birth and wall street

I was listening to local public radio this morning (The Takeaway) and Robert Reich (former Secretary of Labor under Clinton & now Obama's adviser on economics) was on talking about the economy and the volatile situation on Wall Street. He said one major component at play is fear and mistrust because we lack transparency in Corporate America and on Wall Street. In his blog yesterday, Reich says,

We tell poor nations they have to make their financial markets transparent before capital will flow to them. Now it's our turn. Lacking adequate regulation or oversight, our financial markets have become a snare and a delusion.

Basically, problems occur when people in an industry are doing things without understanding, without using an evidence-based approach and without informed consent merely because it is expedient.

...hmmm - sound familiar? Where else is there crisis and need for transparency? I'm just sayin'...

One by ONEsie

The organization MomsRising (as seen in the documentary, The Motherhood Manifesto) is working to bring important motherhood and family issues to the forefront of the country's awareness and create both cultural and legislative change. They have been quite involved in paid family leave in NJ. A current campaign, called The Power of ONEsie, is aimed at our leaders and those seeking office during this election, most recently at both conventions.

Imagine a beautifully presented long chain of decorated baby onesies stretching all around your state capital as a visual representation of the real people who need the policies being debated inside the imposing buildings...One by ONEsie, working together, we can show the nation that we are a creative and powerful force for good family policy, as well as help our politicians to pay attention to issues which have long been ignored.

I like the idea and sure hope that transparency & choices in birthing, the cesarean crisis, support for midwives and breastfeeding advocacy made it onto some of these ONEsies.

MomsRising is also seeking signatures on a
letter to Sarah Palin...

She's a mom, but where does she stand? In Gov. Palin’s Vice Presidential nomination speech we didn't hear much about the issues that mothers deal with each and every day like healthcare, fair pay, early learning, paid sick days, and flexible work.

I know I'm being immature but I'm not quite ready to communicate with this candidate. I get that it's the smart thing to do, I'm just not there yet.

The Birth Survey - transparency

Many times when I speak with women about their past birth experiences, there is a recurring theme of feeling they were really not heard, that their concerns were minimized or brushed off. One step in the right direction is to try to help women be philosophically aligned with their care providers going forward. Hopefully care providers are offering evidence-based, mother-friendly care - to know all of this is called transparency. It can also be incredibly healing to be able to be heard now, even if it is after the fact.

Take The Birth Survey & let your voice be heard! See the results and view intervention rates.

"The Birth Survey is structured around the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) evidence-based 10 Steps to Mother-Friendly Care and other quality of care indicators. The creation of The Birth Survey has been inspired by Childbirth Connection's Listening to Mothers Survey (Harris Interactive, October 2002)...

...We hope that the Transparency in Maternity Care Project will provide information that will help women make fully informed maternity care decisions.

We also believe that maternity care practitioners and institutions must have access to feedback from their patients..."