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From the Archives of Our Bodies, Our Blog

Why Choose a Midwife? - A Midwifery Advocacy Video

By Rachel Walden • January 22, 2010

Please note: This entry -- originally posted at Our Bodies, Our Blog -- has not been updated since the publication date listed above.

Our Bodies Ourselves, like many other birth organizations and activists, has long believed that all birthing women should have access to midwives and to a midwifery model of care. A new video, "Why Choose a Midwife?" provides an overview of this model and serves as an advocacy tool for midwifery.

Our own Judy Norsigian was interviewed for the piece, and explains the Our Bodies Ourselves position on choices in childbirth:

We want to have more women having vaginal births after cesarean available in the hospital setting, we want to have more certified nurse midwives in the hospital setting, we want to have more trained, licensed midwives in the home birth setting.


She also acknowledges a woman's right to make her own educated decisions with regard to childbirth, explaining that "women and their partners choose the risks they want to take when they choose a home birth or they choose a hospital birth."

Other topics covered in the 12-minute film include safety, home birth, the problems with some routine hospital interventions, the attention provided by midwives, cost, and choice. Also featured are Gene DeClerq, PhD (Boston University School of Public Health) and Marcie Richardson, MD (a Massachusetts Ob/Gyn), with additional footage graciously provided by other filmmakers. A volunteer film editor, with guidance from a group of volunteers from Our Bodies Ourselves and Massachusetts Friends of Midwives, created the piece.

13 Responses

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Shaye on

Oh I hope it will be put back up soon. I must have watched it ten times today. I'm the Education Chair for the Nebraska Friends of Midwives. Our CNMs are forbidden, by law, to attend home births. As we're getting into our final legislative days we were all emailing the link to this video this afternoon to our senators. I guess they'll be getting a dead link for tonight. Do you know if it will be re-posted in the near future? Or is this something we could purchase on DVD for our group to use at our capitol? Everyone was so excited to see it today!

Tiffany on

The video is wonderful! Thank you so much for your work. I have posted it on our practice blog.

Laura on

I'm sorry to see the video has been taken down. I posted a link on Facebook and a friend let me know that the video had been removed already. I hope it is put back up soon - It's probably the best video to share with people who don't already support midwives.

atyourcervix on

We would like to know the exact reasons WHY this video was taken down. Please!!!

Rachel on

Sorry, folks. The video included several clips from other films on midwifery/birth for which permission was given to include them in the film. However, after we posted it we found that there was one portion of the clips that had been cleared to include but not to post publicly. If we can resolve this issue in some way, we'll repost. We're thrilled that you liked it, and apologize for any inconvenience!

Crystal on

You can still see it here:

http://mfomnews.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/video-of-amazing-midwives-and-mfom-moms/



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atyourcervix on

Thank you Rachel, for clarifying that!

Rachel on

Just a note - the video Crystal links above, while midwife-focused, is not the same one we had posted here (but thanks for sharing it, Crystal).

Tina on

Please send out a notice when it is re-posted!

Shaye on

Oh yes, I hope you'll re-blog it when it is available again. This was such a perfect video for introducing the idea of midwifery and home birth. I've loved other birth films, but they're very long and most people aren't willing to sit through over an hour of footage. But 12-13 minutes is a perfect introduction. And this is the perfect time of year as several of us are in the middle of trying to get legislation passed.



Is it possible to remove the section in question and just re-post without it? Just curious.

Rachel Bell on

Please, please, please relay to whomever is responsible for taking this video away that it is absolutely amazing. It is so powerful!!! I am from WV, and got an incredible response from many people when I shared it on my facebook page.

Sam Que on

Rachel Bell, 'midwife', has harassed me for years claiming she was having an affair with my husband. She has a pattern of behavior, doing this to other married couples, that is frightening and crosses the boundaries into stalking. Do you really want this woman near your baby? What about your husband?
And, yes, sadly, I have proof of emails and direct messages. She's really quite sad and pathetic.

Sue on

Oh my goodness she is still doing this??? She destroyed my marriage as well and continued to harass my husband with her delusions. Do not let this woman into your family!