Birth Action Coalition Our Bodies, Our Babies, Our Births

Saturday, October 4, 2008 - Mission Park, Downtown Ventura, California

Scheduled Panelists Include:

Ricki Lake, Executive Producer of The Business of Being Born, speaking about the importance of women having choices in childbirth and what this choice has meant to her as a mother and as a woman.

Dr. Stuart Fischbein MD, FACOG a Board Certified OBGYN with over 20 years of private practice experience with expertise in high-risk OB, Ultrasound and fertility. Dr. Fischbein is the Medical Advisor for the Birth Action Coalition and is out-spoken in his commitment to support midwives and the option of out-of-hospital birth for women in Ventura County.

An event to inspire and motivate families to seek out & create access to all safe birth options through education & full informed consent.

• Walk For Women’s Rights in Childbirth at 10:30am (walk starts & ends at Mission Park)
• Fair & Panel 11am-3pm
• Music, Face Painting & Balloons for the Kids!
• Ask your questions to our Panel! Informative Demos!
• View the Birth Story Gallery!
• Bring blankets, folding chairs & bag lunch!

A Walk & Fair organized by the Birth Action Coalition and sponsored by ICAN of Ventura County

For more information contact Kimberly Rivers, Ventura Coordinator on 805-727-1393

From the Press Release:

Community activists to sponsor an event to inspire and motivate families to seek out and create access to all safe birth options through education and full informed consent.

Ricki Lake (Executive Producer, “The Business of Being Born) is scheduled to attend as a panelist.

On Saturday, October 4, 2008, at Mission Park in Ventura, the Birth Action Coalition (BAC) will bring together families and the childbirth community to speak out in order to reclaim birth choices in Ventura County.

“In the past several years’ birth choices have been under attack in our community” states Angela Marks, BAC Parent Coordinator. She continues “Ventura County, like the rest of the nation, has seen a shift in the number of hospitals willing to provide VBACs (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean).  Currently, six of the county’s seven hospitals, which provide labor and delivery services, no longer allow the option of a vaginal birth following a cesarean.”

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists has found that for many women vaginal birth after cesarean is as safe for the mother and infant as planned cesarean delivery, and the hospital stay is shorter. (Ron Gonen, Victoria Nisenblat (2006) Results of a Well-Defined Protocol for a Trial of Labor After Prior Cesarean Delivery, Obstetrics & Gynocology 1006; 107:240-245.)  “The Birth Action Coalition seeks to open a dialogue with hospitals, in an effort to discover what may be standing in the way of them providing the option of VBAC, and how we might bring that option back.” states Kimberly Rivers, BAC Parent Coordinator.

Kimberly Rivers continues, “We are fortunate in Ventura County to have many safe birth options.  There are lovely community hospitals as well as birthing centers and licensed attendants for home births.  But these options are under threat.  Hospital and insurance company policies dictating physician relationships with midwives make it hard to meet the state requirements for licensed practitioners to provide these options. These policies have effectively reduced a woman’s right to make the best decisions regarding the birth of her baby.”

By organizing this event the Birth Action Coalition hopes to shed light on the issues and options surrounding birth in our community.

The event begins at 10:30 with a walk aimed at giving voice to a woman’s right to choose how and where to labor and birth her baby.  The Walk will begin and end at Mission Park in Downtown Ventura. The Panel (taking questions submitted online & at the event) will begin at 11:30, and will be followed by live music performed by “Tin Drum”, and entertainment for the kids. Our event includes informative exhibits and live demos. The Event will end at 3:00pm. All are welcome!