WHO: Midwives, Families, Doulas, Childbirth Educators, the Birth Community, and anyone interested in supporting midwives and learning more about the Midwifery Model of Care

WHAT: A Celebration of Midwives, including a potluck (bring a dish to share!), raffle with prizes, kids area, maternity and children’s clothing exchange (bring your stuff!), and informational booths

WHERE: Papago Park, 625 North Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, AZ 85008, Ramadas 9 and 10 (Please park in Phoenix Zoo Parking Lot.) ftp://www.phoenix.gov/pub/PARKS/papamap3.pdf

WHEN: Tuesday, May 5th From 10a.m. To 2p.m.

WHY: Midwives provide the highest level of healthcare to the pregnant women and families they serve. Let’s get the word out and celebrate these amazing women!

MORE: For more information about this event, to assist with planning, or to represent your organization at the celebration, Please contact the Planning Committee at internationalmidwivesdayofaz@yahoo.com or call Alison Haasch at 602-663-0631.

Alison Haasch owns LifeSpring Midwifery, LLC and is a licensed midwife in the state of Arizona. LifeSpring Midwifery is located in Queen Creek, Arizona and provides midwifery and well women services to Pinal County and the Phoenix metro area in the East Valley of Maricopa County.

Midwifery services are provided in Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, Fountain Hills, Maricopa, Casa Grande, Queen Creek, Apache Junction, and Florence.

It is already known that caregivers’ attitude and behavior is important in determining whether a woman has a satisfying experience of childbirth. But our knowledge about memory of labor pain is still limited. Is satisfaction with labor linked to memories of the pain?

Professor Ulla Waldenstrom and colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden explain that the memory of labor pain usually reduces over time, but for some women it increases. The team set out to investigate the memory of labor pain after two months, one year, and five years, and whether it is linked to the pain relief used and the woman’s feelings about her experience.

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2009/childbirth-experience-determines-memory-of-pain/

I wanted to look at whether as an educator I did enough to prepare the men in class? Do they want to be present during the labour and birth? Are they the most appropriate person to be adequately supporting women through the birthing process?

I also wanted to know if the men felt under pressure to be present during labour and birth and where did that pressure come from their partners or their peers. I also wanted to know if their intention was to be supportive or was it more about witnessing the birth of their offspring? But whatever the questions I wanted to know if there was more I needed to be doing as an educator and midwife to prepare the men to be more effective as a support person.

http://nzmidwiferypractisingreflection.blogspot.com/2008/12/men-in-labour-room-do-they-want-to-be.html

Anita, a midwife friend of mine, and I have been going around our city of just over 100,000 people distributing flyers for her birth center and homebirth practice and Midwifery Today’s Eugene conference programs. We take our flyers with pins and tape and tack them on bulletin boards in health food stores, community services agencies, the public library and many other places.

This has been a terrific outreach for both of us. We’ve learned a lot about our community’s resources while carrying out marketing efforts. It has been so fruitful and fun that I recommend that midwives and doulas do a similar outreach in their communities. One of the best parts is that while we’re driving around we are talking, ranting and otherwise solving all of the problems in birth today. The other delight is the amazing people we’ve met who are part of our community.

http://community.midwiferytoday.com/blogs/jan/archive/2009/03/01/back-door-birth-activism-let-your-community-know-about-midwifery.aspx

When it’s time to bring a new baby into the world, there’s a lot to be said for letting nature take the lead. The normal, hormone-driven changes in the body that naturally occur during delivery can optimize infant health and encourage the easy establishment and continuation of breastfeeding and mother-baby attachment. Childbirth without technical intervention can succeed in leading to a good outcome for mother and child, according to a new report.

http://auguriesofinnocence.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/childbirth-back-to-basics-is-better/

On Sat, May 7 I woke up and was having contractions every 5 minutes for half an hour. I got all excited and thought it was labor for sure, so I got up and called the answering service. By the time she called back, the contractions had pretty much died down. The midwife (Erin) told me to go lie back down and if contractions picked up, then I should call back. I went and layed down and fifteen minutes later, they came back. I decided I would sit for another fifteen minutes to see what happened before calling again. This time they died and didn’t come back. I lost a couple hours of sleep for nothing.

http://experiencingmotherhood.com/?p=381

Right before Thanksgiving, Ricki and I got to fulfill a dream…visiting Ina May Gaskin at The Farm in Tennessee. We had always wanted to film Ina May at The Farm for BOBB but ran out of production funds and time. We decided that we MUST get there to film for our follow-up DVD, so Wednesday morning November 19th (mere hours after Ricki hosted a benefit at Babeland for The New Space for Women’s Health) we hopped a plane to Nashville.

http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/blog/2008/12/09/down-on-the-farm/

From the time I was a teenager, I have wanted to be a midwife. The idea of catching babies has always been fascinating to me. I find pregnancy and birth to be an amazing process. Having my own children, participating in births, catching several precipitous births as a nurse, and working with several wonderful nurse-midwives have helped me realize that becoming a nurse-midwife is my destiny. I am an adrenalin junkie, and birth is the ultimate rush. Becoming a nurse-midwife has been my dream and ultimate goal driving me in both my life and the development of my nursing career. Attending graduate school at this time in my life is a culmination of my long-term desire to become a nurse-midwife.

http://atyourcervix.blogspot.com/2009/02/why-i-want-to-be-midwife-paper.html

Let’s face it: the economy sucks right now. We haven’t yet hit rock bottom, and it’s going to be awhile (probably a long while) before things begin to recover. In the midst of this harsh financial reality, companies and industries are scrambling to find ways to save money. Birth activists have been trying for decades to convince this country of the benefits of midwifery based on its safety and track record of better outcomes, not to mention improved client satisfaction, but hey, this is America—the only thing people really pay attention to in this country is the bottom line. So maybe midwifery has finally found the argument it needs to affect actual change. In the midst of one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression, NOW is the time to increase access to midwifery care because it’s excellent care for a heck of a lot less than what we’re currently spending on maternity care.

http://www.bellytales.com/2008/12/30/recession-relief-midwifery-saves-money/

Herbal supplements and pharmaceutical drugs should both be avoided during lactation unless there is a clear indication for them, but there are many herbs that are considered to be perfectly safe for breastfeeding mothers, especially when they are used with consideration and moderation. The following guidelines can help nursing mothers to select herbal supplements that will be both safe and effective under their circumstances.

http://herbalmedicine.suite101.com/article.cfm/medicinal_herbs_and_breastfeeding

Numerous studies have shown that for low-risk women home birth is indeed a safe choice.

In fact, some studies have show that a homebirth can be a safer option than a hospital delivery for low-risk women.

Studies that show that it’s unsafe are usually found to be grouping unplanned or emergency home deliveries into their data on “out of hospital births.”

http://www.naturalbirthandbabycare.com/home-birth.html

Pregnant in America examines the betrayal of humanity’s greatest gift–birth–by the greed of U.S. corporations. Hospitals, insurance companies and other members of the healthcare industry have all pushed aside the best care of our infants and mothers to play the power game of raking in huge profits.

His wife pregnant, first-time filmmaker Steve Buonaugurio set out to create a film that will expose the underside of the U.S. childbirth industry and help end its neglectful exploitation of pregnancy and birth with help from producers Betsy Chasse and Straw Weisman.

http://www.pregnantinamerica.com

A discussion on the topic of Home Birthing and licensing midwives in North Carolina and other U.S. states with Russ Fawcett and Jennifer Block.

As a step toward our goal of educating women about their choices and options, we are soliciting short videos about evidence-based maternity and delivery care. We want videos that will appeal to and inspire new audiences that may not have previously been exposed to any model of childbirth other than the version we see on television and in movies: dangerous, uncertain, excruciating, and usually in need of extensive and often emergency medical interventions. Birth doesn’t have to be this scary, and people need good information in order to make good choices.

We are thrilled to announce guest judges:
Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein, acclaimed producers of The Business of Being Born.
Sarah Buckley, M.D., international birth expert and author of Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering.

The first-place winner will receive a cash prize of $1000. Second place: $500 and Honorable Mention: $100.

Deadline for Entry is 11:59pm on Mother’s Day, May 10, 2009

http://www.birthmattersva.org/videocontest.html

We are just finished up our new book called “Your Best Birth” which deals with exactly that question! The book will be out in May 2009. But I think you need to spend time educating yourself about delivery options and then deciding where you would feel most comfortable.

If you are interested in seeking out a midwife or a birth center, you need to make sure that you are a good candidate for that type of birth and that your insurance will cover it. For a hospital birth, you should check out all the options in your area and find out the hospitals intervention statistics and the C-section rate of the practice your are using.

http://www.safbaby.com/a-safe-birth-making-educated-choices-an-interview-with-ricki-lake-and-abby-epstein

Licensed midwife Aleksandra Evanguelidi (www.SacredEntrance.com) shares what inspired her to become a midwife, what a midwife does, and why she loves being one. 1 of 7 interviews.

When actress and producer Salma Hayek arrived in Sierra Leone in September, she was not whisked off to a movie set. She was there not as a celebrity, but as a humanitarian, to see firsthand a leading cause of death in the developing world: tetanus. “Nightline” co-anchor Cynthia McFadden went along to document the journey.

http://a.abcnews.com/Entertainment/story?id=6804291&page=1

A bill that would create a state board of midwifery and provide more options for women who wish to give birth at home has cleared the Wyoming Senate.

The bill heads to the House after passing the Senate 28-2 on Thursday.

Currently state law permits only certified nurse midwives. A certified nurse midwife is a nurse with a master’s degree who is licensed by the state Board of Nursing to deliver infants at homes.

http://montanac.com/news/bill-would-create-wyoming-board-of-midwifery/

With health care costs high on the national agenda, advocates of home births are challenging the medical and political establishments to give midwives a larger role in maternity care and to ease the state laws that limit their out-of-hospital practice.

Pending bills to further this goal have significant backing in several states, which home-birth supporters want to add to the 25 states that already have taken such steps.

Nationally, a group called the Big Push for Midwives marked President Barack Obama’s inauguration with an e-mail campaign urging him to ensure that midwives who specialize in home births are included in deliberations on federal health care reform.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i8fJ2C7TgNkq8F70slj14c7HwR1QD960CNDG2

Knowing what your birthing options are, in order to decide where to have a baby, are important decisions expectant parents need to make. With the average cost to deliver a baby in a hospital by vaginal birth in the U.S. being around $8800.00 in a labor and delivery room, pregnant moms and dads are looking for alternative ways to deliver a baby in a healthy and safe environment, but without the high costs of delivering in a hospital.

http://www.tellinitlikeitis.net/2008/11/birthing-options-natural-childbirth-options-for-expectant-mothers.html

With the increasing popularity of yoga, many women are aware of the numerous physical benefits of prenatal yoga. In addition to its many physical benefits, prenatal yoga helps women through the evolutionary process of pregnancy by connecting with other pregnant women, allowing the opportunity for inward reflection, providing a healthy physical and emotional outlet for one’s experiences, and ultimately preparing one for birth on a holistic level.

http://pregnancypower.blogspot.com/2009/01/week-24-and-counting-benefits-of.html

Concerns have been raised about pregnant women being induced “unnecessarily”, after a Scottish audit of 17,000 births.

In more than a quarter of cases, researchers could not find a medical or other explanation for the procedure.

The Aberdeen University team said in the Journal of Public Health that rates of obstetric intervention were rising.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7833058.stm

Alison Haasch, licensed midwife. Comprehensive midwifery care specializing in natural home birth, childbirth education, breastfeeding, and well woman care in the Phoenix, Arizona area.

Committed to healthy women and healthy babies. Dedicated to respectful, gentle, and safe birth.

I am currently taking Arizona midwifery clients in Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, Fountain Hills, Maricopa, Casa Grande, Queen Creek, and Florence. I will consider clients outside this range on a case-by-case basis.

To talk to me or to make an appointment

Phone: (602) 663-0631
Email: Alison@LifeSpringMidwifery.com