And stay tuned to your Facebook and Twitter to receive an announcement when the website launches with more details.

I can’t wait for the birth paradigm-shift party to start!

Mothers Day - a Day to Put Mothers Center Stage

2011-05-07T17:06:00.002-04:00

A few days ago I heard a birth story that made me pause. Every relative the mother knew was against her decision to give birth at a birth center. Even her husband thought she was nuts. Lucy (not her real name) didn’t let that stop her. Her gut told her to give birth in a birth center. The twist is she never told her family. She went through her nine months of pregnancy, went into labor while her husband was at work, drove herself to the birth center and gave birth. Then she called her husband.

Is this what mothers have to do to get the birth they want?

I wrote the play BIRTH because I want to see every mother’s voice during her pregnancy and birth center stage. It is time that birth be about the mother, that families understand it’s the mother’s body giving birth not the grandmother, father, or any other friend or relative.

Tomorrow is Mothers Day - a day to put mothers center stage. Let’s make every day for pregnant mothers Mothers Day. Let’s honor their :

their BODIES,
their VOICES,
their CHOICES,
their INTUITION,
their SPIRIT,
their POWER,
their FAITH,
their TRUE NATURE
…and anything else they ask us to honor.

And let’s support pregnant mothers to stay connected to:

their BODIES,
their VOICES,
their CHOICES,
their INTUITION,
their SPIRIT,
their POWER,
their FAITH,
their TRUE NATURE.
…and any other tools they need to have an empowered birth experience.

May I never hear another birth story like Lucy’s.

Amen.

BOLD Rocks Canada!

2011-05-05T13:13:00.005-04:00

BOLD Muskoka and BOLD Hamilton both rocked Ontario, Canada only days apart this Spring, selling out performances and raising over $10,000 for their beneficiaries...Friends of Muskoka Midwives, the Ghislaine Francoeur Fund, the Kendall Pearson Resource Fund and the Women's Centre of Hamilton.

Congratu-BOLD-lations!

BOLD Muskoka shares:

"What were the highlights? Our Vanessa’s interpretation of “butt pain-writhing like a snake” (she was
amazing!); the end of Natalie’s birth story (I watched as faces went from joy when she felt her baby’s
hair to horror when she got cut); MONTY PYTHON!!! (that scene got lots of applause once it was done);
the way we interpreted Sandy’s birth (picture a football coach-come OB with a southern accent
instructing Sandy to “open yer legs wiiiiider”—hilarious yet so sad); and my personal favourite: seeing a
FULL HOUSE give a standing ovation (weeping included) to a group of amateur actors."

BOLD Hamilton writes:

"One of our amazing panel members (they all were!) was Dr. Phillips Shea who is a family doctor who delivered babies in homes for most of his career and he was able to bring his wife and two family friends (who were both patients of him and he delivered their babies at home). They were all blown away by the characters and how the play has this ability to really let you feel what women are going through when dealing with childbirth in North America."

Nap with Me

2011-03-28T10:27:00.007-04:00

Can't wait to start napping with moms around the world tomorrow! The My Body Rocks Project's first annual 40-Day Nap Challenge for Moms is about to begin!

I definitely need it, as BOLD and The My Body Rocks Project are both exploding these days. BOLD's 5th anniversary is coming up and it will be BOLD-tacular!!! That's why I need to sleep now!

This course is actually not just sleep...I'll be teaching moms a powerful yogic sleep called yoga nidra. I use it and I got trained in it just over a year ago. Yoga nidra was a life-changing tool for me professionally and as a mom. I just wrote about it in Mothering Magazine in a piece called "My Body Rocks."

Throughout the 40-Day Nap Challenge I will be blogging about it in the Huffington Post. Read my first post on the Nap Challenge called, "Are You There Sleep? It's Me, Mom on the Edge?".

It's not too late to join us napping! Register now!

Posting Some BOLD Praise...Finally!

2011-03-25T11:38:00.004-04:00

Well, this was going to be my year for posting all the fabulous BOLD feedback I get every week in my inbox, by mail, phone...and it keeps slipping to the bottom of my to-do list. But not today!

I was reading a letter from Lori Tiessen Banman, a doula who in 2009 brought BIRTH to Winnipeg in Canada and then buoyed by its success and impact decided to take it to the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in July 2010. She shared this:

"We brought out many emotions from the audience and helped many people to realize that they have a voice when they enter the hospital to birth their babies.

I am very proud that we drew in so many people from the public who were not connected to the childbirth network. I am even more excited that the group of nurses who attended a performance initiated a meeting with labor and delivery nurses at their hospital and doulas to bridge an understanding between them. Thrilling!"

It's feedback like this that re-connects me all the time to the grassroots passion and difference every BOLD location is making. Lori's package to BOLD included film footage from the play, a poster, and also a fabulous tote bag they printed for audience members...but what I really loved the most was her handwritten note, filled with what BOLD is all about: real stories, real results that translate into making childbirth mother-friendly. We trickle our consciousness-raising up through theatre, BOLD Red Tents...and it works. This I know!

My Body Rocks online Pregnancy class starts this Weds!

2011-03-21T21:38:00.002-04:00

I can't wait to start my online childbirth class using my My Body Rocks methods! You can have an empowered birth experience pregnant mamas!

My piece in the Huffington Post

2011-03-03T16:28:00.011-05:00

I wrote a piece last week in the Huffington Post on sleep and motherhood that got lots of comments on Facebook and the Huffington Post site. The piece is called "Memo to Moms: It's Eat, Pray, Sleep."

Last year I realized mothers who want to change the world - or just want to have a coherent conversation with their neighbor- must get enough rest. Without it, I know I'm a mess. So in 2010 I got trained to be a iRest yoga nidra (yogic sleep) teacher so I could use these methods in The My Body Rocks Project workshops I teach. That got me thinking: what if every year in the spring I challenged moms to nap with me for 40 days?

If you don't know, the number "40" is hugely significant: there are tons of biblical references to "40 days" and its connection to transformation. That's why I picked 40 days. Also, I thought napping every day once per year for 40 days is doable for most moms, right? It's like instead of a spring fasting cleanse you can do a spring napping cleanse!

So after you read my piece in the Huffington Post go check out my 40 Day Nap and Transformation Challenge for Moms and sign up!

Napping starts March 29th and ends Mothers Day weekend!

Happy napping!

BIRTH is now in Spanish!

2011-03-03T16:25:00.002-05:00

"Nacer" hit my inbox this week! Yes, the Spanish translation of the play is here. Waa-hoo!

Thank you Cecilia in Uruguay for making this happen. There will be multiple performances of BIRTH late 2011 and 2012 throughout Uruguay. I can't wait!

Childbirth Secret #1: The Baby is Not Coming Out of Your Butt

2011-01-04T23:29:00.003-05:00

What childbirth lessons can we learn from my play "Birth"? Check out my recent blog post on Mothering Magazine's website for the answer!

Childbirth Secret #1: The Baby is Not Coming Out of Your Butt

How the OB Stole Normal Birth

2011-01-04T09:54:00.002-05:00

I love this Dr. Seuss-inspired prose from "Birth Sense" on Facebook. I just had to share it with you.

I also appreciate her disclaimer. There is a birth crisis in many communities where doctors and hospitals do not believe in normal birth. To create art around this theme does not mean that all OBs or hospitals do not believe in normal birth. There are champions out there who get it, but when I sit down and talk with mothers about their childbirth experiences I know we still have a long way to go.

How the OB Stole Normal Birth (apologies to Dr. Seuss)
by Birth Sense

Disclaimer: My regular readers know that I support the use of modern obstetric technology when truly needed, and I know there are some awesome OBs out there, as well as some not-so-good midwives. I know that birth does not always happen normally, and it isn’t anyone’s fault. But the fact is that we interfere way too often in the normal process of birth, much of the time creating more problems than we solve. This parody of Dr. Seuss’ famous “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” is my holiday rant about the state of childbirth in America today.

Lots of women in Birthville
Liked normal birth a lot.

But the OB who practiced
in Birthville
Did NOT!

He hated birthing! The whole childbirth season.
Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be that his heart wasn’t connected quite right.
It could be, perhaps, that his wallet was too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that he thought
His patients’ pelvises were two sizes too small.

But,
Whatever the reason,
His heart or his wallet,
He stood there, hating the women,
Who gave birth in Birthville without any gadgets or tools,
Who wanted to squat or give birth on a stool.
And he knew every woman in Birthville beneath
Was busy now, practicing her relaxation techniques.
“And they’re squatting and breathing!” he snarled with a sneer.
“They wait past their due dates without any fear!!”
Then he growled, with his fingers nervously drumming,
“I MUST find a way to get those babies coming!”
For, if he didn’t, he knew…

All the Birthville women would tell of the joys
Of birthing without drugs
And then! Oh, the noise! Oh, the noise! Noise! Noise! Noise!
That’s one thing he hated! The NOISE! NOISE! NOISE! NOISE!

Then the women in Birthville
Would wait and they’d wait.
They’d wait for their labor
Though the babies were late!
They would refuse the pitocin, they’d give him no peace
They’d write up birth plans
Which was something the OB couldn’t stand in the least!

And THEN
They’d do something he liked least of all!
Every woman in Birthville, the tall and the small,
Would stand close together, and coach each other
These normal birthers were becoming a bother!

They’d walk! And they’d breathe!
They’d moan and they’d sway!
And the more the OB thought of the birthing day
The more the he thought, “I must stop this whole thing!
“Why for fifty-three years I’ve put up with it now!
I MUST stop normal birth!
…But HOW? But HOW?”

Then he got an idea!
An awful idea!
THE OB GOT A WONDERFUL, AWFUL IDEA!

“I know just what to do!” He laughed in his throat.
And he hid a scalpel in his lab coat.
And he chuckled, and clucked, “What a great OB trick!
“With this coat and this scalpel, it’ll be very quick!”

I’ll tell them their pelvises
Are two sizes too small!
I’ll tell them their babies won’t
Fit through at all!
I’ll tell them they’re risking
The lives of their babies
They’ll do what I say,
No ifs, buts, or maybes!
Then he loaded his bags
And headed on down
Toward Birthville, and the hospital
In the center of town.

He took the first patient who arrived in labor
And told her he was doing her a favor.
It would all be over in an hour or less,
She wouldn’t have to push and she wouldn’t make a mess.
Then he rushed her back to the OR with glee.
“And NOW!” grinned the OB, “I will deliver the baby!”

But the OB had scarcely pulled on his gloves,
When he heard a small sound like the coo of a dove.
He turned around fast, and he saw the small head
Of a baby who most certainly did not appear dead!
The OB had been caught by the very fast birth
And his patient now questioned, “Why on earth
Did you tell me my pelvis was too small, and my baby would die?
Why did you try to cut me, why?”

But, you know, that old OB was so smart and so slick
He thought up a lie, and he thought it up quick!
“Why, my sweet little patient,” the OB lied,
“You’re lucky you were in the hospital
Or YOU might have died!”

But his fib didn’t fool her, and
She said, “Are you sure?
I read The Unnecesarean,
And study My Best Birth.
I keep up with Lamaze and I’ve met Ina May,
I’ll put my money on normal birth any day.”
Then the OB thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe birth,” he thought, “isn’t just about the OR.
“Maybe birth…perhaps…means a little bit more!”

And what happened then…?
Well…in Birthville they say
That the OB’s small heart
Grew three sizes that day!
And the minute his wallet didn’t feel quite so tight,
He whizzed through the labor deck in the bright morning light
And he brought back the doulas! And took out the IVs!
He handled the birth balls and birth stools with ease!
He took off the monitors and got the women up walking,
He visted their rooms and did a little talking.
He didn’t scowl when they wanted no meds,
He didn’t keep them confined to their beds.
He didn’t complain that they were too loud,
And when his patient wanted to push, she was allowed.
And when she wanted to give birth on her hands & knees,
The OB—THE OB! delivered the baby with ease!

Thankful for BOLD Nurses

2010-11-23T12:44:00.002-05:00

On this week of thanks in the United States I wanted to acknowledge all the BOLD nurses out there in the world providing exceptional maternity care to moms...going out of their way to keep the labor and delivery rooms mother-friendly, saying encouraging words to pregnant moms, and believing that birth is normal and deserves to be honored and trusted!

I know you are out there, BOLD Nurses...often silently in the workplace doing valiant acts that pregnant mothers remember forever.

I was recently sent this list of 20 iconic nurses and want to share it with you.

http://www.nursingschools.net/blog/2010/11/20-iconic-nurses-every-nursing-student-should-study/

We must remember the brave, heroic nurses!

Believe in Birth. Your Body Rocks!

2010-11-22T14:19:00.004-05:00

Mother's Advocate interviewed me and it came out today. Check it out!

http://mothersadvocate.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/believe-in-birth-your-body-rocks/

Watch a video teaser from BOLD Quebec's upcoming performance of "Birth"!

2010-11-22T10:52:00.003-05:00

I'm just loving the cast and crew in BOLD Quebec's upcoming production on November 26th. Check them out in this teaser for "Naissance":

http://www.naissancequebec.com/3/post/2010/11/une-petite-minute-dans-la-vie-de-naissance.html

BOLD Women Rock the French Riveria!

2010-11-22T10:15:00.010-05:00

Earlier this month "Naissance" (the french version of "Birth) was performed on the French Riveria. Here's what BOLD Organizer Frederique Horowitz told me:

"It was great, excellent, about 150 persons, lots of applause, and an interesting debate with local midwives. We've already been asked to perform again in Nice ...and other places in our area !!! What an experience, we all feel so uplifted, so gifted to have the chance to be part of it. THANK YOU for this incredible text, it goes straight to the point, and reaches all the viewers hearts ;-)))"

"My Body Rocks" stones are here moms!

2010-11-09T09:30:00.007-05:00

OMG...the moment the "My Body Rocks" stones arrived at my house I knew mothers were going to flip for them. I'd been wanting to give mothers who take my My Body Rocks Workshops something they could keep after the workshop to remind them of the profound experience they just had at the workshop and encourage them to stay on a My Body Rocks journey. The stone is perfect! I immediately took three and placed one on my bedside table, another on my meditation alter and a third in my pocketbook. Last month I brought them to my workshop in Fernie, British Columbia and the women at the workshop loved them!

These stones are so fabulous that I decided for one-time every year I will make them available beyond my workshops - to all you "My Body Rocks" moms! It is the perfect touchstone for every mom - pregnant or not! Here's who has bought one so far:

- a woman bought it for her 8 week pregnant sister to hold during her pregnancy;
- a pregnant mom bought it to hold during her labor;
- a stressed-out mom bought it to hold whenever she needs a reminder to reconnect with her body.

These stones rock! (literally!). They are a great present for the holidays, mother blessings, birthdays. I can't wait for you (and your mom friends) to have one!

If you're a doula, midwife, childbirth educator you can order them at a bulk price. Inquire when you email!

Stones cost: $14.97 (plus shipping)

I am taking orders only once until Thanksgiving (November 25). Stones ship the first week in December.

Email: info@mybodyrocksproject.com and tell us how many you'd like, your name, address and phone number. We'll then email you an invoice and you can send a check or pay by credit card.

(NOTE: all stones look slightly different, they are natural stones so some have imperfections, but the above photo is a pretty good indicator of what it will look like!)

First, Speak No Evil: A Small Town Confronts Big Childbirth Issues

2010-11-08T11:23:00.014-05:00

If there is one thing I’ve learned after writing a play about childbirth in America from the perspective of mothers it’s that the story is always right. Who can challenge a woman when she tells the story of how she gave birth? It’s her story, right?

No, says one-too-many medical professionals and lay audience people. Coercion in the labor and delivery room is not happening, women are misinterpreting casual comments made like “this baby is a big one” and blowing them way out of proportion, and if they are so traumatized after childbirth why are they not telling their doctors?

I had the privilege of traveling to Fernie, British Columbia in October to see two performances of my play “Birth” and witness first-hand the power and challenges of confronting big questions like these in a small town where everybody knows each other.

“We’re just on this panel because Tanya asked us,” a local family doctor who also performed in the play tells the audience.

Oh, really? You have no desire to provide the women of Fernie with more information about their birthing options and how to advocate for a better birth? Just think...how powerful are her words? And how - unintentionally - did they kick birthing women in their bellies?

Yes, listen up, words matter!

As the discussion unfolded this take one-step back from the situation and a “we don’t believe this can be happening to mothers” attitude pervaded. Granted, the Canadian system with all of its challenges is a more mother-friendly system than the United States. You just have to check out some of the progressive comments of their Obstetrician and Gynecological society (SOGC) like a recent statement that doctors should allow breech babies to be born vaginally to know that everything in my play, about American moms, won’t translate perfectly.

But despite "Birth" being a play about the experiences of American mothers I’ve found communities all over the world find quite a few common threads with their maternity care systems.

The most frequent similarity to the US system is all the disempowering comments care providers (and family members) say to pregnant women that discourage them from having a powerful, happy birth experience. A frequent comment from the medical community in Fernie after the first night’s performance at the talkback was “we don’t push epidurals on mothers”. The local mother population seemed to think otherwise. Telling a mother she ‘looks so tired’ and might want an epidural, it was suggested by several moms, is a form of coercion.

“That’s the point of this play,” one mother commented. “That the words said to mothers matter.”

No one wants to hear that pregnant mothers are being coerced, especially in a small town where the likelihood of your child becoming best friends with the local family doctor’s child is high. How do you confront the realities of mothers’ experiences and not hurt people’s feelings?

This challenge exists as much in urban settings as rural, but what I saw on my first night sitting on the panel after the play in the small town of Fernie was a clash between power and powerlessness in the faces of well-meaning people who have broken bread together enough times to consider themselves extended family. How do you tell your family they are abusing pregnant women; that words DO matter; that not coming together and fighting for an operating room to stay open all the time so pregnant mothers can have better birth options is denying superior maternity care to local mothers?

Standing up is a risk. You’re sure not the most popular girl in the room. In a small town, it could be social and financial suicide. After the first BOLD Talkback panel the following night BOLD Fernie Organizer, Tanya Malcolm, took the risk and stood up to people in her community who repeatedly said birthing conditions for mothers were not that bad in Fernie.

“Mothers in Fernie are not all getting the births they want,” she told the audience. “We need to tell mothers that they can do it. That their bodies rock. Not that they look tired and need an epidural. We need midwifery care here – not one hour away in Cranbrook.”

This was just the juice needed to rev the audience’s engine. Two mothers spoke up and said they would like to make it possible to bring midwifery care to Fernie. Another said she was not happy that the night before the two local doctors who deliver babies in town were not clear whether you could VBAC in the local hospital or not. What was their policy? Mothers needed to know.

I loved my visit to Fernie. It is a passionate, vibrant town. The community members know their bodies rock and want to trust their doctors who are also in many cases their friends. The doctors seem like compassionate, real people who care about pregnant women. So how do they move forward?

Perhaps it’s in the words of a family doctor in Fernie who after telling me that not everything in the play was the experience of pregnant mothers in Fernie she conceded: “But I get it, I get that listening to mothers stories are valid. And that sometimes when a woman is in labor I just need to listen."

Free Childbirth Teleseminar: What to Expect...The Unexpected, Of Course

2010-11-02T13:02:00.005-04:00

My friend Angela finally got me to do it. After years of telling me to share my knowledge of childbirth she got me to commit to sharing all the secrets I've learned about what to expect when you give birth - information I've gathered from interviewing hundreds of mothers about their birth experiences to hearing from childbirth experts all over the world who have graced the talkback panels of BOLD productions of my play "Birth." I guess she's right, I know a thing or two about childbirth today. Why not share it?

Now I am, this month, November 19 I will be holding a FREE teleconference on what to expect when you're having a baby. Be prepared for "the unexpected" when you call in. I'm not holding back! I wrote my play "Birth" so mothers would know the truth about childbirth today, have their eyes wide open when they go into labor, and never say they didn't know their birth options. If you or someone you know is pregnant this free teleseminar is exactly the place to hear the truth about childbirth today. The secrets to a great birth are in my play and I'll be sharing these secrets with pregnant mothers on November 19.

The teleconference is going to rock! I hope you'll join me.

Click here for a link to sign up for the event.

Welcome BOLD 2011 Activists: Every BOLD Mother Counts

2010-10-12T11:55:00.005-04:00

Dear BOLD-activists,

Welcome to BOLD. And to our Sisters who are joining us again, welcome back. Thank you for knowing that now is the time to be BOLD in maternity care. Thank you for your commitment and dedication to mothers, babies and families. Thank you for saying, “yes” to change in your community. Thank you for being brave enough to use theater and/or a BOLD Red Tent to raise awareness and money for mother-friendly maternity care. Thank you for taking your seed of hope and sharing it with your community. Thank you in this time of economic challenge for seeing an opportunity to rise above and bring mothers back to their power center.

What I know is that for the past four years the BOLD movement has broken maternity care barriers in communities, started important discussions, created birth networks, opened birth centers, enlightened ailing maternity care facilities, held hundreds of BOLD Red Tents, got students and new moms and dads chanting “my body rocks” and believing it, and raised over $200,000 for local community-based organizations working hard to make maternity care mother-friendly.

Yes, BOLD rocks.

And so do you. Your passion to give mothers back their voices rocks. Your drive to make sure maternity care is recognized as a human rights/women’s rights issue rocks. Your determination to bring together a director, cast, production help and get a diverse audience in their seats while at the same time juggling sick kids, driving to soccer practices, doing laundry and making dinner rocks.

Let’s put on as many productions as we can in 2011, wear our BOLD t-shirts, celebrate our victories with BOLD “After Birth” parties and let the world know what maternity care is really like today and what it can be in the future. Let’s also find moments to experience pleasure for yourself, let family and friends help out, and take time to walk barefoot on this precious earth, grounding yourself when you need it.

This year BOLD’s theme is: Every BOLD Mother Counts. We’re asking each BOLD location to not only educate about their local maternity care conditions, but to raise awareness about maternity care conditions for other mothers, especially women from low income and diverse communities either in your backyard or around the world. How are homeless mothers in your community giving birth? Women in prisons? How did mothers give birth after the Tsunami in Asia? What challenges do women in rural Uganda and Tanzania face getting to the hospital or clinic to give birth? There are many local and global maternal health issues for marginalized mothers that need our attention. You can plant the seed in your community for people to “get” how maternity care affects all mothers. Every BOLD mother counts.

I look forward to hearing about your BOLDness this year. Let’s make 2011 a year of BOLD passion, action and change in maternity care. Moms deserve better. We know it, let’s do it.

With love and gratitude,
Karen

**To receive a BOLD 2011 application click here.

Help BOLD Educate Students and Pregnant Moms!

2010-10-06T11:35:00.012-04:00

If you’ve been to a BOLD event you know theater is a powerful vehicle. At BOLD we’ve seen great victories happen in communities who bring my play “Birth” to their local colleges, to university and high school students, and to local pregnant moms. But recently we’ve begun to face the limits of live theater: you can’t easily produce a play on every college campus, in human sexuality and women studies classes, and childbirth educators can’t take every class they teach to a play.

When we put on our BOLD thinking cap we decided it is time to create a BOLD Kit that can be used by University students, professors and childbirth educators. The kit would include a DVD of the play “Birth”, several dynamic talkbacks from BOLD communities and an extensive resource study guide to provide important, timely information on maternity care.

How can you help make our BOLD vision a reality? We’ve teamed up with My Mommy Manual to offer two products that BOLD will receive 50 percent of the profits. This can make our BOLD kits happen!

Here are three BOLD steps you can take right now:

1. Buy the two My Mommy Manual products! (click on the links below for more information). These products are super mom-friendly!
2. Post a link about this fundraiser to your Facebook Page encouraging your friends to support BOLD! Here are the links:

For Holding Hands Bracelet: http://www.etsy.com/listing/52945003/holding-hands-glass-charm-bracelet-small (be sure to tell people to add "BOLD" in a note when they checkout)

For Yoga Parenting Course: http://www.parenting-course.com/go.php?offer=bold2006&pid=1

3. If you have a website or blog that parents frequent, post these offers on your site either using the links above or email us at info@boldaction.org to get graphic codes.

Thank you for supporting BOLD! And thanks to Suzanne and Ria, the two BOLD moms who started My Mommy Manual. If you haven’t checked out their website I encourage you to do it now – they ROCK!

Birth premieres in Austria next month!

2010-09-29T12:15:00.003-04:00

Next month on October 8 a very BOLD mother in Austria Sylvia Sedlak (who with the help of an American German professor translated the play when her children were sleeping!) brings the play to Vienna for it's premiere performance in German. Childbirth superstars Debra Pascali-Bonaro and Ina May Gaskin will be there.

"Birth" is now translated into French and German. Surely Spanish must be next!

The BOLDness never ends

2010-09-27T14:39:00.003-04:00

Is it really September already? If you're on Facebook you know I'm out there, but after moving this summer and shuttling kids to camp and retreating to my mothers cabin with the kids this summer my BOLD blog fell silent. Today's my re-commitment to this blog!

There have been so many wonderful performances of "Birth" happening in the world. I want to give a shout-out to a few:

- BOLD Fort Worth just finished their BOLD adventure this weekend in Texas! (see photos up top!)
- BOLD Houston offered free performances this weekend and last week on the campuses of University of Houston, Lee College, and next week at Rice University. (listen to my interview on Houston's KPFT's Whole Mother Show)
- BOLD Winnipeg performed "Birth" seven times at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in July!
- BOLD St. Louis sold out at their performance at the end of August.

Thank you all for being BOLD, raising money for important local organization BOLDly making maternity care mother-friendly!

French Mother: The Best Place and People to Produce 'Birth' are Ordinary Citizens

2010-05-11T13:55:00.006-04:00

My name is Fabienne, from South East of France. I am a 36 years old mother of a son named Quentin who will turn 18 months at the end of May 2010. Our family lives in a village called Mouans Sartoux which is 20mn away from Cannes, famous for its film Festival.

I am involved in a production of "Birth" which will be played next 5th of November in Mouans Sartoux tanks to the idea of a doula, Frederique Horowitz who is highly involved in Birth matters in France.

I recently chose to play the character of Natalie……… wishing that my next pregnancy and childbirth will be surrounded by her energy, sensibility and deep confidence that giving birth is just a natural process that women bodies, like other animals, know from inside! Giving birth means to open the body and let the energy go all around…. My body feels that this production of "Birth" will bring a lot of positive energy in France !!!! I think women will give birth more and more in a loving kindness atmosphere if they can feel surrounded and listened by other women/mother.

We started gathering the actors and others involved in the production at the end of April with a great group of women who met during a red tent that we organised to bond our team … We do not live in the same area. The biggest distance from each other is 90 minutes by car. The key point I want to make is that while we do not belong to the same community we are excited that we will bring back to our own community BOLD energy… So this project might involve new people at the end, and new productions.

This is why I like "Birth" by Karen Brody so much…………… Isn’t a great idea to talk about childbirth through a theater play ? Such as parents who read stories at home to their child we would be people who share a story to other people and this fantastic story tells about BIRTH.

Birth which as so many meaning is such a key event in life !!!! It means birth of a baby, but also of a mother, a father, a family (when it is the first one) of a sister or brother for the following child/ren.

Birth happens only few time in a life… and it seems that in France it is not “politically correct” to talk about it, in a dinner for example or in everyday life ! But it should be PREPARED for as much or more as a wedding is prepared (Why not a year before being pregnant and not only by spending money !!!!!! as for wedding)! So for me the best place and people to produce a text like BIRTH it is an ordinary and popular place and in a spontaneous and simple way. Not a theater place!

They are secrets around birth and wrong ideas. Parents are not used to taking an active part in it. So they don’t dare ask too many questions and so far many women in France let specialists in the hospital deal with their birth. That is why I am very motivated that this play - which can not be bought as a book yet in French yet - can be listened to as much as possible in France.

I hope in our team we will have the participation of men (to play husband, Doctors, taxi driver etc…) It could be very interesting to get “male” feed back and their point of view during the preparation of Birth. It could be also a part of the 2010-theme “loving kindness” to open that subject to men. It is not only a women's concern. It is a Human being's concern.

Giving birth- Breast feeding- carrying a child like a kangaroo mother are strongly connected subjects. It is also in the topic of LOVING KINDNESS… a loving kindness approach of a pregnant woman to herself and the coming baby. How can a woman respect her body if she gives birth at hospital or elsewhere without any idea of what it is about? If mothers can take a wider active part in giving birth it means a wider respect to their bodies.

One of my ideas and a key motivation when I joined the production of "Birth" is also to respect people choice concerning birth - not to tell them what to do and what would be a ‘RIGHT’ way to do it (it is not because I like the most natural way and to let the mother's body work by itself that I have to put pressure on other people). That is why I feel it would be great to plan a discussion with medical specialists of childbirth not right after the play but at another time. It does not need to be connected for me : people can attend the play and not the discussion and people can attend the discussion even if they could not see the play…. Kindness and respect are key words ! So people should not feel that we are trying to influence them.

So thank you Karen for your initiative to interview women who gave birth. And thank you all people involved in BOLD.

BOLD Montreal uses Alexander Technique with actors!

2010-05-05T13:47:00.008-04:00

I was so intrigued to hear that BOLD Montreal will be using the Alexander Technique with actors while rehearsing "Birth" for their upcoming performances that I just had to ask the organizer, Maude Poulin, more questions! Here's our interview.

What is the Alexander Technique and why do you think the play "Birth" is a good piece to use it with actors?

F.M. Alexander was an actor, he was passionate about Shakespeare.

The Alexander Technique is a method helping to empower our consciousness on any activity: walking, standing up, acting, nursing... how we interact with our own body and the world around us. It’s about letting go, bringing awareness to habitual patterns and relaxing our heavy-handed, goal-oriented approach to life.

It’s about what we are doing right now, on the spot.

The Technique is often applied to actors. The AT is a way to bring light on our habits of movements and tensions. You learn how to balance your own body and take charge of your own health. It is a “hands on” technique where the teacher guides the pupil with hands and words in order to discover habitual patterns.

In Montréal, we work allot with professional actors, in private and groups work.

BIRTH is an amazing play to apply the Alexander Technique because Johanne and I have a common passion: teaching the Alexander Technique and we have each one other passion: theatre and humanizing birth. We have allot of AT pupils, who are actor, mother and passionate by the AT. So it was just the perfect thing to do right now.
All the cast will have between 10 to 20 lessons of Alexander Technique with us.

To work on this play will be a journey and we thought by supporting the actors with thoughtful words and hands will help them to release in them self, giving them more options, more space to allow the natural to come through.

This play is just perfect for the Alexander Technique because it’s all about developing global consciousness. For women, if she can develop trust and global consciousness of herself, it can help her to make choices that will allow her to be actress of her own birth. The energy will flow.

Can you give examples of how you will use the technique in a rehearsal?

At the beginning of each repetition we will do a body preparation with using the Alexander Technique.
During the repetition, for example: the actor who sees colleagues interpret his solo is also being conscious of how he plays. We want to develop awareness among these interpreters to recognize what is happening inside and out: create a passage between these two spaces. Being able to make choices in response to requirements.

What are your hopes for how AT will affect the actors and the play itself?

My hope is to use all the consciousness that the AT can bring to serve the important matter: Empowering birth.
Working on a play like this will help us to develop a quality of transmission that could help the public to be more receptive of the play, the message.

For the actors, it will widen their capacity to be aware of themselves, others and the play space. They will increase their body consciousness and their acting consciousness (dramatique) and will have an impact on the transmission of the emotion.

BOLD Montreal's performances will take place in November 2010.

Good luck to the BOLD Red Tent in Terressa, Spain this Friday!

2010-04-28T19:01:00.003-04:00

I'm sending all the women who will be telling their birth stories at the BOLD Red Tent in Terressa, Spain this Friday a big BOLD hug!

Friend me and BOLD on Facebook!

2010-04-28T18:56:00.004-04:00

If you're on Facebook and you want to know what's going on with BOLD events then join our Facebook community! Click here.

I also post many articles about childbirth, BOLD, my other blog posts and my life as a mom on my Facebook page. Click here for that!

Another Super Model supports improved childbirth

2010-04-28T18:00:00.003-04:00

I haven't seen Christy Turlington's new film No Woman, No Cry yet, but I"m told it's premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC this month was fabulous.

It's so important for the whole world to know that while childbirth in the US needs our attention so do mothers in developing countries who often die needlessly just because proper supplies are not available. Let's help these moms out too!

If you don't know about the White Ribbon Alliance you should. Check them out. Make a difference for women's maternal health globally. It may feel like only our street, our town, our friends, family and our country matters, but really in the end we are all connected and when one mother is saved from dying needlessly in childbirth we can all walk a little taller.

BOLD Fort Wayne - you rock!

2010-04-28T17:55:00.003-04:00

Here are some photos of the REAL Jillian starring as herself in BIRTH! I'm told there are many more to come...these were just taken by her husband on his phone! Great job, Ramone!

Take a Nap, Make a Better Birth Choice

2010-04-22T13:38:00.017-04:00

For those of you who have read my Mothering Magazine blog you'll know my new obsession lately is napping. Not just any nap, but a yoga nidra nap.

I'm so nap-happy this year that starting on Mother's Day I plan to commit to taking one nap every day for a year. And I want you to too. (email me: Karen@mybodyrocksproject.com or follow my Mothering blog to find out how!).

The science is out there: naps can be life-changing, increase productivity, elevate mood and a yoga nidra nap can do even more - including helping moms with childbirth trauma heal. Naps are that important.

But this post isn't just about napping. It's about birth choices. To paraphrase Dr. Christianne Northrup who spoke at BOLD's first year performance kick-off Labor Day weekend 2006:

"I want to know why women are more interested in a Prada bag than they are in having a powerful birth experience?"

I think I know. As I mentioned before on this blog, it's a cultural thing. We're so wacked-out busy these days that tuning into our bodies is unimaginable and unattainable for many. And if you're pregnant and not tuned into your body you can forget about making positive birth choices.

I"ve interviewed so many mothers about their birth stories, heard thousands of moms tell their birth stories at our BOLD Red Tents and most women who did not make birth choices that were in line with what their bodies told them had bad birth experiences. Of course moms who are in tune with their bodies and make choices from that place can also end up with a bad birth experience, but that actually doesn't happen as often you think. Why? Because, as Dr. Northrup pointed out, moms who are in tune with their bodies and well-read on childbirth today and know they want a natural birth will chose homebirth or a birth center with a reputation for following the midwifery model of care. And mothers who are not in tune with their bodies and not well-read on childbirth... will chose a Prada Bag.

So what if you're a pregnant mom who is well-read on childbirth but not tuned in to your body? You're super busy, may even take a prenatal yoga class, but you haven't slowed down to ask your body: what emotions or beliefs are inside of me around childbirth? What needs to be explored before I give birth?

This is where yoga nidra steps in nicely. Yoga nidra is a meditative technique that helps you invite messengers in your body for "tea and conversation." Ultimately it helps you discover the stillness inside of you. And when that stillness is in place and all your messengers have been heard then making positive birth choices that are right for you often follow.

But here's the best part about yoga nidra, the reason I think every prenatal, new, and "old" mom needs to be doing regular yoga nidra: in a group (or even individually) all you have to do is lie down to receive it. Isn't that the-bomb-for-moms?

This week I had a mother of an 8 month old in one of my weekly yoga nidra classes tell me she just needed to lie down. That's fine, you can fall asleep doing yoga nidra and you still gain benefits! Another mom this week told me she felt a tingling through her body similar to when she has done Qigong. Yes, it's that powerful!

And while a group experience is different than an individual session, both offer ways moms can become more in touch with their True Selves. For pregnant moms, I am convinced this will translate into making authentic birth choices that will result in a better birth.

So consider joining me starting Mother's Day for this napping revolution! One nap every day. I can't wait to see what personal - and childbirth - transformations unfold.

PS: For the month of May I am offering 1/2 price private yoga nidra sessions by phone for any pregnant, new or "old" mother! Click here to learn more and contact me.

BOLD Fairbanks celebrates their success!

2010-04-14T10:37:00.006-04:00

I was so excited to see this email in my inbox this morning from BOLD Organizer, Maite Agopian in Fairbanks, Alaska:

The 3 performances were great! people laughed, cried (our "Lisa" was just amazing and had real tears coming out when she talked about her story)..people didn't know what to expect at all and they were all very surprise to actually see such a performance, they felt it was real and informative and simply great.I think it is a very very convincing first time event!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Talkback discussions after the performances were really interesting. we had different people every time, and focused each time a little bit on something different. so attending the three discussions was really interesting. and what really came up is that Fairbanks seems different than other places in the US. the birth center has a big (positive) impact locally, the hospital did improve a lot, specially in the past 2 and a half years (they have a bath tub for example), and midwives and the hospital do work together. so the choice is out there, but of course a lot could still be done, specially with the teens coming from the rural villages pregnant. it seems that they have a ridiculously high percentage of C-section when really they are fit and young and it shouldn't be that way. but they lack information a lot!!!!!! so this really can make us think a perhaps there is something there to work on here, locally.

Congratulations, BOLD Fairbanks - you ROCK!

(I'm hoping to post a few photos soon!)

BOLD Fort Wayne, Indiana Stars The Real Jillian!

2010-04-12T11:51:00.002-04:00

This weekend - April 17 - audiences in Fort Wayne, Indiana will have the pleasure of watching the play with the character of Jillian played by Jillian De Moya...the real Jillian! What a thrill. Jillian lives in the Fort Wayne area and anyone who knows her can attest she is quite a natural actress and is always a thrill to watch.

Good luck BOLD Fort Wayne...and good luck Jillian! You ROCK!

PS: I should also mention that in addition to Jillian their cast will feature Barbara Harper, an internationally known waterbirth and gentle birth educator. Barbara has performed in the play in many different locations - New York City, Bermuda, Florida. You rock too Barbara!

Improving Childbirth: It's a Cultural Thing

2010-03-25T10:54:00.016-04:00

This week the New York Times published an article about the alarming cesarean rate in the United States (nearly 32%).

I started interviewing mothers in the early 2000's about their birth experiences when the c-section rate was 25% and rising and all I wanted at the time was to see an article like this written. I knocked on so many doors of so many editors I knew. I even got a NY Times Magazine editor so interested she nearly commissioned me to write a piece (I wrote a 10 page outline of the piece) until her boss killed the piece citing: "We've already covered childbirth." Okay, I thought, my idea to write about the appalling c-section rate and childbirth crisis was before it's time. So I wrote a play called "Birth."

Now the piece I was waiting for has arrived - nearly 10 years later - and as I was reading it I got this visceral feeling that I don't want it. Sure, it's important that the NY TImes is now acknowledging the c-section rate is too high, that mothers are being denied vaginal births after cesareans and this is wrong, but as I was reading the piece I kept thinking why are mothers not taking to the streets to protest the abusive practices on them? And why can't we find a way for them to team up with OBs so that, as the article states, 29 percent of OBs are not doing c-sections for fear of lawsuits?

THIS IS WOMAN'S BODIES WE'RE TALKING ABOUT HERE!

This whole situation is an injustice on so many levels.

I also thought as I read this piece how ironic it was that not one mother was quoted in the piece. Women's voices silenced again and the emotional affect of c-sections, denial of VBACs and more ignored.

We are a culture obsessed by numbers. With the c-section rate rising I'm wondering what number we're going to have to hit before we begins to take seriously the post traumatic stress mothers are experiencing due to a culture that has failed them.

I do think the stumbling block to improving childbirth today is that our culture is so masculine (busy, logical, etc) and prizes these values and this hurts women's chances of having or even wanting a powerful birth experience.

When I've talked with women it's often the women who have shunned dominant cultural norms, even a little, and have met a health provider who also shuns the norms where birth outcomes are most positive.

So while articles like the NY Times piece are important, more important to changing childbirth today might be to work on changing our culture. And here is where I see a ray of light. There are many growing modalities to help mothers get into their bodies and start knowing their bodies rock. From this place, I believe, good birth decisions will follow.

Paris!

2010-03-25T10:26:00.003-04:00

Yesterday BOLD received an application from a woman in Paris who wants to produce the play this year. When asked why she wanted to produce the play this is what she wrote:

"I saw the play Birth in 2008 when it was performed in Paris, I was pregnant with my second child after having had a traumatic c-section for the birth of my first child, and I was really moved by the play. The play was one of the things that helped me get my way to my VBAC. In 2009 I participated in the BOLD event as an actress in the play. I think a play like Birth should be seen by every woman so that she can have information about what can happen during a birth and that she can feel the emotion and the beauty of a natural birth. That’s why I would like to be the organizer of the BOLD event in Paris this year."

Yes! This really made my day.

We've actually had many applications from mothers in France wanting to produce the play this year. When asked about the environment for mothers giving birth this is what they all seem to say:

"In France almost all the mothers give birth in hospitals (the birth centers do not exist here, and there is a very few number of midwives doing home births). Generally there are a lot of medical interventions during the birth (epidural, synthetic hormons, episiotomies, etc …), and the rate of cesarean sections is increasing. Despite the fact that the moms and babies are usually physically OK after the birth, there is a lack of supportive accompanying people during birth and often the women do not even know that they can ask for a more respectful way to be treated when they go to the hospital to give birth."

Sounds like it's time to Be BOLD in France me!

VBAC Statement Supports VBAC Trial

2010-03-17T13:00:00.007-04:00

I spent last week attending the National Institutes of Health's VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) Conference. With less than 10% of American moms having VBACs these days - from a high of nearly 30% in the mid-1990s - NIH was brave enough to ask the obvious question: why is the VBAC rate so low? And, more importantly to the panel, does the scientific evidence support such a low rate?

The panel's answer: no, there is no medical evidence that supports the decline of VBACs.

Mothers should not only be alarmed, we should be outraged.

Does this mean that every mother who had one cesarean and has been counseled by her health care provider that she would be better off having another cesarean for her next babies was lied to? For many mothers, yes. The medical evidence shows that "once a cesarean, always a cesarean" is not medically advisable for many mothers.

Here's a quote from the conference last week from an OB from Michigan whose hospital does not allow mothers to VBAC:

"I feel like I'm committing a crime every time I take a knife to a mother who I think has a good chance of VBAC."

VBAC denial in hospitals in the United States is a hot issue, brought on by guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) that direct health care providers to only allow VBACs in medical facilities that have "immediately available" emergency staff and environment. This prompted many hospitals to claim they can't meet this standard and therefore must deny mothers VBACs.

But if you follow this argument beyond obstetrics - that hospitals cannot provide immediate emergency services to their patients - you begin to see the luancy of this guideline. And when you look at the medical science around VBAC, which the NIH panel did, you learn that uterine rupture is so rare for VBACs that in most cases emergency services are not necessary.

But wait, back to mothers. I encourage all of you moms to read the panel's statement, especially the conclusion, and let it help guide you to your personal birth choice. For too long mothers have been guided by fear.

While I would have liked more qualitative data like mother's stories to have had more input into NIH's statement, in the end medical evidence told enough of the story: VBAC is safe for most mothers. This is what mothers need to know.

Without fear anything is possible.

PS: To read about my sons' reactions to the VBAC issue see my blog at Mothering Magazine.

PPSS: check out NIH's statement and the NY Times and NPR piece on the conference statement

PPPSSS! And "Lessons at Indian Hospital About Births" is a great piece to read too!

BOLD Fairbanks, Alaska: Loving Kindness art exhibit

2010-02-23T11:51:00.003-05:00

I was so pleased this week to hear about BOLD Fairbanks, Alaska's birth-inspired art exhibit, called "Loving Kindness," tying into BOLD 2010's theme, which is Loving Kindness!

I also love how they are using an art exhibit to raise awareness about childbirth and draw more people in to see the play. The exhibit will be up for a week in the lobby where they are having the play and the first night of the play will be April 3, the first Friday of the month, which is an evening when people gallery-hop to different art exhibits.

Art, theater, awareness-raising (and fundraising for Alaska Family Health & Birth Center)...it can't get much better!

Vaginal birth OK after several C-sections

2010-02-19T16:48:00.009-05:00

Today I heard from the real Sandy in the play. If you've seen the play you know Sandy's birth was one of those typical bad birth stories of a low-risk woman. Very healthy, does no pre-natal planning or research before the birth, thinks getting an epidural is nothing because "every woman gets an epidural," doesn't like her doctor but "it's just one day" and "how bad can it be to be around someone you don't like for one day?" So she goes to the hospital and after she gets her epidural everything goes wrong and she ends up with a C-section because the baby, according to the doctor, "could be 11 pounds." The baby weighed in at under seven pounds. And even worse, Sandy had complications from the c-section. (not to mention post traumatic stress, but who's taking that statistic at the hospital?).

For her second birth she wanted a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean), but due to family pressure she was about to make all the same birth choices that she did in her first birth until she got hit over the head at 36 weeks when the doctor told her "I think this is going to be a big baby."

Say, what?

Sandy did not walk, she RAN out of his office, found midwives and vaginally delivered her baby in a hospital with midwives. A triumph. Only, as Sandy knows all too well, it's not like this for most mothers who have had C-sections. Most mothers are told if you have one section, vaginal birth is not safe. And if you've had multiple c-sections there is no way you're getting a VBAC in most hospitals in the United States. Why? Women have been told it's because evidence shows they are more at risk for uterine rupture.

Midwives know better and educated pregnant moms do too, but most pregnant moms don't know any more than what their doctor tells them. That's why Sandy was so excited to share media attention on a new study that reconsiders the risks of VBACs and could change guidelines. Right now mothers being denied VBAC is a huge issue in the United States so this is potentially BIG news.

Let's hope this new evidence gets out to pregnant mothers and even more so that it encourages the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to change their VBAC guidelines!

Thank you Sandy for sending this to me!

Click here to read the Reuter's piece.

Photo: BOLD 2009 Charlotte, North Carolina

Auditioning for Birth

2010-02-12T17:14:00.004-05:00

If you ever wondered what the BOLD experience is like for the cast and crew who make it happen here's a sneak peek at the experience BOLD Fort Wayne, Indiana had last night:

It is the morning after we held auditions for BIRTH! I woke up this morning with a residual feeling of magic. That is the best word I have found to describe how our evening was last night!

My co-producer Kat Hickey and I have dreamed of this for so many years now. We are birth people. And theatre people. And passionate people. The fact that these facets of our lives marry in this extraordinary way is, to us, nothing short of magical!

A wonderful downtown establishment opened their doors to us so that we could hold our auditions in one of the coolest places in town! They did it because they care about our community and they care about women, babies and families. They want to be part of our community in many ways. Way to be BOLD in Fort Wayne, Dash-In!

The women arrived. Not too many or too little. And everyone cared. They were all there because they see that this is not just a piece of art, but it is an important way to work for social change in our communities and a way to make a real difference for moms and babies. We had a mother who hopes that her grown lesbian daughter will have an empowered birth, we had a mama with her nursling who is still feeling the power from her own birth. We had a room with many different experiences, but one strong thing in common. We all want to see change for the better right here in our own community. For ourselves, our friends and our daughters!

So, for all the different reasons that one may decide to get involved, jump in they did! We had moans and groans and shouts and screams. And tears. For some the reality of acting out some of these stories was intense and real. We laughed and cried and everyone walked away feeling better for it!

Imagine, that was only the auditions!

So, yes it was magical. We will meet on Sunday for the first read-through. I am today hurrying to get the scripts ready for these BOLD women who will stand before loved ones, friends and strangers, having babies on a stage so that in some way, someone will find their voice and be able to go forth and get what she needs!

How blessed am I?

In awe,

Jillian
BOLD Fort Wayne, IN

Photo: BOLD 2007 Maui rehearsing "My Body Rocks!" scene (the actor's baby was crying during the rehearsal so she picked her up and fed her. Why not?!)

I'm blogging for Mothering Magazine!

2010-02-11T10:35:00.002-05:00

My new blog on Mothering Magazine's website went live yesterday. It's called "My Body Rocks." I was excited to be invited to write this blog because I spend alot of time telling other people's stories, but this blog is about telling mine (sure, I'll probably tell other mothers stories too occasionally because I can never pass up a great mother-story!).

I'll explore what it's like to be on a "My Body Rocks" journey. By that I mean to live the day-to-day busy life of a mother, and at the same time be dedicated to taking back my female wisdom. It may sound easy, but it's like exercise - a commitment that comes with peaks and valleys. What I can say for sure at this point in my life and mothering career is that I'm most definitely on a "My Body Rocks" journey.

Click here to read the blog. And be sure to leave a comment!

BOLD Birmingham, Alabama raises over $3500

2010-02-09T17:40:00.010-05:00

Yes! BOLD's first performance of 2010 in Birmingham, Alabama raised over $3500 for the Alabama Birth Coalition.

That ROCKS to me!

Audience members traveled long distances to attend their performance on a very cold night in January. A group from Huntsville (2 hours away), another group from Dothan (over 3 hours away), and at least one woman drove up from Mobile (4 hours away!).

Here are some comments from audience members:

"I was entertained and educated."

"It moved me and made me want to have a successful natural birth."

"Strengthened my belief that more women need to be encouraged to give birth without drugs."

"We need to de-medicalize birth!"

"I cried a little at the 'I did it' moment."

"It made me want to have another baby, my way!"

"We need to raise awareness of the joy of birth."

"It was emotional, powerful, heartwarming. I want to chant 'my body rocks' when I give birth!"

"Amazing! I think this is something every woman should see."

"It really spoke to my heart and made me feel for every woman who was not given a choice for her birth."

Thanks to Christine Prichard / Viewtopia Pictures for the photos. The one of the woman with an oxygen mask on is not nice to see, but for some mothers this is their reality. Hopefully more moms will not need emergency assistance when giving birth. Especially women who dramatically become high risk when they started out low-risk due to medical interventions that aren't always necessary.

Here's to BOLD Birmingham for raising awareness and money to make maternity care more mother-friendly!

Today Show Does It Again

2010-02-04T12:24:00.002-05:00

Anyone see the "Live in the OR" C-section coverage by Dr Nancy Synderman on the Today Show this week? All I can say is: ugh.

Bottom line is the piece completely lacked empowering information. ICAN's response really says it better than me, but I did want to add my two cents.

It's time the morning shows began to take news seriously. I understand there's alot of fluff on morning shows, especially in the second hour, but it does women a disservice when Dr. Snyderman dances around the OR while a mother is having MAJOR ABDOMINAL SURGERY and, after a prompting by Meridith Viera asking about what the c-section rate is in the US, Dr. Snyderman walks over to the doctor sewing up the mother and casually asks her the rate. (The doc tells her it's 25-30%). If that wasn't bad enough, Dr. Snyderman's reaction to the rate was like - oh yes, so what! - and then never mentions that the c-section rate (which is over 30% nationally and in many urban hospitals 40-50%) is over 15% higher than the World Health Organization's suggested acceptable c-section rate for industrialized countries.

Flippant journalism has to stop.

I understand you want to send your medical correspondent to dramatic places, but please make sure the medical correspondent has done their homework and is armed with useful facts. At the very least the Today Show could have put up some stats that were useful and websites for more information.

Ironically as I was watching the piece I thought Dr. Snyderman's coverage pretty much sums up the problem with childbirth in this country. No one takes it seriously.

More dangerous to Give Birth in California Than Kuwait

2010-02-04T11:23:00.004-05:00

Okay, I got your attention. Don't worry - pregnancy and childbirth is safe. (sure, if you're high risk you take more precautions). But have no doubt, the maternal death rate in the US is rising. In fact, yes, it's higher in California than Kuwait.

Why? Of course there are many reasons, but here's one I found important and rarely talked about. C-sections. As a recent online article states, "It’s hard to ignore the fact that C-sections have increased 50 percent in the same decade that maternal mortality increased."

I encourage you to read this piece, not to scare you into thinking you'll die in childbirth (that's why the medicalization of childbirth has exploded in developed countries like the US)but instead to think deeply about your childbirth choices and their consequences.

One of the main reasons I wrote my play is because I was tired of hearing low-risk mothers tell me they had a scary birth experience and therefore childbirth was a scary, out--of-control experience. Stories are rarely that straightforward. Often when I spent time listen to their entire birth story they and I noticed that in fact their births didn't just spiral out of control for no reason. The medicalization of birth was in full play and, as a result, their risk in childbirth increased.

It's not about blame (blaming the mother, the hospital, the doctor). The discussion has to be on resolution. What is most mother-friendly? How do we want to treat mothers and babies? If the bottom line is a healthy baby, does that mean the mother doesn't matter?

Obviously, with the US maternal death rate rising, the United States has a long way to go.

Check out Ina May Gaskin's Safe Motherhood Quilt Project. If you know anything about her project you'll know that she has been telling us the rate is rising for a long time (and that under reporting of maternal death in the US is huge).

How to Help Pregnant Women in Haiti

2010-02-03T19:50:00.003-05:00

I'm overwhelmed by the situation in Haiti, but even more so by the monumental task of meeting the needs of pregnant women. An estimated 63,000 women in Haiti are currently pregnant — and a main midwife training school was devastated by the earthquake.

Haitian mothers need our help.

I started thinking today that while most people know how to donate to big emergency relief operations most don't know how to get money directly to some excellent organizations who have sent in relief help to specifically target pregnant mothers and babies.

So here are two organizations who are really making an on-the-ground difference for Haitian mothers and babies. If you can, please donate.

Circle of Health International

Bumi Sehat

Supermodel has Water Birth

2010-02-02T15:08:00.004-05:00

Why is it important that Supermodel Gisele Bundchen recently publicly announced she had a water birth 2 months ago? Because water birth is now getting lots of publicity!

Check out a piece of ABC news today!

(I love how ABC news has to say she had her baby "in a bath tub" as if that's the most foreign thing imaginable!)

It's quite incredible Gisele had a home birth given she comes from a country - Brazil - where over 90% of mothers have c-sections. Yes, NINETY!!!

You rock, Gisele!

What to Expect: A Movie?

2010-02-02T14:51:00.003-05:00

I was having a great day until I encountered this:

What to Expect When You're Expecting: The Movie

Yes, the popular "let's frighten mothers about childbirth" book will now be made into a movie. Of course since there is no plot, no character, no...nothing...it seems the people at Lionsgate (who bought the rights) are going to write a script that follows 8 couples who are pregnant.

Please, Lionsgate, I'm on my knees: Don't Scare Women About Giving Birth!

You have an opportunity here. Sure, show the mom who's freaked out about childbirth, but if you do please show the layers of her freak out and also show births where mother's knew their bodies rocked and had fabulous births.

In the spirit of BOLDness I took a moment and got Lionsgate's contact information to send them my thoughts. Here they are:

General Inquiries can call (310) 449-9200 or e-mail general-inquiries@lionsgate.com.

Right after I sign off on this blog I'm sending them an email. If we don't speak, they don't know.

The My Body Rocks Project

2010-01-27T14:01:00.004-05:00

I'm so excited to share with you information about my new "baby" - The My Body Rocks Project. The goal of The My Body Rocks Project is to offer workshops, classes and retreats that take mothers to the soul of their stories. Using storytelling, writing, movement, relaxation, and performance techniques, The My Body Rocks Project focuses on transforming the way you understand yourself and revolutionizing the way our culture understands mothering issues.

I want you to know that I'm not abandoning BOLD or my play Birth. I will continue to these projects. But through my new venture I'm following the character Amanda's birthing mantra - "My Body Rocks" - and going with my gut feeling that what mothers need today is a place where they can get into their bodies and express their soul. After meeting so many mothers through my work I'm convinced "My Body Rocks" is a mantra we all need, whether it's when we give birth or at other times in our lives.

I feel a bit naked sharing this very personal work with you. But that's what The My Body Rocks Project is all about. It's about getting naked and being your authentic self. I'm convinced this is when we start making wise "My Body Rocks" decisions.

I invite you to check out the workshops and course I've developed as part of this project. This spring I will begin offering them in my hometown of Washington, DC and soon after on the road. Feel free to contact me if any of these speak to you and your community and you'd like me to bring it to your area. The 5-day Writing and Performance workshop is perfect for creating sisterhood, raising awareness and raising money for local childbirth issues.

Also, if you're a birth worker or birth activist I'd love to see you this summer at the retreat I'm giving July 25-30 "A BOLD Body and Soul Retreat for Birth Workers and Activists" at the magical Lifebridge Sanctuary in Rosendale, New York. This retreat is about personal transformation and rejuvenation. As an activist myself, and knowing all that birth workers and activists give every day through my work with BOLD, I felt the time was now to create a sacred space for us to gather yearly and re-charge and renew so we can keep giving to the childbirth movement. I'd love to see you there.

To keep in touch with me if you're on Facebook friend me! And be sure to become a fan of The My Body Rocks Project Facebook page.

Finally, for those of you wondering what my next writing project is...let's just say I'm giving birth to that this year too. Stay tuned!

Thank you for all your support of my work over the years. I look forward to interacting with you in many creative, "My Body Rocks" ways!

Good news just keeps on coming!

2010-01-22T10:13:00.002-05:00

I wanted to share with you some recent press over the past couple of weeks. It's BOLD news for pregnant moms, for sure!

Elective cesarean sections are too risky, WHO study says

Having just spent this past Tuesday with a mother in tears over her c-section 12 YEARS AGO because she's still dealing with physical and emotional injuries, I was thrilled to see this piece in Scientific American. All pregnant mothers must understand that elective c-sections are risky - far riskier than vaginal birth.

Yes, those of you who were truly a high risk pregnancy of course you needed a c-section. The World Health Organization (WHO) is not talking about you. They are talking about the low-risk women who for various reasons chose or are encouraged to have c-sections for no significant medical reason.

This information is a life-enhancer for women's maternal health.

No need for pregnant women to fast during labor

More great news. Yes, you can eat and drink while in labor! Any home birth midwife, doula or mom could have told you this years ago, but it took a study for this news to get on Reuters and out to national and international media. Okay, at least it's now out there.

Abortion is not the only fight

The only thing I can say about this piece is that anything Jennifer Block rights about maternity care is worth reading. She's thoughtful, knows her facts and as a women who has never had a baby she has no personal birth experience to slant her opinion. Read it!

BOLD 2010 Theme: Loving Kindness

2010-01-11T12:03:00.005-05:00

When I sat down to think about a theme for BOLD 2010 it didn't take me long to come up with two words: Loving Kindness.

Why chose Loving Kindness?

Here are just a couple of my reasons:

•Maternal mortality has doubled in the past 25 years despite all the new technology offered to laboring moms;

•Birth by C-section is 30-50 percent in many hospitals.

When you discover uncomfortable information like rising maternal mortality rates and C-sections probably the last word that comes to mind is “loving kindness.” Ironically, this feels to me exactly what is needed at this time in childbirth. More love, more understanding, more compassion – for all perspectives in childbirth.

Loving kindness doesn’t mean we sit idly by when we believe something is wrong. Instead, it urges us to speak; to speak from our heart and with an open heart.

BOLD locations are being encouraged this year to express loving kindness in whatever way works in their communities. Fairbanks, Alaska will hold an art exhibit on the night of their performances with the theme "Loving Kindness;" other locations may chose to gather the obstetric and midwifery communities for some "loving kindness;" there might be foot massages for pregnant moms at BOLD events...the possibilities are endless!

If there's one thing I know it's that anger won't solve our obstetric challenges. Love, on the other hand, seems like the best chance we've got to make childbirth mother-friendly.

Top 10 Women's Health Stories of the Decade

2010-01-08T09:14:00.005-05:00

Thank you, world, for Dr. Christiane Northrup. Her new piece on her Huffington Post blog listing the 10 top women's health stories of the decade is spot on, as usual.

Please women: listen up! Northrup is essentially urging us to follow the wisdom of our body. She's not saying to disregard medical sense, but if the medical care you are getting doesn't make sense to you - if your intuition tells you "no" - then she urges you to think more deeply about your medical choices.

What's her number one health care challenge for the next decade? Overhauling obstetrical practices.

My intuition just felt a big "YES" for that!

To read her blog click here.

Happy BOLD New Year!

2010-01-06T17:13:00.006-05:00

I received so many BOLD gifts on my first day back working this week - two videos from BOLD performances (Charlotte, North Carolina and Santa Rosa, California) and so many great photos (see above!). What a pleasure!

We already have 3 BOLD locations signed up for this year and one BOLD Red Tent this weekend in Atlanta. Waa-hoo!

I wanted to share with you some of our BOLD accomplishments in 2009 and a few things we're already looking forward to this year! Here goes:

In 2009:

1. BOLD Gainesville, Florida brought the play "Birth" to over 250 local High School students and did a BOLD Red Tent with teenage mothers.

2. BOLD Ottawa used the proceeds from their "Birth" performances to support the first ever International Breech Birth Conference in Ottawa, Canada.

3. BOLD Maui performed the play in Pidgin (a local Hawaiian dialect) and has been invited to perform the play at a women's prison.

4. BOLD San Antonio, Texas raised over $5,000 for the San Antonio Birth Doulas whose mission is to reduce infant abuse and neglect by educating and mentoring pregnant teens and low income women with care during pregnancy, labor, birth and postpartum.

5. BOLD Red Tents took place in Atlanta, Chicago, San Diego, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington, Alabama, North Carolina, Calgary, Ontario, Winnipeg, Australia, and Spain.

6. BOLD Fort Collins, Colorado and BOLD Charlotte, North Carolina performed on College campuses.

In 2010:

7. BOLD Winnipeg will bring the play to the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in July.

8. BOLD Fort Wayne, Indiana will be produced by the REAL Jillian in the play!

9. BOLD Austria will perform the play in German. The translation of the play was done by a passionate Austrian mother of two small kids - she translated every night for several months as her kids slept - because she believes maternity care in Austria must be more mother-friendly.

10. BOLD has been invited to do a BOLD Red Tent at the Women Deliver conference, a global maternal health conference happening in Washington, DC this June. Birth stories from all over the world will be told!

11. BOLD will celebrate its 5th year on Labor Day 2010! I'll be offering a BOLD Body and Soul Retreat for Birthworkers and Activists from July 25-30 in the Catskill Mountains outside New York. Keep reading this blog for more info! Email BOLD if you want to attend: info@boldaction.org.

In whatever way you can, I invite you to be a part of the BOLD movement in 2010!

Davenport, Iowa will ROCK this weekend!

2009-12-08T17:44:00.003-05:00

This is the final production of the play for 2009. It's having a four-night run in Davenport, Iowa this weekend. Cheers to all you BOLD people in Iowa performing and seeing the play this weekend! You ROCK!

Give BIRTH this holiday season!

2009-12-01T14:11:00.003-05:00

Okay, here's a plug!

Want to give a present that is sure to have impact on your family and friends? The book version of my play BIRTH is a great gift! It includes stories from the BOLD movement, photos, notes on the play by me, and a foreword by Dr. Christiane Northrup.

Be BOLD and click here to add a copy to your Amazon holiday purchases!

(Whew! Plug over!)

BOLD 2010: Welcome Fairbanks, Alaska!

2009-12-01T14:04:00.002-05:00

A second location registered today for BOLD 2010...in Fairbanks, Alaska. Their performances will be raising money for the Alaska Family Health & Birth Center. I love their mother-friendly birth mission:

"We believe that an instinctual approach will carry the women through labor and delivery as it does in nature. The midwife's intention is to reinforce and help interpret what the mother has already been given. Our mission is to convince the mind of this ability.”

"A BOLD welcome to Fairbanks!

"Moi J'Accouche!" - inspired by BIRTH

2009-11-30T10:51:00.003-05:00

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!

2009-11-24T10:03:00.008-05:00

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"?

2009-11-23T14:25:00.008-05:00

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!

2009-11-23T14:19:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-11-19T10:47:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-11-17T10:54:00.002-05:00

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

2009-11-11T08:48:00.002-05:00

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

2009-11-06T14:36:00.005-05:00

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!)

Birth: the early days

2009-10-27T10:21:00.007-04:00

Today I've been going through photos of the play (to put on a website I'm creating to promote workshops I'll be offering in the spring!) and I found this photo taken the day before the first reading of the play...in 2005.

My boys are now 10 and 8 so it was particularly exciting to see them so young! (and shocking to me that I wrote a play with two young energetic boys at home 19 months apart!!!)

Maternal Mortality - in the United States

2009-10-27T09:31:00.003-04:00

Really, it's so simple. Mothers should not be dying in childbirth in a rich country. In poor countries they shouldn't either, but at least my mind can comprehend the equation that poverty equals poor healthcare (even though it's not fair and needs our attention). But mothers in rich countries dying in childbirth? This is ridiculous.

Ina May Gaskin, known as the mother of midwifery to many, spends alot of her time lately exposing the atrocious statistics in the US, which many agree do not accurately reflect the maternal mortality crisis. (the stats are higher) Her Safe Motherhood Quilt is famous in many circles and is used to raise awareness that too many preventable deaths happen to mothers in the post partum stage (the biggest problem, Ina May points out, is that in the US we don't consider childbirth related deaths if the mom dies a significant period after giving birth, which we should do - like in the UK).

A piece on yesterday's BBC got me thinking about this. And pissed off. And wanting to do something....like be even BOLDer!!!

A Woman's Nation

2009-10-21T10:53:00.003-04:00

The Shriver Report is getting alot of press this week. It's Called, "A Woman's Nation." I was jazzed to read that the number one priority for women and men is health and healthcare. But wait, what kind of health care? Do 33% of mothers really want major abdominal surgery (ie, that's the C-Section rate in the US)? I've got to wonder what health means to these people surveyed. Are they talking about just not getting a disease that will kill or disable them...or are they talking about well-being, which in the United States seems to not come under the definition of "health" for many people.

I want well-being.

Did I really read this right?

2009-10-19T20:59:00.003-04:00

No comment!!

Wake Up...and Claim Your Right to Birth Right!

2009-10-19T20:44:00.004-04:00

Dr. Christianne Northrup always seems to hit the bullseye. Her recent piece in The Huffington Post proves this big-time.

In it she says given all the evidence that shows the risks of C-sections and inductions it's mind-boggling that women trust having a C-section before trusting their bodies to give birth vaginally without induction.

Yes, I agree. But my mind wanders.... to reality. How are women supposed to trust giving birth inside a medical system that doesn't trust them to give birth? It's unrealistic to think home should be the only place for women to give birth. It's also important women know that while birth centers are super-amazing-fantastic birth options every birth center isn't equal so if you're pregnant you better research your particular birth center to know if it's super-amazing-fantastic. This leaves hospital birth as the main playing field. How can we make it work for mothers? (How can we at least dim the lights a bit?!!!)

Women do need to wake up, get into their bodies and seize their right to birth right...but we've got to give them options, smiling compassionate faces, throw out the EFMs (electronic fetal monitors for low-risk moms, and stop denying women who've had one C-Section a VBAC (vaginal birth after a cesarean). Until we do the birth option where trust in birth is going to be highest is at home...just the place few pregnant moms want to go.

Hmmm...

Driving 350 miles for a VBAC

2009-10-19T20:25:00.003-04:00

Everyone's talking about Joy Szabo - which is exactly how it should be.

Ms Szabo is about to have her forth baby. Her second baby was born via c-section, so her local hospital in Page, Arizona reasons she must have another one. That's not what Page Hospital thought with her third baby, though. Which brings up the question: whose interest does a hospital have when they deny a woman a VBAC? Certainly from this case we discover it's sure not the mother and baby.

So now Ms Szabo boldly drove her mini van around the small town of Page with a clear message to the hospital on the back windshield:

“Page Hospital, enter my body without permission... Sounds like rape to me.”

Thank you, Joy. You've just trail blazed a path for other women to know the truth.

Here is just a sampling of the news coverage:

CNN
The Daily Beast
Our Bodies, Ourselves Blog

Sign Today Show Petition!

2009-09-29T13:10:00.003-04:00

Remember the recent Today Show piece I mentioned called "The Perils of Homebirth"? Well, Choices in Childbirth (CIC) has drafted a response to send to the Today Show on behalf of consumers-- those women who have chosen a home birth, their families, their care providers, and all those who support them. This petition demands that the public be provided with accurate information about birthing options.

On October 9th, the final day of National Midwifery Week, CIC will deliver the petition to NBC's headquarters and invite anyone who wishes to deliver it as well to join them.

Please be BOLD and sign the petition! Forward to friends and family!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/accurate-reporting-in-birth-options

Today Show Buys Into ACOG's Dirty Tricks

2009-09-11T22:42:00.002-04:00

All I can say is: Yuck! My mother calls me at 7.40 this morning and tells me to "turn on the Today Show now they're doing a piece on midwifery!" Well, since I was getting the kids off to school I taped it and tonight had a look. Oh please, I thought, now the Today Show is buying in to ACOG's smear campaign to get rid of out of hospital birth. It was pathetic, really, completely inaccurate - and just like ACOG's comments on midwifery - not evidenced-based, but the sad part is the Today Show is seen by millions of people who, as we know from Health Care Reform madness, love to buy into fear. And midwifery is such a great place to start. Because midwives are "witches" - right?!!

Give me an Alka Seltzer!

I think Meryl Streep, Demi Moore and all the other celebs mentioned as homebirth moms in the piece should boycott the Today Show to make a point that homebirth is not done for "trendy" reasons; it's done because these celebrities educated themselves and decided to embrace their feminine power and bring their babies into the world in a peaceful, gentle way.

Please, Today Show producers, stop buying into fear. I know it's a great story, but it's not the truth. When is the media going to go for the truth first and sensation later?

Flashmob protest in Wilmington!

2009-09-04T11:54:00.005-04:00

I have mentioned this already on my blog -that the only midwifery program in Wilmington NC was abruptly dissolved last month leaving women days or weeks from their due dates without their chosen care provider. BOLD Wilmington is gearing up for performances this weekend of my play BIRTH and are actively involved with local activism to protest the midwifery program closing. "Where's My Midwife?" illustrated local anger at having fewer maternity care options with a flashmob protest at the farmer's market Saturday in Wilmington. I LOVE it! Wish I could have laid down with them!

Check out their Farmer's market protest on YouTube! Click here.

Visit Where's my Midwife for more details. Click here.

I just ran to my closet and put on my BOLD Wilmington t-shirt today in solidarity with the moms in Wilmington (that's me above)! I noticed a mom was wearing her BOLD Wilmington t-shirt in the YouTube video!

Why everyone should care about ACOG's self-serving behavior

2009-09-02T09:44:00.005-04:00

Okay, deep breath...

I'm getting ready for the first reading of my new one act play on motherhood at the Kennedy Center this Saturday (Michelle Obama: Taskmaster) but I just couldn't ignore the ACOG shenanigans any longer!

Here's my the summary of this pathetic situation: ACOG (the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) is asking its members to submit stories of "unsuccessful" out-of-hospital birth stories in a campaign to further smear midwives and block sensible birth options for mothers. Birth advocates decided to flood their system with successful out-of-hospital birth stories and as a result last week ACOG changed how people could submit stories and now require a login and password effectively preventing anyone from submitting a birth story.

Yes, collecting "data" (ie, horror stories) from members (and others for that matter) is completely unscientific. But who cares when you're ACOG, a powerful medical "labor union" with media and other professional clout.

Are women's birth choices being attacked here? Is ACOG's stand against midwives and access to midwifery care hurting Health Care Reform in the US?

To quote my 10 year old, "That's WHACK!"

Check out a piece in The Huffington Post on it all. Click here or read below.

ACOG Up to Dirty Tricks
By Louise Ann Roth
September 1, 2009
Huffington Post

A recent press release details some of the lengths that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is willing to go to preserve its near-monopoly over maternity care in the United States. In an effort to deter growing numbers of women from seeking out-of-hospital maternity care, ACOG urged its members to submit anecdotal, anonymous "data" (i.e. horror stories) about women who planned out-of-hospital births. This represents an effort to develop an unscientific case against out-of-hospital birth.

ACOG is not a protector of maternal or fetal life -- it is primarily concerned with avoiding competition from midwives that could negatively affect the incomes of its members. A campaign to expose ACOG's efforts to collect unscientific evidence used social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, and email to encourage thousands of women to submit their own stories about healthy births in private homes and freestanding birth centers on ACOG's website. How did ACOG respond? It "quickly moved to scrub its website and placed its request for unsourced data from members behind a password-protected firewall" (http://www.thebigpushformidwives.org/_ccLib/downloads/8-31-2009_PushNews_RELEASE_Viral_Internet_Campaign_Exposes_Bogus_Research.pdf). The survey is still there, in the members-only section, where it is "protected" from the public. What is likely to happen is that ACOG will then use the unscientific anecdotal data that it can collect from members to support lobbying campaigns directed at denying access to out-of-hospital birth and the midwives who are trained to provide it.

Will this work? Unfortunately it might, because ACOG has professional legitimacy and receives a lot of respect from members of the media and the general public. That's why advocates of reproductive rights -- which includes the choice of where and with whom to give birth - must increase awareness of what ACOG is doing. Otherwise ACOG will bring out their "data" to support opposition to out-of-hospital birth whenever the press offers them some attention. More people need to recognize that ACOG is a trade association (i.e. a cartel) that tries to protect its members from competition. Its primary goals do not include promoting science or evidence-based maternity care -- obstetrics is one of the least evidence-based specialties in all of medicine. In fact, the cherry-picked horror stories are designed to discourage women from examining the evidence and making rational decisions about where, and with whom, to give birth. Meanwhile, two recent well-designed, scientific studies of homebirth in the Netherlands and Canada, both published this year, provide solid evidence that planned out-of-hospital births have comparable perinatal mortality rates, lower rates of serious maternal and neonatal morbidity, and fewer interventions than hospital births among women who meet eligibility requirements for homebirth. These studies were well-designed scientifically because they compared women with the same level of "risk." (See Amy Romano's excellent summary of the results here, or a press release on the Canadian results here.) Given an opportunity to examine real evidence, like that in these recent studies, many women may rationally choose to give birth outside a hospital setting, and that's exactly what ACOG is going to desperate measures to prevent.

Obviously birth activists who want pregnant women to have the option of midwifery are interested in this, but really everyone should care about ACOG's self-serving behavior, which violates principles of anti-trust and is also relevant for the health reform debate. Maternity care in the U.S. is much more expensive than any other developed nation and has far worse results -- higher infant and maternal mortality, more premature and low birth-weight babies, and more infants in the NICU. Having a baby is the most common cause of hospitalization, and cesarean sections are the most common surgery in the United States. Out-of-control cesarean rates (around 1 in 3 births) and high-intervention obstetric care for low-risk women represent huge cost burdens on the system as a whole. The health reform debate has said little about maternity care, and that is a major omission. One of the best ways to reduce health care costs while improving results is to better integrate midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth into the health care system. But ACOG clearly doesn't want that to happen, since it would reduce its members' bottom lines. It's time for this cartel to be broken up.

Hilarious YouTube teaser for BIRTH!

2009-08-27T13:23:00.002-04:00

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!!!!

2009-08-27T13:06:00.008-04:00

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

2009-08-27T13:01:00.004-04:00

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

2009-08-21T14:08:00.001-04:00

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

2009-08-18T16:02:00.002-04:00

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

2009-08-18T14:14:00.005-04:00

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

2009-08-18T12:49:00.003-04:00

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.