another thing to be angry about

The Beverly Birth Center may be closing. Where is the outcry over the limits being imposed on this reproductive right?!

http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_312222245.html?keyword=topstory

live in Mass? act now to protect midwifery

Please help protect midwifery in Massachusetts and a woman's right to choose where and with whom she births (yes that would be protecting our right to choose the reproductive choice that NOW and others have been so silent on). Please do this right away--by July 24th, or the bill will die and need to reintroduced yet again. Then please tell everyone you know about it. All the details can be found at the MFOM link below.


http://mfomnews.wordpress.com/lobbying/

feminism and younger motherhood

Sarah Edell weighs in on the teen pregnancy cluster in Gloucester, much more articulately than I ever could. http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080709/OPINION/807090312/1076/OPINION03

a better acog rebutal

A well done, point by point rebutal of the ACOG press release on homebirth:

http://saffrondoula-coloradosprings.blogspot.com/

ACOG's witch hunt

First Ricky Lake made a movie, the Business of Being Born, inspired by her own homebirth and actor John C. McGinley (Scrubs) and his wife Nichole had a baby at home and People magazine wrote a nice blurb about it.
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20175819,00.html

Then ACOG (the American College of Obs and Gyns) felt so threatened they issued a press release reiterating their "long-standing opposition to home births" http://acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr02-06-08-2.cfm in which they state:

"Childbirth decisions should not be dictated or influenced by what's fashionable, trendy, or the latest cause célèbre. Despite the rosy picture painted by home birth advocates, a seemingly normal labor and delivery can quickly become life-threatening for both the mother and baby. "

Apparently childbirth decisions should only be influenced by celebrities choosing planned cesareans.

ICAN (International Cesarean Awareness Network) has published their response at http://www.ican-online.org/, in which they publicly condemn ACOG.

The Big Push for Midwives also responded calling ACOG out of touch with the needs of childbearing families and accusing them of trying to play the bad mother card. http://www.birthpolicy.org/pushnews.aspx

All of ACOG's press release is infuriating, but to me the low point is when they say in the last paragraph:

"Choosing to deliver a baby at home, however, is to place the process of giving birth over the goal of having a healthy baby."

Not only does this basically call any woman choosing a homebirth selfish, but it creates a false dichotomy by suggesting that choosing the best birth for her is somehow separate from what will create a healthy outcome for her baby. What is good for the mother is good for the baby, and what is good for the baby is good for the mother. It is outrageous to suggest that homebirth endangers babies, when homebirth promotes empowering births for women, without medication (which we know carries risks for babies), and with a much lower risk of cesarean outcomes (which also carries risks for babies). By guarding against the unnecessary separation of the mother/baby unit (which decreases the risk of postpartum depression and increases the colonization of the baby with healthy bacteria from the mother, among other benefits) and promoting breastfeeding, while protecting the mother/baby from the antibiotic resistant germs that are most commonly found in hospitals, homebirth does much to ensure the health of the baby.

ACOG propagates the myth that birth is likely to turn unpredictably dangerous at any moment to try to gain a monopoly over the business of providing care for birthing women. The Big Push is right on the money when they call ACOG "a trade union representing the financial and professional interests of obstetricians".

I previously blogged about midwifery in trouble in Iowa and Missouri. Here's what's happening in Pennsylvannia. http://forum.baby-gaga.com/about116222.html

Raise your hand if you think this is wrong . . .

So as anybody who knows me already knows, I am passionate about birth and midwifery. Women have been attended by midwives since the beginning of time; midwifery is not the practice of medicine! Home birth midwives aren't in it for the hours (they work all of them) or the money, they do it to be with women. It's a calling really. And here in the US, unlike most of the rest of the world, we harass midwives instead of honoring them.



To hear one woman's story check out: http://www.nofelonieformelonie.org/ Melonie is a midwife in Iowa who can no longer work as one because she's been charged with practicing medicine without a license. Maybe you could buy a tee shirt to help her with her legal bills. Meanwhile in Missouri they're working to change the fact that midwifery is a felony there. (And you thought witch hunts were a thing of the past.) http://http://www.mamaroots.com/FreetheMidwives.html And they are also selling shirts and other goodies to raise money for the cause.



And if you want to hear more about what's going on with our children and vaccines and circumcision check out these great interviews at http://www.Modavox.com/WomensNetwork