In This Week’s Issue:
- Quote of the Week
- The Art of Midwifery: Rice Socks
- Research: Doula Support Reduces Cesarean Risk
- Being the Quiet Doula in the Corner
- Featured Products
- Web Site Update
- Advertising Opportunities
- Question of the Week: Protocols for Post-date Clients
- Question of the Week Responses: Postpartum Hemorrhage
- Think about It
- Letters
- Classified Advertising
CIMS GAC Ambassadors
High Impact Birth Activists....Together Making Mother-Friendly Care a Reality
Please mark your calendar for our December teleconference. Share challenges,
successes, strategies and support. Talk about what's working and what's
not in your efforts to market The Birth Survey or obtain the official
facility level stats. Get your questions answered by project
leadership. This conference call is held monthly on the first Tuesday
of the month from 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM EST (You no longer need to
register for this ahead of time. We are also only using a conference
call line not the webinar system.)
Dial-in Number: 1-218-936-4700 (Midwest), Participant Access Code 390546
Visit CIMS GAC Ambassadors at: http://grassrootsgrapevine.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
BOLD Maui 2007
Thinking of being BOLD in 2010? Join us in 2010 for a year of awareness raising, sisterhood and celebration of mother-friendly childbirth!
BOLD events are small (at kitchen tables, yoga studios, living rooms) and large (300-seat theaters!). BOLD Organizers are mothers...and even not mothers. Most BOLD Organizers have never produced a theater event and our Red Tent Organizers often have never done anything like it before. What every organizer has in common is BOLDness - the desire to jump out of their comfort zone to do what's needs to make childbirth mother-friendly. BOLD events do this through performances of Karen Brody's critically-acclaimed play Birth and through storytelling circles called BOLD Red Tents. So far our events have raised over $150,000 for organizations worldwide working hard to make maternity care mother-friendly.
Applications for both performance and red tents are ready now. Click here for new guidelines. For an application email us at performance@boldaction.org.
And attention birth workers and activists! Consider kick-starting BOLD's 5th year the last week in August with BOLD Founder and Playwright Karen Brody who will be leading a BOLD Body and Soul Retreat for Birth Workers and Activists in the Catskill mountains of New York - culminating in the most wild, women-center, joyous performance on childbirth that will knock-your-BOLD-socks-off! Be sure to make plans early to attend - space is limited. Click here to get put on a list for more details when they are available.
Be BOLD with us in 2010!
BOLD is a global arts-based organization inspiring communities to raise awareness and funds to make childbirth mother-friendly.
The MAMA Campaign is moving forward with great energy and determination to include Certified Professional Midwives in health care bills this year! As the country enters the Thanksgiving Week, we want to take a moment to give thanks for the extraordinary strides made in a few short months on Capitol Hill for midwives and mothers. And we want to express our deepest appreciation to all of you: our supporters, whose dedication, stamina, generosity, letters and dollars have made this progress possible.
MAMA is thankful for:
NEW DATE FOR THE MAMA WEBINAR: December 3
MAMA Has Good News to Share! Join Us for a Webinar on December 3rd to Learn All About It!
Our federal lobbyist, Billy Wynne will join representatives from the Campaign Steering Committee, on Thursday, December 3rd, for an exciting webinar about the MAMA Campaign at 8 pm EST. Please note that this is a new date. The webinar was previously scheduled for the beginning of Thanksgiving week, but that week was too busy for too many of our supporters so we have postponed the date a week to accommodate our supporters.
The effort to secure federal recognition of CPMs got a big boost – language beneficial to CPMs is included in the Senate health care bill just released on Wednesday, November 18th. And MAMA is still hard at work to include our amendment to reimburse CPMs in the federal Medicaid program in the final bill that will go to the President to be signed early next year.
You are invited to join us to hear:
In trying to explain psychiatric disorders, genes simply cannot tell the whole story. The real answers are in the interaction of genes and the environment. Post-traumatic stress disorder requires some trauma, for instance, and people, for the most part, aren’t born depressed. Now research has revealed one mechanism by which a stressful experience changes the way that genes are expressed in the rat brain. The discovery of “epigenetic” regulation of genes in the brain is helping change the way scientists think about psychiatric disorders and could open new avenues to treatment.
Richard Hunter, a postdoc in Rockefeller University’s Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, found that a single 30-minute episode of acute stress causes a rapid chemical change in DNA packaging proteins called histones in the rat hippocampus, which is a brain region known to be especially susceptible to the effects of stress in both rodents and humans. The chemical change Hunter examined, called methylation, can either increase or decrease the expression of genes that are packaged by the histones, depending on the location of the methylation. He looked for methylation on three regions of histone H3 that have been shown to actively regulate gene expression. In experiments published this month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, he shows that methylation of one mark, H3K9 trimethyl, roughly doubled in the hippocampus. Methylation of a second mark, H3K27 trimethyl, dropped by about 50 percent in the same area. Changes associated with the third mark were minor.
“The hippocampus is involved in episodic memory, so you would expect it to be sensitive to episodic experiments like this, more so than the motor regions, for instance,” says Hunter, who worked on the project with Rockefeller scientists Bruce S. McEwen and Donald W. Pfaff. “But what is surprising is the magnitude and regional specificity of these patterns.” The sheer size of the change in histone methylation suggests that it is important to the brain’s response to acute stress, although its exact role remains a mystery. The two methyl marks that changed are both thought to repress gene expression usually, but methylation increased in one and decreased in the other.
Hunter also checked for similar changes as a result of chronic stress — exposure to a 30-minute stress each day for 21 days. He did not find a major effect, which could reflect the animals’ adjusting to the stress. However, when he treated the rats with fluoxetine, the generic form of the popular antidepressant Prozac, he reversed some methylation effects associated with chronic stress.
It’s becoming increasingly evident, Hunter says, that the epigenetic changes like the methyl marks he observed and others, such as acetylation and phosphorylation, could play a significant role in the brain’s response to stress and the treatment of stress related diseases, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
“There was a thought that the genome project would reveal all in neuropsychiatric disease, but that has proven not to be the case,” he says. “Epigenetics has become much more interesting because it allows us to look at how gene expression is changed by environmental events, explainable in part by histone modifications.”Contact: Brett Norman 212-327-7613
newswire@rockefeller.edu
The Rockefeller University - Newswire: Acute stress leaves epigenetic marks on the hippocampus
November has been a great month so far, with a fabulous screening of The Business of Being Born in San Diego last week, and the news that our book Your Best Birth will come out in paperback on April 5th, just in time for the release of our new educational "My Best Birth" DVD. If you haven’t joined mybestbirth yet – click here to sign up and become part of our community. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Warmest,
Ricki & Abby
Alyson Hannigan & Alexis Denisof
Host Online Discussion This Week 
We were delighted to bring you exclusive excerpts from the birth story of actress Alyson Hannigan, star of the "American Pie" movies and currently on the hit sitcom "How I Met Your Mother." Sponsored by our friends at Milkalicious, these two webisodes feature Alyson and her husband actor Alexis Denisof sharing intimate details of their amazing birth journey for our new DVD. Click here to ask Alyson and Alexis a question or comment on their story. Just a reminder that their FULL story will be included on the new "My Best Birth" educational DVD to be released in 2010...
Ricki and Abby in San Diego 
(Pictured with Staff of Babies in Bloom)
An Evening with Ricki & Abby, by Barbara Herrera
"I was on my way up to Babies in Bloom in Vista and hit serious traffic. Ambulances, cops and fire trucks crawled through the cars and while sending the people in the accident safe thoughts, I knew I was going to be late to the VIP Event for Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein. They were both in town for a showing of "The Business of Being Born." I called Rochelle McLean, the owner of B&B and a local Lactation Consultant, telling her I didn't think I was going to get there before the party was over, so I would probably meet them at the theater. Once we passed the accident, I knew I was going to make it and puzzled at why the GPS said I was still an hour away. It suddenly dawned on me that I had forgotten to set my GPS back for Daylight Savings Time. Sheesh." Click here to read midwife Barbara Herrera's description of the rest of the night...
Babies By the Sea 
While in San Diego, Ricki & Abby got to catch up with Dr. Robert Biter OB/GYN, and hear about his new birth center "Babies by the Sea." Here is an excerpt from Dr. Biter's blog on mybestbirth: "....While I have heralded many births, I still find myself holding my breath at that final push, the exact moment just before a new person enters the room. The wonderment of possibility and the significance of love often overwhelms. This is indeed the very moment where I now find myself in my own life. I stand poised to witness the beginning of an ecologically friendly, socially responsible birthing center in Carlsbad, California. The process leading to this moment has indeed been laborious, filled with the drama of challenging an existing medical model and the transformative power of a group of committed individuals working together to give birth to this place called Babies by the Sea Birthing Center with views of the expansive Pacific Ocean. While the doors will open in May of 2010, the movement has already gained momentum." Click here to read Dr. Biter's full post.
Abby’s Expecting, Chapter 2... 
Filmmaker Abby Epstein was unexpectedly
featured in her own documentary while shooting The Business of Being Born. This time she’s hoping for fewer surprises as she plans for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) with baby #2 in January. Click here to read Abby’s second blog entry as we follow her journey to VBAC.
Ricki to Attend CIMS Forum in Austin
Each year, the CIMS Forum attracts expert faculty from prestigious universities and the nation’s leading childbirth advocacy organizations who present the most up-to-date maternity care research to healthcare providers, maternal-child health leaders, and passionate childbirth advocates who are eager to bring evidence-based maternity care practices back to their communities. The information that Forum attendees gain provides an invaluable boost to their efforts to promote healthy birth practices across the nation. Feb. 26-27 | The Radisson Hotel & Suites Austin – Town Lake | Austin, Texas
Help Us Reach 10,000 Members by 2010
Since we launched mybestbirth this May, our community has been growing organically and has become a "go-to" website for information about all types of childbirth and holistic parenting. We have over 8,000 members now and would like to have 10,000 by the New Year. Help us reach this goal by inviting 3 of your friends to join mybestbirth. All you have to do is point to the "Invite" tab and import their addresses. Also be sure to check out the newest features on the site, like virtual gifts and birthdays!
Shop Till You Drop… 
For great holiday gifts be sure to check out our “Born Free” Moby-Wrap modeled here by the lovely Kimberly Williams-Paisley and her baby Jasper. These wraps come in new pastel colors and are also fabulous for baby-wearing and new baby gifts. Another way you can support mybestbirth now is by doing some holiday shopping at our Sproutbaby store for organic, toxin-free products for baby, mom and home. Get 15% off purchases over $50 with code MBB15.
Your Best Birth 
YOUR BEST BIRTH is an empowering childbirth guide packed with crucial advice from medical professionals, delivered in a down-to-earth, engaging, and honest voice. Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein reevaluate the pregnancy process, renew expectant mothers’ confidence, and place the control back where it belongs: with parents-to-be.
Order your copy now!
The Business of Being Born on DVD
"It should be seen by EVERY pregnant woman in America..." -NY Daily News
Click here to watch the trailer
More than 1.7 million Americans have served in Iraq or Afghanistan over the past eight years. No one can say with precision how many of those service members came home with debilitating mental trauma, but studies suggest the figure is, at the least, many hundreds of thousands.Military suicides: Cases of post-traumatic stress mount at alarming rate | New Jersey Real-Time News - - NJ.com
A report released last year by the RAND Corp., a nonpartisan research group, said at least one in five returning soldiers suffers from depression or PTSD, an anxiety disorder mental health experts and military officials alike say is a contributing factor in the rising suicide rate.
More recently, researchers at Stanford University estimated up to 35 percent of all veterans from those two wars either have PTSD or will develop it.
By contrast, about 19 percent of those who served in the Vietnam War experienced PTSD, according to a 2006 study published in the journal Science.
Reported by Tomas Dinges & Mark Mueller
Written by Mark Mueller
John A. Renner Jr., a military psychiatrist during Vietnam and now associate chief of psychiatry at the VA’s Boston Healthcare System, contends repeated tours are a major factor in the higher rate of mental trauma.
"The length of time in combat is directly related to incidents of PTSD. We’ve known that since World War II," Renner said.
The typical GI in Vietnam served one 12-month tour of duty. Many service members now serve two to three tours, with little time between deployments to decompress or reconnect with families. Two soldiers who committed suicide this year had served four tours of duty, Army records show.
Star-Ledger special report: Military suicides
- Military suicides increase as U.S. soldiers struggle with torment of war
- Cases of post-traumatic stress mount at alarming rate
- Army Sgt. Coleman Bean's downward spiral ends with gunfire
- Hero's life transforms to nightmare for Marine James T. Jenkins
- Escalating military suicide crisis prompts U.S. task force
- Sayreville Army veteran is haunted by thoughts of suicide, panic attacks
- N.J. National Guard's suicide prevention efforts draw national attention
- Editorial: Suicide-prone soldiers: Healing invisible wounds
- Video: U.S. soldiers struggle with torment of war
Even those serving a single tour have come back with PTSD symptoms, including flashbacks, anxiety attacks, explosive anger and a lack of concentration, said Judith Broder, the founder and director of the Soldiers Project, a nonprofit group that provides free counseling to service members and veterans.
Some harbor feelings of intense guilt for surviving while buddies died, or for the things they did while deployed. Some withdraw from friends and family.
A few engage in uncharacteristic and dangerous behaviors: driving recklessly, gambling huge sums of money, drinking until they pass out, acting out violently.
"They’re courting disaster because they’re used to courting disaster in combat," Broder said. "They come home in a hyperactive state."
In the most extreme cases, they take their own lives.
By Eimear O’Hagan & Jill Foster
She'd read all the baby magazines, been to her antenatal classes and written out her birth plan - now expectant mum Clare Sallery couldn't wait to have her first child. But when her son Rhys arrived, she struggled to be the perfect mum she'd read about and seen on TV.
And after failing to breastfeed and bond with her baby, Clare, 31, from Devon, felt so inadequate as a mother that she not only gave her son away, but also tried to kill herself.
"When I got home from hospital, I wasn't like the mums you see on television, who seem to cope really well and are so happy to have babies," she says. "I was crying all the time and convinced myself Rhys would be better off without me."
Worryingly, Clare's case is far from unusual. In a society where parenting is big business, there is also increasing pressure on new mums to do everything by the latest best-selling book. But what if your experience of motherhood is less than perfect?
With post-natal depression affecting one in 10 mothers, research suggests that at least 50 new mums commit suicide every year, because they feel they can't cope with their new babies…
news:
Many Women Miscalculate Time to Full-Term Birth
Posted - Nov 20, 2009 - 4:51pm
0 comments 10 reads
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) 
news:
U.S. Military Studying PTSD Risk Factors
Posted - Nov 20, 2009 - 4:50pm
0 comments 10 reads
By: Sarah Horner, Duluth News Tribune
Kamara Langenbrunner, 10, sits with her purple violin at her Cloquet home. Kamara, who was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder a couple of years ago, says playing the violin has helped her through the process of dealing with the disorder. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com)
When Kamara Langenbrunner was 8, she started hearing voices.
The first time it happened, the Cloquet girl, now 10, was staying at a Minneapolis women’s shelter with her mom and siblings.
“I thought someone was really there and talking to me,” Kamara said. “I heard it say, ‘I am going to stay here and not go away until you do what I say.’ ”
Kamara knew whom the voice belonged to: her stepfather, a man who had physically abused her since she was 4.
“It would tell me to slam my head on my desk at school, or stab myself with a knife while I was helping my mom cook in the kitchen. It would say: ‘Regret being alive,’ and stuff like that,” Kamara said. When it got so loud that Kamara worried she might start to listen to it, she told her mom, Erin Camacho.
A few days later, Camacho took Kamara to the emergency room of Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, where she was immediately admitted to the children’s psychiatric unit at Abbot Northwestern. It was there she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It was absolutely shocking,” Camacho said. “I didn’t think she could have something like that at age 8; you think maybe 15 or 16 or when you start going through those hard teenage years. Words don’t describe what it felt like; you never want to see your baby hurt like that.”
Kamara is not a rarity. Mental-health providers say more young children — some as young as infants — are being diagnosed with a mental illness…
‘I felt like I was crazy’ | Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota
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