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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.