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| Read for free! Email amanda@birthproject.com with your snail mail address and we will send you a free copy of the magazine to try us out. |
| Submit your writings or art for our Summer 2008 issue. Deadline is June 15th 2008. Email your submissions to submissions@birthproject.com We would love to hear from you! |
What is The Birth Project?
We are a quarterly magazine that talks about and normalizes birth and issues around birth. We find it odd that
women are asked to give birth having never seen a live birth. Childbirth is made to be trivial and scary by popular
culture, our peers, our family and even strangers. Most women don't think much about actually giving birth until
their first childbirth education class at 6 months pregnant if they take a class at all. Or they try to read every book
on the shelf in the library or book store trying to "prepare" for the big day. For most men it is even worse having
never ovulated or bled themselves, the idea of growing a human and bringing forth life via the vagina they hold dear
is to say the least overwhelming.
Why is childbirth not a normal part of our upbringing? Why is childbirth education not part of our sex ed in 7th
grade? Why do people not know about certified nurse midwives, home birth midwives, or doulas and how they are
different from each other and how they can make a difference in outcomes for normal birth? Why don't people
understand the role of good food and health including pregnancy? Why can't people hear or say the word vulva
without snickering? Why do women lack the confidence in themselves and their bodies to do what it knows how to
do? Why do we not talk about abortion as an emotional issue rather than just as a political or religious issue? Why
cant we talk about miscarriage or loss in later pregnancy? Why are we so driven by fear when we talk about birth?
Why do we not know our mothers and grandmothers birth stories?
We want to demystify childbirth. We want to make it a part of our entire life not just the "childbearing year"
-embracing the women before us and the women who birth after us as opposed to scaring and disempowering. We
don't want to spout off statistics or research or shove our opinions down anyones throat in judgment. We are here
to chat, to discuss, to ponder over the state of things and how they can evolve and grow.
You can check us out for free. Email us your snail mail address and we will mail you a free issue for you to read
amanda@birthproject.com.
We want to hear from you. We are a magazine for everyone by everyone.
Send us your articles, prose, poetry, artwork, photography, tell us about your organization or work you do in
birth - Send your submissions to submissions@birthproject.com.
We are a quarterly magazine that talks about and normalizes birth and issues around birth. We find it odd that
women are asked to give birth having never seen a live birth. Childbirth is made to be trivial and scary by popular
culture, our peers, our family and even strangers. Most women don't think much about actually giving birth until
their first childbirth education class at 6 months pregnant if they take a class at all. Or they try to read every book
on the shelf in the library or book store trying to "prepare" for the big day. For most men it is even worse having
never ovulated or bled themselves, the idea of growing a human and bringing forth life via the vagina they hold dear
is to say the least overwhelming.
Why is childbirth not a normal part of our upbringing? Why is childbirth education not part of our sex ed in 7th
grade? Why do people not know about certified nurse midwives, home birth midwives, or doulas and how they are
different from each other and how they can make a difference in outcomes for normal birth? Why don't people
understand the role of good food and health including pregnancy? Why can't people hear or say the word vulva
without snickering? Why do women lack the confidence in themselves and their bodies to do what it knows how to
do? Why do we not talk about abortion as an emotional issue rather than just as a political or religious issue? Why
cant we talk about miscarriage or loss in later pregnancy? Why are we so driven by fear when we talk about birth?
Why do we not know our mothers and grandmothers birth stories?
We want to demystify childbirth. We want to make it a part of our entire life not just the "childbearing year"
-embracing the women before us and the women who birth after us as opposed to scaring and disempowering. We
don't want to spout off statistics or research or shove our opinions down anyones throat in judgment. We are here
to chat, to discuss, to ponder over the state of things and how they can evolve and grow.
You can check us out for free. Email us your snail mail address and we will mail you a free issue for you to read
amanda@birthproject.com.
We want to hear from you. We are a magazine for everyone by everyone.
Send us your articles, prose, poetry, artwork, photography, tell us about your organization or work you do in
birth - Send your submissions to submissions@birthproject.com.
| Check out the subscriptions page to find out how to read year round! |
| Sample Articles ~ Check it out! |
| Check us out! Come hear us on a podcast at www.communityrecordsmusic.com Amanda Topping and Kate Stroud chat with Amy Morgan about Birth, Midwifery, Doulas and The Birth Project. |
Myth Buster:
Do Headlines Lie?
There’s nothing that can make a birth
junkie’s blood boil faster than reading
stories about childbirth in the popular
press (except perhaps watching A
Baby Story or Maternity Ward on
TV). Its not that we don’t want to
believe that epidurals don’t impact the
length or outcome of labor or that
inducing every birth will cut the
c-section rate in half – there are times
when we truly wish that the next
scientific advance or new technique
really would help keep moms and
babies safer and more well. It is just
that when we read these headlines we
can hear them echoing again and
again in our future conversations – in
our childbirth classes when moms are
challenged by the idea that low-
intervention birth is safe, in our
prenatal visits when parents are afraid
of taking a low-tech approach or
trusting their bodies when everyone
else in the prenatal yoga class with
them has already had their c-sections
scheduled or is going in for
ultrasounds to see if the baby is too
big to birth, and in the heat of the
moment when our doula clients are
being told by their obstetricians that
there are no negative side effects to
the drugs they are about to accept for
their pain.
Read more...
Do Headlines Lie?
There’s nothing that can make a birth
junkie’s blood boil faster than reading
stories about childbirth in the popular
press (except perhaps watching A
Baby Story or Maternity Ward on
TV). Its not that we don’t want to
believe that epidurals don’t impact the
length or outcome of labor or that
inducing every birth will cut the
c-section rate in half – there are times
when we truly wish that the next
scientific advance or new technique
really would help keep moms and
babies safer and more well. It is just
that when we read these headlines we
can hear them echoing again and
again in our future conversations – in
our childbirth classes when moms are
challenged by the idea that low-
intervention birth is safe, in our
prenatal visits when parents are afraid
of taking a low-tech approach or
trusting their bodies when everyone
else in the prenatal yoga class with
them has already had their c-sections
scheduled or is going in for
ultrasounds to see if the baby is too
big to birth, and in the heat of the
moment when our doula clients are
being told by their obstetricians that
there are no negative side effects to
the drugs they are about to accept for
their pain.
Read more...
Consumer First,
Patient Second
Finding the right care
provider for your pregnancy
and birth
I had a long conversation with my
friend, Pam, the other night. She is in
her final month of pregnancy, with
her first baby, who is in breech
position. Her physician is suggesting a
cesarean. If attempts to turn the baby
are unsuccessful, she will consider a
homebirth in order to avoid the
surgery. I urged her to let her doctor
know her thinking. Woman are often
unwilling to have a frank discussion
with their caregivers about their wants
and desires. I reminded my friend that
she selected this provider (or group of
providers) and that she is paying them
to be competent partners in this
process. During a crisis is not the time
to start doing things behind their
backs but tell them exactly what you
plan to do and why and listen to their
feedback (but take it with a grain of
salt- they don't have the final say- you
do). I think this approach is important
because it preserves the integrity of
the relationship. Physicians and
midwives are not mind readers. They
need to know and understand what
type of care clients desire, or what
they don't want and why. Otherwise
they'll just continue to think women
are happy with the care they are
getting.
Think about this question: What is the
role of your pregnancy and birth care
provider? Read more...
Patient Second
Finding the right care
provider for your pregnancy
and birth
I had a long conversation with my
friend, Pam, the other night. She is in
her final month of pregnancy, with
her first baby, who is in breech
position. Her physician is suggesting a
cesarean. If attempts to turn the baby
are unsuccessful, she will consider a
homebirth in order to avoid the
surgery. I urged her to let her doctor
know her thinking. Woman are often
unwilling to have a frank discussion
with their caregivers about their wants
and desires. I reminded my friend that
she selected this provider (or group of
providers) and that she is paying them
to be competent partners in this
process. During a crisis is not the time
to start doing things behind their
backs but tell them exactly what you
plan to do and why and listen to their
feedback (but take it with a grain of
salt- they don't have the final say- you
do). I think this approach is important
because it preserves the integrity of
the relationship. Physicians and
midwives are not mind readers. They
need to know and understand what
type of care clients desire, or what
they don't want and why. Otherwise
they'll just continue to think women
are happy with the care they are
getting.
Think about this question: What is the
role of your pregnancy and birth care
provider? Read more...
Why Babies Don’t
Sleep Through the
Night
I can shoot a running millipede with a
BB gun from a dozen feet away.
I couldn’t do this before my son was
born.
Shooting isn’t even a hobby I would
have come to on my own. It’s my
father’s hobby that I tried on a lark
one afternoon a couple years ago. As
it turns out, using buckshot to shatter
a single or pair of orange disks
cruising at 50 mph feels an awful lot
like doing a half-hour of yoga.
Last May my son was born, and I
made a quick, drastic career change
from high school teacher and
administrator to at-home parent. That
fall, I went shooting for the first time
since becoming a father.
Despite not having shot for over half a
year, that first time back I hit 80
percent of my clays -- better than
what I'd been shooting before Otto
was born. And I picked up all of my
doubles.
A few weeks later I was pouring tea
from a teapot when the handle
unexpectedly broke off. I caught the
pot as it fell and set it onto the counter
without spilling a drop or burning
myself. Read more...
Sleep Through the
Night
I can shoot a running millipede with a
BB gun from a dozen feet away.
I couldn’t do this before my son was
born.
Shooting isn’t even a hobby I would
have come to on my own. It’s my
father’s hobby that I tried on a lark
one afternoon a couple years ago. As
it turns out, using buckshot to shatter
a single or pair of orange disks
cruising at 50 mph feels an awful lot
like doing a half-hour of yoga.
Last May my son was born, and I
made a quick, drastic career change
from high school teacher and
administrator to at-home parent. That
fall, I went shooting for the first time
since becoming a father.
Despite not having shot for over half a
year, that first time back I hit 80
percent of my clays -- better than
what I'd been shooting before Otto
was born. And I picked up all of my
doubles.
A few weeks later I was pouring tea
from a teapot when the handle
unexpectedly broke off. I caught the
pot as it fell and set it onto the counter
without spilling a drop or burning
myself. Read more...
Simulacrum
Imagine giving a young child a
watermelon Jolly Rancher and
explaining, “Here. This is
watermelon.” The next day, do it
again. “Mmm…watermelon.” The
next day, she asks for watermelon.
Another Jolly Rancher. Delicious.
She likes watermelon. As she gets a
bit older, you show her where
watermelon can be found. You even
teach her to read the word
watermelon: j-o-l-l-y-r-a-n-c-h-e-r.
It’s her favorite. This goes on for
years. Then, one day, someone asks
her if she’d like a slice of
watermelon. Would she ever! So
they cut her a nice thick slab of a
big, juicy watermelon. This doesn’t
look like a watermelon. Feels
decidedly un-watermelon-ish
between her tongue and the roof of
her mouth. Most of all, this tastes
nothing like watermelon. Jolly
Rancher’s interpretation has become
ingrained in her as “real”
watermelon. For as many times as
she tastes watermelon—even if she
comes to love it—it will never be the
standard by which she judges the
watermelonness of a thing’s traits.
To her, it will always be an
imitation.
The term “simulacrum” has been
applied in a variety of ways, to mean
a number of things, by a handful of
philosophers.
Read more...
Imagine giving a young child a
watermelon Jolly Rancher and
explaining, “Here. This is
watermelon.” The next day, do it
again. “Mmm…watermelon.” The
next day, she asks for watermelon.
Another Jolly Rancher. Delicious.
She likes watermelon. As she gets a
bit older, you show her where
watermelon can be found. You even
teach her to read the word
watermelon: j-o-l-l-y-r-a-n-c-h-e-r.
It’s her favorite. This goes on for
years. Then, one day, someone asks
her if she’d like a slice of
watermelon. Would she ever! So
they cut her a nice thick slab of a
big, juicy watermelon. This doesn’t
look like a watermelon. Feels
decidedly un-watermelon-ish
between her tongue and the roof of
her mouth. Most of all, this tastes
nothing like watermelon. Jolly
Rancher’s interpretation has become
ingrained in her as “real”
watermelon. For as many times as
she tastes watermelon—even if she
comes to love it—it will never be the
standard by which she judges the
watermelonness of a thing’s traits.
To her, it will always be an
imitation.
The term “simulacrum” has been
applied in a variety of ways, to mean
a number of things, by a handful of
philosophers.
Read more...
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