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Monthly Archives: December 2007
CIMS The Birth Survey Ambassador Training- Come learn to make The Birth Survey a success in your community
Calling All Maternity Care Activists! Enjoy a Family Vacation and Reinvigorate Your Birth Activism! You are invited to attend the “CIMS Grassroots Advocates Ambassador Training for The Birth Survey” and become a project ambassador at the CIMS Forum in Orlando, Florida.
Interested in gathering obstetric intervention rates for the hospitals and birth centers in your area? Become a GAC STATS Ambassador and work with us to collect obstetric intervention data at the facility level for all 50 states. The public has the right to know what is happening in our hospitals. We will provide you with the support, tools and guidance you will need to connect with the right people in your state, access the data, and get the data out to the public.
Want to help spread the word in your community about The Birth Survey ? A consumer feedback tool similar to “Angie’s List” or “Consumer Reports,” but for maternity care where women provide and view feedback on specific doctors, midwives, hospitals and birth centers in their local community. Join the GAC Marketing Ambassadors and help make The Birth Survey a success in your area. We’ll provide you with marketing tools and materials designed to engage the public and generate excitement.
If these activities are of interest to you, please come to the GAC Ambassador Training at the CIMS Forum. Thursday, March 6th from 9am-3pm in Orlando, Florida. See attached pdf flier. Register at http://www.motherfriendly.org/events/index.shtml.
Scholarships: A limited number of need-based full registration scholarships are available for the forum and training. Apply online for a scholarship by clicking http://www.thebirthsurvey.com/survey/index.php?sid=5&newtest=Y.
CIMS Forum: To learn more about CIMS, the 2008 Forum, and to register for the CIMS Forum and the included GAC Ambassador Training please visit http://www.motherfriendly.org.
For more information on the GAC Ambassador Training and The Birth Survey visit www.thebirthsurvey.com or email info@thebirthsurvey.com.
Please pass this anouncement along to other interested activists, list serves, etc. Thank you and we hope to see you at the CIMS 2008 GAC Ambassador Training
- CIMS Grassroots Advoactes Committee
Have you Hugged a Midwife Today?
Midwives make gentle birth possible.
Midwives are care givers, health care providers and counselors.
Midwives share knowledge of natural healing and support our transitions to parenthood.
Midwives are activists, working women, daughters and mothers.
Midwives are steadfast, nurturing all that birth can be.
Have you hugged a Midwife today? Continue reading
The Hazards of Plastics
There was a recent article in Mothering magazine that I found to be very interesting. The article, entitled “Out of the Mouths of Babes” can be read here. It talks about the toxins found in certain plastics, the health problems that they are associated with, and what to buy instead. The article focuses on infants and the many plastic products that they come into contact with.
A study referred to in the article, “Toxic Baby Bottles”, was released by an advocacy group called Environment California and can be read here.
Also, here is a video that shows mothers from the group called Making Our Milk Safe (MOMS) holding a protest to ask Target to phase out PVC from it’s merchandise;
Apparantly their efforts worked, as Target recently announced their plans to phase PVC out of their stores, which you can read about here.
This information has really given me something to think about, and along with all the toy recalls lately, I’ve been thinking about trying to just completely phase plastics out of our lives. Of course, that seems like an impossible task, but I do check the recycle codes now and am trying to get rid of, and not buy any more 3, 6 and 7 plastics, which apparently are the dangerous types. Many plastic things we have don’t give any indication anywhere what type of plastic they are, and now I am left confused as to what types of chemicals we have sitting around our home. It is upsetting that these chemicals are still being used in any products, and especially in children’s products, but I find it hopeful that Target has taken steps to phase some of them out and I hope that other retailers follow suit.
What are you Having?
When someone asks me, “What are you having?” I almost want to give them my drink order. How many times do people ask pregnant women this question? It is clearly assumed in our culture that everyone has had at least one ultrasound, although the benefits and the risks of ultrasounds are not are not fully known.
Although I can’t measure things like damage to hearing or increased health care costs, I can share with you what I have seen happening as a result of the early ultraound. Many ultrasounds are done at the end of the first trimester. Later, that information is used against mothers, to pressure them into induction according to the ultrasound-determined due-date. Yes, they harness the excitement of early pregnancy and turn it into evidence for starting that cascade of interventions!
Continue reading
Posted in Pregnancy
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Our First Pregnancy
Positive pregnancy test? Check. Shocking news? Not really. Even before my husband and I got our positive pregnancy test I declared I was pregnant. That was just a few days before Thanksgiving. While we had promised each other that we would wait until after Thanksgiving to tell our families, but as soon as the second line appeared I knew that I was going to tell. And I did…and then came the rash of questions. “Where are you going to have your baby?” “Was the pregnancy planned?” (I’m in my early twenties and this is our first baby.) Then came the advice. “Don’t be a hero, take the epidural” “Have the doctor do as many tests as possible, early on.” While I realize all of these comments were well meaning, I began to get really irked. Continue reading
Posted in Pregnancy
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Breathing problems in elective cesarean babies
A new study published in the British Medical Journal indicates that babies born via elective cesarean section prior to 39 weeks gestation are up to four times more likely to have breathing difficulties than babies born vaginally or via emergency cesarean.
In other words, if a cesarean is performed for non-emergency reasons before labor naturally begins, the baby is more likely to have problems breathing. The study notes that stress hormones released when labor begins affects successful infant lung function. When a cesarean is performed before labor begins, these hormones aren’t released.
Interestingly, the researchers included information about the number of mothers in the study who requested their cesarean surgery. This data was only collected for the last four years of the eight-year study, but it seems that only a fraction of the elective cesareans were actually requested by the mothers. So who’s doing the electing for the rest of them?
In the wake of the CDC report of rising c-section rates, it’s important (albeit alarming) to read more evidence of the risks of cesarean. Now if only the doctors would INFORM pregnant women of the risks…
Read the entire study
Read MSNBC coverage of the study Continue reading
Posted in General, Media, Research
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Cesarean Rates Sky Rocket
This is a developing story so come back for more coverage.
The CDC today released the preliminary birth data for 2006. You can read the whole report and download individual state data. For example, the national cesarean rate is now 31.1%, but in my state more than 1/3 of all women have cesareans (34+%).
Here is coverage of the issue, including press releases:
- Lamaze International’s Press Release
- International Cesarean Awareness Network’s Press Release
- Teen Birth and Cesarean Birth Rates Rise
Posted in General
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YouTube and Breastfeeding
I really want to just say, “Again?” Between the YouTube, Facebook and other breastfeeding debacles – don’t they realize they are only drawing more attention to breastfeeding? Seriously this is like banning a book.
But when the League of Maternal Justice had their breastfeeding montage removed from YouTube, they decided to fight back. Below is their latest installment. Have a look and consider going to YouTube to favorite the video or to comment about it.
Posted in Breastfeeding, Media
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