Please help if you can | Another way to help

[altarflame]

Birthgirlz, the group I recently joined and have been talking about helping, is raising money to hire an experienced attorney to litigate the state of Florida re: their policy that vbac is no longer LEGAL in freestanding birth centers. Keep in mind here that Florida has between 50-80% cesarean rates throughout the state, so MANY subsequent-borns are either going to be a vbac or a repeat c/s, and that our hospitals are EXTREMELY anti-vbac...many of you will remember my fight to even have a chance to labor anywhere in this state.

From the site:
As it currently stands VBACs at home with a licensed midwife are legal, but midwives working in birth centers are not permitted to so much as give prenatal care to these very same mothers.

You can read more about this, including non-profit incorporation details and specific statistics on safety of vbac and these particular laws - and donate (WE ARE HALFWAY THERE!!!) - here:
http://birthgirlz.com/URGENTActionRequired.html

Any amount helps. Passing on the word and reposting is also very appreciated :)

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Unrelated to birth, huge for helping: the website www.lotsahelpinghands.com is loaded with resources for organizing contact information, specific guidelines and calendars for groups supporting those going through hard times. As an example, a woman in my natural parenting group just lost her husband to a car crash. She has a 10 month old baby. The group is rallying together so that one of us can spend an hour or two with her and bring her dinner each night for over a month. This website is a great tool that makes these sorts of things much easier - before someone pointed it out, there was an endless chain of emails all asking similar questions and a lot of logistical confusion.

Comments

[noelove.livejournal.com]

I can't comprehend how they can pass a law about what a woman can and can't do with her body.

I think one of your chicks needs to get Obama on speed dial.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't trust him with this, honestly. It takes a lot to convince someone so entrenched in government that big trusted organizations like the AMA and ACOG are full of crap.

It should be easy, in the case of birth, because the things they reccomend routinely go against WHO reccomendations, and our maternal and neonatal outcomes are horrible compared with 1st world nations who do things in a more natural way. But there is so much money behind all of this, and so much litigation, and I just don't know.

He's also a man. I wonder how his kids were born.

[noelove.livejournal.com]

That's something I've been wondering too. And if she breastfed them.

I hope to God she did.

[daveandmonika.livejournal.com]

http://www.compleatmother.com/obama.htm indicates that they were.

[noelove.livejournal.com]

wow. I've read that before too. my baby must be eating my brain via placenta.

It still not completely confirmed though. I'd love to see her on TV standing up and saying 'Yes I breastfed both my daighters and encourage other women to do so!' That would be rad.

[daveandmonika.livejournal.com]

I looked around some more and this is what I found...which makes me think it didn't last long:

http://www.thestar.com/News/USElection/article/297631

"..agrees with another woman about inadequate maternity leave, saying that everyone pressures women to breast-feed, 'but by the time you figure it out, you're back at work.'"