Radical doula job posting

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An awesome Brooklyn organization, the Brooklyn Young Mothers Collective, is hiring someone to coordinate their teen doula project. FYI, in case you know some awesome doulas looking for work.

Teen Doula Project Coordinator

This position involves development of a new program, requiring a capacity to innovate, work collaboratively, develop institutional relationships, function autonomously, and communicate a program vision.

Responsibilities include:
* Recruit, manage, oversee doula staff and will report directly to the Executive Director
* Coordinate recruitment of participating families
* Outreach/linking with collaborating agencies
* Conduct doula trainings
* Oversee data collection and evaluation
* Liaison with Chicago Health Connection
* Deliver 12 births in first half of the year
* Supervise a minimum of four births supported by community-based doulas

Requirements:
Public Health Professional or Social Work experience
Some program management experience
Some supervisory experience, preferably with “reflective supervision” approach
Experience and comfort working with adolescent and young mothers
Experience with community-based programs and knowledge of New York City’s low-income and underserved areas
Basic understanding of the New York City public health programs
Experience working with a diverse work force and diverse clientele
Desirable: maternal-child health clinical experience, preferably labor and delivery
Highly desirable: Fluent in Spanish

Supervision Received: Works under the direction and supervision of the Executive Director. May be assigned by the Executive Director to work with, and be supervised by, other office personnel for specific periods and/or specific tasks.

Work Schedule: Must be able to maintain a flexible part-time schedule during the first year of program.

The Brooklyn Young Mothers’ Collective provides a competitive benefits and compensation package, and is an equal opportunity employer. Women of color, LGBT candidates and low-income women strongly encouraged to apply.

Please submit a cover letter and resume to Benita Miller no later than January 4, 2008.

Email information to benita@bymcinc.org

Fresh Focus: Sex-Ed Digital Video Contest

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Fresh Focus: Sex-Ed Digital Video Contest:
“In My Eleven Years Of School, I’ve Gotten No Sexual Education!”

Fresh Focus Video Contest - Watch Intro Video

Wednesday, December 5, 2007 – Fresh Focus: Sex-Ed Digital Video Contest, is accepting video submissions until midnight on New Years Eve. The contest is sponsored by a group of leading national reproductive health partners including Advocates for Youth, ISIS, Inc., RH Reality Check and SIECUS and asks young people to describe their sex education (or lack thereof) or explain how they would improve it themselves.

Amie Newman, of RH Reality Check, says “It’s time to get together with your friends and be creative! Young people from around the country are picking up their cameras and cell phones, getting together and shooting. It’s easy! We want to hear your thoughts about sexuality education in this country.”

In Angel’s video, she shares, “Basically, I’m in tenth-grade and I don’t recall having a sex-education…ever.”

In another video, a young man in an on-the-street interview says, “I really didn’t learn about sex education. It was word of mouth and just don’t get any of the bad stuff…”

Eliciting videos that, according to Andy Carvin at PBS.org’s Learning Now, are “a collection of frank discussions on teens, sex and health literacy” that “…are funny, outspoken, honest and bold”, Fresh Focus: Sex Ed Digital Video Contest aims to engage young people in their own education by encouraging them to envision a new way to teach sexuality education or to share with other young people how their own sexuality education was helpful or not. Prizes range from a $3500 scholarship or cash equivalent to an iPhone, as well as the opportunity to be featured at the inaugural Sex::Tech Conference: Focus on Youth, January 22-23, 2008 at the Institute for Next Generation Internet in San Francisco.

Entries will be accepted until December 31st, 2007. Voting begins January 4th, 2008. Visit the official contest page today for all the details and official rules.

Details, Rules, and Information on Submissions:

http://www.dogooder.tv/freshfocusvideocontest/

Contact:
amie at rhrealitycheck dot org for more information
deb at isis-inc dot org for press inquiries
andy at isis-inc dot org for contest inquiries

For more information about the sponsoring organizations:
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org
http://www.isis-inc.org
http://nsrc.sfsu.edu
http://www.siecus.org

Special Edition News Round-Up: Menopause

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Ever since I posted about Menopause Awareness Month, I’ve noticed a really interesting trend in my blog stats (for those of you who aren’t techies or bloggers, blog stats are a way for you to see the kind of traffic your blog is getting, like how many people visit your site each day and how they get to you (via google searches or links on other sites)). Lately, a good percentage of my daily traffic comes from people searching for the word menopause on the internet.

Maybe it’s not too surprising, considering the number of women entering into menopause or who are in the midst of it, and the lack of attention it gets in comparison to things like childbirth or contraception. So I’m going to try and write more about menopause on my blog, and I’m starting with this special edition news round-up on menopause. Enjoy! And if there are any readers out there with particular questions or interests around menopause, let me know what you what to see written about in the future!

Hormone replacement therapy may prevent Alzheimer’s disease (although it has also been found to increase breast cancer risk).

The North American Menopause Society receives an award for their website, www.menopause.org.

Some tips for menopause treatment.

At St. Paul hospital’s Menopause Center was cut from the budget.

A new “all-natural dietary supplement” for menopause is announced, made from North Carolina muscadine grapes.

More to come!

New study discusses benefits of breastfeeding

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A new report is out about the benefits of breastfeeding in developing countries. From the LA Times article about the report:

This spring, the federal Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ) published a report that evaluated the research on breast-feeding and children’s health. Assembling the data involved a year and a half of combing through more than 9,000 studies and reviews, selecting those that met strict quality criteria.Dr. Ruth Lawrence, who chairs the breast-feeding task force of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), said the result is the “most comprehensive, all-inclusive” document on breast-feeding in developed countries. “It’s an excellent report,” she said.

While it’s difficult to prove cause and effect with these studies, I think there is still something to be said for this kind of evidence, especially considering that the medical community and the formula companies have a lot of damage to undo from the years of formula and bottle feeding promotion. What I’m still waiting for is the research that proves that formula feeding is beneficial and has all these disease prevention possibilities.

With that in mind, the report found that breast-fed babies were:

* 64% less likely to develop gastrointestinal infections

* 72% less likely to be hospitalized for lower respiratory tract disease

* 23% to 50% less likely to develop ear infections

* 4% to 82% less likely to develop necrotizing enterocolitis if premature.

* 36% less likely to die of sudden infant death syndrome

* 42% less likely to develop atopic dermatitis

* 27% to 40% less likely to develop early-childhood asthma

* 15% to 19% less likely to develop childhood leukemia

* 19% to 27% less likely to develop Type 1 diabetes

* 7% to 24% less likely to be obese

* 39% less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes

I do agree with those who say we shouldn’t scare women into breastfeeding and rather encourage and support women.

Dr. Darshak Sanghavi, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, said that the focus should be on helping women who want to breast-feed, rather than “browbeating” those who don’t.

Orgasmic Birth

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I have posted about this before, but I want to highlight it again because the project is nearing completion. Debra Pascali-Bonaro (my doula trainer!) and a group of really awesome people have put together a film called Orgasmic Birth. The film is being released in January 2008, and hopefully will start to make its way to US film festivals. About Orgasmic Birth:

Orgasmic Birth is a documentary that examines the sexual and intimate nature of birth and the powerful role it plays in women’s lives when they are permitted to experience it.

You can see Debra talking about the film here.

Interview on RH Reality Check

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Amanda Marcotte interviewed me for her series RealityCast, on RH Reality Check. You can listen to the interview here (my interview starts around 4 minutes and 20 seconds). Thanks to Amanda for inviting me to be on the series!

Blog spotlight: Pushed birth

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The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care

Jennifer Block, author of Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care has a new (started in August) blog about childbirth. Check it out at pushedbirth.com. She defines a pushed birth as:

A pushed birth is one that is induced, sped up, and/or heavily medicated for no good reason, and all too often concludes with surgery, invasive instruments, an episiotomy, or a bad vaginal tear — outcomes you don’t want.

Cool stuff. She has a sweet map on the site showing in what states midwifery is legal and illegal.

Suggestions for good pregnancy books please

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When I was in college, I wrote a chapter of my thesis (entitled Managing Birth: Hospitals, Mothers and their Meaning in the United States about my work as a volunteer doula) on the best-selling pregnancy book What to Expect When You’re Expecting. In brief, I wrote about why it is terrible, and scares women, and should really be called What to Be Scared of When You’re Expecting. Not to mention that it is very much based on the doctors are better paradigm (my favorite quote, from the introduction, was something to the effect of how modern medicine had moved birth from the kitchen table to the hospital. wtf).

What I didn’t do when I wrote that chapter was recommend a good pregnancy book alternative. Now I’m looking for suggestions from you all, for good not scary midwife and doula friendly pregnancy books. Suggest away!

Feeling comfortable with discomfort

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you are taking some moments to reflect on what you are thankful for and how to find peace in your life. I went to a Thanksgiving yoga class this morning, and the thought from the teacher (and the practice of Yin yoga) that I want to share is the idea of feeling comfortable with discomfort.

This concept has relevance in many aspects of our lives, from dealing with grief, conflict or unrest to dealing with pain (like in labor). We as a society are extremely uncomfortable with discomfort and we focus on eradicating all pain or discomfort in our lives, whether through medication or other numbing techniques (avoidance, alcohol, drugs, etc). I think it’s an important thing to reflect on–what does it mean for us to try and be comfortable with the discomfort in our lives? To sit with negative feelings, pain, let them overwhelm us, feel it deeply and let it go.

This is what we ask of women in labor–to use the pain of contractions, allow it to carry them forward, rather than numbing the pain or giving into it. I think we can all learn a lesson from what we ask women in labor to do, and try to apply it to our emotional and physical lives as well.

At Your Cervix

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A friend sent me an email about this awesome documentary, At Your Cervix. It’s “a film dedicated to making pelvic exams respectful and pain-free.” Pretty awesome stuff.

The documentary At Your Cervix explores the connection between the way medical and nursing students are taught pelvic exams and the reality that most women experience them as painful and disempowering.

At Your Cervix breaks the silence around the unethical methods used by medical and nursing schools to teach students how to perform pelvic exams; the most egregious being on unconsenting, anaesthetized women. At the same time, the film highlights the Gynecological Teaching Associate (GTA) Program in New York City. Fuelled by the spirit of women’s health activism, the GTA program began over 30 years ago and it has been shown to be the most effective way to teach exams and is also the most ethical and empowering to women.

I know someone who is a GTA, and it’s a pretty awesome way to try and make change within women’s health care. You can watch the trailer here, or donate some money so they can finish the project here.

 Thanks to Harris for the tip.