One World Birth Launch Film

http://oneworldbirth.net - ONE WORLD BIRTH is a unique FREE video website now launched featuring evidence-based information and opinions from the world's leading birth experts including:

Ina May Gaskin, Sheila Kitzinger, Michel Odent, Elizabeth Davis, Debra Pascali-Bonaro, Cathy Warwick (RCM), Mary Newburn (NCT), Marilyn Curl (Lamaze International), Dr Sarah Buckley, Professor Soo Downe, Professor Lesley Page, Professor Cecily Begley, Professor Kerstin Uvnas-Moberg, Professor Ngai Fen Cheung, Associate Professor Denis Walsh and lots more leading midwives, academics, obstetricians, authors, doulas, birth educators and birth warriors around the world.

Here is a short video about the ONE WORLD BIRTH project and how together we can help change the world!.

Come join us and help empower ALL women to have better births. The website launched Thurs 1 Sept: http://oneworldbirth.net

• Category

  Film & Animation

[bernadettekeating]

I've watched this 3 times now and maybe I'm looking at it from my own perspective but all the comments?:'systems encouraging interference', natural birth is becoming an endangered species', trusting the body's 'own processes', every woman 'having the potential (to have the birth they want), they just have to get in touch with their own bodies'. What about the women who have erbs palsy or cerebral palsy babies or babies who get fetal distress or breech babies? Maybe we just weren't in touch?!?!

[realbirthstories]

All the issues you have mentioned are going to be covered in One World Birth.

To reiterate my earlier reply, this isn't about telling women how to give birth, it's about investigating ALL the issues in birth today so that change can happen where it needs to and so that women can empower themselves with knowledge so that they can at the very least have a choice in how they give birth.

[karenerbs]

Whilst I agree that all women can deliver a baby, what about those who suffer difficulties as a result?

my son was born following a birth complcated by shoulder dystocia where his shoulder became impacted on my symphasis pubis

the midwives pulled his head to free his shoulder and caused him to have a permanant brachial plexus injury - he now has a lifelong disability as a result.

so, whilst I COULD give birth to a 10lbs 13 1/2 oz baby vaginally, it wasn't safe to do so. Was it my fault?

[realbirthstories]

There will be a section on shoulder dystocia in the near future.

What is and isn't safe in childbirth is an ongoing debate, but it's certainly not right that you may consider you were somehow to blame. There is too much emphasis on blame and guilt issues in birth and that is something that One World Birth wants to help tackle. Sadly it affects way too many of us, and it's something many people carry throughout their entire lives. It's a difficult thing to change, but we have to try.

[bernadettekeating]

I find this video and the launch of this site VERY hard to swallow. My 7 month old baby was known to be big but because of all the ideas behind this video/website I was told a natural birth would be much better than a c section. My baby suffered shoulder dystocia & now has erbs palsy. He had been under general anesthetic 4 times by age 4 months including a 5hr nerve grafting operation. I am in a mess after the birth, physically and emotionally. A c section would have prevented all of this!!!

[realbirthstories]

Your story is very sad and it is terrible that you have been under such traumatic stress following the birth of your child.

One World Birth IS NOT about enforcing one particular method of giving birth. It's about exploring ALL the choices available to women today so that mothers can be empowered to make the choice that is right for them. Every single person we have filmed so far shares one common goal: to remove trauma from child birth.

[robynbee1]

I have had 10 pound babies myself that have been easier than my 8 and 9 pound babies. I don't think size is necessarily the issue. Sometimes I think it has more to do with positioning and how the babies descend. I do NOT think it was your fault in any way shape of form. Birth never has and never will be a hard science. It is an everchanging unpredictable event and I believe being open to whatever comes is the real gift of birth and choices for women are a must to honour that process.

[glassgirl41]

What a heartbreaking experience for you and your family! I am truly sorry. You are so right that a cesarean birth would very likely have prevented this damage. Unfortunately there's no way of determining which babies should be delivered via cesarean vs. a vaginal birth to avoid this relatively rare type of complication. Cesarean births hold their own risks for mother and baby, immediate and long term, and thus there's no guaranteed safe way for a baby to be born.

[Basia Szpak-Borst]

I love the message and we need to educate young mothers

[jdmacfarlane1]

Just thought I'd throw this out there: How much outreach goes to at need communites and minority communites, especially in the U.S.? Are midwifery and doula services being made available to these communities? Is there an effort to bring more minority women into these roles?

[nineteen7Ttwo]

I feel so inspired and excited right now! Thank you for creating this! I think the timing is perfect and you certainly have my support. CONGRATULATIONS!

[rawlinda1]

Congratulations on the launch of this much needed vehicle to inspire a revolution for change in the culture, experience and representation of birth across the globe!

[Melissa Miller]

I birthed my son in hospital and found the entire process to be very traumatic. My wishes were not respected and after 3 failed attempts with vantouse he was delivered with forceps. We were separated for 11 hours after that, unnecessarily. 6 years later I birthed my daughter with a homebirth midwife. Her birth will remain the most defining and empowering moment in my life. We should all have the opportunity to make well informed decisions and the right to choose how we birth our babies.

[Lorette Lavine]

Great idea to promote less intervention in childbirth,.however willing it so does not make for a natural childbirth without any complications..Abnormal situations do occur no matter how prepared a mom is. My hope is that women will not feel guilty if they need intervention to deliver a healthy baby & that they will still trust their docs to make the right decisions when called upon to do so.

Perhaps the real revolution would be to "cap" malpractice awards & see OB go back to what it used to be.

[ZoeYac]

I'm so glad to see this video and see that there is a force moving more towards enabling women to have the birth of their choice.

[partlysbabe]

I love this.... I cannot wait to see some more... Ive birthed 6 children and believe that in each case all but my first and then my last could have been easier with less intervention, and more education... (although my first I think I needed more education for too but it was not a bad birth in general) :)