How to be a Birth Advocate

I get it. We're all busy with our own lives, our own struggles, and as a parent it can be really difficult to have additional time to get involved in anything in addition to our regular duties.

Where to start?

I will tell you my story. After having my second child and taking a doula course, I started to relate my experiences in health care from nursing in acute care to what was happening in the birth industry. More and more of my friends and circles became "birth buddies", or other parents of babies. We would share our stories and find interwoven links between them.

Being told, being responsible, and being accountable to our birth is common in my community. The circle of "natural is best" burdened our shoulders. My first ever experience as a doula was 36 hours of irreversible birth damage in my mind. The mother and babe all came through, but despite two doulas and a large circle of love things happened that had no explanation. Meconium really did change the day for that momma, but she didn't have to experience the constant monitoring, being thrown onto the bed by the nurse, or a birth team being ushered out for decisions. In fact, she really didn't need her physicians constant reminders of how her baby would never fit through her pelvis.

After hearing the story told in different ways by different mothers, it really did start to trigger curiosity in my mind. What was the secret to avoiding a c-section?

Getting involved after this seemed natural, but when the call came to look at starting an ICAN (www.ican-online.org) chapter in my city, I felt so compelled to get things moving.

First of all, I started moving my social networking towards birth. Pointing at blogs, authors, online forums and resources, and beyond was overwhelming at first - but soon the feed started picking up and the articles were flying. Every few hours there was something new to read, a new view point, an article to comment on, a conversation opening another light bulb.

Keep in mind - I was working full time and parenting two kids at this time. Being a habitual smart phone-addict has it's positives. I could read on coffee breaks, between car rides, on the bus on the way home from work/to work, before bed, after supper, you get it... instead of reading face-less statuses about what was for dinner and reviews on movies, I was reading about birth.

When the International Day of the Midwife rolled around, there was much to be worried about. My newly founded peers - pregnant, with babies, or lactating (and some just grandmothers, aunts, and other birth workers) were all jiving the same things. We NEED midwives. We have them, politics and legislation was clearly holding up the process. As was our own city - it seems like a huge task to start midwifery services in a city of this size with the needs growing by the moment.

The first picnic was a bit of a disaster to organize. It snowed, the first week in May, and we had no indoor option. Luckily, we were able to talk a politician into finding us a space to meet. We had a cake show up, a lot of kids, some midwives, and people got to talking about how and when and what we should be doing. It was really that simple.

I started a post card campaign shortly after the call from the community came to get funded midwifery up and running. The system is slow, irritating, and impossible to navigate. Midwifery was targeted at working with vulnerable populations as well as anyone who knew about it. The phones rang off of the hook - and our own midwife was caring for clients while fielding her own phone calls, doing her own paperwork, and designing the program for the subsequent midwives that were yet to be recruited.



Then came along the picnic time!

The second year, planning started much earlier. Using social media, we created the event. Press releases went out, as did a call to our MLA's and political friends. Here is a photo from our picnic.



We didn't count because we were so busy! But looking back, close to 36 families attended at many points in the day. It happened simultaneously as a ceremony at the hospital that the health region planned to honor our midwifery program. So it was great to see a lot of people that day (and, an exhausting day for all...I even attended my own appointment with the midwife that afternoon!).

Which brings along baby number 3 - born an activist, one week shy of a second midwife being certified. We were unlucky in our home birth plans twice.

What are you fighting for? Think about your own scenario. What wasn't appealing to you? With each of us it might be something different, from an experience with the system, difficulty with your physician - or, maybe it was someone else you know.

Being interconnected with the birth community is the ultimate reward for me. I thrive on it. But it is hard to find others with energy and passion. I get it, kids are busy, moms are busy, dads are busy (my husband can agree that activism is draining on him too). However finding a piece of the advocacy pie is really easy.

If you're in a situation where you can't commit a lot of time, you can start with reading. Connect with the local birth scene and other mothers. Write a letter to your local dignitaries asking for help.

Join www.mothersofchange.com - Mothers of Change is a bigger umbrella of birth issues. Birth violence is a huge initiative.

Share this blog post! Let the fire in your belly brew a plan to help further women in the health care system.



Elizabeth Webb, born into the hands of a midwife.


Resources:

http://www.mothersofchange.com