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New York City, New York What an experience! The performances were great – our innovative professional director, Heidi Miami Marshall, used a lot of multi-media techniques with the actors speaking into video cameras at times which made the experience rich and fast-paced. The actors were all professional New York City actors - challenging walking into a completely new experience for midwives and trying to make Birth all that it could be. It was clear who was in the audience by the different parts of Birth that received laughs. The moments like, "You pooped." caused much laughter from the entire audience but the descriptions of the crunchy granola midwife and such sent the midwives who attended into hysterics. We had such amazing members of our BOLD Talkback panesl. There were about 20 people in total over the 4 nights of performances. We had midwives, doulas, obs, activists, authors, women representing marginalized populations such as the lesbian community and incarcerated women, nurses. We discussed what Birth in New York today is like. That led to what options women have, what could/should be changed, how to trust your provider in a moment of "crisis", transparency in the health care system. Our OBs were all men and they were wonderful. At one BOLD Talkback the OB on our panel started off by thanking the playwright and founder of BOLD, Karen Brody (who was in the audience!) for writing a play that – In his opinion – told the truth about childbirth today. I think an important point that that the play Birth makes is that working with a person with the designation of "midwife" "ob" "nurse" or even "doula" does not guarentee a particular experience but that you have a right to find someone with whom you are comfortable sharing this much-more-than-just-one-day experience. Hilary Prager was the BOLD Organizer in New York. BOLD New York City’s performances raised money for the American College of Nurse Midwives - NYC Chapter.
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