For: Colleges: Ethnic Studies, Gender Studies Depts

Title: An intimate ecology with systems of violence: a story of privilege, class, genocide and connection

Length of Presentation: 2 hours with discussion

An inquiry into our own collusion with the systems of violence through one woman’s story of her family lineage of genocide, adulteration of our earth and embodied toxins and its contemporary context of privilege and universal oppression.

This is the true story of her ancestor’s brutal massacre of Native Americans and its connection to the extracting of our earth’s resources and creating poisons that deform our bodies and spirits through generations. Using her personal family photos creates a powerful presentation of vulnerability and intimacy.

Acknowledging the sacred bonds of maternal lines, her story helps us understand ourselves and our connection to Mother Earth and what our own story is and how it enables us to live with passion and create a better world for future generations.

For: General Public, Environmental orgs

Title: A Mother’s Legacy Story- A Precautionary Tale

Length of Presentation: 1 hour with questions
The story of women in one San Francisco family that links the possible effects of toxins and adverse interventions during their pregnancies, births and childhood through three generations. With an emphasis on current concerns, preventions and protections for the fourth generation.

Learn where to find out about the toxins in your own neighborhood. What tests of your home and children’s schools might you want to do? What products do you need to eliminate in your life? What are the safest birth options available to you now? What is your passion to better the world and create a life of meaning?

This presentation will offer current information of interest to parents and grandparents, future mothers and fathers about how to take the best steps to have the healthiest environment (home, neighborhood - the water, air, traffic and hidden toxins) and have the healthiest mother’s body (what to eat, how to cleanse toxins) how to have the safest birth experience (affects of medications, inducing labor) and how to protect your children in this toxic world (school pesticide programs, school supplies, school lunches, toys).

Discover the latest for grandparents, parents, future mothers and fathers, regarding steps for a healthy environment, healthy moms, safe births and protecting your children from toxins.

For: Pregnant women

Title: Exploring environmental influences on a healthy pregnancy

Length of Presentation: 2 hours with discussion

A presentation and small group discussion about caring for our own bodies, our babies, our neighborhoods, and our devoted Mother Earth.What do we know is in our world today that is unhealthy for us and our babies? Where do we look to see what is in our very own neighborhoods that may be affecting our health?

You will hear a local story of mothers and daughters to illustrate what EcoBirth is about and how we can Green our Wombs. Hints and actions will be discussed for being well in our world today.

Let's get together to share our insights and worries, good ideas and support for each other!

And have some fun too, you wonderful mothers! You are valued and worthy of care and nurturing!

For: Birth practitioners, health orgs, parenting orgs

Title: Making Healthy Babies in a Toxic World

Length of Presentation: 2 hours with discussion

Dr. Myrto Ashe, a family physician, will join Molly Arthur to discuss a healthy pregnancy based on new science and research centered on nutrition, lifestyle and the biochemical functions underlying health. Emphasis will be on how to maximize the body’s own detoxification system, oriented to clinical implementation for birth practitioners.

Topics will include:

· 10 Healthy Habits for detoxifying for pregnancy

· Stress- how to understand what it does to the body- how to lower it--what are the effects of stress on the developing child

· Looking at the woman as a whole being- physical, spiritual, emotional.

· Current increase in childhood chronic diseases, autism, asthma, adhd, diabetes, obesity- what is really going on here, how is it affecting pregnancy, birth, and the experience of growing up?

· What labs should you consider for your patients now that we know so much about the environmental effects that may disrupt the growth of the baby and the baby's birth?

Dr Ashe bases her thinking on an understanding of Functional Medicine. She uses specific cases for illustration and cites the research behind her recommendations. Epigenetics and current reproductive research will be outlined.

For: Women and Grandmothers

Title: Connecting my environmental lineage and legacy to the true story of my place in life

Full or half day workshop with discussion, breakouts and circle sharing
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? Would that change your current view of our world and your place in it?

Using the stories of our own maternal lines, with sharing, active listening and intention, we will ponder these kinds of questions- How are we connected to all life? How understand my lineage and legacy, where I came from, and where the world is going-what is my future? What is my old story, what new story is developing? How be empowered to live a life of meaning and take a stand for what I passionately believe? On behalf of whom do I live, work and act? How best use my skills and gifts for the betterment of the world?

We will call on our ancestors, our inner wisdom and the shared circle to regard our old story with compassion. We are attracted to the story that is our next evolution- how can we embrace that new story?
We embody our sacred lineage and are vehicles of a beloved legacy. We hold the true story of our place in life, now we can live it!

Title: My Personal Environmental Story- Grandmother Consciousness becoming Beloved Ancestors

Two day workshop with discussion, breakouts and circle sharing

Please bring a photo of your mother and maternal grandmother, of yourself and your children. And consider bringing an object that represents your relationship with them. Know the dates and birthtown and birthplace and birth experience of your mother and maternal grandmother.

We will explore the birth stories and places and times of ourselves, our mothers and grandmothers- to find the connecting influences common to our lineage, becoming our legacy to our children and grandchildren.

We will invite our ancestors to help us know what is important in our lives and what we want to pass onto our families using ritual, movement, and sharing of our truths, in community and powerful circle. Nurtured by a safe space and experienced facilitators, the participants will be able to consciously see possible patterns and environmental influences that may have created affects in their own lives.

The participants will be invited to write a narrative that is a short descriptive example of the immutable relationship that we have with our maternal lines. Our facilitators are experienced in storytelling and story creation and will be able to videotape our stories for future sharing. We will become a community bound by our storytelling and commitment to a better world for our children and grandchildren. Through this process each participant will come to realize the hazards in their environmental genealogy, but also realize the healing in telling their own story. We will become a group on a online platform, where we can invite others to join us and see our stories and share theirs.

“There is no substitute for the power, simplicity, and basic truth of a well-told story, as millions of story lovers all over the world know” – National Storytelling Festival founder and International Storytelling Center President, Jimmy Neil.