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Which national organizations are doing the most for birth activism?  

post #1 of 13
2/14/08 at 12:00am
Thread Starter 
Which national non profit would you say is positioned to do the most in birth activism based on their staffing, administrative, and financial resources?

Who is best positioned to help bring all of the smaller organizations together to help organize various efforts and reduce overlap of such minimal volunteer resources?

CIMS?
MANA?
ACCNM?
ICAN?
CfM?
Any thoughts are welcome. There is a point to this question.
post #2 of 13
2/14/08 at 12:21am
Interested in the thoughts on this.
I'm not a birth professional, so I just want to lurk (-;
Jessica
post #3 of 13
2/14/08 at 2:03am
The big push.

Change needs to come from the consumer, not from professionals, IMO.
post #4 of 13
2/14/08 at 2:32am
Honestly, the only one I know from that list is ICAN. I had a VBA2C in 2006 and it wouldn't have been possible w/o them. The information on their websites, listed books and e-mail loops ALL helped me have a successful birth.

I actually attended my first meeting this past monday and it was great. I look FWD to opening a chapter in my area in the coming months.
post #5 of 13
2/14/08 at 10:54am
Have you checked our BirthNetwork National? The link is in my signature. Our growth over the last 2 years has been absolutely amazing and many of the new things happening in the birth activist world are a result the hard working women on our board.
post #6 of 13
2/14/08 at 1:50pm
ICAN was what first popped into my mind.
post #7 of 13
2/14/08 at 3:29pm
I've had some involvement with most of these organizations, with exception of the Birth Network, if even on the sidelines.

I have to say, I think CIMS is doing the most activism and is poised to do the most good for the most women.

I say this b/c

1)I am intimately involved with ICAN and while there are some very bright individuals involved, the org is utterly disorganized and its focus is largely educational rather than activist based. The activism varies so widely from chapter to chapter and is almost independent of the board. They also have very little money with which to launch any sort of campaign.

2) I'd love to talk about the Birth Network - but don't know much about them.

3) I think the Big Push Campaign is great for the states wanting legalization for home birth midwives and its got fantastic momentum and genius. Only problem is - its focus is very narrow, does nothing to address the birth climate at large and doesn't address midwifery related challenges that exist in states where midwives are already legal.

4)All of the other orgs mentioned focused entirely on midwives. Some of them are professional organizations rather than activism based organizations.
post #8 of 13
2/14/08 at 8:37pm
Thread Starter 
This is a great discussion that we should keep going.

CIMS is my hunch, too, because it is a logical big umbrella, based on its mission. I haven't contacted anyone from them yet.

The Birth Network also looks good but is too new to be truly national.

What about Citizens for Midwifery? Their site lists the upcoming meeting from one in 2005, so I can't imagine they have lots of staff, or any.
post #9 of 13
2/14/08 at 8:44pm
I think that true birth activism has to include both hospital and homebirth. Hospital because women deserve not to be treated atrociously, lied to, manipulated, and generally abused during birth and home because women have the right to be able to birth safely at home if that's their desire.

I'm not aware of any organization that works for both hospital and homebirth rights, but I'd probably say that CIMS is the closest.
post #10 of 13
2/14/08 at 9:32pm
:

I'd think CIMS as an umbrella organization because they're not just focused on homebirth.
post #11 of 13
2/15/08 at 12:30am
One that is new, but doing lots is birthwithoutboundaries.com. They have been on local radio, just hosted suzanne arms and kittie frantz, went to the Big push in chicago and have organized rallies,auctions, films,discussions. They also were the ones who organized the applebees nurse in.

i am not onthe board for this group, but friends of most of the members,they are very dedicated.The biggest problemsis money!!!!

You can also check out savehomebirth.com, which talks about the situation in pa, that's me,my daughter and my apprentice doing a baby exam on one of the pages.I was on the front page, but they moved me!
post #12 of 13
2/16/08 at 2:40am
I am very involved with Citizens for Midwifery (CfM). We are a consumer organization and address basically anything related to consumer issues with birth (not just midwifery, though our goal is to make the Midwives Model of Care available to all women). I write the blog for CfM that is updated once a week at minimum if anyone is interested in checking out what we're up to--the blog has lots of activism information and resource sharing!

The Board meets in person annually (we met in Sept. 2007 in NY) and then monthly via conference call.

Best wishes,

Molly
post #13 of 13
2/18/08 at 11:24pm
Thread Starter 
Molly, that is a great blog! So glad to have found it.
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