Month: September 2018

Give For Good Louisville 2018

Me and Beckett, 12/12/2006.  He was about 10 minutes old here.  Photo by Kim Goldman.
Today is Give For Good Louisville 2018! 
 
I know there are tons of awesome deserving organizations out there to give to today. But this one is personal to me. Many of you know that Beckett was born at home (on purpose) with the help of one of my favorite people, Juliet Dietsch, Certified Professional Midwife. Home birth is not illegal in KY for parents; but midwives cannot get a license because the state stopped issuing them in the 70s. This means in most cases insurance won’t cover a CPM’s fee, hospitals and physicians will not work with midwives to transfer clients, and there is no safeguard for consumers. We don’t have licensure for CPMs and we don’t have birth centers. When the only choice is the hospital, no one chooses the hospital. Women are losing out.
 
Kentucky Home Birth Coalition is working to change all of that. Last year their bill to license midwives passed the KY House–in 2020 the goal is to make it through the Senate. Working to get a bill passed costs money, unfortunately–and that’s where we all come in as a community– to support CHOICE for women. Home birth is a safe option for low risk women & babies when they are supported by a qualified attendant. With licensure, we can assure that last piece and provide safe, qualified midwives for moms & babies. If you don’t want a home birth–that’s cool–but if you want women to have safe choices, awesome. That’s what it’s about.
 
 
So…if you need an organization to donate to…or you just want to do a favor for me…will you throw some money their way?? I’ll draw you a picture or sing you a song or something if you do. If you read this far you deserve some kind of award.

Birth Stories Wanted

One of my goals for this new site was to have a blog where women & families could share their birth stories.  Birth stories carry the power to help our culture move forward from the fear that paralyzes us.  If you know me you know my philosophy is “It’s the journey, not necessarily the destination.”  Sometimes the fear that women carry isn’t related to pain, or discomfort or a long labor–it’s “I hope this birth happens the way that I want it to.”  Maybe that’s a natural birth, avoiding induction, having a water birth–everyone has their own set of priorities.

One thing I have learned over the years is that there is a lesson in *every* story.  I know that a lot of people will assume that I only want natural birth stories, stories where everything was perfect and there are unicorns and rainbows.  And yes–I want those.  I think it’s important for women to know that sometimes labor starts, a baby is born and it can be normal, smooth and uncomplicated.  I’ve worked with many parents over the years who have told me that the first time they heard one of these stories was in my class.

I want to hear stories where the baby’s birth plan was different than the parents’,  where things veered off the path and met a fork in the road, where parents and care providers came together to make decisions that brought them closer to a healthy mom and a healthy baby.  I want to hear stories where women found strength and bravery they didn’t know they had.

There are a lot of stories out there that are timelines–this happened and then this happened and then this happened.  I want to know how this experience changed you and what you learned about yourself.   If you have a birth story and  wisdom to share–let’s hear it!  Here are the submission guidelines:

Give your story a title.  I didn’t earn that privilege–it’s your story.

Please include a short biography.  Tell us who you are, what you do, what you’re about.  Keep it simple, around 50 words.  This will be published at the end of your story.

Names of professionals:  please do not include the names of care providers.  Please use “my doula,” or “my OB,” etc.  If you have criticism to share, that’s okay–but don’t make it slanderous.  You don’t need to sugarcoat the experience, but think about it from this perspective–what do you want others to know?  What do you wish you knew?  What would you change if you could do things differently?

Photos are a must!  Please submit at least one, and if it’s a professional photo, I’ll need permission from your photographer before I can publish it on the site.  I’d love to have photos of mom actively laboring, pushing, in the OR,  immediately postpartum–yes please!

Editing:  I’ll fix spelling and major grammatical errors.  I may add paragraph breaks to make the story easier to read.   If I have questions or suggestions, I’ll contact you.  When you send your story, you give me permission to publish it.  I will not use it for any other purpose.

Send your story to angela AT birthlouisville DOT com.  Thank you for helping change the narrative (literally) about birth.