Bring Birth Home TV Episode 3 Recording: Featuring Abby Epstein
Having Abby on Abby Epstein on Bring Birth Home TV was incredible!
She answered each of the many questions with such confidence, and yet she seemed just like one of the gals! What a great night.
In case you missed the show, or want to watch it again, here is the recording!
0 CommentsAbby Epstein on Bring Birth Home TV TONIGHT!
I am so (beyond) excited to speak with Abby Epstein on Bring Birth Home TV tonight.
Like get outta town! excited.
Abby is awesome. Seriously – she is someone I admire.
I love the work she has done with Ricki Lake as director of The Business of Being Born. I love Your Best Birth, which the two co-authored, and More Business of Being Born is a great way to pull all the information together missing from their first film.
My fabulous co-host, Gena Kirby and I will be speaking with Abby on Bring Birth Home TV tonight, Wednesday February 22, 2012 at 9:30 PM EST.
Here is the link to our show. Click “Join Event,” create a free account and you can participate live on the show. This means you can both chat with the three of us, and ask Abby questions directly, using the cool “Ask a Question” feature. Neato!
I look forward to seeing you there!
0 CommentsSoul Sunday: Kaitlin Rose Music
Before home birth, my thing was music.
Music was my thing.
It all began the summer of 2001.
I would be turning 16 that August, and I was bored. Couldn’t drive. It was
so hot outside. And I didn’t feel like swimming again.
So I asked my mom about her guitar. “Do you still have that old guitar?”
“In the hallway closet,” she replied.
I taught myself how to play her guitar that day.
Well, I’m still playing, just over 10 years later.
And although most of my time these days is filled with babies,
home birth support and cleaning this house, I still love playing my guitar.
I’ve created a Kaitlin Rose music page.
Like if it you want to know more about my other passion (there is a poll
to answer when you get there).
Bring Birth Home TV | Episode 2 Recording: Featuring Karen Brody
Karen Brody was a joy to speak with.
She is helping so many women and families through her work with BOLD, Birth the play, and Fear to Freedom childbirth preparation. Watch our conversation below. I was blown away by her kindness, concern and massive action.
BBH TV, Home Birth Advocacy, Pregnancy
2 CommentsValentine For a Midwife
a guest post by Denee
To my midwife.
I thought and prayed long and hard before I choose to deliver my baby at home.
My hubby was from the approach of not being sure that home birth was safe and was worried about ‘what if’ something were to go wrong. I pressed on, reading many books and searching for as much information as I could gather to make sure we were making the right decision.
Than I called you.
You were so kind from the get-go and you allowed the choice to birth at home to remain ours; you never pressured us and that meant so much. You just let the process be and that made me realize that we were the ones making the decision-not because someone else was telling us this was how it should be.
You listened to me and were genuinely interested about my well-being.
There was never a time when I needed to call you that I felt I was inconveniencing you or wasting your time. You left all the decisions up to me in the end-from if I felt like giving the ‘tinkle’ sample,to if I wanted to have my blood pressure taken or my baby measured.
Sure, most of these things probably needed to be done occasionally, but you never made it ‘protocol’ or treated me as if I was ill.
You were so gentle when you’d measure my belly and feel my baby.
It always seemed as if you really looked forward to meeting our baby as much as we did-and that influenced my feelings about you substantially.
Your visits were something I looked forward to.
Unlike my previous providers who insisted on examining me every appointment in the 9th month, you made it an option if that’s what I wanted…and surprisingly I never really wanted to. I understood that my body didn’t need to run on a clock and that it would do what it needed to when it was suppose to.
You always were so nice when you came into our home; you always greeted our other children and asked how they were doing-even though they ran off with your urine test strips a time or two!
One thing that meant so much to me was how you would always tell me that I was glowing,and how I looked so beautiful pregnant….I believed you.
Even though I was big and sore and heavy, I truly was made to feel amazing and beautiful.
You encouraged me and told me I would do splendid-never offering a hint of anything less than belief in me, my body and our birth.
The day I called you telling you I’d been having contractions, the words you spoke were nothing but compassionate and there was certainty in your voice that I was competent to know what my body was doing.
You did everything I needed during my short labor.
You offered to be as involved as I wished-or as hands off as I preferred in order to give me the privacy I might desire.You never insisted I be subject to prodding or exams,and you were considerate of letting me birth the way my body instinctually knew how.
When I was in the most intense phase of my labor, you were there putting cool washcloths on my body and quietly encouraging me.
My birth experience was beyond words.
I felt so empowered and it was far above my expectations-I never thought I could feel so much love and caring during my birth.
For everything from the visits before Jacobi was born, to his birth and then all the postpartum visits and phone calls, it was amazing to have you as my midwife and I will forever be grateful.
Thank you for devoting your life and your heart to guiding families through this life changing event. Because of providers like you, birth works!
Love,
Denee
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Karen Brody, Playwright of BIRTH, Founder of BOLD
Karen Brody is a writer, activist, mother, founder of BOLD, author and playwright of Birth, a realistic portrayal childbirth.
I have the extreme pleasure 
of speaking with Karen this Wednesday, February 15th on Bring Birth Home TV at 9:30 PM EST – join the event.
This blog post is dedicate to getting to know Karen; all of her wonderful accomplishments and the work she is doing to support and educate women about childbirth.
Karen’s journey began in 2003.
She began interviewing women to hear their birth stories. So many responses came in, she had two, sometimes three phone interviews per day and still didn’t get to everyone who wanted to share.
Then began the arduous task of selecting stories for her book – only eight of them.
She describes the selection process: “That was the hardest part — choosing only eight. An impossible task. What about women who give birth to stillborn babies at seven months? Birth from a blind woman’s perspective? Women who give birth in prisons? Some birth stories had to be dropped. I chose the most typical ones I heard; the most common themes. Namely: epidurals, cesareans and natural births.”
Karen chose the stories of low-risk, educated women to depict childbirth in the developed world.
Birth the play has been performed around the globe, and translated into several different languages.
“The ‘Vagina Monologues’ of birth.”
- Dr. Christiane Northrup, author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom
About BOLD
The goal with BOLD is to make maternity care more mother friendly, and to inspire communities to organize local productions of Birth.
BOLD stands for Born On Labor Day, as the first event kicked off on Labor Day and through the month of September. These days, BOLD is a year long event and has raised over one million dollars for pregnant women, teens, VBAC organizations, doula programs and independent organizations.
Join my fabulous co-host Gena and I this Wednesday on Bring Birth Home TV as we speak with Karen about Birth, BOLD, and the creation of her newest venture, FEAR to FREEDOM, offering birth facilitator certification and childbirth preparation.
Sign up for a Vokle account, (it’s free!) to watch and participate during our Wednesday event, and all other upcoming BBH TV shows!
BBH TV, Home Birth Advocacy, Pregnancy
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