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Category Archives: Birth Networks
Choices in Childbirth Creates Mother-Friendly Provider Network
Families seeking birth attendants and other mother-friendly health care providers have a free new resource: The Guide to a Healthy Birth Online Provider Network recently launched by Choices in Childbirth. The network allows women to search by zip code, provider … Continue reading
Posted in Birth Networks, General
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Lamaze Birth Network Grants
The Lamaze Institute for Normal Birth offers small grants to birth networks every year for projects that they are doing. ?The awards are between $500-1000. ?While the word grant might scare you off, these are very straight forward to do, … Continue reading
Lamaze Offers Birth Network Grants
Application Deadline: 5:00 p.m. (EST), Friday, October 17, 2008
The Lamaze Institute for Normal Birth was launched to support
initiatives that provide credible, relevant and useful information about normal birth to birth professionals and the public. A key initiative of the Lamaze Institute for Normal Birth is to support the development of grassroots, community-based Birth Networks. Since 2003,
the Lamaze Institute for Normal Birth has given numerous mini-grants to birth networks throughout the United States.
The Goals of the Birth Network Mini-Grant Initiative
The Birth Network Mini-Grant Initiative is designed to support the development or expansion of community-based networks that bring the public and birth professionals together to:
- promote the Six Care Practices that Support Normal Birth and the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative (MFCI)
- improve the quality of maternity care locally
- provide information and resources to expectant women and their families so that they can make informed choices about maternity care.
The Lamaze Institute for Normal Birth offers up to ten $500 to $1,000 grants annually to support established or emerging community-based Birth Networks in North America
http://www.lamaze.org/Default.aspx?tabid=529 Continue reading
Posted in Birth Networks, Lamaze International
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52 Things You Can Do to Be a Birth Activist
After our local BirthNetwork’s community activist meeting, I got to wondering what was out there on the web in the way of birth advocacy. The Journal of Perinatal Education provides endless amounts of support for normal birth and evidence-based care, and of course there’s CIMS advocating mother- and baby-friendly care.
Then I happened upon Birthing the Future, a Colorado-based 501(c)3 working on birth advocacy and education, headed up by Suzanne Arms.
In the “Take Action” part of the site, there’s a list of 52 actions you can do to advocate birth, to “make every birth better for everyone,” and other links to follow. 52! And these are things the average person can do. There’s work to be done here, folks. May we all be busy!
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Posted in Birth Networks
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Fit Pregnancy’s Top 50 Cities
Every year Fit Pregnancy does a reporting of the top 50 cities (based on population). They score them in over 40 categories and grade them. While this is not nearly as comprehensive as The Birth Survey will be when it launches this summer (already available in NYC), it is a good snap shot of cities around the country and what is wrong with their birth coumminty.
After you check that out and wonder what can we do right? You need to ask that on a personal level as well as a community level. (Of course, at Birth Activist, you knew we’d say that, didn’t you?) Here are some things that you can do on many levels:
- Educate yourself about pregnancy
- Educate yourself on your city’s strengths and weaknesses
- Find like minded individuals
- Do you have a birth network?
- Could you be a grassroots activist?
- What can you change on a local level? National level?
Hang in there, we’re rooting for you! Continue reading
Posted in Birth Networks, Organizations, Pregnancy
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New York Healthy Birth Fair
Hats off to Elan McAllister and her crew of Choices in Childbirth (CIC) volunteers for pulling off the most amazing birth fair on Saturday.
In addition to being the launching pad for the Transparency in Maternity Care project of CIMS, CIC was able to dsitribute their new second annual New York Guide to a Healthy Birth. This new guide is chock full of great information for pregnant families.
Karen Brody’s BOLD Red Tent was pretty incredible, too! The pregnant Moms seemed to love this sacred space where they could share birth stories, receive a massage, or do some yoga poses.
We all have so much work to do to improve maternity care! It was really inspirational to be able to participate in this step in the right direction.
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Making lots of connections…
Looks like we have given away over 2000 postcards about www.TheBirthSurvey.com in the last few hours. We’re getting really positive feedback about the idea of a “Consumer Reports” of birth providers.
This project is for everyone! A few interesting anecdotes:
A new Dad was out browsing the fair and he inquired about the birth survey.com. Concerned about some of the interventions that occurred during the birth of his now two-month old child, he wanted to know if he could sit and take the survey on behalf of his wife and baby (who were home napping). Hmmm…we hadnt thought of that!
It’s almost 1:00 p.m.
Union Sqaure is overrun with birth activists!! Unbelievable birth fair. Giant RED TENT beautifully furnished with couches, puffy chairs, and pillows all courtesy of ABC Carpets in NYC. We’ve had belly dancers filling the open space between the 40-plus exhibit tables. Women are now telling birth stories into a mic amplified throughout the park. Elan has thought of everything — we even have a 10 foot uterus for women and children to climb into!
We’ve given away hundreds of birth survey postcards…women are very enthusiastic about the project!
More later… Continue reading
The sun is shining a bright light on transparency!
Michelle Kendell and I arrived this morning in NYC at 8:00 a.m. Perfect day! 70 degrees and sunny. One of the few variables that we had no control over and it worked just perfectly. Must be a good omen.
Union Square is already buzzing with activity for the weekly Farmer’s Market. Elan McAllister’s apartment is located right off Union Square, and we’re about to begin loading all the boxes with thousands of Birth Guides, flyers, cool t-shirts and all the stuff to create the Red Tent.
Check in later…
BirthNetworks National
I have to tell you about an amazing group of women – they are the mothers of BirthNetwork National. They have done all of the hard for people who want to start a local chapter of grassroots action as it relates to birth and babies in their communities. With Chapters in five states, they are growing by leaps and bounds. Having looked at the 501(c)3 application with my local birth network (not affiliated with BirthNetwork National), I can tell you the thoughtfulness, hours of frustration and love that nurtured this project. Now their new website is live! Check it out and consider starting a chapter in your back yard or make a donation to help them spread the word that birth is not and illness. Continue reading
Posted in Birth Networks
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