My essay is the featured piece on
Wild Violet Online Literary Magazine
. No, I don't have a third child. Just remembering back when...Read it, pass it on, thanks for your support!!!
So excited to have filmmaker Toni Harman coming to the International Cesarean Awareness Network’s (ICAN) Speaker Series. The date is set for November 21, 2013 @ 11am PST and 7pm UK Standard Time where Toni lives. To register, please email speakerhost (at) ican-online (dot) org (that’s me!). This speaker series is a membership benefit for ICAN members. Please join ICAN to attend this FREE event and support a “moms helping moms” organization all year long!
I'm so excited to have a writing piece of mine published with Literary Mama this morning. Would love your support with my writing passion. Please read and share!
What do you do when your family is hurt by what you’ve written? Thais Derich shares her experience in this guest post.
Today is my big interview with Ina May Gaskin. My intension is to stay present and centered and to provide her with a safe place filled with love and kindness so that she feels comfortable to share honestly with moms who have had a previous cesarean.
On May 14, 2013, Thais Derich from the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) speaks with Sara Lamm about her recently released film Birth Story. The interview took place online with voice and video for ICAN members.
So excited! Literary Mama, Winner of Writers Digest’s 101 Best Websites for Writers, has accepted a writing piece of mine. It will be published July 22. Great website for moms out there and even better for those moms who write! Thank you Elizabeth Stark for helping me get it to publishing quality, thank you to my family for putting up with me writing about them, and thank you to Karna Converse, Literary Mama Blog Editor, for publishing my piece.
Dawn Thompson, Cristen Pascucci, and Rebecca Dekker analyse the results from the Listening to Mother's Survey III. Information from Improving Birth....
The International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) is excited to announce the kickoff of its Speaker Series. Please join me as I interview Sara Lamm, Director (with Mary Wigmore) and co-producer of Birth Story on Tuesday, May 14, 2013.
I couldn’t remember if food was provided, so I packed an almond butter sandwich just in case. And then, I headed out on the curvy, redwood trimmed road up to Joyce’s house. I parked where she recommended since there'd be a fire drill on her street that day. The dirt lot was many houses down the hill from her house. I saw cars pull up and stop around the same time. It was early Saturday morning so I presumed that they had come for the same workshop. But instead of waiting, asking to be sure, and awkwardly striking up sleepy conversation, I walked alone up the shaded road.
Make some noise before cesareans are the norm and VBACs disappear altogether.
Want to take action ? Link to this article on your blog or Facebook page.
Find out if any of your local hospitals has a VBAC ban and if it does, push it to reverse its ban. Pressure your doctor or midwife to speak up for VBAC and for lowering the primary cesarean rate. Click on this link for ways to start making your views known to your elected officials. Or get involved with your local ICAN chapter or other birth advocacy group.
It’s Cesarean Awareness Month. Check out this interview with ICAN’s president:
Something about going to Berkeley made this really fun and comfortable. it wasn't at all odd to read from our books at the bustling Saturn Cafe in Berkeley. Another wonderful event put on by Elizabeth Stark and Angie Powers founders of the Book Writing World.
Lisa Epsteen’s baby boy was born healthy via cesarean section days after her doctor threatened to drag her to the hospital in handcuffs and put her four other children in child protective custody.
Ms. Epsteen knew the risks of delaying her cesarean and she made a choice to have her cesarean on a different day than what her doctor wanted. She weighed her doctor’s advice and also her own opinion. But Dr. Jerry Yankowitz, didn’t like her decision and tried to convince her otherwise in an email with threats of police and taking away her children.
Thank God! “Let nature take its course.” Amen. Although this is HUGE for ACOG and I thank them for making this statement, two things bother me. 1) There’s something uncomfortable about having an older, white male who hasn’t had a baby or breastfed hold the most political power over women’s reproductive health. 2) I really didn’t like what he said about women requesting cesareans as part of the problem. There was a study about this rumor done recently and although we’ve all heard it, it’s like a super, super small number of women. So small it isn’t worth mentioning at all. Strange to see it in this high profile statement.
ACOG is on fire this month. Thank you.
Me: The US is number #34 in the world below Cuba and South Korea in infant deaths, yet we spend way more money on hospitals and care. Could the over medicalization of birth in this country be contributing to the deaths our children?
My very special neighbor and friend, Kristin Richmond, and my dear friend in San Francisco, Amy Graff, made this list! This makes me very happy to have such authentic women and mothers on this list. Gives me hope.
"Overall, 13% (of pregnant women with a prior cesarean) had a trial of labor," reported Dr. Salmeen.
What's a trial of labor? In other words, your doctor allows you to try a normal birth rather than preemptively scheduling you for a repeat cesarean.
67% overall of those very few even allowed to try to give birth naturally were successful (doesn't include the successful vaginal births after a cesarean at home like mine).
Dr. Salmeen goes on to say "For hospitals that have policies against a trial of labor, or that are prohibitive in terms of a trial of labor, one category that can be viewed very differently is that of women with a history of previous vaginal birth."
In some select groups where vaginal births happened in the past the success rate for a vaginal birth after a cesarean was 90%!
Trial of labor after C-section uncommon, but often successful : OBGYN News
Save the Date for this
Online
Event:
May 14th at 5pm PST
.
Registration information to follow.
Sara
Lamm, Director (with Mary Wigmore) and co-producer of Birth Story joins us online in conversation with Thais Derich (ICAN's Speaker Series Host).
Sara
Lamm is a Los Angeles-based writer, director, and performer whose documentary film,
was released theatrically in 2007 and had its television premiere on The Sundance Channel. Her work has also appeared at MASS-MOCA, The American Visionary Art Museum, on Public Radio, and in performance venues throughout New York City. In 2010, she was one of 25 emerging artists recognized by AOL’s 25 for 25 grant. For five years she produced and performed in Dog & Pony, a live NYC variety show featuring sketch comedy and multi-media performance. She has two children, birthed with the help of an extraordinary midwife.
I’m giddy with excitement. I just spoke on the phone personally with Ina May Gaskin! Look for an interview on July 9, 2013 @ 5pm PST with Ina May through the ICAN Speaker Series! Free to ICAN members. Not a member? It’s easy to join online and you’ll be supporting a very important cause. The bigger the membership support, the louder the voice. Thank you!
Spent my Saturday learning to write opinion pages. Did you know that op-ed pieces are 80% white male? And the kicker is that it isn't because the editors are bias, it's because women and minorities aren't submitting.