heading

EcoBirth-Women for Earth and Birth

Uniting the earth and birth movements for the well-being of our world

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Pregnancy-Related Deaths on the Rise?: Forum | KQED Public Media for Northern CA

Pregnancy-Related Deaths on the Rise?: Forum | KQED Public Media for Northern CA
A significant article for young women came out today from California Watch- A Project for the Center of Investigative Reporting

http://californiawatch.org/health-and-welfare/more-women-dying-pregnancy-complications-state-holds-report


about maternal mortality in California. Dr Elliot Main, from CPMC in San Francisco, was the author and said that he posted information on his website about the study for the past year. This was a State funded study and has not been officially released yet.

http://www.cmqcc.org/maternal_mortality

And there was a fabulous interview on KQED Forum today by Michael Krasny (one of my heros), a full hour interviewing three truth-telling men -

-Aaron Caughey, associate professor at UCSF and director of the Center for Clinical and Policy Perinatal Research within the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

- Elliot Main, chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the California Pacific Medical Center, and principal investigator for the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative

- Nathanael Johnson, freelance journalist and author of the California Watch article on the study suggesting that maternal death rates have tripled in California over the last 10 years

and the quick take on this is that there are too many inductions of labor, which increases the likelihood of a c-section, which has a higher risk of morbidity and mortality for the mother, but exponentially increases at each subsequent c-section, because of the scarring of the mother's uterus. So there should be less first time c-sections.

There is a need for change in hospital birth practices to lessen first time c-sections, the report says. And on the KQED Forum one hour interview, other influences were also discussed: the higher payments for c-sections from insurance companies and the pressure to get a birth over with quickly as being more cost-effective for the hospital and staff.

But what rang true with me was the response to a nurse who called to say that women no longer believe in their capability to handle birth. And that the current culture supports speed, convenience and control, which is contrary to how birth unfolds.

EcoBirth wants to empower women to understand their capabilities- they need to tap into that fierce passion to protect their babies for themselves. Be strong, be fierce, be soft- all those things are possible.
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Molly Arthur's Maternal Lines digital story from molly arthur on Vimeo.

We women can face the pain and grief we have for our suffering Mother Earth and reclaim our story of creation and redemption with the power and beauty intimately held in our body’s cells from our maternal lines since the beginning of the cosmos. Our existential and communal grief heals within the loving gathering of our feminine compassion, connecting us to the truth and strength of our Mother Earth and all our kin. We start with Molly’s Personal Environmental Story-to explore the birth stories and places and times of ourselves, our mothers and grandmothers.Using the stories of our own maternal lines, with sharing, active listening and intention, we call on our ancestors, our inner wisdom and the shared circle to witness our story with compassion. Using ritual, song, movement, and sharing of our truths, in community and powerful circle as well as spending time on the land - we can acknowledge the oppression in our lives, feeling it in our bodies, grieving it, transforming it and ourselves in a safe, loving space. Our healing path connects our sacred lineage from the womb of our Mother Earth to integrate our inner and outer lives and discover our place in the connected caring cosmos. We are a part of a continuum of sacredness, lifeforce, divine energy including our Ancestors back to the stuff of the stars. We can reclaim our cells, our lineage and our legacy to the future generations. Like in birth labor, we must yield to our bodies innate knowing, to progress, to open, to birth our love. With our active surrender to fierce compassion we can restore our connection to the natural world and our own inner wisdom. We can drop our obsessive addictions to control and return to our healing, caring, befriending tendencies- innate for us nurturers. And then we can repair, regenerate, and renew our culture for tenderness and kindness, naturally embodied by us. We will be able to guard and protect ours and all descendents - becoming their Beloved Ancestors- by asking - What is possible now to transform our world for Future Generations?

Molly Arthur of EcoBirth- My Personal Environmental Story November 2012 from molly arthur on Vimeo.

Why EcoBirth’s My Personal Environmental Story
EcoBirth’s My Personal Environmental Story will help women tell their life story by considering the two primary environments- place and birth- for themselves, their mothers and their maternal grandmothers. Through this process each participant will come to realize the hazards in their environmental genealogy and realize the healing in telling their own story. And they will be empowered to affect the changes that are necessary for our Mother Earth and our children and grandchildren to thrive.
Imagine looking back to your grandmother's and mother's birth time to figure out what environmental influences you might have inherited? And have passed onto your children and grandchildren? Would you wonder what was in the air, water and food in their lives- and look twice at what diseases, birth defects, addictions there are in your family?