Film screening!

Please join the BirthNetwork Chicago for a film screening on February 20 at 3:00 p.m.

We will be showing two films, Laboring Under an Illusion and It’s My Body, My Baby, My Birth.

From the Laboring Under An Illusion website:

Anthropologist Vicki Elson explores media-generated myths about childbirth. As a childbirth educator for 25 years, she observes daily how our culture affects our birth experiences. In this film, she contrasts fiction with reality. The result is hilarious, engaging, and enlightening.

From the Citizens for Midwifery website: a DVD Review of It’s My Body, My Baby, My Birth

The primary focus of this film is answering the question, “why natural childbirth?” It is not a birth movie per se. There is no actual birth footage, though there are several clips of the women in labor (naked) and of newly born babies. In this way, the film is a good introduction to the beauty and power of birth, without overwhelming a novice viewer with intense crowning sequences. The film would be a great one to have on hand for a husband who perhaps does not want to see other women giving birth, but who wants to understand why his own wife wants this.

Following the films, we are hosting a discussion panel with local midwives and doulas. The screening is being hosted by Mother Me, Inc. 3717 N. Ravenswood Suite 213. There is a suggested donation of $10. We hope to see you there!

No Sept. meeting

The BirthNetwork Chicago will not be hosting a September meeting.

Sorry for the last-minute notice.

Garage Sale Fundraiser!

Please support the BirthNetwork Chicago by visiting our garage sale. We will be having the sale at 4440 N. Kedzie in a garage off of the alley. High chair, swing, treadmill, girls and boys clothing, books, toys… and lots lots more! We will also be selling our buttons for a $1!

September 12, 2009

8 am to noon

September Book Club: Birth, The Surprising History of How We Are Born by Tina Cassidy

Join the BirthNetwork Chicago for a discussion of Tina Cassidy’s Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born.We meet at 7:00 p.m. at The Book Cellar in Lincoln Square. Please email us and let us know if you plan to attend so that we can reserve enough chairs.

The book is a fascinating overview of the history of human birth. It is a very quick read and has many engaging anecdotes. Please note that there are some graphic descriptions of obstetrical procedures, some of which end tragically.

From Entertainment Weekly:

What’s more natural than childbirth, right? Birth, Tina Cassidy’s examination of how evolution, culture, and technology have long meddled in the birth process shows just how unnatural it can sometimes seem. Due to the shape of human pelvises and big-headed babies, childbearing is painful. Add man’s attempt to ”help” and it gets even trickier. ”What is state of the art one year is outmoded and unfathomable the next, leaving us to laugh at the hocus-pocus…or recoil in horror at the damage done.” Though Cassidy’s well-researched and engaging account is not for the faint of heart (craniotomies and placenta cocktails, anyone?), it’s a clever, almost reverent look at an enduring everyday miracle.

August Meeting: VBACs

Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC)

Vaginal birth is the normal biological consequence of pregnancy, whether or not the mother has a prior cesarean. You deserve the information about the risks of vaginal birth and elective cesarean so that you can make the healthiest choice possible for you and your baby.

Drinks & snacks provided. As always, children are welcome.Meetings are always free. Can’t wait to see you there!

Monday, August 24, 2009

6:30 p.m.

Welles Park, across from the gazebo
2333 W.  Sunnyside Ave

Questions: Kim 630-728-3357

August Book Club

For our August Book Club, the Birth Network Chicago will be reading The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth.

The BNC Book Club meets on Friday August 14 at 7:00 p.m. at The Book Cellar in Lincoln Square. Please send us an email if you plan to come so that we know how many tables to reserve.

From Publishers Weekly:

Worth gained her midwife training in the 1950s among an Anglican order of nuns dedicated to ensuring safer childbirth for the poor living amid the Docklands slums on the East End of London. Her engaging memoir retraces those early years caring for the indigent and unfortunate during the pinched postwar era in London, when health care was nearly nonexistent, antibiotics brand-new, sanitary facilities rare, contraception unreliable and families with 13 or more children the norm. Working alongside the trained nurses and midwives of St. Raymund Nonnatus (a pseudonym she’s given the place), Worth made frequent visits to the tenements that housed the dock workers and their families, often in the dead of night on her bicycle. Her well-polished anecdotes are teeming with character detail of some of the more memorable nurses she worked with, such as the six-foot-two Camilla Fortescue-Cholmeley-Browne, called Chummy, who renounced her genteel upbringing to become a nurse, or the dotty old Sister Monica Joan, who fancied cakes immoderately. Patients included Molly, only 19 and already trapped in poverty and degradation with several children and an abusive husband; Mrs. Conchita Warren, who was delivering her 24th baby; or the birdlike vagrant, Mrs. Jenkins, whose children were taken away from her when she entered the workhouse. (Apr.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

No July Meeting!

The BirthNetwork Chicago will not be hosting a July meeting.

We will be rescheduling our film screening for another time. We are still searching for a venue and date that would be best attended.

July Book Club: Your Best Birth

For our July book club, please join Co-Leader Kim as we discuss Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein’s recently published guide to birth, Your Best Birth. Copies are available at the Book Cellar and as well as other area bookstores. Our book club meets at The Book Cellar on Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Square at 7:00 on Friday July 10.

Your Best Birth has received a very warm reception from the birth community and we are so excited to discuss it with you!

From Publishers Weekly
Former talk show host Lake, producer of the documentary The Business of Being Born, joins with Epstein, the film’s director, to further probe the subject of birth in America. Asserting that the high tech, low touch trend in medicalized births has usurped parents’ sense of power and choice, the authors present a detailed examination of the birthing experience, beginning with their own personal accounts. Employing the premise that although one can’t predict what will happen during birth, one can prepare, they present options that women should consider, including home birth and the use of a midwife or doula. Lake and Epstein point out that while 99% percent of births in the U.S. take place in hospitals and one-third are cesareans, the vast majority of births are not high risk and may not require medical intervention. But the fear of pain combined with unnecessary hospital protocols cause many couples to narrow or relinquish their options. The authors discuss the pros and cons of such interventions as episiotomies, epidurals and electronic monitors, and encourage women to carefully question their practitioners and hospital personnel. Above all, the authors advocate a safe and empowered birth, whether one chooses a hospital, home or birth center. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

And here are some reader reviews of the book as well:

From The Opinionated Parent

From Non-Toxic Kids

From Empowering Birth Blog

From Stand and Deliver

Support the M.A.M.A. Campaign!

A new collaborative called Midwives and Mothers in Action has launced it’s campaign for federal recognition of certified professional midwives (CPMs) as legitimate, qualified care providers for pregnant and laboring women.

Please visit their website to show your support, sign up for updates, or donate to this fantastic cause.

Mass Media Childbirth vs. The Real Thing