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Eugene, Oregon
BOLD organizer Patricia Smith produced 3 nights of BOLD theatre at the Lord Leebrick Theatre on September 1-3. The production received lots of press: Eugene Weekly and a piece by Angela Kellner at KLCC public radio. Patricia reports: Our opening night was awesome. We had about 80 people come. Everyone was so impressed with the performance. The Talk-Back was powerful. How to reduce cesarean rates. The doctor on the panel said when insurance companies start paying more for vaginal birth that's when cesarean rates will go down. Certified Nurse Midwives talked about being scared of malpractice claims and the increasing rates of their policies. Homebirth Midwives believe it has to start with education. They also said homebirth midwives have a 4% cesarean rate, compared to 29.1 Nationally in hospitals. What we realized at the end of our talk back is that the wheel kept spinning round and round. Malpractice Claims and Costs, Consumer Driven Cesarean, Education, Change. And we were left with how??????? How????? How do you change the norm in America?? I suggested that we get reps for our mother-friendly birth practices that go into MD offices, like a drug rep, feed them lunch and information. Talk about statistics, true informed consent, and how we can all work together for a better model of care (like the Dutch Model). After the play one of the actresses came up to me and said Patricia I really need to talk to you. I said OK, what is it? She said this whole time I have been trying to figure out where I fit in. I am not a mother, or a care provider. She said but now I know. She said… I am a lobbyist, and a grass roots trainer. OOOOOOHHHHHHHH MMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYY GOSH!!!!!!!!! Ok so I said that a few times. Our actress Joey Carroll wants to help us start lobbying for change. We will be planning meetings after the play! Patricia continues: Our Finale was amazing. We had a larger crowd than the first night. All and all over 250 people came out to see BIRTH over 3 days. We had a local doctor on our panel Saturday night. We came up with one of the major problems in health care right now is insurance companies. It is hard to figure out how to work around it. Last night we talked about the medical model of care and how it is not set up to be very educational. How much education can you offer in a few minutes? About 70% of women only expect a minimum level of childbirth education. So how do we encourage that 70% to crave the information?. How do we get that 70% to know that birth is more than one day in your life? Everyone that came to see the play was so impressed. A woman in the bathroom, that had had her children 20 years ago, thanked me over and over for offering this opportunity to her and her friends. The re-lived their births, and were able to work through their birth baggage from ------ 20 years ago. We had woman that also cried through the whole play. During the talk back this one woman just kept saying why to they do this to us, why did they do this to me? She was demanding answers and we tried to explain how the medical model is set up. A BOLD thanks… Patricia writes, “I would like you to honor all of the families that sacrificed their loved ones during the Eugene Production of Birth. There are so many spouses and children I am not able to name them all at this time.”
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