From: Katherine Prown
To: ""thebigpushformidwives@yahoogroups.com""; birthpolicy
Sent: Friday, September 2, 2011 7:12 AM
Subject: [BirthPolicy] Comments needed!
Hi everyone--
As many of you know, Amy Tuteur’s followers have become much more organized and are now swarming every online article about CPMs and out-of-hospital birth with highly negative, but to the average person, highly plausible, comments. I’ve linked to the latest example below and I’d like to ask all of us out there with our Google alerts set to make a point of posting these stories and asking the community to comment.
Registering on these sites can be a pain, but it’s worth creating a gmail account and username just for that purpose because we can’t afford to have an entire army of commenters out there reinforcing every negative stereotype about midwives and home birth that the general public and worse, legislators, already hold.
http://www.registerguard.com/web/opinion/26790141-47/midwives-oregon-licensed-birth-direct.html.csp
To: ""thebigpushformidwives@yahoogroups.com""
Sent: Friday, September 2, 2011 7:12 AM
Subject: [BirthPolicy] Comments needed!
Hi everyone--
As many of you know, Amy Tuteur’s followers have become much more organized and are now swarming every online article about CPMs and out-of-hospital birth with highly negative, but to the average person, highly plausible, comments. I’ve linked to the latest example below and I’d like to ask all of us out there with our Google alerts set to make a point of posting these stories and asking the community to comment.
Registering on these sites can be a pain, but it’s worth creating a gmail account and username just for that purpose because we can’t afford to have an entire army of commenters out there reinforcing every negative stereotype about midwives and home birth that the general public and worse, legislators, already hold.
http://www.registerguard.com/web/opinion/26790141-47/midwives-oregon-licensed-birth-direct.html.csp
Now, this totally trips me out!! Let's look at a few things here, shall we??
1. To the average person, our comments seem highly plausible. So, to them, do they make no sense because they aren't average people??
2. She has google alerts set up?? So, she can beat us to the punch?? Can she not show up and have adult discussions with us??
3. She wants people to create sock puppets to counter us. Ok, this makes me chuckle. Why can't they actually use their real names and real email addresses and register at these sites as THEMSELVES, like the rest of us do. I'm not hiding behind some fake name just to say what I have to say. My name is Bambi C and I also go by Momofmanyfeet (not the uber crunchy one that doesn't believe in dentists that I found!)
4. We are not Amy followers. Every now and then, we make jokes about minions, but that's all it is- a joke. We all do our own thing. We are intelligent and capable of doing our own thing. Myself, I began speaking out within two months of my daughter's death BY MYSELF. I didn't have anybody holding my hand or supporting me aside from my husband and family. Due to Amy finding me and showing support and compassion, I did find an entire group of women that I could relate to. Since Skeptimommy and Fed up, we've been able to connect and really develop some wonderful friendships. It's not an echo chamber at all and we do have our disputes with one another, but respect one another's differences.
To be honest, if Prown and her crowd would really LISTEN to those who have been hurt and take our suggestions to heart, we wouldn't be such a threat. I love knowing that we are a threat to the movement!! I won't lie, this is the best thing that has happened to show us that we are making a difference and it has renewed our strength. Just knowing that my daughter's death wasn't in vain is one of the best feelings.
AND it turns out the Oregon homebirth community is freaked out about Liz P moving to their state (you can read about her developments on the right- Papparella Brood).
If people want us to go away, Please, just shut up and listen. Take what we are saying to heart and enact it. We have been in a place you could never imagine and we don't want other women enduring what we have. It's easy to think dead babies are no big deal when it's not your dead baby. Trust me, this alters your life in unfathomable ways and it's not ok to expect women to be ok with their babies dying. When you place yourself above a healthy, living baby, perhaps you are in the wrong hobby. When you put yourself out there to deliver babies, you need to actually give a shit instead of whining like a damn baby! Seriously. When you are "In Service to Women", those women should actually, you know, matter. Burying a baby due to preventable circumstances isn't good for a woman!! Trust me!
1. To the average person, our comments seem highly plausible. So, to them, do they make no sense because they aren't average people??
2. She has google alerts set up?? So, she can beat us to the punch?? Can she not show up and have adult discussions with us??
3. She wants people to create sock puppets to counter us. Ok, this makes me chuckle. Why can't they actually use their real names and real email addresses and register at these sites as THEMSELVES, like the rest of us do. I'm not hiding behind some fake name just to say what I have to say. My name is Bambi C and I also go by Momofmanyfeet (not the uber crunchy one that doesn't believe in dentists that I found!)
4. We are not Amy followers. Every now and then, we make jokes about minions, but that's all it is- a joke. We all do our own thing. We are intelligent and capable of doing our own thing. Myself, I began speaking out within two months of my daughter's death BY MYSELF. I didn't have anybody holding my hand or supporting me aside from my husband and family. Due to Amy finding me and showing support and compassion, I did find an entire group of women that I could relate to. Since Skeptimommy and Fed up, we've been able to connect and really develop some wonderful friendships. It's not an echo chamber at all and we do have our disputes with one another, but respect one another's differences.
To be honest, if Prown and her crowd would really LISTEN to those who have been hurt and take our suggestions to heart, we wouldn't be such a threat. I love knowing that we are a threat to the movement!! I won't lie, this is the best thing that has happened to show us that we are making a difference and it has renewed our strength. Just knowing that my daughter's death wasn't in vain is one of the best feelings.
AND it turns out the Oregon homebirth community is freaked out about Liz P moving to their state (you can read about her developments on the right- Papparella Brood).
If people want us to go away, Please, just shut up and listen. Take what we are saying to heart and enact it. We have been in a place you could never imagine and we don't want other women enduring what we have. It's easy to think dead babies are no big deal when it's not your dead baby. Trust me, this alters your life in unfathomable ways and it's not ok to expect women to be ok with their babies dying. When you place yourself above a healthy, living baby, perhaps you are in the wrong hobby. When you put yourself out there to deliver babies, you need to actually give a shit instead of whining like a damn baby! Seriously. When you are "In Service to Women", those women should actually, you know, matter. Burying a baby due to preventable circumstances isn't good for a woman!! Trust me!
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