Happy Birth Day Birth Survey!

Come join the weekend fun as we mark the one year anniversary of the national launch of The Birth Survey!? Starting now and ending at midnight on Sunday (Eastern), we will be giving away “door” prizes and other fun things.? You will be entered for the prizes for the following:

• blog post about The Birth Survey (with link to this post)
• share The Birth Survey facebook group on your blog and/or facebook profile
• share in the comments or on your blog about how The Birth Survey has helped you
• post a link to this contest on a forum, blog or other acceptable (non-spamming) location

To enter you posts, leave a comment here saying you’ve met the requirements and add a link where applicable.? Be sure to use your real email so we can contact you about the fabulous prizes!

Edited to add:

Winners chosen by Random.org.

Veronika is our first winner! ?She won the Homebirth Children’s Book.

Micky is our second winner! ?She has won a set of Trust Birth Postcards donated by Teri Shilling & Passion for Birth.

Kristin is our third prize winner! ?She’s getting a set of the VBAC Facts cards to hand out!

Kate Griffin wins prize #4! ?She will receive a set of The Birth Survey cards.

Jennifer Vermeer wins our last prize, also a set of The Birth Survey cards.

Email me with your address so I can send your prize. Everyone already posted is still entered for later drawings!

Thanks to everyone who helped celebrate this weekend and by spreading the word over the last year. ?Here’s to another great year ahead of us!

Informed Consent & Refusal in Maternity Care

Register today for this FREE Webinar!

It?s time to put women back in the driver?s seat when it comes to their maternity care decisions. CIMS? experts have examined how current laws and professional practice guidelines affect patient decision-making in maternity care, and demonstrate in this FREE Webinar how patient access to evidence-based research is particularly important during a time when perinatal mortality and morbidity rates, interventions, and disparities are on the rise in the U.S. Need a continuing education certificate? Processing fees apply.

? Friday, June 19, 2009

? 1:00 pm ? 2:30 pm (Eastern) / 10:00 am ? 11:30 am (Pacific)

? Register online at: www.motherfriendly.org

Participants will learn:

? The legal and ethical responsibilities that health care professionals have to provide informed consent and refusal

? The components of informed consent and refusal and how to implement them fully during their interactions with patients

? The benefits of informed patient decision making and ways to utilize this knowledge to affect policy change within their institutions

Earn 1.33 Nursing Contact Hours! Here?s How:

Continuing education processing fees: $20 CIMS Members / $25 Non-Members. Payments processed through the CIMS Continuing Education Payment Center at: www.motherfriendly.org/webinar.php.

This continuing nursing education activity was approved by the Texas Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center?s Commission on Accreditation.

Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number 15290, for 1.33 contact hours.

Midwives Organizing for Mothers (M.O.M.)

From Citizens for Midwifery (CfM):

Midwives Organizing for Mothers (M.O.M.) is a new national campaign to raise awareness and secure a place for Certified Professional Midwives in our health care system. Spearheaded by the National Association of Certified Professional Midwives (NACPM), the M.O.M. Campaign Steering Committee includes the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA), the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM), the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC), Citizens for Midwifery (CfM) and the International Center for Traditional Childbearing (ICTC).

SAVE THE DATE:
Join the leaders of this initiative for a conference call?Webinar on Thursday, May 7th at 8 p.m. EST?to find out more about the M.O.M Campaign and how you can participate! Details to follow early next week; this will be an information call rather than a discussion. And, be ready for Action Alerts!

http://cfmidwifery.org

Birth Survey Results Are LIVE!

After months of?collecting?surveys, which is still ongoing, the results from the Birth Survey are now LIVE. ?Click on the Connect button to be taken to the spot where you can look at the satisfaction rates of midwives, doctors and facilities for birth in your area. ?If you’ve given birth in the last three years - take the survey to have your voice heard!

This data is so exciting, be sure that you spread the news about the results being live. ?I spent a lot of time just looking around to see what local practitioners and hospitals were rated and why…

So how do you plan to use this as a birth activist?

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 announcement 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 Advocates Committee

info@thebirthsurvey.com

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 distribute 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.

One Last Post From Union Square

Getting ready to wrap up our fabulous launch of the CIMS Transparency in Maternity Care project, www.thebirthsurvey.com.

The women who live and birth in the five burroughs of NYC are among the luckiest of women in the USA!

I hope that you all will consider helping us make this project available in every community across the country. Email us at: cimsgrassroots@yahoo.com.

Thank you for tuning in today!

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 hadn’t thought of that!

A newly-pregnant lesbian couple — deeply concerned about finding the right provider who would treat them with respect and dignity, stopped by our table. They were thrilled to learn about the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative and CIMS.

I met several young women out on a beautiful Saturday afternoon –and by chance learning about birth in a way that they had never imagined. (oh — and I’ll never forget the four little girls in fancy dresses watching the belly dancers under the red tent!)

I also met an older woman who was bummed out when I told her that she couldn’t take the survey because her babies were born more than two years ago! (her kids are in their 30s!)

What a day!

It’s almost 1:00 p.m.

Union Square 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…

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, fliers, cool t-shirts and all the stuff to create the Red Tent.

Check in later…