c-sections before 39 weeks - how you can help

Laura Shanley, of Bornfree/unassisted birth movement is looking to bring attention to the creation of premature babies via unnecessary early cesareans and she would like women to help...read on:

I am looking for women nationwide who can participate in media interviews to
promote a new educational campaign from The March of Dimes and United
Healthcare aimed at informing women and physicians about the risks
associated with C-sections before 39 weeks of gestation. I am looking for:
1. Women who are currently pregnant and feel strongly about carrying the
baby the full term (more than 39 weeks) and not having a C-section, unless
the procedure is medically indicated; 2. Women who have previously had a
C-section before 39 weeks gestation and felt the procedure was unnecessary
or had the baby end up in the NICU.

Please contact me at laurashanley@comcast.net
<mailto:laurashanley@comcast.net> and I will connect you with my son, Will
Shanley, who is the west coast director of public relations for United
Healthcare. Will is reaching out to print journalists across the nation and
encouraging them to write news stories about the new March of Dimes campaign
and the risks associated with early C-section.

Thanks in advance for your help in telling this important story!

Much love,
Laura

Laura Shanley
Bornfree! The Unassisted Childbirth Page

Huffington Post on Orgasmic Birth

here - kinda cool!  

Although there is natural connection, I assume the writer puts Debra Pascali-Bonaro, director of Orgasmic Birth & Laura Shanley, of the Unassisted Childbirth, movement together in the article because he and his wife had unassisted homebirths.  Anyway, the inclusion of the topic on The Huffington Post makes me feel that a certain critical mass is being reached, or at least we are moving in that direction.

my review:20/20

So I thought the 20/20 segment on Orgasmic Birth was pretty fantastic (but not the show as a whole). I do wish there had been a clear soundbite about how orgasmic birth does not have to mean that actual climax is achieved...they may have said this & I missed it, but I felt the segment seemed to indicate that an actual orgasm was a necessary part of the ecstatic birth experience rather than just the happy icing on the already-awesome birthday cake. Anyway, way to go, Debra!

But I have complaints on the show as a whole (of course!): First, the warning that the Orgasmic Birth segment might be inappropriate - wow - what about giving that warning when showing a highly interventive technocratic birth? That could certainly be more dangerous to one's psyche than seeing some women smiling and laughing.

I know the show was about "extremes" in motherhood but why the need to find such unusual examples to put with Orgasmic Birth? The piece on unassisted birth really pissed me off because they lumped in The Business Of Being Born and all homebirth with unassisted birth. I'm not commenting negatively on people who wish to have UC, but the births they showed, aside from Laura Shanley's birth footage appeared to be from BoBB and attended by midwives (at least one of which was filmed in a hospital birth center, not even at home)...UC is a small portion of homebirth and I think to suggest otherwise is at best misleading and sloppy and serves to reinforce the just-now-changing-for-the-positive mainstream opinion that homebirth is selfish (in fact that was a comment/question posed to Ricki Lake on the homebirth /UC piece last night) and foolhardy. Most people who birth at home do so with extremely qualified medical assistance. I found that segment quite hostile.

Same with the breastfeeding piece - people who are nursing 9 year olds are quite rare & that's why they make the news. But the piece started with a woman nursing 3yo twins - not rare at all, given that the average age of weaning world-wide is 4 years (props to 20/20 for mentioning this)...yet it was still portrayed as though the twins mom was doing something a little bit weird or wrong. And then there was the whole "what does your husband think - isn't he left out sexually" angle that was pretty lame, imho.

The life-like dolls...hmmm - I don't quite know what to say other than the segment made me feel a little sad. And once again, I did not appreciate the created context of "wacky/screw loose people" in which to view Orgasmic Birth & homebirth.

What about you? Please share your reactions!