birth options

Choices In Birth means something immeasurable to birth. It means birth options are here, now, in her town, in your town, in any town. It means that birth options are available to this woman, to that woman, to any woman. Choice rebirthed and the world made bigger because of more birth options for more women.

Upwardly-mobile moms may finally be catching on to the benefits of midwifery and homebirth, but low-income women are still firmly planted in the hospital, most often with medicalized births overseen by doctors.

Currently, Missouri midwives must have a nursing degree and work under a doctor's supervision -- otherwise, they are committing a felony. A Senate bill under consideration would expand women's birthing options -- but the Missouri State Medical Association is fighting back.

Follow Pamela Merritt on Twitter, @SharkFu

The Big Push for Midwives campaign seeks to integrate midwifery care into the health care systems of the United States. Activists are pushing against a strong, well-funded medical lobby that has a professional interest in keeping midwives marginalized.

The same oppressive cultural mechanisms that restrict women's abilities to make decisions about when to have children also affect their decisions regarding where, how, and with whom to birth those children.

During a time when abortion politics are the wedge issue dividing the social justice movement, some doulas are working across issue lines to provide women with the support they need for all their decisions.