The Doula Seminar we hosted on June 19th was a great success.  One of the activities involved writing a poem about doulas.  See a random example of one of those poems below:

Would you like YOUR child to be in the BuffaloBirth Network 2011 Calendar?!?

BuffaloBirth Network will be producing a 2011 calendar as a fundraising event. It will feature children from the Western New York area. If you would like your child to be in the calendar, email info@buffalobirth.com with your child's or children's first name(s) and age(s).

Would you like to advertise in the calendar?

There is space for three business card sized ads on each calendar page. Each ad costs just $18. If you are interested in advertising, please fill out the advertiser form and return it with your payment.

BuffaloBirth Network will be producing a pregnancy resource guide for all of Western New York. It will contain tips for a healthy pregnancy and birth, birth stories, and listings of local resources. The guides will be distributed throughout the area through doulas, childbirth educators, and other pregnancy related businesses, as well as local libraries.

The resource listing will include all BuffaloBirth Network professional members. If you would like to be included in the guide, please fill out the professional membership form and return it with your dues.

If you would like to advertise in the resource guide, please fill out the advertiser form and return it with your payment.

CIMS, the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services, a group working toward transparency in maternity care, today announced that consumer survey results rating health care providers and birth facilities are now available online at www.thebirthsurvey.com.

The CIMS Transparency in Maternity Care Project: The Birth Survey is the first ever consumer ratings website dedicated solely to providing feedback on obstetricians, midwives, hospitals, birth centers, and home birth services. The consumer reviews include overall ratings and recommendations for birth facilities and care providers, and also a seven-item set of questions on providers’ interpersonal and communication skills, facility intervention rates, and information on finding good care. A national average of ratings is also displayed to provide comparison with individual ratings.

Do you need help finding a mother-friendly obstetrician, midwife, doula, or childbirth educator? Please call Mindy at (716) 380-0689 or email us at info@buffalobirth.com.

You can also check our online local resources guide, but note that this is a work in progress and more resources are available than are relfected by the guide.

Our very own Rachel Zeller has been featured in an article about birth in Buffalo and beyond in an article in Art Voice. Please check it out!

Getting Off Our Backs

by Lindsay Berman

How women are reclaiming birth, one midwife at a time

Eileen is not coming to your house with a bottle of gin,” says Eileen Stewart.

The director of Buffalo Midwifery Services and a certified nurse midwife, Stewart is one of many midwives across the country trying to demystify the public’s image of midwifery, including the notion that it is an old-world holdout whose method of choice is liquor. Stewart says her mission is to help women understand their birthing options, their bodies, and their rights.

This focus on the re-empowerment of birthing mothers and the firm belief in the mental and physical control women can have over birth breeds contention between the traditional medical community and midwives, naturalists, and women seeking alternatives to medicalized birth. ...

A Day with Ina May was the title of the 9th annual family conference in Pittsburg PA this year and Jeanine and I attended.

It was great spending all day listening to Ina May talk about birth and politics surrounded by like-minded Midwives, Doulas, Childbirth Educators, and Moms. It was a warm, cheerful, and empowering room of women making a difference.