Tuesday, October 23, 2007

The Business of Being Born

Many communities nation wide are having sneak previews of the soon-to-be-released documentary film, The Business of Being Born. This documentary, produced by Ricki Lake and directed by Abby Epstein, features prominent birth authorities such as Dr. Michel Odent, Dr. Robbie Davis-Floyd PhD, Dr. Marsden Wagner and Ina May Gaskin. The CDC estimates that from 1991 to 1999, the maternal mortality ratio was approximately 12 per 100,000 live births. A statisically significant increase in the ratio was seen from 10.3 in 1991 to 13.2 in 1999. The Healthy People 2000 Initiative aimed to reduce the number to 3.3 but the goal was not achieved and has been reset for 2010.

If you have a chance to see this amazing video, either by Sneak Preview or when it hits the theatres in 2008, it will touch your heart and change forever the way you look at childbirth in the US.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Nonpharmacological Pain Relief Works

I recently read an abstract of an article from the eOB/GYN News titled: Non-Drug Strategies Fairly Effective for Labor Pain: In the absence of an epidural, nonpharmacologic techniques should be considered, as well as opioids.

The author states "
Besides epidurals, "the interesting thing is that immersion in a tub or hands-on techniques came up a little bit above the effectiveness of narcotics" for relieving labor pain, although they were less often used than narcotics, said Ms. Bishop, a certified nurse-midwife and professor of ob.gyn. and reproductive sciences at the University of California."

I am happy to see that the information that midwives, childbirth educators and doulas have been giving for years is finally reaching other care givers. We not only have anecdotal evidence that these techniques work, but there is also substantial research data.

Perhaps we are not alone in changing the conversation about birth...more professionals are talking!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Gentle Birth World Congress

Truthfully it has been quite a while since I posted to this Blog. Conference season hit for my company and we all were quite busy. Now that fall is here, and the last conference has been attended, I will be blogging more!

Just returned from the Gentle Birth World Congress in Portland Oregon. I had the opportunity to meet many birth professionals from literally all over the world. It was an amazing experience and one that I continue to cherish. During the Congress, I was able to see a sneak peek version of both "Pregnant in America" and "The Business of Being Born." I have been saying for some time that there is a wave of change coming for the birthing community...I do believe that these two films will hearld this change!