GFOM Meeting and Film Showing MAY 9th

Please Join Us!

When: Saturday May 9, 2009

4pm-7pm
Where: The Self Discovery Center

1315 S. Ponce de Leon Ave

North East Atlanta GA

Why:

Film!: “Homebirth: The Spirit, The Science, and the Mother”
To Unite! in protecting our birth choices in Georgia
Good Food! Vegetarian buffet offered at $6 a person)

What to bring:

Your families, friends and neighbors
Your favorite floor pillow (chairs provided as well)

$5 suggested donation

(all proceeds go to GFOM)

ACTION ALERT! last minute bake sale effort at ICAN!

Hello all,
So many of you have expressed a desire to help out so here's your
chance!

We just got permission to hold a bake sale fundraiser at the ICAN
conference and would like to ask for volunteers to make baked goods
for the effort.

We'd like to charge $1.50 per ziplocked bagged item. Examples would
be 3 homebaked cookies, 1 large muffin, 1 large slice of nut bread.
If you would be able to help out, we need to have the items delivered
no later then Wednesday evening (April 22nd). There will be a drop
off place in Decatur, Buckhead, or Candler Park/L5P provided when you
email us.

We would appreciate it if you could let us know what amount you would
be able to offer up, bag these items up and give us a list of
ingredients (for those who might have allergy concerns).

Please email gafriendsofmidwives@gmail.com ...@gmail.com to let us know if you can
help.

Thank you so much for your help- look forward to serving with you to
help our midwives!

Reid Forrester
on behalf of GFOM

Free Screening of Orgasmic Birth

Event: Free Screening of Orgasmic Birth

"To Benefit ICAN of Atlanta"

What: Fundraiser

Host: Baby Steps - Atlanta

Start Time: Saturday, May 23 at 6:00pm

End Time: Saturday, May 23 at 9:00pm

Where: Life University



To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=71038423116&mid=49d6dbG59099f95G4c046eG7

Idaho becomes 26th state to license CPMs!

Midwifery Legislation Triumph in Idaho!Dear Friends,The Big Push for Midwives campaign,TheBigPushforMidwiv es.org , has issued a press release with the following very exciting announcement:
Idaho Pushes Midwife Movement to the Tipping PointPhysician and Midwife Groups Forge Unprecedented Alliance as Idaho Becomes the 26th State to Pass Legislation to Legalizing Certified Professional Midwives BOISE, ID (April 1, 2009) Governor C.L. Butch Otter signed into law today a bill to license and regulate Certified Professional Midwives, making Idaho the 26th state to legally authorize them to provide out-of-hospital maternity care. In a notable reversal of longstanding anti-midwife policies, medical groups worked together with legislators, midwives, and advocates to reach consensus on a law that provides for independent practice, mutual collaboration, and the rights of parents to choose where and how their babies are born."This is a great day for midwives and home birth advocates all across the country," said Kyndal May of Idahoans for Midwives. "We truly have reached the tipping point, breaking through the medical lobby's longstanding opposition and developing a legislative consensus model that other states are looking to follow." Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs), who practice primarily in hospital settings, are legally authorized in all 50 states, while Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs), who specialize in out-of-hospital birth, until today were legally authorized to practice in just half the states. Representatives from The Big Push for Midwives Campaign noted that Idaho typifies recent legislative trends across the country, as a growing number of states come closer to passing CPM legislation.
And here's a bit more on the Big Push:
Through its work with state-level advocates, the Big Push is helping to forge anew model of U.S. maternity care built on expanding access to out-of-hospital maternity care and CPMs, who provide affordable, quality, community-based care that is proven to reduce costly and preventable interventions as well as the rate of low-birth weight and premature births. Also, the Big Push is convening this summer in Alabama. For more information, go to: http://pushsummit. eventbrite. com/.Sincerely,Arielle Greenberg Bywater, "sidekick"

GFOM needs volunteers for Conferences!

Hello GFOM members,
we need volunteers from those of you attending the ICAN, or the LLL conference to help wo"man" our information table. Please
email if able to do any of these shifts :)
It's easy!

Time lots still needed are:

ICAN
Friday 4/24
2:30-5:00pm
5:00-7:00pm

LLL
Friday 5/1
11:00-2:00pm
2:00-5:30pm

Saturday 5/2
8:00-11:00am

Donations for Conferences

Thank you
Sleepy Wraps for your donation of a sling!

Thank you!
Bravado for your gift certificate for a nursing bra!

Thank you
Preggie Pops for your samples of lollipops and drops!

Thank you
Earth Mama Angel Baby for your baby product donation!

Thank you
Gina from Chiropractic Transformations Center for Massage

Thank you
Hotslings for Sling

Thank you
Mother-ease for Cloth Diaper!

Industrialized nations such as ours would not stand for another branch of medicine being practiced with antiquated and unscientifically supported methods and beliefs- can you imagine a heart surgeon using techniques from the 1950s?!! And, yet, that is exactly what hospital staff (obstetricians and their colleagues) are doing to women in labor! Women in our country have been sold a pack of lies. Birth is not dangerous! Interference is dangerous! I am a homebirth mom and also a certified Doula. As a Doula I see firsthand the mistreatment of women and their babies and the abuse of power from hospital staff. The misuse and abuse of medication and unnecessary routine procedures during labor and birth causing a cascade of further interventions (iatrogenic)- an astounding amount of it not even supported by scientific evidence! (Browse the works of Henci Goer and Dr. Marsden Wagner.) Homebirth for healthy women with a skilled attendant (i.e., a midwife) is safe- the woman is supported in creating an healthy pregnancy to avoid complications, in staying vertical and mobile during labor , encouraged to eat and drink, to go at HER pace, to trust her instincts, and to assume any pushing position SHE wants. Scientific evidence (and common sense) says the best pushing position is vertical- not lying flat on your back pulling your knees to your ears! Hello fetal distress and maternal exhaustion! Hospital births with their supine pushing positions, withholding of food and drink, dangerous medications with all their side effects, impatient and busy doctors and nurses, electronic fetal monitors, episiotomies, immobility, inductions, cesarean sections, et al are dangerous. Why is everyone questioning the safety of homebirth when the countries who employ more midwives and have more homebirths per capita loose FEWER babies and mothers at the time of birth than in America- where we rank an embarrassing #28 (according to the CDC at http://www.cdc.gov/omhd/amh/factsheets/infant.htm) in infant mortality and where most women give birth in a hospital?! Birth is safer in Cuba, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic than in the US for crying out loud! (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html). We should, instead, be questioning the integrity and safety of the entire obstetrical monopoly. Obstetricians are surgeons & I am thankful they are available to me if my life was in danger. But normal birth is safe and obstetricians have no business managing normal birth. High-risk birth, yes, normal birth (which are most of them!!) no. If you do not want surgery (e.g., episiotomy or cesarean) then do NOT go to a surgeon. I would love to come on your show both as a homebirth mom and as a birth professional. People absolutely have the wrong idea about homebirth- but that is because they have the wrong idea about birth. Birth is not a medical emergency as we have been taught from shows like TLC’s A Baby Story, ER and other soap operas. Only rarely does it need medical intervention- very rarely. And then thank goodness for the hospital with all its life-saving equipment. I am not anti- hospital nor am I anti-doctor. I am anti lies. The truth is: Birth is safe. Interference is risky.

I love this quote and think it sums it all up perfectly: "The midwife considers the miracle of childbirth as normal, and leaves it alone unless there's trouble. The obstetrician normally sees childbirth as trouble: if [s/he] leaves it alone, it's a miracle." (Sheila Stubbs)