ABC's 20/20 will be airing a segment about Orgasmic Birth on May 16th for their special Mother's Day show.
Now THERE's a gift that mothers will really appreciate!

Interviews with Christiane Northrup, MD, Ina May Gaskin, MA, CPM, Sarah J Buckley, MD, Marsden Wagner, MD 

Joyous, sensuous and revolutionary, this pioneering film will compel many to reexamine their perceptions about childbirth. Viewers will understand how the use of normal, undisturbed birthing methods can aid the health and well-being of future generations.

Dangers of Hospital Birth - Why Birthing in a Hospital Causes More Problems Than It Solves for Normal Birth

. . . was launched Jan. 24, 2008.  It's a nationally coordinated campaign to advocate for regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and to push back against the attempts of the American Medical Association Scope of Practice Partnership to deny American families access to legal midwifery care.

You can read what Ricki Lake says and check out her new movie, The Business of Being Born.

Trade Union claims out-of-hospital birth is “trendy;”
tries to play the “bad mother” card

The Big Push for Midwives is a nationally coordinated campaign to advocate for regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and to push back against the attempts of the American Medical Association Scope of Practice Partnership to deny American families access to legal midwifery care.

You can read what Ricki Lake says and check out her new movie, The Business of Being Born.

Does it bother you that someone who trades on her title as "Doctor" hasn't actually been licensed since 2003?!?
Read Henci Goer's suspicions about Dr. Amy's true backers.

If you feel like Dr. Amy is a splotch on the blogosphere, you can read the comments of others and
vote for her as Worst Blog of All Time

The best way to donate is to send a check to Waterbirth International
PO Box 1400    Wilsonville, OR 97070    USA

or Donate online today so they can continue to advocate for safe, gentle birth for mothers and babies everywhere.

  ~DONATE any amount you can
  ~Become a MEMBER of Waterbirth International
  ~Buy a birth pool for your local midwives
  ~Buy a birth pool for yourself
  ~Buy a birth video and donate it to your local library

THANK YOU! from all those lucky waterbirth moms and babies, past, present and future.

Read about the “Unexpected Birthgasm” and “Passionate Birth”

 Listening to Mothers II (LM 2)

Your Body, Your Birth is one of the best resources for a pregnant woman today.
Childbirth author Lynn M. Griesemer provides encouragement and inspiration for pregnant women
to help them have safe and happy birth experiences.

Tell your U.S. Representative to support Healthy Hospitals Act!
Consumers Union / Consumer Reports is spearheading this campaign to Stop Hospital Infections!

About 100,000 people die each year from hospital-acquired infections, more than deaths from auto accidents and homicides combined. You may not know much about this deadly public health threat because hospital infection rates are secret in most of the country.

Rep. Tim Murphy (PA) is sponsoring the "Healthy Hospitals Act of 2007" (HR1174). The bill will make you safer during a hospital stay by requiring public disclosure of hospital-acquired infection rates. If hospitals must tell you about their infections, they will work harder to reduce them. Please ask your representative to co-sponsor this bill!
This is a public-service announcement, not a paid advertisement.

Call 800-913-TIPS Toll-Free or E-mail TIPS@ucsf.edu

Ask your elected officials to co-sponsor the Breastfeeding Promotion Act

then,

Tell your U.S. Representative to support Healthy Hospitals Act!
Consumers Union / Consumer Reports is spearheading this campaign to Stop Hospital Infections!

About 100,000 people die each year from hospital-acquired infections, more than deaths from auto accidents and homicides combined. You may not know much about this deadly public health threat because hospital infection rates are secret in most of the country.

Rep. Tim Murphy (PA) is sponsoring the "Healthy Hospitals Act of 2007" (HR1174). The bill will make you safer during a hospital stay by requiring public disclosure of hospital-acquired infection rates. If hospitals must tell you about their infections, they will work harder to reduce them. Please ask your representative to co-sponsor this bill!
This is a public-service announcement, not a paid advertisement.

There is no reason why home birth should not be offered to women at low risk of complications and it 
may confer considerable benefits for them and their families. There is ample evidence showing that 
labouring at home increases a woman’s likelihood of a birth that is both satisfying and safe, with 
implications for her health and that of her baby.

CALMS - A Guide to Soothing Your Baby
The title, CALMS, is an acronym standing for an indispensable 5-step process which parents can use to maintain composure
during the inevitable stresses and strains encountered in the first weeks of parenting after the birth. 

This easy-to-read book is a companion to What Babies Want, the award-winning documentary film that
explores the profoundly important and sacred opportunity we have in bringing children into the world.

This is a public-service announcement, not a paid advertisement.

CALMS - A Guide to Soothing Your Baby
The title, CALMS, is an acronym standing for an indispensable 5-step process which parents can use to maintain composure
during the inevitable stresses and strains encountered in the first weeks of parenting after the birth. 

This easy-to-read book is a companion to What Babies Want, the award-winning documentary film that
explores the profoundly important and sacred opportunity we have in bringing children into the world.

This is a public-service announcement, not a paid advertisement.

In New Hampshire, a low-risk hospital birth costs: $24,315.
Same low-risk birth at home with a certified midwife: $3,000
The feeling for a new mom cuddling her new baby in her own bed: PRICELESS!

Mandating insurance coverage for homebirth is good for everyone.

It's the Meet BABI Fair from Bay Area Birth Information

I'll have a table at this event - please stop by to meet me

Seeing is Believing - Birth As We Know It / Birth Into Being

Download the 3-minute trailer or 10-minute promo for free
Or you can download the whole movie for just $3.99

We Want Waterbirth to be OPTIONAL! - Keep Our Planet Livable for our Babies

This is a public-service announcement, not a paid advertisement.

Alabama Mothers Deserve Midwives
Learn more from Alabama Birth
or just send a quick e-mail to Alabama's governor, Bob Riley, and encourage him to support HB199

Kris Bagiu has a great set of videos at Home Birth Talk

In this 8-minute audio file (MP3), Marsden Wagner, MD, explains why midwifery can help with
the troubling infant and maternal mortality rates in the United States.  He's written a new book, Born in the U.S.A
[You can also read the transcript of the interview or stream it.]

This is a public-service announcement, not a paid advertisement.

Where can you hear BIRTH?
BIRTH can be streamed live from the following stations (unless marked by an *)
NHPR-Concord, New Hampshire Saturday March 3rd at 8 a.m. (EST)
KUNM-Albuquerque, New Mexico Sunday March 4th at 11 a.m. (MST)
WBOI-Fort Wayne, Indiana Sunday March 4th at 6 p.m. (CST)
WBEZ-Chicago, Illinois Sunday March 4th at 9 p.m. (CST)
WSKG-Binghamton, New York Thursday March 8th at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.* (EST)
WVPE-Elkhart, Indiana Friday March 9th at 7 p.m.*(CST)
KUMR-Rolla, Missouri Friday March 23rd at 8 a.m. (CST)
KQED-San Francisco, California Wednesday April 4th at 8 p.m. and Saturday April 7th at 1 p.m. (PST)

This is a public-service announcement, not a paid advertisement.

  the third triennial Waterbirth Conference
 Gentle Birth World Congress

  Portland, Oregon, September 27-30, 2007
Sponsored by Waterbirth International, featuring Barbara Harper RN Midwife

or Creating Gentle Birth in a High Tech World, featuring Barbara Harper RN Midwife
Calgary, Alberta, May 4th and 5th, 2007

This is a public-service announcement, not a paid advertisement.

A Must-Watch for Obstetricians and Midwives
  This video will present a perspective of birth unlike anything you have ever seen! You need to watch this to see what birth can be. Then imagine adding the minimal level of medical observation and only NECESSARY intervention, and you'll have a new vision of birth that will be a gift to birthing women and babies.

 Making Birth Safe in the US. (aka Hospital Birth Debate)

Did you know that 14 babies died in Marion County just last year from hospital-acquired infection?

Do you know a family in Marion County or anywhere in central Indiana whose
baby died or became ill from a hospital-acquired infection?

 Please send e-mail to khensel@wishtv.com to help make Marion County safer for newborns!

Did you know that 14 babies died in Marion County just last year from hospital-acquired infection?

Do you know a family in Marion County or anywhere in central Indiana whose
baby died or became ill from a hospital-acquired infection?

 Please send e-mail to khensel@wishtv.com to help make Marion County safer for newborns!

From ICAN of Massachusetts comes an article in Boston Magazine.

APPPAH - The Association for Pre- & Perinatal Psychology & Health

Feb. 21 - 26, 2007
Los Angeles, CA

This Oprah clip is a must see!

The secret language of babies from Priscilla Dunstan

Happy New Year!

    Jacquie Munro is a doula in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 

Her birth blog will remind you of everything that's right about birth!

Then send e-mail to the editor of the New Yorker Magazine, and tell them you want your truth about
normal birth to be included in a future article.  If you've already got your birth story written up, this
will take you just a minute or two.

They're up to their old tricks again!
The New Yorker Magazine's article, "The Score" once again tries to sell us on the lie that if the mother and baby are alive,
then it was a great birth.

This article starts with a birth story where the OBs fail to facilitate the baby's proper positioning, and then hold themselves out as heroes for cutting out the baby.  It boggles the mind that this is presented as a success story, rather than the abject failure it is.
American obstetrics is failing to support women in having the birth experience that will best prepare them for motherhood,
and they are failing to help babies to have the best possible start in life.
After recounting the horrible evolution of obstetrics, with its increase in maternal and newborn deaths as birth
was moved into the hospital, this article tries to convince us that everything is fine because their statistics got better again,
once antibiotics and anti-hemorrhagic pharmaceuticals became more readily available to bail out their failures.

They lie in implying that a cesarean birth is safer for the baby than a vaginal birth.
They forget to compare American statistics with those of other countries, which have better outcomes.
Those countries use the model of maternity care that has proven the safest ever - routine midwifery care
with appropriate use of obstetricians when necessary for surgical intervention.

Critique of New Yorker article on the Industrialization of Childbirth
by Faith Gibson, LM CPM, one of the pre-eminent midwifery experts in the U.S.
[and if you like a good mystery, don't miss Faith's scholarly treatise, "The Official Plan to Eliminate the Midwife: 1900 -- 1930"

Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering by Sarah J. Buckley, MD
The wisdom and science of gentle choices in pregnancy, birth, and parenting 

We all deserve the best possible start!
This book provides a scientific basis for sound recommendations for the best care for mothers and babies.

Have you had an orgasmic birth?  Did you experience sexual arousal during birth?
Danielle Harel, a Childbirth Educator and a PhD candidate in the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality
in San Francisco, is conducting a PhD dissertation research where she aims to learn and understand in depth
the phenomenon of women who experienced sexual arousal and/or orgasm during childbirth. 
To volunteer to be interviewed by phone from anywhere in the world,
please contact Danielle via email at Danielle@DanielleHarel.com or call her at 1-408-469-1989.

Have you had an orgasmic birth?  Did you film your birth?
The filmmakers of the documentary "Orgasmic Birth" are looking for video of ecstatic/orgasmic birth.
Please contact Debra Pascali-Bonaro at info@orgasmicbirth.com. 

Would you like to have an orgasmic birth?
Women are birthing safely and ecstatically in their own homes, without the interference of hospital protocols.
Read about homebirth safety or overall homebirth benefits.

Orgasmic Birth is a documentary that examines the sexual and intimate nature of birth
and the powerful role it plays in women's lives when they are permitted to experience it.

You can donate now to support production

Have you had an orgasmic birth?  Did you film your birth?
The filmmakers of the documentary "Orgasmic Birth" are looking for video of ecstatic/orgasmic birth.
Please contact Debra Pascali-Bonaro at info@orgasmicbirth.com. 

Would you like to have an orgasmic birth?
Women are birthing safely and ecstatically in their own homes, without the interference of hospital protocols.
Read about homebirth safety or overall homebirth benefits.

Orgasmic Birth is a documentary that examines the sexual and intimate nature of birth
and the powerful role it plays in women's lives when they are permitted to experience it.

You can donate now to support production

The risk of death is more than double for babies born by c-section.
[PubMed abstract of the study]

Out-Of-Hospital Midwifery Care: Much Lower Rates of Cesarean Sections for Low-Risk Women

This article discusses the recent BMJ article concluding that homebirth is superior to hospital birth.

"Asked to provide any statistical evidence contradicting such studies, for the sake of this story, ACOG sent none but e-mailed two policy statements further explaining the organization’s position on the certification of midwives."
[Interpretation - OB/GYNs have no basis for their opposition to midwives and homebirth.]

Support the National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign
(It is easy to send an email using their form letter, and you just put in your name. )

More info about the campaign: Babies were Born to be Breastfed

Death by Medicine 

Causes of death attributable to medical care include:
Errors in prescription and administration of pharmaceuticals
Adverse drug reactions
Unnecessary surgeries
Hospital-acquired infections and Antibiotic-resistant infections

Obviously, many lives also are saved or improved by beneficial medical care, but Americans need
to educate themselves about potential problems so they can make informed healthcare choices.

Midwifery care reduces interventions and so avoids many of the hazards of medical care.
Homebirth midwifery further increases safety by avoiding the hazards of hospital-acquired infections.

 Ref: Death by Medicine
Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD
Debora Rasio MD, Dorothy Smith PhD
November 2003

Spontaneous Creation:
101 Reasons Not to Have Your Baby in a Hospital, Vol. 1

Jock Doubleday's seven-year book project
is now available -- by tax-deductible donation only (no minimum!).

This special story is about two siblings, at the time ages five and seven, as they witness and participate in the birth of their brother.
It chronicles a gentle home water birth that focuses on the children. 

 This DVD will be a tremendous resource to families planning to include children in their birth.

Mothers and babies deserve the best care available.

In 2006, the  U.S. has the second worst newborn death rate in modern world.

Join with the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS), and their Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative (MFCI)

 Still looking for a Mother's Day Gift?  Consider supporting CIMS in honor of a mother you know.

I'll have a table at this event - please stop by to meet me
and pick up your free "Trust Birth" wrist band

This video is stunningly beautiful - thoroughly mesmerizing.

From Elena, one of the Russian waterbirth midwives

May 6-8 in Washington, DC

outside the ACOG Annual Convention.

organized by WECAN - WOMEN EDUCATING CYTOTEC AWARENESS NATIONWIDE

Indiana mothers want midwife-attended homebirths.
Homebirth is as safe as hospital birth.  (British Medical Journal reference)
Indiana does not offer licenses to midwives trained to attend homebirth.
Indiana is prosecuting a midwife for attending homebirth without a license.

Q: What's wrong with this picture?
A: Indiana needs to provide a licensing process for homebirth midwives!

Q: What can you do to help?
A: Join the Indiana Midwives Association, 
or Citizens for Midwifery to support women's choices in birthing.

Fabulous Birth Video Now Available from "Birth Into Being" Midw ife

Knowledge is Power - Raise Your Birth IQ

In 2003, approximately 100 women died from complications of an elective cesarean surgery.
[Reference]
This information is not getting out to women who are considering elective cesareans.
If you or someone you love is considering an elective cesarean, you need to read this.
Oddly, ACOG supports women's choice when it comes to choosing a cesarean, but not when it comes to avoiding a cesarean.

Knowledge is Power - now you've got more!

Thank you for your support of Licensed Midwifery!

This document acknowledges and preserves the  right of self-determination for healthy, mentally competent childbearing women, even those with 'special circumstances', including  breech, twin and previous Cesarean mothers planning a VBAC. 

See Faith Gibson's web pages for more information

Thank you!!!