Monday, November 17, 2008

Blooma birth

We were delighted to see Sarah Longacre's "baby" - Blooma - featured in the Star Tribune yesterday. While many of us might dispute the amenities available in the hospitals described in the article given our cesarean experiences, overall the piece is a great testimony to what WE can do when we allow our bodies to birth.

Blooma is one of our Professional Members and a great friend to ICAN!

Read the article here.


Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Minnesota gets a "C" on pre-term births


The March of Dimes released it's national Premature Birth Report Card today. While the U.S. as a whole is getting a "D," Minnesota is only doing slightly better with a "C." Grades were assigned by comparing the states' pre-term birth rates to the national Healthy People 2010 objective of 7.6 percent of all live births.

The report card calls for several actions, including a voluntary evaluation by hospital leaders of all cesareans and labor inductions
that occur before 39 weeks gestation. According to the report card, "about 1 in 13 live births in Minnesota is late preterm (34-36 weeks gestation). The rise in late preterm births has been linked to rising rates of early induction of labor and c-sections."

To view the report card, click here. To sign the related petition, click here.

ICAN and You Can Too: Choosing a Homebirth After Cesarean Section

Cross-post from the ICAN Blog...

From Bellies to BirthCast:


Have widespread hospital bans on VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean section) made a repeat c-section your only hospital birth option? Did lack of access to VBAC make you choose a homebirth after cesarean section (HBAC)?

Pamela Udy, President of ICAN, the International Cesarean Awareness Network (www.ican-online.org), and a HBA2C mother herself, discusses why more women are choosing homebirth after cesarean section (HBAC) due to widespread hospital bans on VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean section).

Listen to Bellies to BirthCast Episode 1 or read the full interview transcript

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

VOTE!

Today's the day!

I was inspired to read this story of a very dedicated voter:

One woman had just given birth through Cesarean section at a nearby hospital. Instead of going home, her husband drove his wife and their new baby directly from the hospital to the Library, just so she could vote on the last day of early voting. She knew she couldn't come on Tuesday, so she stood in that line, just so that she could vote for Barack Obama. Her tiny, newborn baby stayed in the car with her husband; this woman was still wearing slippers from her hospital stay. She could barely walk in her condition, yet she waited stoically at the Model City Library to vote.

Now that's patriotism!