ICAN webmaster asks for help

The ICAN webmaster wrote in to the support group email list today asking for list members to help get the ICAN website up higher in Google searches. Evidently, her Google search last night for the term “VBAC” did not return ICAN until page 12.  I think she is right to say that “no one is ever going to go 12 pages to find ICAN.” She makes specific requests to help change the situation. One is to make a post with a link to a new YouTube video, which I am happy to do. The video is attempting to make the point that many women who were told that cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD) — “the baby’s head is too large to fit through the pelvis” — necessitated that they have a c-section. In fact, CPD is not so prevalent as the medical professionals are seemingly so quick to have their patients believe. The video documents the birth weights/sizes of the c-sectioned babies of mothers who were told they had CPD and the same stats of the subsequent babies’  born to these same women via VBAC (vaginal birth), and in some cases, HBAC (home birth). The point is documented clearly so do pass it on to those who could use this education. You can find the video here (Try to ignore the music choice!)

My hope is to have time in the near future to spend some more time on the ICAN issues, as well as other birth activism groups and issues. I have been asked many times about the information I posted so long ago about my seeking the information regarding the organization’s membership, work, goals, and so on, and I have had to continually say that I am getting to it! Sorry to report that I am still short of the time to give this the attention it deserves. However, thank you for the inquiries and for bearing with me.

Cyberbullying — thinking, part II

Online, some good information on bullying in the midwifery profession provides insight into how this may work with women on email lists, listservs, or groups. This comes from Midwifery Today .

So many times I hear it characterized as conflict among “powerful women”—as though we are bullying one another simply because we are so strong. The truth is that our bullying reflects the fact that we are powerless and fearful.

Horizontal violence — hostile and aggressive behavior by individual or group members towards another member or groups of members of the larger group

“Bullying is not about anger. It is not a conflict to be resolved. It is about contempt—a powerful feeling of dislike toward someone considered worthless, inferior or undeserving of respect. Contempt allows [bullies to harm others] without feeling empathy, compassion or shame.” This sense of contempt frees a bully to feel “[a] sense of entitlement…an intolerance to difference…and a freedom to exclude, bar, isolate, and segregate others.”

Identifying the fact that [midwives] are an oppressed group with the fears endemic to counterculture groups—such as isolation, ridicule and economic suppression—allows us to develop a language to prevent mimicking the painful behavior of the dominant medical hierarchy.

And so, to the last, substitute women who have felt victimized in place of midwives, and it is quite well understood how this can take place, this mimicking of the painful behavior — this redirection of aggression onto  other women. All in the guise of “not being politically correct” or “not sugar-coating,” as I have heard such excuses made.

But I am much too tired after a long night of work and writing, and must call it a night. I am hoping to be able to return soon to my essay, dealing with my mother and aunt and their strength of support through everything other than speech. For this, I need a quieter head and heart, which means rest and solitude.

Thank you to all my readers. It is fun to watch the stats each day climb higher and higher. I will hope to have useful information  posted soon on all I am learning about VBACs, HBACs, and, of course, c-sections.