The Luncheon is a week away!

I'm so excited - the Open Arms Spring Luncheon is a week away, our program is set and it will be a great event! The reservations have been pouring in - we have seen wonderful response! There's still room though, so if you'd like to come and hear more about our work at Open Arms, the larger context in which we work and why this work is so important to our community, please come and join us. Suggested donation is $100.

Details are here: Open Arms Luncheon

If you can't make it on Wednesday to the luncheon but are interested in learning more about Open Arms, we'll be at the Grand Opening of Educare in White Center on Saturday, March 27 at 1:00 PM and you can come talk with us as well as see the brand new Educare Center. Details are available here.

If none of that works, email us and we'll be happy to meet with you for coffee or other to talk with you!

And for those of you going to the luncheon - find me (Peggy Fitzgerald) and say hi! I'd love to meet some of you who are reading along!

Coping skills for parenting

Sarah Pulliam, one of our board members, sent me this article from KIRO News on March 4th:

Prosecutor: Mom Drugged Daughter Because She Was Cranky

Sarah writes:

The article is a bit dramatic but the reality is that when parents with few internal resources get frustrated with their infants, outcomes are scary—in this case there are additional risk factors such as substance abuse and family violence, but that is not always the case. A reminder of why mobilizing supports in the first months of life might prevent parents from making these choices later...

One of those resources could be information about exactly how dangerous it is to give such substances to children and infants ... here is a CDC flyer talking to parents about the dangers of giving prescription and non-prescription medications to children.

At the same time Sarah was noticing this article, I saw this in the news:

Day care workers charged with drugging tots: Women charged with slipping dietary supplements into candy

Kudos to vigilant parents who noticed and put a stop to it, rather than assuming all was ok.

Languages correction

I said before that Open Arms has doulas that can serve women in six different languages - I reported that incorrectly.

Our doulas speak SEVEN languages:

English
French
Spanish
Portugese
Somali
Arabic
Japanese

Amnesty International again: "Maternal health is a human right"

Just received this from our Executive Director, Sheila Capestany:

Please read this. While Open Arms is working hard to ensure that women get the support they need before, during and in the weeks following the birth of their babies, we all have to start looking at systemic change in this country.

Amnesty International - Take Action Now (2 things we can do right now to combat preventable maternal deaths)

And, on top of the appalling lack of care cited by Amnesty International, the 2008 Report on Injury and Violence Prevention for Maternal and Child Health states "homicide is a leading cause of death in pregnant and postpartum women in the United States." A leading cause of death for pregnant women in the United States is PEOPLE KILLING THEM. This is profoundly unacceptable and deeply offends our humanity.

Quote for the Day

"If we hope to create a non-violent world where respect and kindness replace fear and hatred, we must begin with how we treat each other at the beginning of life. For that is where our deepest patterns are set. From these roots grow fear and alienation - or love and trust."

-Suzanne Arms

Ah ha - here's the NIH report we've been waiting for!

Thanks to Julia G. for posting this on Facebook - the NIH did indeed conclude after their conference that VBAC's were "reasonably safe" and should be more available.

The Seattle Times covered it, but they buried it in the middle of a news story.

Natural birth can follow Caesarean (it's the second headline in the article so scroll down)

Here are more details from the NIH press release that came out yesterday just after the conference ended.

Panel Questions "VBAC Bans," Advocates Expanded Delivery Options for Women

They say in the press release:

The panel will hold a press telebriefing to discuss their findings (...) Audio playback will be available shortly after conclusion of the telebriefing, by calling 1-888-632-8973 (U.S.) or 201-499-0429 (International) and entering replay code 56036507.

Anyone want to listen to the playback and report back?

You can also look at the NIH panel statement NIH Consensus Development Conference on Vaginal Birth After Cesarean: New Insights.

From the conclusions section, I noticed this:

Information, including risk assessment, should be shared with the woman at a level and pace that she can understand. When both TOL and ERCD are medically equivalent options, a shared decisionmaking process should be adopted and, whenever possible, the woman’s preference should be honored.

What I like about this is the statement that a women's preference should be honored. There are plenty of stories like this and then there's the risk of a court order requiring a c-section, so I'm glad to see the NIH take the stand that women indeed can and should have input and the final decision on how to birth.

However, I don't think this will change anything overnight. It remains to be seen how doctors will interpret "medically equivalent options" and whether the legal ramifications (in terms of lawsuits) for not doing c-sections will remain barriers to women's choice. But it's a step in the right direction.

I'll end this with these words from the NIH panel statement:

We are concerned that medico-legal considerations add to, as well as exacerbate, these barriers. Policymakers, providers, and other stakeholders must collaborate in the development and implementation of appropriate strategies to mitigate the chilling effect of the medico-legal environment on access to care.

Bilingual doulas

Did you know that Open Arms is able to serve women in six different languages?