Winners of Birth Video contest!

Birth Matters of Virginia just announced the winners of their childbirth video contest with judges comments. Check them out!


FIRST PRIZE, $1000
Prevent Cesarean Surgery, Ragan Cohen (California):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZy0JPtubiQ

----“Such great myth-busting and important information for all women, I loved your use of natural scenes. I'd love to see this video getting lots of airplay in the public arena.” –Dr. Sarah Buckley, MD
----“The directness and statistics worked well together…” –Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein
----“Very well done.” “One of my favorites. Talk about evidenced-based care; this really motivates someone to take action.” “This really puts it out there. Cesareans aren’t pretty.” “This was so emotional for me. The film does an excellent job questioning the idea that c-sections are easy, normal, and no big deal.” --from the BMV Judging Panel

SECOND PRIZE, $500
The Nature of Natural Birth, Laura Alvarez (Wisconsin):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrIPtVEjVnc

----“Very sweet birth video - and of course we love the song and used it in the Business of Being Born!”—Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein
----“Gorgous photos of homebirth, nicely balanced with information. Well done!”—Dr. Sarah Buckley, MD
----“Amazing editing. Very professional. This film isn’t afraid to show birth as it really is.” “Lovely. Powerful. Very sweet.” “I think the whole room was tearing up by the end of this one!” “So sweet and beautifully done.” --from the BMV Judging Panel


HONORABLE MENTION, $100
Misconception, Becky Carey (Virginia):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxRmVciXy-g

----“Incorporated an excellent variety of people, lovely to have original music and real women's distilled wisdom, Great work!”—Dr. Sarah Buckley, MD
----“Very well done, nice mix between informative and emotional.”—Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein
----“Great editing. Good, casual, conversational tone. Catches a particular angle on the conversation surrounding the normalcy of birth.” “I just loved this one!” --from the BMV Judging Panel

and check out their other finalists at http://birthmattersva.org/videocontest.html

Canada encourages vaginal breech births!

In another shocking move to mothers in America, this month Canada's obstetric community issued a statement that they are going to start encouraging OBs to not automatically deliver breech babies via c-section. Once again, American mothers and others who live in a country where their obstetric association is virtually a trade union for obstetricians are floored by this statement. Over and over again so many mothers have been told it's too risky to do vaginal breech births and therefore these women have been offered no other choice than to have a c-section. But wait, now a large group of OBs is telling us many breech babies can be delivered vaginally?

Yes, it's a jungle out there mothers. But you've got to weed through and find the truth.

Now the only problem with Canada's statement is finding OBs who are qualified to deliver breech babies vaginally. Unfortunately, as a New Yorker piece in 2006 by MD Atul Gawande pointed out so eloquently, the art of obstetrics is being lost because doctors only know how to do c-sections for any slightly abnormal birth presentation. Also, as I had reaffirmed recently when hearing Dr. Abraham Verghese speak, patients are now not people but i-patients, which further removed the personal out of medicine and for childbirth this is especially costly in terms of deliveries that require personal attention.

Hmmm...

Okay, here's the article on Canada: click here

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from the piece:

The SOGC (Canadian equivalent of ACOG...the American Obstetricians and Gyns) believes that if a woman is well-prepared during pregnancy, she has the innate ability to deliver vaginally.

- YES!

“There's the idea out there in the public sometimes that having a C-section today with modern anesthesia and modern hospitals is as safe as having a normal childbirth, but we don't think so,” said Dr. Lalonde.

- YES!

One more thing I want to point out. While SOGC is issuing statements supporting women to deliver vaginally and questioning c-sections, in American ACOG has recently been pouring money into making sure no woman has access to CPM (certified professional midwifery) care and cannot deliver any place other than a hospital or hospital sanctioned birth center. How can this obstetrical witch hunt against midwifery still be allowed to exist in 2009?

For an antedote to ACOGs position, join the new MAMA campaign and to help make CPMs federally recognized in the United States. http://www.mamacampaign.org/

Reversing the Elective C-section trend in UK

Interesting piece in UK's Guardian newspaper about encouraging OBs to get moms to have VBACs! (vaginal births after cesareans). Wow...after reading this piece it's crystal clear why VBAC is not encouraged in the United States. One word: Money.


'I felt totally out of control'

Many women who have an emergency caesarean are so shocked that they demand an elective section next time. Joanna Moorhead hears how hospitals are trying to reverse this trend


Like most mothers, Anna Sabba hoped for a straightforward delivery when she went into labour with her first child. But 20 hours later, exhausted and with the baby still not born, doctors decided to do an emergency section. Sabba, 32, remembers only the fear: "It was really scary - I was shaking so much. I felt totally out of control, I'd not had any time to mentally prepare myself for this, and suddenly I was about to be cut open."

So when she found herself pregnant again, two years on, she decided to play safe. "I thought I'd ask for an elective section - that way, at least I'd know what to expect," says Sabba, who lives in Manchester. But her consultant in Manchester, Louise Byrd, had other ideas.

This month, several primary care trusts announced that they would be offering cash incentives to hospitals in a bid to reduce the number of surgical deliveries - and the frontline targets are women like Sabba, who have already had one caesarean and opt for another in their next pregnancy.

Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has had a policy for some time under which obstetricians are expected to at least question a woman's decision to go for a repeat caesarean if there is no clear medical reason. Reducing the number would, they argue, spare thousands of women from the trauma of a major operation they may not actually need. "Everyone should have a thorough explanation of the pros and cons," says consultant obstetrician Phil Bullen of the Manchester trust.

When labour goes relatively smoothly, there are psychological and emotional advantages to vaginal birth, says Byrd. "A normal delivery can be a wonderful experience, with benefits not only for the woman but for her child," she says. "Women need to be reminded of this. It can seem an 'easy option' to simply agree to elective surgery - but it's vital that we, as medical practitioners, take the opportunity to discuss a woman's choice and see how we might work together to encourage her to aim for a vaginal delivery. Choice is important - but it must be informed."

The problem for doctors is that they may persuade a woman to go for a vaginal delivery, only for the situation to change during labour and for a caesarean section to become inevitable anyway. Rachael Keith, 32, who lives in Cheshire, found herself in precisely this situation when she gave birth five months ago to her second child Dylan. She had had an emergency section with her daughter Matilda two years ago, and wanted to have a planned section second time around, but was talked out of it by her consultant. "I explained I didn't want a second horrific experience - they had to get Matilda out so quickly I had to have a general anaesthetic, which was awful. I thought by planning it I'd be far more in control, and would be able to anticipate what was going to happen, which would make it all a lot easier to handle.

"But the obstetrician seemed to be thinking only about her statistics, and she did everything she could to dissuade me." Keith tried for a vaginal birth but in the event her labour failed to progress, and she ended up with another emergency caesarean.

"I feel my instincts were right: I should have been allowed to elect for a section," says Keith. "I'd be the first to agree that hospitals should be reducing the caesarean rate, but not by railroading women and refusing to hear their point of view."

According to the latest figures, and despite previous attempts to reduce them, caesarean sections are still on the increase - up from 24.3% to 24.6% in 2007-2008. And while emergency sections account for about half of all operations, the other 50% are pre-planned.

For NHS managers, there is clearly a financial incentive to reducing the amount of surgery - caesareans cost on average around £2,700, compared with around £1,400 for a vaginal birth, not to mention the bill for extra days in hospital afterwards. But there is safety as well as cost at stake - giving birth in an industrialised nation like the UK is a very safe process but all the same, giving birth by caesarean is more dangerous than giving birth vaginally. A report in the British Medical Journal said a caesarean raised fourfold the risk of serious complications including haemorrhage, infection and uterine rupture.

Targeting second-time-around mothers in a bid to reduce caesareans has its critics - some argue that health bosses should take a long, hard look at the procedures that lead to the high number of first-time-around emergency sections, since there's a growing body of evidence that suggests many of these could be avoided by better support in labour, and by the sort of one-to-one care that many maternity units struggle to provide.

But things worked out well for Sabba: Connie, now 10 months, was born after a normal labour. "Dr Byrd was great - she didn't just say 'Don't' when I said I wanted a section. She realised that what I needed was confidence, and she helped me gain that confidence. She told me the baby was in a good position, and that there was every chance I could deliver normally this time around. Towards the end of my pregnancy, she saw me every few days. She talked me through all my worries, which helped enormously."

The outcome couldn't have been better, says Sabba. "I've never had a sense of triumph like it. The skin-to-skin contact right after the birth was amazing - completely different from after my caesarean, when the baby was wrapped in a towel and just shown to me. Also, after Connie, the recovery was so much easier which was a real help, since I was looking after a baby and a toddler at the same time.

"Psychologically, I feel Connie's birth has made me stronger. I'm less scared about things."

MAMA campaign launches...and needs you to write Congress

Listen up Americans: healthcare reform is happening and if you want women to have access to all midwives please get involved with the new MAMA Campaign (Midwives and Mothers in Action). Their mission is simple: to make sure CPMs (certified professional midwives) get federal recognition so that women and families will have increased access to quality maternity care in the setting of their choice.

What's needed right now is to FLOOD the US Congress with letters asking for CPMs to be included in the current healthcare reform bills. Below is a recent email from MAMA on how to get involved in their letter writing campaign.

From MAMA...

A. Greetings, mothers, midwives and supporters of maternity care choices!

We need all your energy and enthusiasm for our ambitious policy goals on behalf of pregnant women across the nation and the Certified Professional Midwives who can provide services to them. This is the MOMENT for action!

Just last week, the Midwives and Mothers in Action (MAMA) Campaign organized twenty midwives and consumers to visit their Congress members in Washington DC and tell them about midwifery care. This lobbying push is a vital part of the MAMA Campaign mission to increase all women's access to midwives and to quality, affordable maternity care by achieving federal recognition of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs).

The MAMA Campaign was established by a coalition of six key national midwifery and consumer organizations.

Our immediate goal is to get an amendment into the health care bills currently moving through Congress to mandate federal Medicaid coverage for CPM services. Health care reform is at a pivotal point and we have an unprecedented opportunity to inform Congressional members about the skilled, high quality maternity care provided by CPMs and the cost savings CPMs can achieve. Congressional members are particularly interested in what their constituents are thinking.

So now we need your help …
• Please join the effort to send an outpouring of personal letters to U.S. Senators and Representatives to their local district offices this week. We've learned this is the best way to get their attention on fast-moving urgent policy issues.

• Please read further to see a sample letter you can use, and tips for writing. Your role in the MAMA Campaign is so important. Now is your chance to stand up and be counted!

Thank you for your support!


B. Writing Your Congress Members – Suggestions & Instructions

THANK YOU! Contacting your U.S. Senators and Representatives is important! Please mail your letters to their local district offices.
You'll find a sample letter below these instructions; use or adapt this language for your own personalized letter to your members of Congress. If you have any questions or need assistance please contact Evelyn deFrees, Campaign Manager (info@mamacampaign.org).

Eight points to remember when writing your own letter:

1. Ask: Please be sure to include the specific "ask," underlined in the first and final paragraphs of the sample letter (the "ask" is what you want your Senator or Representative to do).

2. Information: The second paragraph is an important part of the message. Feel free to use other words in paragraphs 3 and 4 to explain why Certified Professional Midwives should be added as Medicaid providers. See handout "Midwives and Mothers in Action: Improve Maternity Care Quality by Expanding Patient Choice"

3. Your story: A sentence or two about your "story" personalizes the letter; describe a birth or birth provider experience you or a family member or friend has had, or why you are passionate about this issue.

4. NOTE: Please ALWAYS write out "Certified Professional Midwife"; do NOT use "CPM" by itself (which is frequently misinterpreted with the more familiar "CNM").

5. CPM Facts: If you want to write about the CPM credential and/or education, please use the CPM FAQ sheet – please stick to that exact language, which has been carefully developed for this purpose.

6. Format: Neat, hand-written letters are the most effective – it shows that someone cared enough about the issue to take their time to personally sit down and write to their congress member. Typed, printed and signed letters are next best. Make sure your name and address with zipcode are on your letters as well as the envelope.

7. District Offices: Please send letters to your U.S. Senator and/or Representative's local district/state office (mail to their Washington office would take several weeks to get to them). For addresses: Visit www.house.gov and www.senate.gov ; once on these homepages, click on the search tool in the upper corners of the pages to find your own U.S. Senator or Representatives, and their websites and addresses for district offices.

8. Tell us you've taken action: Please send us a copy of your letter so we can track what policy-makers are hearing from constituents like you about the urgent need for federal recognition of Certified Professional Midwives. Please send a copy to info@mamacampaign.org or to MAMA Campaign c/o NACPM, 243 Banning Road, Putney VT 05346

C. SAMPLE LETTER for CONGRESS MEMBERS

[Date]
The Honorable [Full Name]
[Street Address]
[City], [State] [Zip]


Dear [Senator/Representative Last Name]:

Congress is now debating comprehensive health reform legislation. I urge you to ensure that the maternity care needs of millions of women and their families are addressed by your support for adding Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs)--who are licensed by their states--to the list of Medicaid-eligible providers recognized at the federal level. Health care reform must address the problems and high costs of maternity care in the U.S and ensure safe, qualified maternity care providers for all pregnant women.

Safe high-quality care: Today in many states across the country women seek safe, high-quality, health-promoting maternity care provided by Certified Professional Midwives who provide excellent childbirth outcomes with a fraction of the medical interventions (including cesarean section). I received my prenatal care and delivered my baby with the assistance of a Certified Professional Midwife and believe all women in our state and country should have this safe, cost-effective choice regardless of their income level.

Cost Effective: Pregnant women on Medicaid deserve access to the full range of maternity care providers including Certified Professional Midwives. The choice of Certified Professional Midwives is often restricted to those with private insurance coverage or the capacity to pay out-of-pocket. Adding Certified Professional Midwives to the Medicaid list would start reducing health care costs immediately.

Choice at lower cost: Childbirth is the number one reason for hospitalization in the US, accounting for $86 billion in annual expenditures in 2006. Much of that spending is driven by costly, overused and unnecessary interventions. Certified Professional Midwives can help Congress deliver on the basic goals of health care reform: preserving a patient's choice of health care provider while simultaneously improving quality and outcomes, at lower cost. Expanding Medicaid coverage to include services provided by Certified Professional Midwives is the equitable thing to do. The tremendous cost and quality advantages make it sound public policy.

Please support this important change to the law governing Medicaid so that Certified Professional Midwives who are licensed by their states are added to the list of Medicaid-eligible providers recognized at the federal level. Thank you for your time.


Sincerely,

[Your name]
[Address]
[Phone number]


Please visit the Midwives and Mothers in Action Campaign at www.mamacampaign.org

Giving "Birth" in Little Rock - article

I thought this was a nice piece about the play and BOLD movement written after the Little Rock, Arkansas performances in May. (just wish she didn't call the play, "Birth: The Play" - that's not the name of the play!!!).

http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/2009/06/giving_birth_in.php

Amazing BOLD happenings today!

I love this movement - truly international! Today I'm sending lots of BOLD wishes to BOLD Paris and BOLD Gainesville. BOLD Paris will be taking 80 audience members down the Seine in Paris performing the play (hey, maybe Michelle will be there??!!)...and BOLD Gainesville is performing in a 400+ theater to medical students and professionals at a large teaching hospital in Gainesville. You go BOLD Warriors!

(By the way, saw this piece "Flordia ranks second in the nation for c-sections" today. Yes, that's why we need to be BOLD!!!!!)

My Son's Birth Story - 10 years later

My oldest son turned 10 this past weekend. I can't believe I gave birth one decade ago! I thought this was a wonderful moment to share with you his birth story. I'm so used to listening to other people's birth stories and rarely seem to share mine. So let me tell you about Jacob's birth - 10 years ago. The day I became a mother.

Jacob's Birth Story

“Tim…I’m wet,” I said as I sat up in bed at one in the morning on June 6, 1999...about an hour after we went to bed.

“What?” he said sleepily.

“ I think my water broke.”

We spent about ten minutes discussing if my water broke, looking at a few pregnancy books for reference and then I got up to go to the bathroom and about two gallons of water started gushing out of my vagina. Yep, my water definitely broke. Tim called the midwives as I walked to the toilet in case there was more coming.

“Is there any discharge?” Mary, who had just returned from a twelve-hour birth, asked.

“Yes,” I said. “Just a little and it’s brown.”

“Okay, no problem,” she said. “Do you think you need us?”

Sitting on the toilet I thought: don’t be a wimp, Karen. You know you’re not going to have this baby in a hour. Let the midwives sleep. But then I flashed to the Japanese women in our childbirth class who two weeks earlier didn’t ask the midwives to come right away and ended up having the baby in her shower delivered by her West African husband.

“We can be there just sleeping on your couch if you feel better having us close,” Mary said, her words unlocking what I wanted to say.

“Yes, I want you to come.”

By four in the morning Mary and Ida showed up, told us to get some sleep, and then they we all fell asleep, Mary and Ida on our living room couches. I must say I was a little disappointed. I had hoped when they arrived that they’d check my dilation giving me an indication of where I was in labor. I wasn’t having any contractions, but still I thought I must be dilating.

“We don’t want to check a woman much when her water has broke because it could invite infection,” Ida said in such a sweet voice I that I tried not to show my disappointment.

By ten in the morning I began to get a tightening sensation in my body that felt like a contraction and they came every five minutes, which Mary said was encouraging. Tim had made a loaf of bread and Mary, Ida and now Stacey and their apprentice Jennifer joined us on our outside deck eating hot buttered bread, the temperature outside already a balmy eighty-five degrees.

“I wonder when it will be clear I’m progressing,” I said to them all.

“Oh, you’ll know!” Mary shouted. “You won’t be here talking eating bread with us – that’s for sure!”

We all laughed.

“Relax, Karen,” Mary said. “Your body knows how to birth this baby. Your job is to allow it to do what it's meant to do.”

As the hours progressed so did my labor, the contractions now four minutes apart and much longer in length. Except for Tim – who has such great feminine energy it didn’t matter that he was present – I felt like my house had become a women-only club where I was the honored guest. Anything I wanted I could have – a cup of tea, a back rub, laughter. The midwives were there to fan my flames, help me on my path, and feed me grapes if I desired. The feminine juice in my house was cooking, so much so I wanted to bottle the vibe for all my girlfriends.

By noon Mary was right - the contractions got worse and I stopped talking. I threw up the banana I ate and began slowly walking in circles around our living room with Tim and our black Labrador, Kali chanting “I feel great!” which definitely wasn’t how I felt but I thought it was better than shouting, “This sucks!” which was also right up there in my mind. Every time I’d have a contraction I’d stop walking, burp, lean against Tim feeling like a piece of concrete was trying to make its way out of my body, and shout, “I feel great!” as the contraction beat into me. After the minute-long pounding ended I’d continue walking and shouting, “I feel great!” with varying degrees of humor, sarcasm and feminist determination.

Thirty minutes later I asked Ida to check my dilation. Laying on my bed I prayed I was ten centimeters and ready to push. I’d even take eight.

“You’re a really solid four centimeters,” Ida said with a smile.

Four? Now I knew why, besides the infection issue, she hadn’t checked me before. There’s nothing worse than to feel like a piece of concrete is banging around in your belly and be told it may be in there for a lot longer.

“Why don’t you get into the pool,” Jennifer suggested.

“Yes!” I replied. I had completely forgot about the Toys R Us twenty dollar pool we purchased for just this moment.

Getting into a pool of water when you’re one hundred and eighty pounds isn’t easy I found out, but with the help of Mary, Ida, Stacey and Jennifer I entered the water, and exhaled. A monster size contraction immediately hit.

“Holy shit!” I screamed. “That hurt like hell!”

“Excellent!” Ida said like a cheerleading coach. “That’s exactly how it’s suppose to feel!”

That’s exactly the way it’s supposed to feel? I’m in pain and that okay? I moved around in the water trying to get comfortable, but mostly during that first contraction I squeezed Tim’s hand so tightly he asked me to let go which was the best thing that could have happened. In the warm water, floating on my own, nobody touching me, I felt like I was back on the mountain in Tannersville where I spent a year in my 20s by myself writing, snow coming down, losing control…and it was okay. With each contraction after that Jennifer prompted me to chant, “Open…” and while my renditions of “Open” vacillated from a slow and even pitched “Oooopen” to a choppier, panicky “Open! Open! Open!” fifteen minutes later my body was leading the dance, my mind surrendering to the real boss.

“I want to push!” I scream.

Mary and Ida looked at each other and decided to wait a few more contractions to check me, but with the next contraction I screamed again, “I need to push!” so they checked me.

“You’re about eight and a half centimeter!” Ida says.

“If you want to give birth in the pool we’re going to have to put some cooler water in it,” Mary says looking over at Tim, who engineered the system to get water to our pool.

“No! I don’t want cold water!” I shouted.

“Then before your next contraction you’re going have to get out of the pool!” Mary forcefully said.

If I thought lowering my one hundred and eighty pound body into the water was tough, getting up – and quickly – felt like an Olympic event.

“One, two, three!” they all shouted Tim holding one hand, Mary the other, everyone else pushing on my butt. A few seconds later I was out of the water – and freezing. With my shower just a few feet from the pool I begged to go into it for warmth.

“That’ll work for a few contractions, Karen,” Mary said looking at the tiny shower. “But when that baby’s comin’ you’re gonna have to give us more space than that to catch it!”

“Okay!” I said.

Two contractions later- around one-thirty in the afternoon - they lead me out of the shower, found I was ten centimeters dilated and asked me where I wanted to push.

“In my bedroom!” I told them.

I was convinced at this point the baby would be out in twenty minutes. I had been doing creative visualization exercises imagining the baby slipping out of me which I thought would translate into a short pushing stage.

By three-fifteen, nearly two hours later, I felt like a mental patient on a level three psych ward. I had tried pushing on all fours, leaning against the bed, laying on my back in bed feet down, laying on my back in bed feet up and none of it was moving that baby down and out. I finally got on a bar that helps you squat, Tim sitting on a birthing ball behind me, and that felt right but still when I’d get a contraction to push the baby wasn’t moving.

“Push down into your perineum,” Ida said, squatted in front of me.

This made no sense to me. I thought I was pushing down there. Feeling desperate I asked Ida to do a really icky thing.

“Can you put your finger inside me so I know where to push?”

Ida gently pressed her finger inside my perineum. Bingo - a target.

“I can do it!” I shouted.

“You can do it!” Everyone in the room shouted back.

“I can do it!’ I grunted louder.

“You can do it!”they cheered.

“I CAN DO IT!”

This championship fight-like atmosphere went on for ten more minutes with me shouting, “I can do it!” and everyone agreeing with me. Not bad…five people in my house with total reverence, respect and love for the sacred feminine act I was about to do. While I was chanting I began to imagine all my female ancestors who had given birth before me surrounding me, cheering me on. That’s when I knew I had it in me to push that baby out, that the gateway to life was about to open. After two more “I can do it!” chants I felt the baby’s head move through my perineum, and with it a sensation that felt like someone had lit a match on my vagina.

“Aaaaaaah! It burns! It burns!” I shouted.

“Yes! Great!” Ida shouted back.

“Ooooouuuuu!” I barked again and again and again until Jacob flew out of me into Ida’s hands.

I was so blissed out on endorphins – a natural pain reducing hormone that gets released when you’re pushing – that if I knew they sold it at a drug store I’d have bought a standing order every year as holiday presents. My body knew it had achieve something great. I laughed, I danced, I cheered. It was my moment of magic.

“You looked like you were having fun at the end Karen!” Mary laughed.

“I was,” I said.

BOLD Paris...cruising down the Seine!

BOLD Paris just sent me this lovely photo of their performance last month. And this month they'll be doing a performance cruising down the Seine and interviewing audience members after the show on the barge.

They're also performing at a women's festival in Normandy in September!

Check out their website here. (even if you don't read French, it's worth a look!)

Nearly Bleeding to Death from a C-Section

Oh my, this is a brave blog post by a male nurse in Chicago:

http://mannursediaries.blogspot.com/2009/05/nearly-bleeding-to-death-from-cesarean.html

Using Solar Power to Improve Maternity Care

The maternity care situation for mothers in developing countries has so many needs it's hard to know where to begin. Well, one obstetrician knew where to start: getting light to maternity care facilities using solar power. The Organization is called WE CARE Solar (Women's Emergency Communication and Reliable Electricity).

I just love hearing about creative ways to help mothers and babies! You've got to watch their video about it!

http://gallery.me.com/adinfinitumtv#100294/We%20Care%20Solar%20Promo2%20480x360&bgcolor=black

(click on "We Care Solar" then click on their movie)

Action Alert on healthcare reform: Let's set a record!

Below is The Big Push for Midwives' appeal to send the Obama administration your ideas for health reform. It's simple - I just did it - and you can too! It must be done this week so don't delay!

Let's set a record! NEW action alert!

As many of you may know, the White House issued a call this week asking citizens from across the country to send emails about what they would like to see in health care reform. Not long afterwards, the server accepting the emails crashed.

Why? Because it got flooded with emails about the President’s birth certificate!

Now the press is reporting about it, just as they did when grassroots organizers for the legalization of marijuana set the record for the most number of emails sent during the transition—a mere 6000. We can top that!

It turns out there is another, lesser-known online form for submitting comments about health care reform. Let’s use it!

If we top 6000 emails—and I know we can—we will set a new record and get the White House’s attention on how strong support for out-of-hospital maternity care and Certified Professional Midwives is.

So please go to the following link and fill out the form with a short, simple message about why you want all women, including those on Medicaid, to have access to out-of-hospital maternity care and Certified Professional Midwives who are specially trained to provide it.

http://www.healthreform.gov/communityreports/comments.html

Pick one or two points to include in your own words: And always use the title, Certified Professional Midwives, spelled out.

* Certified Professional Midwives are specially trained as experts in out-of-hospital maternity care and deliver babies in private homes and in freestanding birth centers.



* Research consistently shows that low-risk women planning to deliver their babies at home under the care of Certified Professional Midwives experience outcomes equal to low-risk women who deliver in the hospital, but with far fewer costly and preventable interventions, including a five-fold decrease in cesarean section.

* Babies delivered under the care of Certified Professional Midwives have significantly reduced rates of prematurity and low-birth weight, two of the leading contributing factors to racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes and to the costs associated with long-term care.

* David Anderson, Professor of Economics at Center College with a specialization in the costs of out-of-hospital maternity care, calculates that increasing use of Certified Professional Midwives and of out-of-hospital maternity care by less than 10% would result in savings of $9.1 billion annually, while actually improving outcomes.

* The state of Washington reports a savings of $3.1 million dollars over a period of two years to the state Medicaid system when women experiencing healthy, low-risk pregnancies give birth with licensed midwives instead of in the hospital.

* The recent Milbank Report conservatively estimates savings of $2.5 billion dollars a year if the cesarean surgery rate is brought down to 15% in the U.S.

* Certified Professional Midwives are the only providers specially trained in out-of-hospital birth in the event that hospitals become unsafe for healthy pregnant women during a disaster.


Thank you to everyone who is reaching out—it only takes a few minutes but it is so very helpful. We are making amazing progress in DC and now is not the time to let up! So please forward this to family and friends who can help,
and thank you for doing your part to get Certified Professional Midwives and out-of-hospital maternity care included in health care reform.

ATTENTION MIDWIVES! Yes, we are shouting at you! Please send this action alert with a personal appeal to your networks of clients—it only takes a few minutes, and people are especially motivated to act when they get a personal request from their midwife.

STATE GROUPS! Please be sure to post this alert to your state lists!

Katherine Prown, PhD | Campaign Manager |
http://www.facebook.com/l/;TheBigPushForMidwives.org |
http://www.facebook.com/l/;414.550.8025 | JOIN US on Facebook! | SIGN UP
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BOLD Bermuda!

BOLD Bermuda had 2 performances this past weekend that I heard went really well. "Birth celebrity" Barbara Harper performed in them too!

She sent me the photos above.