Conference downloads on sale

All downloads from AAMI's 2008 Trust Birth Conference and the Helping Hands Conference are on sale through the end of December. This is a fantastic way to listen to speakers you've always wanted to hear. Some of the ones I'd really like to get:

• Heather Cushman-Dowdee (aka Hathor the Cow Goddess, aka Mama-Is): Telling Our Stories
• Pamela Hines-Powell: More of Them, Less of Me
• Why Women Stay Home Alone: Panel Discussion (I was on this and would like to have a recording of it for dissertation/book writing purposes).
  
• Rachel Correa: Stella's Life and Stillbirth

If I had to choose only one, it would be, hands down, Rachel Correa's talk about the stillbirth of her first baby. I can't even try to describe it so I will just say listen to it yourself. While she was speaking--about the stillbirth of her daughter Stella, about other parents of stillborn children, about her three other children's births--she showed photographs of these births and babies, of her family, of her grieving and healing process. If you buy this download, I'd recommend contacting Rachel about obtaining a copy of her Powerpoint to go along with her talk. I have no idea if she'd be willing to share the pictures, but I think the presentation is not complete without the images. She used my laptop during the presentation, so I am lucky to still have the slideshow on my computer.

Read more ...

The conference...

There's so much to say, so I am going to do some copying & pasting from my journal so I don't have to type it out twice...

I was really busy getting ready for the conference, and then at the conference I had the misfortune of being sick the whole time. So back to last Tuesday: I flew to LA and then took a bus to Bakersfield to visit my aunt & uncle before the conference. I had a great time visiting. The weather was beautiful, it was sunny, we went in the hot tub every day and played at a nearby park on Wednesday. Anyway by Wednesday night I was feeling feverish and sick. And it got worse and worse. Bleh. It also didn't help that I had no appetite so I was so weak by the end that I felt like i was going to faint on Sunday. I had a lot of healthy food but had no desire to eat it.

We drove down to Redondo Beach on Thursday afternoon and made pretty good time except Zari puked 3 times and we had to stop to clean her up. It must have been motion sickness, I think, because she didn't feel feverish at all. I went in the hot tub with Zari that evening and had a great time before we settled into bed. I woke up several times during the night, partly from feeling so achy and hot, and partly from thinking about my presentations.

Friday Morning
At the opening general session on Friday morning, Carla Hartley gave a short intro and then it was my turn. I gave a presentation about "Intuition as Authoritative Knowledge" and got lots of good feedback from it afterwards. Sarah Buckley spoke next about the hormones of birth--nothing entirely new if you've read her book, but it was informative to hear her speak.

The last morning speaker in the general session was Rachel Correa from New Zealand. It was phenomenal. She shared the story of the stillbirth of her first baby, Stella--from finding out that her baby was dead when her midwife first came over during labor, to living with her baby's body for a few days before the cremation. She shared a video of her and the baby immediately after the birth, where she's stroking her baby and caressing her body. It was so touching and of course heart-breaking. She talked about how she didn't want Stella's memory to always be about "the baby who died." She has three more children now, all born at home. Anyway I would highly recommend buying a download of her presentation; it'll be available soon at the AAMI store.

Friday Afternoon
1) Shoulder dystocia panel with Gail Hart, Dana Combest, Sheehan Ednie-Rosen,
Patricia Ann Edmonds, & Jan Tritten. It was very interesting but, for someone who is not a practicing birth attendant, very technical.
2) "Ask Dr. John" session. Dr. John Stevenson is a physician who has attended over 1,300 home births in Australia and was deregistered by the Australian OB association for doing so. He had a 3% transport rate and a 1.5% c/s rate. He was quite soft-spoken and very unassuming. It was great to hear his wisdom.

Friday Evening
We had a much-needed break before dinner. I organized an informal hot tub get-together with Pamela Hines-Powell, Linda Hessel, Lennon Clark, Gail Hart, and more. Then it was off to the Trust Birth Awards Dinner. At the dinner, Ricki Lake spoke briefly before she left for a friend's birthday party. Poor Zari had to stay up till it was over at 10 pm because I just couldn't get her back to sleep with all the talking. There were lots of awards, and then Michel Odent spoke about dispelling the disempowering birth vocabulary. He brought up a lot of new information in the first half of his presentation about the origins of the words we use around birth and how the language of the natural childbirth movement has substituted one set of disempowering vocabulary with another--especially the idea that women need to be taught or coached how to breathe, how to act, and how to give birth. Another download I need to buy!

Saturday morning sessions:
Prenatal Testing and Ultrasound by Sarah Buckley. I was glad I had recently read Testing Women, Testing the Fetus by Rayna Rapp. It looks at the social impact of amniocentesis and is a very fascinating read.

Postdates Babies presentation by Gloria Lemay, who is a very funny speaker. I do wish we'd had more info on the studies used to support or disprove some of how mainstream medicine treats post-dates babies. The presentation was more about her first-hand experiences with post-dates babies. She did reference one study, "Nonsensus Consensus"* which I read a few years ago, so I'll need to go back and re-read it.

Lunch in my room with Linda & Pamela!

Saturday afternoon sessions:
Physiologic Pushing Panel with Karen Strange, Gloria Lemay, and Heather Brock: it was interesting and enjoyable, but basically all stuff I already knew.

Then I gave my "Safety, Risk & Responsibility" presentation. It was well-attended and I was happy with how it turned out. There was a medical student present who's starting her OB residency next fall. Let's just say that she was very brave to sit through all of the critiques of the obstetrical model during the conference! We chatted a bit after the session, and I got her contact information.

Saturday Evening
Dinner break, then I participated on the panel about "Why women stay home--alone." It was a fantastic discussion. There were about 8 panelists; we briefly told our stories and then had an amazing discussion with the attendees. There were a lot of midwives present who really wanted to help, who wanted to know what UCers wanted out of midwives. It was probably the most energizing of all the sessions for me personally.

We formed a new Yahoo group that is specifically for bridging the gap between unassisted birth and midwifery. Please join if you are interested in participating in this discussion! It's called Sisters For Birth Freedom.

Sunday morning:
I was a few minutes late to my "Childbirth in Cinema" presentation because I forgot to set my clock ahead for DST. Feeling a little sheepish about that one...But it was fun nevertheless.

Then I went to Sarah Buckley's 3 B's of Mother-Baby Bliss, but I missed a lot of it because Zari was noisy. I'll have to buy a download of her presentation once it becomes available.

Sunday Afternoon:
I was the first speaker at the closing general session, and my presentation was about moving beyond the medical/midwifery models. Then there was an amazing presentation about getting our message out using multimedia by ICAN Publications Director Laureen Hudson. Another download I need to buy! Carla wrapped things up and then they did the drawings for prizes.

Sunday Evening
I went to the straggler's dinner that night and chatted a lot with Sarah Buckley and Laura Shanley. Lots of fun!

Overall I noticed two recurring themes at the conferences: the importance of intuition and the power of language to shape reality.

I thought I'd have a lot more time to chat between sessions and in the evenings (you know, girl talk / birth talk kind of stuff) but it was incredibly busy the whole time. There were so many people who I wanted to talk with more but didn't have enough time. We need a conference just for getting together and meeting each other!

*Menticoglou SM and Hall PF. "Routine induction of labour at 41 weeks gestation: nonsensus consensus." BJOG 2002;109:485-91.

Read more ...

More about the Trust Birth Conference!

The Trust Birth Conference is less than a month away! Sagefemme recently wrote about what it means for her to trust birth. It is a powerful look at herself and how she relates to birth.

For those of you who wanted to come, but the cost of the conference was keeping you away, Carla Hartley created a Mommy Track that will allow you to attend many of the sessions at a greatly reduced rate!

If there is no way you can come in person, remember that you can purchase downloads of most of the sessions afterwards! Here is more detailed information from Carla about how to earn download "credits" and other ways to participate in the conference:

If you are absolutely sure you can't join us at The Trust Birth Conference...

...we are so sad that you won’t be with us. I am hoping for a miracle and that everyone who WANTs to come finds a way, as this will not ever ever ever happen again. And this is my last conference and probably my last chance ever to get to meet most of you. So I am still holding out that you can get here. When I was going back and forth and back and forth about going to The Gentle Birth Conference last fall, I kept arguing with myself about the cost and the time, but at the last minute I emailed Barbara and said I will register when I get there and started driving.

I had not been in the Convention Center 10 minutes when I felt my spirit jumping for joy. It was so great to see people I had not seen in years and to meet so many people (some of you) who I only knew by email. I did not get to stay for the whole thing but I can tell you it was one of the best decisions I ever made, even if it was so last minute. Yes, I am still paying that trip off on my credit card but it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO worth every penny. And I ALMOST didn’t go. I would have hated to miss is. I learned things there I did not expect to learn. I was floating by Saturday night on collective birth wisdom. It was not political, as ours is not political. No one had an ax to grind or an agenda to push. It was just relaxing and invigorating at the same time, as the Trust Birth Conference will be. I am not trying to HOUND anyone. I just don’t want you to miss it is there is any way in the world you can come....

And it was ONE late email from someone about the Gentle Birth Conference that had me say WHY NOT? So I am so glad they sent out another round.

You may not be able to be here but I am SURE you will all be ordering downloads after the conference. We are giving you a way to earn some of those if you help us these last 3 weeks:
For every $100 in value you bring in for us, we will give you a voucher for a session download.

Send us a registration--that is, get a friend to register for the conference ($499) and have her email carla@trustbirth.com saying to give you credit, and we will give you a voucher for 5 downloads. If you get two registrations we will give you double for each subsequent registration. So send 2 registrations and we give you 15 downloads. Send us 3 and we give you 25 downloads...4 for 35 downloads! (This is only valid for those who pay $499 for registration, not retroactive or combinable with any other offers.)

Sell 2 half-page ads ($50 each) for the conference binder and we will give you a voucher for one download.

And get more downloads for other things: For example, if you send us one donor level donation for the Trust Birth Awards dinner at $99 you get one download. If the donor is not able to actually attend the dinner ,we will throw in one more as a compensation. Remember that the donor will have their name and website listed in the congratulatory ad on the back cover of Midwifery Today #86 so for $99 this is a phenomenal offer.

We want 100 Dinner Donors so the ad looks great. We are honoring 10 people; I want them to know that at least 100 people support that! (Right now it is just the Trust Birth Initiative and Lansinoh...don’t you want to be there too?) This is a value packed opportunity for your groups and organizations.

Here is my suggestion for local groups: Get 10 people to pitch in $10, then draw from those 10 names to see who gets the free download/s. This congratulatory back cover ad will be VERY EFFECTIVE for you. If you are a birth-related business or organization, you will never find a place where $99 will work so hard for you as this one. Lots of people will see it who might not ordinarily see Midwifery Today ads as we are framing it for our 10 recipients. This is a phenomenal opportunity to be part of something that will have significant meaning to a lot of people and give your group or business exposure for a long time.

About the dinner: some of the awards are surprises, and some of the honorees won’t be able to be there, but you do know we are honoring Ricki Lake, Dr. John Stevenson and Dr. Michel Odent who are all supposed to be there! Michel is also our keynote speaker: "Dispelling the Disempowering Birth Vocabulary."

Read more ...

Why Come to The Trust Birth Conference, by Sarah Buckley

Carla Hartley, director of Ancient Art Midwifery Institute, has brought together an amazing group of speakers who are not only passionate and articulate, but who are at the forefront of knowledge and activism.

At the Trust Birth conference you will be inspired and informed, with practical ideas that you can take back to your own community and professional work.

Be informed by the hard evidence from Henci Goer, whose ability to summarize and critique the medical studies is among the best in the world.

Be challenged by Michel Odent, who asks if humanity can survive our current obstetric practices.

Be trusting of birth and its safety for mother and baby, as Sarah Buckley gives you the medical evidence and the amazing hormonal story of why birth is safe and intervention is risky.

Be nourished in your practice by Jan Tritten, editor of the wonderful magazine Midwifery Today who will share ‘The wisdom of the grandmothers’: what midwives all over the world know about the safety, sacredness and importance of birth.

Be entertained by Heather Cushman-Dowdee, aka Hathor the Cowgoddess, whose antics have given a laugh and a dose of sanity to mamas all over the world.

Be inspired by Debby Takikawa and her film What Babies Want, which distills the evidence for gentle treatment of babies – and support for parents.

Be moved by Rachel Correa, whose profound story of homebirth and stillbirth was a highlight of the recent Australian Homebirth Conference.

Be activated by Heather Brock’s workshop on getting our post-birth bodies in shape, including our pelvic floor and abdominals. (They must be here somewhere!)

Be educated outside the box with midwife Gail Hart’s workshop as she discusses whether Gestational Diabetes is a scare tactic or a legitimate concern.

Be amazed by Lennon Clark as she describes the ability of babies to communicate their elimination needs, which can eliminate the need for diapers and help save the earth!

Be pushed in your ideas around pushing in labor, as a panel of midwives discusses the “P’ word: is is useful, and whether our bodies can do it for themselves.

Be immunized against false information on immunization, as Kristi Zittle shares wisdom about the risks of immunization and the benefits of natural immunity

Be compassionate as you hear the lovely Marcy Axness shares stories, research and soul perspectives on post natal depression.

Be expanded in your mind and pelvis as Gloria Lemay shares her amazing pelvic perspective, in "Pelvises I have known and loved” (based on one my all-time favourite articles).

Be safe or not: what does safety in birth mean, and how does it apply to birth choices? Join Rixa Freeze who is writing her PhD on the unassisted birth movement.

Be adventurous and discover more about why women stay at home alone, choosing unassisted birth. Panel with Rixa and other freebirth advocates and mamas.

Be thrilled to meet some of your heroes and heroines in the birth movement.

Don’t forget to bring your books for signing, or buy copies at the conference!

Be reinvigorated when you leave, filled with wisdom and inspiration to continue the important--perhaps the most important--work for mothers, babies, fathers and families everywhere.

Read more ...

Guess who's coming?

...to the Trust Birth Conference?

Just added to the list of presenters: Hathor the Cowgoddess!!! (aka Heather Cushman-Dowdee).

Read more ...

Join me at the Trust Birth Conference

I will be one of the 30 speakers at the Trust Birth Conference next March in Redondo Beach, CA. It is sponsored by Carla Hartley, founder and director of the Ancient Art Midwifery Institute. I am so excited to speak!!

I don't have an official program yet, but speakers include Dr. Michel Odent, Dr. John Stevenson (a homebirth physician in Australia), Gail Hart, Dr. Sarah Buckley, Gloria Lemay, Henci Goer, and Sheila Stubbs.

For more information, email carla @ ancientartmidwifery.com.

Read more ...