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Dear BOLD Friends,
It may be winter (I'm in DC where we're having our second blizzard in one week!), but BOLD is already heating up in 2010! Every day my inbox is filled with exciting news. This BOLD E-News shares it with you and hopefully engages and inspires you to be BOLD in your community.
My new "baby" - The My Body Rocks Project - is also taking off. The buzz here in DC from mamas to attend a workshop and do classes and private "Nap Time For Moms" storytelling sessions is an exciting new phase of my professional life. And I can't wait for this summer's BOLD Body and Soul Retreat for Birth Workers and Activists. I hope you can join me then. Registration is now open.
This week I started blogging on Mothering Magazine's website so be sure to check out my "My Body Rocks" blog. It's time I share with you my mothering story! (and for all things BOLD read my BOLD blog).
Come be BOLD this year!
Karen
PS: Here I am this week on my street during the DC 2010 blizzard! My kids haven't had school since February 5 and probably won't until February 16! Anyone want a playdate?!!!
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BOLD Birmingham, Alabama performance raises over $3,500
 "It was emotional, powerful, heartwarming. I want to chant "My Body Rocks!" when I give birth!"
- audience member, Birmingham, Alabama
BOLD Birmingham kick-started BOLD 2010 with the first performance of the year on January 30, raising over $3,500 for the Alabama Birth Coalition. It was a freezing cold night, but audience members traveled from far and wide to attend the performance including a group of women from Huntsville (2 hours away), another group from Dothan (over 3 hours away), and at least one woman drove up from Mobile (4 hours away!).
The post show discussion included an OB who spoke candidly about his practice, and audience members wanted to know why the medical establishment in Alabama is so against allowing midwives to enter the healthcare mix. Here's the good news: more women in Alabama are hiring doulas, requesting natural birth and becoming doulas. Is there a long way to go? Sure. But change is in the air!
You rock, Birmingham!
Photo:Christine Prichard / Viewtopia Pictures
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BOLD Acworth, Georgia holds first 2010 Red Tent
 "The most common way women give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." - Alice Walker, author, activist
BOLD's first red tent took place in Acworth, Georgia this year. Quotes were hung on the walls from well-known authors including Alice Walker and Adrienne Rich. The event raised money for local midwife (and BOLD 2009 Performance Organizer) Sonya Pailes.
If you're on Facebook, check out their photos here!
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BOLD Fort Wayne, Indiana presents the REAL Jillian!
Hold on to your BOLD hats: the REAL Jillian is set to co-produce and star in "Birth" this April in her  Fort Wayne, Indiana community. (the photo on the right is of her beautiful daughter Salome. She was Jillian's final birth!). Remember at the end of the play you find out Jillian went on to become a doula? Well, she's now part of the Doula Network of Fort Wayne. If you're in the Fort Wayne area this April be sure to check out their performance. We guarantee you will love Jillian in person as much as you love her on stage! (and, for all you water birth people, Barbara Harper will be in town that weekend too so you're sure to see her as well!).
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BOLD productions explode in France
According to our new BOLD Organizer in Lyon, France, Genevieve Clifford:
"Giving bi rth is highly medicalized in France, a large number of small maternities are shutting for big maternities. There is little choice and little information about other ways of giving birth (for example, one woman-one midwife, home birth, maternity with freedom of positions, etc). We have no midwife-run units in our country. Consumer groups are putting pressure to change this, but we talk about humanization of birth and the professionals talk about medicalization: some bridges exist with some people, in some places."
BOLD Lyon hopes their performance can begin to bridge the gap even more. Their October 9 production will raise money for La Cause Des Parent, a network of parents and parents-to-be who are renting a house they call, "The House of Parenting and Birth." Initially, the house was to have a midwifery-run unit, but they are currently waiting for legislation to change to allow this. For now, the house is filled with empowering information and models for mothers to gain access to childbirth and parenting information. They want to use the play to "transfer the message that childbirth is important" to people in Lyon.
All of this could not have been possible without our first BOLD Organizer in France, Dali Milovanovic, who organized translation of the script (and has recently translated the one-act version into French too!). This year there are three productions scheduled in France and a BOLD Red Tent in the works. Thank you, Dali. Because of you French women are ready to be BOLD!
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BOLD Austria celebrates "Year of the Home birth"
From the moment Sylvia Sedlak's email entered our inbox we knew she was BOLD. She asked if she could translate the play into German so she could start raising awareness among her Austrian mothers that childbirth needs to be mother-friendly. Six month later she had translated the play, spending every night after her young children went to sleep to work on the translation. This Fall she is ready to produce the play in Austria. Slyvia is also involved in galvanizing communities around the world to promote "2010: Year of Homebirth." She explains:
"Initiated in Austria to be celebrated all over the world! Everybody is encouraged to
get active, start discussions and round tables, give lectures, show
films, make exhibitions, collect homebirth movies to burn on a DVD,
publish homebirth stories, create stickers and tshirts with our logo,
talk with family and friends about the advantages and possibilities of
the birth in the own four walls. Please spread the word, and contact me for details and worldwide networking!"
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Calling all Facebook fans
Want to be our friend? Become a fan of BOLD and The My Body Rocks Project on Facebook. And also be sure to "friend" Karen to connect with her directly!
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Karen launches The My Body Rocks Project
 Does your body rock? This year Karen launched The My Body Rocks Project because she believes all mommy's bodies rock. Through workshops, classes and retreats, The My Body Rocks Project takes mothers to the soul of their stories using embodied storytelling, movement, and deep relaxation techniques. For those of you who have seen the play and appreciate "theater for social change" you will be excited to read about Karen's Writing and Performance workshops, engaging mothers in their stories, their bodies and at the end performing their stories to benefit an organization in their community. Also, in April Karen will start working with mothers privately at her home and by phone engaging mothers in telling their stories and guiding them through a powerful yoga nidra deep relaxation method Karen calls "Nap Time for Moms." Every mom needs a nap, right?
This summer be sure to join Karen on the first retreat especially for Birth Workers and Birth Activists. BOLD Organizers will receive a $100 discount on the total cost of the retreat before April 1st. After April 1st the discount is $50 for BOLD Organizers.
Check out The My Body Rocks Project website and contact Karen directly for more information. |
News that ROCKS on childbirth
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Want to help mothers and babies in Haiti?
Sixty-three thousand mothers are currently pregnant in Haiti. With the devastating earthquake they need our help now more than ever. If you can donate, there are two places to give where we know the money is going directly to help maternity care needs:
Check out a recent segment of NOW on PBS "Saving Haiti's Mothers" for more information on the situation in Haiti.
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Give BIRTH!
Order a special edition of Karen Brody's play, Birth, with stories and photos from the BOLD movement. Add it to your Amazon purchases click here. |
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