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	activism alerts october 2007

• Bringing Teen Pregnancy into the Childbirth Reform Realm
• Survey Seeks Women Who Have Ever Been Pregnant
• Ax the Axe Campaign: Demand Stereotype Elimination for Boys, Too
• Environmental Parenting Resource
• Childbirth Care: Pushed to the Forefront

Bringing Teen Pregnancy into the Childbirth Reform Realm

Healthy Teen Network's 27th annual conference, On Their Turf, features advances in the fields of teen pregnancy, parenting and prevention and offers concrete strategies to increase professionals and parents ability to serve youth in the 21st century. From November 14-17, in Baltimore, MD, Healthy Teen Network will showcase research, programs and media that engage teens and young families. The goal is to provide support, education and resources that recognize the complexity of our culture.

The 21st century poses unique challenges for adolescents and those who serve them. One of the most common is finding ways to reach adolescents on their terms—using methods that engage and involve youth and are geared toward the needs of an increasingly diverse population. Through exciting workshops and pre-conference institutes, Healthy Teen Network focuses on solutions to help professionals reach youth, on their turf.

Healthy Teen Network's keynotes include First Lady of Baltimore, Catherine O'Malley; Professor at Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Robert Blum; and Executive Director at the Forum for Youth Investment, Karen Pittman.

Become part of a network of thousands of volunteers and professionals who work on behalf of adolescents and their children and register today for the 2007 Healthy Teen Network conference (http://healthyteenconference.org).

For more information, visit us online at: www.HealthyTeenNetwork.org or http://healthyteenconference.org.

Survey Seeks Women Who Have Ever Been Pregnant

The cesarean rate is skyrocketing. And rather than predicting that the tide is turning, some experts believe that in less than 10 years more than half of the births in the US will be surgical births. When you consider the potential ramifications on the health of babies and mothers from this possibility, it is very frightening. The good news is that there is something very simple that can be done to help change directions—prevention of the first cesarean.

As a childbirth educator, doula, mother and author, Robin Elise Weiss, LCCE, is pouring her heart into finishing a book about cesarean prevention. Her intention is not to create a book of useless facts, but to provide a true guide for mothers in navigating the system of maternity care that so often leads them astray.

What Weiss needs are personal stories to help put a human face on the cesarean epidemic. To that end, she has created a survey for ANYONE who has been pregnant—you do not need to have had a cesarean to respond. You can find the survey at: http://www.birthactivist.com/node/154

For more info on Robin Elise Weiss, LCCE, see:
http://pregnancy.about.com
http://birthactivist.com
http://robineliseweiss.com

Ax the Axe Campaign: Demand Stereotype Elimination for Boys, Too

As part of its much-lauded Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, Unilever recently released "Onslaught", a video that examines disturbing images of women in beauty-industry advertising before ending with the message, "Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does."

It's an important message, and the campaign has received many accolades for challenging the standards of the beauty industry. But there's one big problem: Unilever is the beauty industry. When it comes to promoting sexualized stereotypes and marketing an unhealthy body image in order to sell girls on the idea that they need products to improve the way they look, Unilever—the world's second biggest advertiser and manufacturer of diet aids, cosmetics, skin whiteners, and other beauty products —is a major offender.

Unilever also makes Axe, a brand of male grooming products whose marketing promotes the objectification and sexual humiliation of women (see, for example, http://www.theaxeeffect.com/axevixens.html). Even as Unilever is celebrated for its Dove campaign, it markets Axe to boys on the Internet, through advertising in magazines with large youth readership such as Maxim, and on MTV where its sexist and degrading ads are seen by girls and boys of all ages. On MySpace and other Internet sites, Axe is promoted by an all female singing group, the Bom Chicka Wah Wahs, whose suggestive theme song and video is all about how the smell of Axe makes women lose control sexually (sample lyric: "If you have that aroma on, you can have our whole band").

Please take a moment to tell Unilever that its time to ax the Axe campaign.

Unilever marketers claim that the Real Beauty campaign is designed to promote girls' self-esteem "and help free ourselves and the next generation from beauty stereotypes." If they're serious about this goal, they'll begin by looking in the mirror and end their degrading Axe campaign. Tell Unilever: "Bom Chicka Wah Wah" is not "Real Beauty."

Source:
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood

Environmental Parenting Resource

Grist.org, the world's leading source of daily news and opinion on the environment, introduces a special series, Brood Awakenings to provide parents expert environmental advice, interviews, and resources.

The series will help parents navigate the sea of information on plastics, toys, food, and other products, as well as introduce readers to people working on the issues. Topics range from practical tips to policy coverage in over a dozen pertinent articles. Readers are invited to participate in the conversation through a dedicated discussion board housed on Grist's popular blog, Gristmill. Additionally, a multimedia slideshow features parenting tips and pictures submitted by Grist readers and staff. Bearing Grist's trademark wit and irreverence, the coverage is insightful and informative, even for those without children of their own.

The nonprofit, independent, online magazine Grist was founded in April 1999, and over the past eight years has developed the most recognizable voice in environmental journalism: funny, opinionated, and intelligent. Grist offers in-depth reporting, opinions, book reviews, advice, and a popular blog—all tailored to inform, entertain, provoke, and encourage its readers to think creatively about environmental problems and solutions.

Childbirth Care: Pushed to the Forefront

Pushedbirth.com, the sister site for the book Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care was created to provide uncensored, unsweetened information about US childbirth care. Author and journalist Jennifer Block spent years researching why so many labors are begun by induction, why so many births end in cesarean section, and how modern maternity care is impacting women and their families, tackling these questions and more:

Do routine inductions, C-sections, and epidurals equal medical progress? Why are home-birth midwives illegal in 11 states? Why are physicians and hospitals denying women vaginal births after cesarean? Can breech babies be born vaginally? How did episiotomies become routine? Where does Pitocin come from? Should midwives go to jail? Is homebirth safe? Are women really requesting unnecessary C-sections? Is normal birth the next "woman?s right to choose?"

With key findings and fresh news updates, Pushedbirth.com continually expands on these issues—and wants to hear from you. Send your reactions, thoughts, suggestions, and corrections. In addition to breaking birth news, the site also wants to blog your birth stories. Send those, too.