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Memphis, Tennessee
Highlights from our production included: 1) We had two performers who had never acted before and they did an incredible job in their acting debuts. They gave outstanding performances. 2)We had a wonderful and lively Talkback Session with childbirth professionals in our community and actresses from the show. The audience was really engaged in asking questions about how to take what we had shared through the play and to use it as a tool for advocacy in order to change the birth scene in Memphis 3) It was moving to see a man at the Talkback Session who was very engaged and inquisitive about childbirth education. He stated that he learned a lot and wondered how women find out about options like doulas. 4)We had reservations from an entire class of prenatal yoga practitioners and many of them stayed to talk with the actresses and directors about how the play had affected them and how it might change the way that they were going to birth. 5) Women came with their young daughters and college students came to see the show for a class that they were taking. From their comments and their reaction papers they learned a lot about birth that will inform the choices that they make when they decide to have children of their own. A major breakthrough for the students was to see women depicting birth in other positions besides on their backs. Their papers also addressed the fact that the emotions of the women and how they were treated during the births helped to illustrate why knowledge, access and choices need to get better in our community. 6) An audience member said that she really appreciated seeing the journey of Jillian's character, especially the communiation that birth can be ecstatic for a woman. It was noted on more than one occasion that Jillian's transformation helps women see that birth and attitudes about birth can be changed. 7) As a result of the show an online Yahoo group of Memphis Moms called Alternamamas had a follow-up discussion and potluck to further talks about the play and the Memphis birthing scene. The midwives on the Talkback Panel also brought in the Ricki Lake documentary The Business of Being Born and featured the directors of Birth on their panel. The director of Birth is working on a hosting a series prenatal information sessions with a doula and a childbirth educator that are going to be free and open to the public at a local wellness facility. 8) A local ob contacted the directors of Birth to let them know that one of her patients was able to do a VBAC after seeing the show and switching providers. At our BOLD Talkback we had an Ob/Gyn, a Certified Nurse Midwife, a Certified Professional Midwife, a Bradley Childbirth Educator, a Doula who is an Apprentice Midwife, and A Prenatal Exercise Specialist who moderated the panel. Unfotunately our Ob/Gyn texted us and let us know that she was having to deliver a baby so she could not attend at the last moment. We explained this to the audience so that they would undertsand why our doctor was not present. An Ob/Gyn in the audience stated her disappointment that there was not more balance on the panel after our explanation and introductions. We invited her to join us on stage and she declined. The Ob/Gyn in the audience brought a nurse with her who is a hospital childbirth educator. They were both very defensive from the moment that the panel discussion started. A mother in the audience engaged in lively dialogue with them and they left shortly after the discussion started to get really interesting with great questions from the audience. There were many pregnant women, women who had given birth, doulas, and men in the audience. A touching moment was when a man in the audience asked why he had never heard about most of this stuff before. He is the father of two and the grandfather to one. His question sparked a lively discussion in what we can do in our community to education women about the spectrum of choices that they have in birthing. Most rewarding: Seeing people without stage experience pull off strong performances and knowing that what we were doing was going to help change the birth scene in Memphis! Kimberly Baker was the BOLD Organizer in Memphis, Tennesse. BOLD Memphis raised money for the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services.
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