Birth-Media.com

The Good News and the Bad News About Giving Birth

vickielson — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:45:29 +0000

Check here for Vicki’s one page guide The Good News and the Bad News About Giving Birth

A Better Birth Plan

vickielson — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:45:24 +0000

A great birth plan isn’t just about what you WANT from your care providers. It’s about what you BRING to your birth.

A birth plan is best used as a tool for COMMUNICATION with your partner and your care providers, well before the baby is due.

And always, you will dance between PREPARING for the birth of your dreams and cultivating ACCEPTANCE of all outcomes.

Birth works best when you can… TRUST your body: do your research and practice your skills. TRUST your care providers: choose them carefully, communicate well.

Step 1. Develop SKILLS you will bring to your birth. How will you work with your body, your baby, and your partner to facilitate the baby’s journey, no matter how the baby is born? (Good skills can improve health and comfort in all situations, from a planned cesarean to a surprise on the bus.)

Step 2. Find out if your care provider already offers a birth planning worksheet.

Step 3. Use books, educators, websites, and other resources to complete the questionnaire “How Do You Feel About…” with your partner.

Step 4. Discuss both your skills and your preferences with your care provider. Discover any discrepancies between your preferences and their care protocols, and communicate prenatally until you have a mutual understanding. Again, the goal is to cultivate a mutually TRUSTING relationship. You may consider changing to a different provider, or you may consider revising your preferences.

Step 5. Write a concise Skills and Preferences note to be attached to your medical record and also kept in your birth bag. It should include what skills you BRING to the birth, what options you PREFER, and a statement of your willingness to ADAPT to changing circumstances.

How Do You Feel About…

Prenatal ultrasound
Prenatal genetic testing
Hospital birth, birth centers, home birth
What/who might help you in labor
Electronic fetal monitoring
Drugs like Pitocin to start or speed up labor
IV fluids
Vaginal exams in labor
Analgesics (drugs for pain) Anesthestics (like epidurals)
Moving around in labor
Episiotomy
Cesarean section
Cutting the umbilical cord (when? who?)
Skin-to-skin contact right after birth
Breastfeeding, bottlefeeding
Erythromycin ointment in baby’s eyes
Newborn Vitamin K and PKU testing
Newborn immunizations
Having the baby with you or in the nursery
How long to stay in the hospital
Circumcision

Four Local Birth Events in the next couple of weeks!

vickielson — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 18:32:18 +0000

9/25/11 “Meet the Doulas Day” at Cradle, 3rd Floor of Thorne’s Market, 150 Main Street, Northampton MA, 2 pm. www.greenriverdoulas.org

9/30/11 Authors’ Reading from “Home/Birth: A Poemic” at Neilson Library, Smith College, Northampton MA, 7 pm.

10/1/11 Events at The Springfield Pulse Gallery, 11 Pearl Street, Suite 230, Springfield MA. 2-5 pm: Birth Art Exhibit; 7-9 pm: Screening of “Laboring Under An Illusion: Mass Media Childbirth vs. The Real Thing” followed by a discussion with filmmaker Vicki Elson.

10/9/11 The Connecticut branch of the American College of Nurse Midwives is celebrating Midwifery Week in New Haven with workshops (CEU’s available) and a screening of “Laboring Under An Illusion: Mass Media Childbirth vs. The Real Thing,” 11am-3pm. CTmidwives@gmail.com for registration and information.

“Childbirth Education Essentials” workshop in Northampton, MA USA

vickielson — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:48:00 +0000

“Childbirth Education Essentials” workshop in Northampton, MA USA, November 19, 2011

This unique, intimate one-day workshop for childbirth professionals and students explores what expectant parents and their educators REALLY need to know about pregnancy, birth, cultural/media influences, fear-busting, baby-bonding, and raising healthy happy kids. It’s an immersion in skill-building: teaching experientially, tailoring classes to specific populations, encouraging parents to cultivate deep responsibility, resisting commercial co-optation, and transforming institutions. $150.

Participants may choose to complete the “Start Teaching” packet ($100, available at the workshop) to become Certified Childbirth Educators. This is a very thorough but quick and inexpensive path to certification. CEE is a small, grassroots program, and our CBE’s are encouraged to also explore larger organizations with more infrastructure.

The CEE workshop is offered in Massachusetts and California regularly, and around the world as requested.

Childbirth anthropologist Vicki Elson, MA, CCE, CD has been a doula and childbirth educator in her diverse community for 28 years. For the past 19 years, she has been training childbirth educators for ALACE (Association of Labor Assistants and Childbirth Educators), Seattle Midwifery School, the Prison Birth Project, and the Massachusetts Midwives’ Alliance. Her award-winning film, “Laboring Under An Illusion: Mass Media Childbirth vs. The Real Thing” is shown in classrooms, community centers, conferences, and living rooms around the world. Her second film, with the working title “What REALLY Works For Childbirth” is currently in production.

The intense experience of childbirth has the potential to change lives. Vicki believes that gathering with neighbors in a live class is much more helpful than learning about birth from the internet or TV. She is concerned about overuse of obstetrical interventions in some places, and about lack of access to needed interventions in others. She is enthusiastic about distributing useful and accurate information AND easing information overload. Her mission is to prevent trauma, cultivate love, empower women and parents, and have more fun.

More information can be found here at www.birth-media.com.

Vicki Elson, MA, CCE
www.birth-media.com

Hey World – Ignore Us!

vickielson — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:59:30 +0000

My film is a success around the world — and that’s a problem! “Laboring Under An Illusion: Mass Media Childbirth vs. The Real Thing” was made for North American audiences. But I get mail from Malaysia and Kenya and Kazakhstan, and it’s pretty relevant in those places too. The film includes 100 clips from U.S. TV shows and movies (plus a little Monty Python) contrasted with real births. The idea was for North Americans to see the contrast between the real, the fake, and the doctored “reality” shows, and make up their own minds about what reality they want to relate to. But we export our culture so globally that our overdramatized, undignified, and unrealistic birth images are everywhere. Message to the World: Please don’t trust Hollywood to teach you about your own most profound life and love events, your own body, your own capabilities. Ignore us!

Call for Participants

vickielson — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 02:36:28 +0000

I’m making a new film (the first one is “Laboring Under An Illusion: Mass Media Childbirth vs. The Real Thing,” www.birth-media.com). I’m looking for widely diverse interviewees — diverse not just in nationality, ethnicity, and class, but in experiences. Moms who used every trick they learned in childbirth education class, and moms who made up their own coping methods spontaneously. Moms who loved/hated their epidural/cesarean/induction/analgesic. Moms who got great/lousy care/support/respect. Moms who had unnecessary interventions, necessary interventions, not enough interventions. Moms who survived traumatic experiences or difficult outcomes. Ecstatic moms. Moms who learned something about themselves that they can carry throughout their lives. Teenagers, great-great-grandmas. Births in hospitals, homes, birth centers, Volkswagens, gardens, refugee camps, elevators.

I’ve already filmed a mom of 6 boys, a homebirth mom of an 11-pounder, and a hilarious actress. There are 100 survey responses so far. This is fun! I think the finished products (film plus website, maybe a book) will be extremely useful.

Please feel free to send interesting mamas (including yourself!) to my online/mail-in survey. Go to www.birth-media.com, and click on “Be part of the next film.” Thanks!

Vicki Elson, MA, CCE

www.birth-media.com

Outstanding Resources

vickielson — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:02:40 +0000

My films, script consultancy, and other stuff can be found here.

For links to my favorite online resources, books, and films, click here.

Quicker, easier, less expensive: Childbirth Educator Certification

vickielson — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:40:30 +0000

Hello! Want to become a certified childbirth educator, ready to teach prenatal classes?

Please visit this page!

One Day Workshop for Childbirth Professionals

vickielson — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:38:28 +0000

Hello, fellow childbirth professional!

Please visit Childbirth Education Essentials.

What do you REALLY need to know about having a baby?

vickielson — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:11:12 +0000

WHAT YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HAVING A BABY

A one-page guide by Vicki Elson, MA, CCE, www.birth-media.com

Think of a time when you amazed yourself.

A time when you did something you didn’t think you could do. Did you…

…climb a hill? move out? graduate? stand up for yourself? survive troubles?

Now, think about how you did that. Did you…

…have somebody nice to support you? take it one step at a time? have faith?

just do it? let instinct take over? just keep breathing? cry and keep going?

find a rhythm? laugh? sing? repeat words to yourself? invent a ritual?

soften your body? take a walk? take a shower or bath? be gentle with yourself?

Whatever helped you then might be a clue to what will work for you in labor.

Even if you plan to have an epidural, it’s a very good idea to figure out some ways to relax your body and mind and cope with pain, because:

Even with an epidural, you still have to work to push the baby out.

You might not get the epidural as soon as you want it.

Sometimes epidurals don’t work.

Even if the epidural is perfect, coping skills are great for life…life with kids!

You might find that you don’t need an epidural after all (it includes an IV & bladder catheter, & possibly longer labor, staying in bed, & potential side effects.)

Pain in labor is normal & healthy, even if it’s a totally unfamiliar new experience.

It comes in waves, with brief peaks and then longer painless moments.

Unlike other kinds of pain, there’s nothing to fix…and you get a prize at the end!

The stronger it is, the better it’s working. Stay curious about what’s happening.

Pain stimulates hormones that are good for labor and good for the baby.

You will discover – and remember – how strong and brave you really are.

Pain and suffering are not the same thing.

Pain is just physical sensation. Flow with it. Suffering comes from thoughts.

Suffering is thinking that it shouldn’t be how it is.

Suffering is worrying that it will get worse or go on forever.

Suffering is feeling guilty or blaming somebody.

For now, let your body be in charge of your mind. Stay curious!

Plan on these things:

Eat excellent food: colorful vegetables, wholesome proteins, whole grains. Sugar, grease, & white bread taste good but don’t nourish you or your baby.

Choose midwives or doctors who respect you and your wishes for labor.

Bring a nice labor companion to support you: partner, friend, relative, doula.

In consultation with your care providers, try to avoid interventions when they are not medically necessary. Learn the risks and benefits of: inducing labor, IV, continuous electronic fetal monitoring, drugs for pain, epidural anesthesia, pitocin, amniotomy, episiotomy, cesarean.

Stay upright and moving around as much as you can throughout labor.

Pushing: Don’t lie on your back. Follow your body’s urge to push.

Keep your baby with you, skin to skin with blankets on top, and breastfeed.

Get lots of help and support after the baby is born, and always.

Enjoy your baby! Unconditional love from parents is the gift that lasts forever.

See also: “What REALLY Works For Labor?” blog and project.