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Volume 7 |
~ News
From "Your Birthing Family" ~ |
Issue 9 |
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In This Issue
Charis
"Labor Support" Workshop
August 11, 2012
Our Charis Family
Valencia Elliott
Charis Cuisine
Coconut Water Kefir
Charis Around the World
Tidbits From Ebony
Childbirth in Kenya
To enjoy past newsletters, visit the archives:
Newsletter Archives
Mark Your
Calendars
Childbirth
Preparation Classes
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Presented by: Birth InSight
Christi Jones (CCE, CD) and Aimee Roberts (CCE, CD)
Seven Week Series
November 1st - December 20th (skipping Thanksgiving)
Thursday evenings 7:00 - 9:00
(cost $250 per couple)
Weekend Series
November 9 - 10
(cost: $250 per couple)
For more information and to register visit our website:
http://www.birthinsightva.com
or call
757-270-0437
Our
Newsletter
Click here to Subscribe
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submit questions you would like answers to. Editorials are
areas where many points of view are invited for reflection!
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Attention Aspiring
Midwives!
You will love the flexible, thorough,
distance academics course offered through Charis Childbirth!
Check
it out!
Want to serve childbearing families as a Certified Doula or
Childbirth Educator?
Become trained and certified through Charis Childbirth!
Take a look
at our unique certification process!
If you seek a school that offers the convenience of
self-paced distance learning, personal mentors for each student, a
commitment to the highest excellence in education, a family-like
network of students and birth professionals, and education from a
Christian perspective, Charis may be just the right fit for you!
For more information
Visit the Charis Web site
for course description and outline.
Contact Us
Charis Childbirth
P.O. Box 6900
North Port, FL 34290
www.charischildbirth.org
Kristin Schuchmann ~
Executive Director
Cell (941)441-6410
http://happyhealthyliving.wordpress.com/
Susan Oshel ~ Director of Midwifery Studies
Look us up
Update
Charis Membership
We at Charis are extremely grateful for our wonderful members. This past
year, your dues have made it financially possible for us to creatively
correspond with people in areas of the world where internet is spotty at best.
Having all forms of communication available for us is essential if we are going
to successfully train birth professionals in the far reaches of the earth.
As our community of members grows, there will be more funds available for even
more world-impacting outreach. Thank you!
Membership is due every December 31 for the coming calendar year. So, if
you became a member on or before December 31, 2011, your dues should be mailed
by the middle of December, 2012, to be sure it is received in time. If you
became a member sometime in 2012, then your membership is not due until December
31, 2013.
You can send your
membership form and $30 dues to:
Charis Childbirth
P.O. Box 6900
North Port, FL 34290
Our
Director's Heart
Hello, Charis Family!
September is National Infant Mortality Awareness Month in the United States. “Infant mortality” is the term used to describe the death rate of babies within
the first year of life. Why on earth would the United States of America, the
country that spends more on maternal healthcare than any other country in the
world, need to spread awareness concerning our infant mortality rate? Shouldn’t
babies who get the best start that money can buy survive their first year of
life? With all of our technology and abundance of highly educated medical care
providers, our babies should be better off than all the others in the world--
right? Wrong!
According the the CIA World Factbook, 48 other countries have lower infant
mortality rates than the US. That’s right, we rank 49th! Countries like South
Korea, Portugal, and Cuba have fewer infant deaths per 1000 live births than we
do in the United States. This is not something to be proud of! The embarrassment
gets worse when we look at the infant mortality rates according to race in the
US. A black baby is more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday
than a white baby. And before you go assuming it is because of their socioecnomic status, that rate is pretty consistent across the board regardless
of whether or not that black baby’s mother is living below the poverty line or
in a mansion. These facts raise a lot of questions that deserve answers.
My friend Jennie Joseph has been asking the questions for years and has come up
with some convicting answers. Not only that, she is putting feet to those
answers and is making a difference! You can learn more about Jennie’s work at
Commonsense Childbirth in a
past Charis newsletter and at their
website. My
prayer is that more and more people in the medical field will sit up and take
notice of the amazing work she is doing and begin, widespread and largescale, to
implement the simple principles of maternity care she has proven to benefit
those at greatest risk.
Below is a press release written by Jennie. Please share this newsletter far and
wide. Maybe someone, or many someones, with the heart and means to make a
difference will read and, like Jennie, will do what is necessary help save lives
in their communities.
As a voice for the infants at risk,
Kristin Schuchmann, CPM, LM
Executive Director, Charis Childbirth, Inc.
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jennie Joseph
Tel: 407 656 6938
Email:
jennie@commonsensechildbirth.org
Website:
http://www.commonsensechildbirth.org
Orlando, FL: In 2006, September was designated as Infant Mortality
Awareness Month in an effort to draw national attention to the number of
American babies dying before they reach their first birthday. Six years later
there is still a need to educate the public on this issue as the numbers,
although slightly improved, leave the US ranking 34th amongst other nations when
it comes to infant deaths. Worse yet, African American families suffer losses at
2-3 times the rate as other races. According to the CDC in 2008 the US infant
mortality rate for Caucasians was 5.6 per thousand live births, yet the African
American rate was 13.1, and the Native American rate was 8.7.
Medical experts agree the two most prevalent causes of high infant mortality
among women of color, are premature births before the 37th week of pregnancy and
low birth weight - newborns weighing less than 5lbs 8 oz. And to address and
reduce these disparities policy makers, health care providers and community
leaders must dig deeper to understand the causes and prevention of these poor
outcomes.
Earlier this week women of color attended rallies to draw attention to the
plight and perils inherent during pregnancy and birth, which increase the risks
for themselves and their babies in the current American maternity care system. A
grassroots movement is underway where women are speaking out against the lack of
access to quality prenatal care providers, overuse of interventions during birth
and the impact of little to no postpartum support for families. They are seeking
to show the connection between social, economic and political as well as the
physical aspects of maternity health care in our country.
Agencies such as Healthy Start, March of Dimes, the Office of Minority Health
and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are leading efforts to
address these concerns and reach the goals of the government’s
Healthy
People 2020 initiative.
According to the March of Dimes*, in Florida 11.7% of White babies were born
prematurely compared to 18.7% of Black babies. Similarly, 7.4% of White babies
were born at low birth weight compared to 13.5% of Black babies. The infant
mortality rate for Florida was 5.7 per thousand for White babies yet 12.9 per
thousand for Black.
These outrageous statistics cannot stand.
Time is of the essence - OUR BABIES ARE DYING!
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For the Charis Childbirth Educator, Doula, and
Midwifery students: sharp minds to learn, opportunities for lots of
hands-on learning
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For the Charis CE’s, doulas, and midwives: rest, peace,
protection, wisdom, discernment
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For the Charis missionaries and
humanitarian workers: protection, peace, divine guidance, financial
provision
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For our directors and
administration: Wisdom, guidance, energy, and provision
from God as Charis enters this season of growth
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The information in this newsletter is for educational purposes only
and is not intended to take the place of medical care and advice
from your health care provider. |
'Behold, I will bring them from the north country, And gather them
from the ends of the earth,
Among them the blind and the lame,
The woman with child and The one who labors with child, together,
A
great throng shall return there...And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the LORD.'
Jeremiah 31:8, 14
~~~
©2012 Charis Childbirth
Services, All Rights Reserved
Feel free to forward this newsletter to friends in its entirety,
leaving all attribution intact.
September 2012
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