Pregnancy and Birth
Over 90% of all women experience pregnancy. Their pregnancy may end in birth, miscarriage or abortion, thus pregnancy is a very common life experience for women. We should all know more about it.
Resources . Books . Midwives and Doulas . News Articles
C-Section . Incarceration and Pregnant Women . Teens . Women of Color
Birthing
Childbirth Connection: 212.777.5000 - www.childbirthconnection.org
Choices In Childbirth: 212.983.4122 - www.choicesinchildbirth.org
Citizens for Midwifery: 888.CFM.4880 - www.cfmidwifery.org
My Birth Team - www.mybirthteam.com
Birth Works: 888.TO.BIRTH - www.birthworks.org
Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) - www.motherfriendly.org
American Association of Birth Centers (AABC) - www.birthcenters.org
Perinatal Education Associates - www.birthsource.com
International Center for Traditional Childbearing - ICTC, Portland, OR
Midwives and Doulas
Birth Policy: The Big Push for Midwives - www.birthpolicy.org
Better Birth America - www.betterbirthamerica.com
Giving Birth Naturally - www.givingbirthnaturally.com
Understanding Birth Better - www.understandingbirthbetter.com
International Center for Traditional Childbearing - ICTC, Portland, OR
Realbirth: 212.367.9006 - www.realbirth.com
Birthing from Within: 505.254.4884 - www.birthingfromwithin.com
The Bradley Method: 800.4.A.BIRTH - www.bradleybirth.com
Lamaze International: 800.368.4404 - www.lamaze.org
HypnoBirthing: 603.798.3286 - www.hypnobirthing.com
HypnoBabies: 714.952.2229 - www.hypnobabies.com
American College of Nurse-Midwives: 240.485.1800 - www.acnm.org
Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA): 888.923.MANA (6262) - www.mana.org
American Midwifery Certification Board (AMCB) - www.amcbmidwife.org
National Association of Certified Professional Midwives (NACPM): 866.704.9844 - www.nacpm.org
 Citizens for Midwifery - consumer-based group promoting the Midwives Model of Care
Finding a Midwife
Beliefs, Practices, History of African American Midwives
(Kaiser Women’s Daily Health Report, December 20, 2005
)
The words of African-American midwives "should be mandatory hearing for health care professionals everywhere," Kristal Brent Zook, professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and contributing writer for Essence magazine, says in a commentary on NPR's "News & Notes with Ed Gordon." Brent Zook viewed the exhibit, "Reclaiming Midwives: Pillars of Community Support," a display at the Smithsonian Institution's Anacostia Museum and Center for African-American History and Culture in Washington DC exploring African-based midwifery practices from 17th century practitioners to contemporary African-American nurses and midwives. The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
Doulas de France an organziation working to help connect mothers to Doulas in France
Citizens for Midwifery is a non-profit, volunteer, grassroots organization. The goal of Citizens for Midwifery is to see that the Midwives Model of Care is available to all childbearing women and universally recognized as the best kind of care for pregnancy and birth.
Reclaiming Midwives : This site displays stills from the set of "All My Babies" (1952) in Albany, Georgia, and strives to capture and preserve the "deep humanity inherent in midwifery and home birth."
Assoc. of Labor Assistants & Childbirth Educators (ALACE): 888.222.5223 - www.alace.org
Doulas of North America (DONA) International: 888.788.DONA (3662) - www.dona.org
The Business of Being Born documentary film by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein
Women of Color
Resources
Twenty Things You Should Do Before Trying to Get Pregnant - Get your mind and body ready for pregnancy
Trying to Get Pregnant - A comprehensive website offering information about how to prepare to try to conceive, fertility and infertility issues, and knowing when you are pregnant.
Pregnancy Calculator - An online pregnancy caluclator to estimate gestational dates from American Women's Services.
Childbirth Connection - formerly Maternity Center Association, a not-for-profit organization that works to improve maternity care for mothers, babies and families. Promotes safe, effective, and satisfying evidence-based maternity care.
Lamaze - nonprofit organization to promote, support and protect normal birth through education and advocacy. Lamaze members and volunteers include childbirth educators, labor support specialists, lactation consultants, maternal-child nurses, midwives, physicians, physical therapists, social workers, hospital nursing managers, students and parents.
Top Ten Tips for a Healthy Pregnancy
Top Ten Resources for Pregnant Women and their Families
Real Birth - Childbirth Preparation, Breastfeeding and Newborn Care classes for the expectant mother and her support person. They also provide a community of support, with many classes, support groups and activities for parents and their babies during the transition to parenthood.
The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services - collaborative effort of numerous individuals and more than 50 organizations representing over 90,000 members. Their mission is to promote a wellness model of maternity care that will improve birth outcomes and substantially reduce costs.
Routine Episiotomy? learn more
C-Section
International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) - international, nonprofit organization that educates women about all of the risks, rights, and responsibilities of giving birth.
C-Section Recovery - Helpful advice for the growing number of women who are having c-sections today, from a woman who has been there.
BirthNetwork National - promotes the awareness and availability of mother-friendly maternity care.
Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) - promotes a wellness model of maternity care that will improve birth outcomes and substantially reduce costs.
CIMS factsheet on the Risks of Cesarian Delivery to Mother and Baby
Childbirth Connection - works to improve maternity care for mothers, babies and families. Promotes safe, effective, and satisfying evidence-based maternity care. Evidence-based means using the best research about the safety and effectiveness of specific tests, treatments, and interventions to help you make informed decisions.
Mother-Friendly Childbirth
Your Right to Refuse: What to DO if Your Hospital has banned VBAC A document discussing a woman's right to a vaginal birth after ungoing a cesarean.
Incarceration and Pregnant Women
Approximately 10% of all incarcerated people are women on any given day in the United States, one-quarter of whom are pregnant or newly delivered. Health care in prison is primarily designed for men, often ignoring reproductive health of women and of pregnant prisoners in particular. The special circumstances of pregnancy in prison demand increased care and attention. Yet little information is available regarding the health care needs of pregnant prisoners. Below are some links to information regarding this issue.
Understanding Prison Health Care: Article from movementbuilding.org discusses the reality of women in prison and their lack of comprehensive reproductive healthcare.
The Birth Attendants - a non-profit organization working to restore health and justice into communities in western Washington State. The Prison doula project provides pregnancy, labor, and post partum doula services and popular education style childbirth education classes to women incarcerated in Washington State. Our community education project links our vital work inside prisons to the greater issues surrounding incarceration and works toward creating pathways of knowledge for western Washington communities about incarceration and its effects.
Rights to Pregnancy Related Health Care While in Prison or Jail - from the ACLU about constitutionally protected rights to health care for pregnant women while they are in the corrections institution.
Parent Help 123
Why Caring Communities Must Oppose C.R.A.C.K. by Lynn Paltrow
Books
To purchase a book, follow these links.
Birth as an American Rite of Passage 2004 by Robbie Davis Floyd. The author believes that unnecessary and harmful birthing procedures continue to be utilized because they help promote the values and beliefs of a culture that is focused on science and technology, rather then focused on the individuals science and technology is supposed to help.Buy from Amazon : Buy from Powells
Birth by Design, 2001 Raymond DeVries, Cecelia Benoit, Edwin van Teijlingen, Sirpee Wrede, eds. A collection of articles and essays about birth and society. Buy from Amazon : Buy from Powells
Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Infants First 2006 by Marsden Wagner. Written for fathers and mothers, this is a rare, behind-the-scenes look at what goes on in hospitals across the country. A longtime medical insider and international authority on childbirth assesses the flawed American maternity care system, powerfully demonstrating how it fails to deliver safe, effective care for both mothers and babies.Buy from Amazon  : Buy from Powells
Expecting Trouble: What Expectant Parents Should Know about Prenatal Care in American 2000 by Dr. Thomas Strong. This book calls into question many of the prevailing assumptions which have driven our country's maternity healthcare for decades. Buy from Amazon  : Buy from Powells
Giving Birth: A Journey into the World of Mothers and Midwives 2002 by Catherine Taylor. Catherine Taylor, a doula (birth assistant) and mother, offers observations of the working lives of midwives and the women who have depended on their skills and strength to help bring their children into the world. This is the perfect companion for parents-to-be and all professionals who are engaged in and witness to the miracle of birth.Buy from Amazon  : Buy from Powells
Hard Labor Reflections of an Obstetrical Nurse1996 by Susan Diamond. In prose that is frequently riveting and always interesting, Diamond, a childbirth instructor and obstetrical nurse, details the 10 years she spent as a labor and delivery nurse.Buy from Amazon :  Buy from Powells
The Medical Delivery Business: Health Reform, Childbirth, and the Economic Order 2003 by Barbara Bridgman Perkins. Explores the flaws in the business approach to maternity and health care. Buy from Amazon : Buy from Powells
A Woman in Residence 1993 by Michelle Harrison. A true story--based on diaries Dr. Michelle Harrison kept throughout her months of residency in OB/GYN--describes the serious and thrilling work of delivering new life into the world...and into Dr. Harrison's own struggle to reconcile the often startling difference between patient care and hospital convenience. Buy from Amazon : Buy from Powells
News Articles
What Women Aren't Told About Childbirth - posted 10-20-07 - Popular media outlets and advertisers would have women believe that labor and delivery happen in only one context: hospitals. When television shows, health magazines and films depict birth as a highly medicalized phenomenon that involves lots of screaming, a command to push and a baby before the next commercial break, it is no wonder that so few women in labor think to ask for more information when they are offered medical interventions. Or that so few are educated about natural childbirth.
Teens
Bristol Palin talks about her teen pregnancy. See the interview on Fox TV.
Crisis in the Crib: Saving Our Nation's Babies, a documentary by Tonya Lewis Lee
Black Maternal Health: A Legacy and a Future
http://www.ifoundme.org/black-maternal-health-a-legacy-and-a-future/
page update:
June 8, 2011
A grand adventure is about to begin.
-- Author:Winnie the Pooh
Feminist Women's Health Center |
|
