The Mother's Monument - I need your help!

I work with the WomanStats organization (http://www.womanstats.org/). I remember one of my coworkers telling me two years ago about the Mother's Monument that he wanted to create to honor mothers who die in childbirth, and he is finally making it happen! But the project needs our help. Please take a few minutes to look at the website (http://mothersmonument.org/) and sign the petition. The website also explains the proposed layout of the monument as well as gives important information about maternal mortality. You can also join the Facebook page entitled "A Mother's Monument: A perfect brightness of hope".

From my coworker:
"Things are finally beginning to come together. But what we need right now is some momentum to show Congress that this is a national cause that their constituents are interested in. If you would please take a moment to visit the website, sign the petition, and forward the information through your networks I would greatly appreciate it. We need as much support and traffic to the websites as possible right now to show that there is broad national interest in a memorial of this type. I have set the goal of 10,000 signatures. We not even 1% of the way there right now, so there is a long way to go!"

More women around the world die in childbirth than soldiers die in war. The US's maternal mortality rate is unnervingly high. Something must be done to address this issue that shouldn't exist in the 21st century, and the monument, which is part sculpture part interactive database, does this.

Thanks for your help!

The Body Shop Takes on Trafficking

More reason to love The Body Shop!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/fashion/01Skin-2.html?_r=2&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

http://www.thebodyshop.com/_en/_ww/values-campaigns/trafficking.aspx

Domestic Trafficking in the US

I've been meaning to read this article for a long time but school got in the way. I think it sums up the trafficking situation of young, US citizens really well.

Article available from the New York Times

Pushed

I just finished reading this AMAZING book called Pushed: The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care by Jennifer Block. Some parts of it scared me, some parts made me so angry and some parts made me really excited to start a family (but not yet ;) ). Of course it was biased towards natural birth, but it brought up a lot of interesting points on both sides of the issue. I was already familiar with a lot of what was said, but I also learned a lot of new stuff:

*If you are having twins or your baby is breech, you are very likely to have a c-section whether you want it or not. Delivering breeches vaginally has become so rare that a lot of doctors don't even know how to do it--which is one of the criticisms I've heard about Canada's decision to begin allow vaginal breeches last week. However, the book provides extensive reasoning as to why delivering vaginally for both of these, and VBACs as well, can be very safe.

*There is an extensive illegal midwife network out there. You live in a state that doesn't allow midwives? Well there are probably practicing ones in your area anyway. It's just more secretive and they don't sign the birth certificates--on paper you delivered at home unassisted. These women give up a lot for their jobs: they are on call 24/7 and they even risk going to jail.

*I already knew I couldn't just walk into a hospital and allow all the routine interventions they use (EFM, lithotomy position, no moving, no eating, episiotomies, pitocin/amniotomy or other methods of induction, epidurals, forceps/vacuum, IVs, directed pushing, c-sections, lots of vaginal exams, no immediate skin-on-skin contact and breastfeeding, formula supplementation, no rooming-in, etc.)--but this book kind of drove home the point that unless you are really lucky in your choice of physician/on-call doctors and nurses, you don't have a lot of choice in what happens to you once you check in. Hospital regulations will stipulate that you can't move or eat and that you have the IV and exams, and really, what can you do unless you have merciful nurses and doctors? I'm starting to think maybe even a doula isn't enough. I'm thinking of birthing centers now, assuming I'm low risk and all that, since I think you have a lot more say over what happens to you there. Eventually I think home birth would be a great option too. All I know is that I am absolutely terrified of going to the hospital, having unnecessary interventions that slow or stop my labor, and then being sent in for a c-section for "failure to progress" or because my time limit is up.

It is so important to know your options and be aware of what is out there. Informed choice! I'm not trying to sound radical or offend anyone, but this is an issue I've been thinking a lot about in the past few months. Every woman should have a wonderful birth experience. All too often we hear that it doesn't matter what happens as long as the baby is healthy and yes, that is the ultimate goal: a healthy, beautiful child. But why do women have to suffer so much and often so needlessly for it? Some women who have terrifying birth experiences actually develop Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, besides those who have Post Partum Depression. A c-section is major abdominal surgery with all kinds of risks and simpler interventions like episiotomy still require long, painful recoveries, sometimes with lasting side effects. And yes, I know I might be singing a different tune when I'm this position myself, but I think it's like what they tell you about being chaste and keeping the Word of Wisdom when you're in Young Women's: just do your homework and make the decisions beforehand and it's a lot easier when the moment of choice comes.

No Real Surprise

Out of all the Millenium Development Goals, the two that are lagging behind the most are goals 4 and 5: decreases in maternal mortality and child mortality. I think economic goals probably receive more attention because they contribute to the overall economy of a country more fully in the short term--however, maternal and child mortality play huge, albeit subtle, roles in the economy. When mothers die others must take care of her children, which may take them out of or reduce their time in the paid labor force. Children are the promise of any society and when they die so does the future: future laborers, future visionaries, future inventors...More effort needs to be put into these two goals; President Obama is busy reworking the healthcare system and I hope he factors maternal mortality into his plans.

Lessons from Slovakia

Sometimes finding solutions takes creativity. Slovakia has become innovative in its efforts to encourage businesses to support workers with families. In 2000 they started a competition called the Family-Friendly Employer “with a view to motivating Slovak employers to develop activities for the reconciliation of work and family life and actively promote equality between women and men. Within the competition 3 categories are evaluated: the family policy, the introduction of measures to promote equality between women and men, and the most original measure to benefit the family. The number of contesting organisations has been annually increasing.”

In comparison, First Lady Michelle Obama gave a speech just last week (May 8) about the state of the American workplace. She said, “Workers should have paid sick days, schedules that give them time for their family responsibilities, such as picking up children or taking them or parents to doctors' appointments, and quality child care on the job. Also needed is paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child, or to deal with serious illness.” She goes on to say that there are about 22 million women in the US labor force who do not have paid sick days, and the Family Medical Leave Act does not allow for paid maternity, adoption, or sick leave.

Maybe we should start our own Family-friendly Employer competition here to draw attention to the challenges of being a working parent, because both mothers and fathers need support from their workplace and from society in order to have successful family and work lives. Mrs. Obama said she wants to focus on the issue of balancing work and family while she is in the White House—I hope the US sees some new legislation and more family-friendly practices in the near future.

Did she ask for it?

I was excited to see this op-ed printed in yesterday's New York Times, especially since this sensitive issue was being tackled by a man, Nicholas Kristof (I love him by the way, he's written lots of pieces about trafficking). I've watched a lot of Law and Order in my time and in every rape case they treat the victim well, expedite her rape kit, have results almost instantly, and then go out there and catch the bad guy.

Well...that's not quite real life. Human Rights Watch released a 68-page report last week about the status of rape kits in LA County and the results were positively frightening: "...in Los Angeles County, there were at last count 12,669 rape kits sitting in police storage facilities. More than 450 of these kits had sat around for more than 10 years, and in many cases, the statute of limitations had expired."

Ok, so rape kits can be expensive and unfortunately not every woman who she was raped actually was. Yet we let this small small minority of cases taint the way we see all rape victims. Not to mention the social stigma--if a woman walks around in revealing clothing or makes any sort of overture to a man then she must have been "asking for it." Kristof asserts, and I agree, that the lack of urgency assigned to rape indicates that sexual crimes are still not seen as the serious rights abuses that they are.

Equal Pay for Equal Work!

What do you think about this: "April 28 symbolized the day in 2009 when the average woman's wage will finally catch up with those paid to the average man in 2008. In the U.S. women are paid only 78¢ on average for every dollar paid to men."

At least we're only 1 year behind now?? President Obama mentioned the recent Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in his 100 days speech today. It's progress and I'm glad, but is this seriously still an issue? Equal Pay Day is "designated every April on a Tuesday as a reminder that Tuesday is the day on which women’s wages catch up to men’s wages from the preceding week. On average, female workers have to put in more than six days of paid work to earn what men earn in five."

And let's not even get into the childbearing wage penalty (last I heard it was around 7% per child?) and the economic consequences of the "mommy track." Someone needs to create a business using the feminist model, stat...