Birth as power

Birth as power: Options and preparation for organic childbirth

New zine, available from anarcha here.

Dont Leave Your Friends Behind Zine Issue 4- out now!

The latest issue of the fab zine 'Don't Leave Your Friends Behind' is now out! Edited by U.S. anarcha-feminists Vikki Law and China Martins, it is a great collection of thoughts on how to rally the non-parents in our midst to understand and support those with childcaring responsibilities.

CRAP!Collective have also written a piece for the zine, summing up our experiences of organising within this collective so far.

This zine is a must-read, and anti-copyright, so print out and distribute far and wide!

**************Watch this space for the link to the new zine!***********

Dont Leave Your Friends Behind Blogspot: http://dontleaveyourfriendsbehind.blogspot.com/

Call for Submissions for New Book: Dont Leave Your Friends Behind

The past 4 issues of the zine 'Dont Leave Your Friends Behind' will be turned into a book. New submissions are also wanted, so see below for more information (deadline March 2011):


Call For Submissions:

Don't Leave Your Friends Behind is a book geared toward the non-parent radical community about how to be an ally to the parent(s) in their midst.

We're looking for activists, allies, & radical parents to help make this the best book ever for getting down to business: Let's make a better world WITHOUT leaving out the mamas, papas, partners, child-care providers & children this time!

We want to know how you support children & their caretakers in your collectives, organizations or communities.

Parents: What concrete things can those around you do to support you and your family? Send us your list of suggestions!

Radical Childcare Collectives: How do you organize childcare?

We are especially interested in experiences that also take into account factors such as race, class, gender, single parenthood, immigration, disability, and/or mental health issues.

Word limit: One sentence suggestions to 5.000 word essays.

Contact us with questions and submissions!

China Martens
PO Box 4803
Baltimore, MD 21211
china410 (at) hotmail.com

and

Vikki Law
PO Box 20388
New York
NY 10009
vikkimL (at) yahoo.com


For more information about Don't Leave Your Friends Behind, including links to download past issues, go to:

http://dontleaveyourfriendsbehind.blogspot.com

Deadline: March 15, 2011

Homebirth Obstetrician and Midwife Faces 5 Years in Prison

Obstetrician and Midwife, Dr. Agnes Gereb, Faces 5 Years in Prison for
Attending Homebirths in Hungary

This letter is being posted at the request of the author and in solidarity
with those supporting and advocating on behalf of Dr. Agnes Gereb around
the world. Gereb is currently being held in a maximum security prison in
Hungary, facing a five year prison sentence, for attending birthing women
at home. Supporters of birth choice in Europe urge readers to contact your
local Hungarian embassy.

http://www.drmomma.org/2010/10/obstetrician-and-midwife-dr-agnes-gereb.html

Note:

Obstetrician and Midwife, Agnes was taken into police custody in the
evening of Tuesday, Oct 5th, just minutes after attending to a pregnant
woman who had unexpectedly gone into labor at her homebirth centre in
Budapest. The mother transferred by ambulance to the hospital with her
baby boy when he displayed breathing difficulties immediately after birth.
The police arrested Gereb and held her for 72 hours with access only to
her lawyer. After the 72 hours in detention, she was taken before a closed
criminal court and charged with "reckless endangerment committed in the
line of duty" and was to remain in custody without bail for a further 30
days. It is common in Hungary to spend more than a year in prison while
awaiting trial.

On October 6th, more than 600 people protested outside Budapest's prison
that held Gereb. Two days later, more than 2,000 people made a human chain
from the municipal court to the national parliament.

On October 12th, Gereb appeared before a court - shackled and handcuffed.
She faced several charges including negligent practice and manslaughter
for a birth where a baby died after a difficult labor.

According to Tamas Fazekas, one of the lawyers fighting Gereb's case with
the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, said Gereb is confined to a
four-woman cell for 23 hours a day. "She is subjected to strip searches,
only allowed to see her family once a month — they have not been allowed
to visit her since her arrest — and can have just one 10-minute phone call
every week. When she appeared before the public court she was in handcuffs
and leg shackles so tight that she had a 10cm bleeding wound on her leg."

As of yesterday (Fri, Oct 22) Gereb has been moved into a maximum security
prison and faces a five year prison sentence.

Obstetrics is well known to be one of the most lucrative branches of
Hungary's "free" health care system. Inductions and episiotomies (as well
as an assortment of other interventions) are ubiquitous. Women who want to
step away from this medicalized birth face a very difficult challenge to
find a skilled birth attendant. In fact, there are only 15 midwives in all
of Hungary who will attend women at home, and 5 of them currently face
lengthy prison sentences for the births they've attended. Gereb is the
founder of the Napvilág Birthing Centre, is a highly experienced OB/GYN,
midwife, and internationally recognized homebirth expert. She has attended
over 3,500 births at home in Hungary

towards a family-friendly radical movement; Inter-generational liberation for all.

Excellent post from eleven o clock alchemy about the need for creating family-friendly radical and inclusive movments-
http://elevenoclockalchemy.wordpress.com/2010/11/02/towards-a-family-friendly-radical-movement-intergenerational-liberation-for-all

Invitation from London Pro-feminist Men's Group

Come to the next LPMG meeting:
Next Meetings:
Every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month at 3pm at LARC, 62 Fieldgate st, London, E1 1ES (whitechapel, Aldgate)
http://www.londonarc.org/.

- 3rd October at 3pm
- 17th October at 3pm
- 7th November at 3pm
- 21st November at 3pm

About us:
EMAIL: londonprofeministmensgroup at googlemail.com

"We're a group of men meeting in London every 2 weeks. We have been meeting fortnightly for almost 3 years now.

The aims of our meetings are:
- to support each other in our personal struggles as men, including our efforts to rid ourselves of sexist behaviour
- to raise consciousness with regards to sexism in our lives and in society
- to discuss issues around gender politics generally
- to plan what actions we can take as pro-feminists

Though we are mainly a consciousness raising group, we also sometimes facilitated workshops and give talks, organized creches at feminist events, and participated in demos. This helped all of us tremendously in acknowledging, realising and working on our sexist behaviours! In practice our group has always been a men-only group, although it has always been open to anyone who felt that sharing their life experience would be beneficial for them and/or other members of the group.

If you've often thought this is an interesting group but never found energy or time to come round, this is the opportunity!!

Our meetings are generally composed of different parts. Usually we start with a round about ourselves, our lives, how we are and past experiences of sexism we were involved in. Then we talk about concrete action plans we have for the future. After a break we try to discuss a theme linked to gender and feminism (such as our fathers/mothers, homophobia, pornography, seduction etc.) always trying to start from our own life experience and then go to the global/more theoretical.

Hope to see you all there!"

Don't hesitate to contact us: londonprofeministmensgroup at googlemail.com

Prevent Millions of Women and Children Dying in Pregnancy and Childbirth

Millions of women and children can be saved from death in pregnancy or childbirth,
if world leaders, who are about to meet in New York, meet their promises and step
up their aid commitments for maternal health. Let's call on them to act now!

Millions of pregnant women and children die every year because of malnutrition or
inadequate health services. It's shocking, but if our governments meet aid promises
to women and children at the poverty summit later this month, it is avoidable.

Ten years ago world leaders committed to drastically reduce the disgraceful number
of maternal deaths by 2015, but in fact aid levels remain shamefully low. Now, some
governments could be prepared to boost aid for mothers and babies, but they need
massive public support to get all governments to step up.

In days our leaders meet in New York. Let's build a global outcry against needless
deaths. Sign the petition below to double aid for maternal and child health -- it
will be delivered to key government leaders at the New York meeting.

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/save_children_and_mothers/?vl

In the last 10 years, since the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) were set,
significant advances have been made to tackle poverty -- one-third fewer mothers
have died during childbirth due to increased aid and investment in maternal health
care. But millions of pregnant mothers are still dying needlessly and every year 9
million children die before their 5th birthday.

There is already a specific mechanism to deliver aid for HIV/AIDS, Malaria and
Tuberculosis, but no similar system exists to support health for mothers and
children. Experts feel one of the best ways to have an immediate impact is to ensure
that aid is doubled and coordinated to effectively bring health care to the mothers
and children who need it the most.

But with only 5 years left to meet MDG targets, there’s a danger that our leaders
use the recession to shirk responsibilities to help the world’s poorest. It has
always been the world's citizens that have led the fight against poverty and pushed
our leaders to take critical action, and now it is up to us again. Sign the petition
to save mothers and children:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/save_children_and_mothers/?vl

Too often the poorest and most vulnerable communities are just statistics at
international summits. On the eve of this crucial summit, let's join together and
give the poorest women and children a voice. Sign the petition below:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/save_children_and_mothers/?vl

With hope for a fairer world,

Alice, Luis, Alex, Pascal, Maria Paz, Ricken, Ben, Iain, Graziela and the whole
Avaaz team


Sources:
Oxfam, "Minimal G8 Maternal Health Initiative sends disturbing message to women and
girls":
http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/reactions/minimal-g8-maternal-health-initiative-sends-disturbing-message-women

The Countdown to 2015 Initiative tracks coverage levels for health interventions
proven to reduce maternal, newborn and child mortality:
http://www.countdown2015mnch.org/

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