Special Delivery

I recently read the newest issue of ALACE's journal Special Delivery. They reprinted an essay from Jeannie Babb Taylor called "May, 2052" that I had read before when it made the rounds via the internet (it is about birth in the future and is told from the perspective of a grandmother who gave birth in 2007, sharing with her granddaughter how birth was "back in the day" and the granddaughter being shocked by how horrible the birth climate was to women in the "old days" of 2007). However, I was struck afresh by the power of the closing lines (when discussing how/why things finally changed):

“We insisted on dignity. We did not let doctors push us into inductions or surgeries just to accommodate their schedules. Women who still used hospitals refused the wheelchair and the gown that were presented at check-in. Women refused to be starved, or to have their veins punctured with unnecessary IVs. Mothers refused to let doctors break their waters or insert electronic monitors in the baby’s scalp. When we pushed our babies into the world with our own fierce power, then we refused to let them out of our sight.”

...“Eventually even the medical community came to recognize that birth is an act of motherhood, not an act of medical science. Today a laboring woman is not regarded as a body on a table, as if she and the baby needed some doctor to ‘deliver’ them from each other. Today women are honored as life-bringers.”
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Recognize that birth is an an act of motherhood, not an act of medical science. This is the truth! Goes along with the "disease of the uterus" mindset I discussed earlier....

Special Delivery

On Monday, I was delighted to get a little package from ALACE containing four copies of the newest issue of their journal Special Delivery. My birth story about Z's birth was published in this issue, titled Birthing With Intensity. I am so utterly thrilled about this! I am a writer! I've known this since I was a little girl and wrote "The Blue Book" when I was six, but haven't "claimed" it until this very year. I also got the most recent FoMM newsletter, of which I am editor. Of course, I noticed several typos right away and one article has some funky font things going on that were not my fault--I think it must have happened when the file was converted to a pdf. I think overall it is a nice issue though and I'm pleased with it. I hope I receive a lot of contributions for the summer issue as well!

ALACE Labor Assistant Program

Last Thursday, I was thrilled to get the ALACE Labor Assistant training and certification program manual in the mail (I wasn't sure if they would mail be anything prior to the actual training or not and July seems like a long way away). I read the whole thing cover to cover right away, of course. I'm very excited. For someone who has said many times that she doesn't want to be a doula, I'm really looking forward to this training!

Special Delivery

Last week, I also got and read Special Delivery, the journal of ALACE. I am so excited about our newly scheduled ALACE doula training in our area July 13-15! :-) I also read my first issue of Citizens for Midwifery News (I joined quite some time ago, but haven't heard much from them, so I was excited to get this. It was the Summer 2006 issue).