THE COUNTRY.
Women Arrested Inspecting Childbirth Practices
New York (LNS). Four women who took part in an inspection of a Florida public hospital on March 8 were arrested and charged with trespassing.
The inspection of Tallahassee Memorial Hos pital was conducted by 30 women attending a national conference organized by Women Acting Together to Combat Harrassment (WATCH). Tallahassee Memorial was chosen for the inspection because its rate of Caesarian section (C-section) child delivery increased from seven to thirteen percent of all births there betwen 1972 and 1976.
WATCH and other women's organizations. maintain that many common U.S. medical proce dures cause unnecessary complications in childbirth when they needlessly disrupt natural processes.
Ginny Cassidy, one of the four arrested and a founder of a feminist-controlled home birth program, Womancare, compared the Tallahassee events to similar ones in California: "The supporters of the California Medical Association amend. ment to ban [Womancare] from attending home births was clearly a move to promote hospital births for their own profit and control," Cassidy said. "They were acting in the same manner as the Tallahassee hospital officials when they had four of us arrested for supposedly trespassing in a public building."
Nurses at Tallahassee Memorial told WATCH members that all of the women awaiting delivery in the maternity ward had fetal heart monitors attached as a part of routine hospital procedure, rather than only in special cases that warranted the device. This instrument is attached by insert-
Y CLOSE
On June 15, the women interested in remaining as caretakers and the current collective will meet to evaluate whether it is feasible to continue with this plan. If there are enough women and enough money to carry AWP through the summer with minimal financial dependence on the retreat, the current collective will be dissolved. Any decisions made will be by consensus of the entire group. Financial decisions will also be made by consensus. The new group will then reopen AWP as a retreat with fees on a sliding scale. A schedule will be drawn up so that at least two women will be here to share information with the new group until August 15. This means that it will be necessary for other women who are familiar with the operation of the retreat to volunteer their time.
If the plan to reopen is unfeasible, or consensus cannot be reached at the June 15 meeting, a general meeting will be called. This meeting will be open to women who express an interest in the future of AWP or in using this space for another women's project. These women must be prepared to take the responsibility for implementing decisions made at this meeting. The four of us will participate in the meeting on the same basis as any other woman.
In either case, on June 15, an interim board will be set up to determine how finances will be admin. istered and the current collective will be dissolved. No individual will be able to control the finances
rohander
ing an electrode into the mother's womb and fastening it to the baby's head.
"Giving birth in a hospital is a noisy, painful, confusing and frightening experience," said Carol Downer, one of the four women arrested and. co-director of a feminist health center in Los Angeles. "Doctors'] usual defense is that they are going by community standards," Downer continued. She pointed out, however, that as more and more doctors indiscriminately employ such practices as labor induction, Intravenous drips to hasten labor, drugs to tranquilize mothers and surgery, community standards will change accordingly. Soon a doctor will be able to perform C-sections in the majority of his cases without fear of losing his license or being sued," Downer said. "At that point, (giving) birth will become the most dangerous event in a woman's life."
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during this transition. In the event that AWP folds, any nioney left after the bills are paid would remain in the AWP, Inc. account to be used by an interested group of women as seed money for a similar project.
The decision to continue AWP is no longer up to us. If you believe AWP is important and would like to help, you can: 1)send money; 2)contact us about becoming a caretaker; 3)come to AWP to help do the work necessary to prepare for the summer; 4) contact women who might have money to contribute; 5)help spread this information as quickly as possible; 6)xerox and post this notice wherever women gather; 7)organize a benefit; 8)send feedback.
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AWP will be open for Memorial Day weekend, regardless of what happens this summer. We hope many women will come. We also hope that this won't be AWP's last weekend.
For more information contact: A Woman's Place, Athol, New York, 12810, or call 518-623-9541
NATIONAL WOMEN'S MUSIC FESTIVAL
June 28 TO JULY 3
Final dates for the Fourth Annual National Women's Music Festival are June 28-July 3, according to organizers at the Urbana headquarters. The event, first of a number of festivals featuring women musicians, particularly those of a feminist leaning, combines daytime workshops taught by experienced women in all areas of music-making and production. and evening concerts highlighting the achievements of a number of women performers "The Festival is a time for sharing skills and information as well as experiencing fine feminist music," said Mary Van Horn, one of the organizers. "Interest in the Festival is growing and we're seeing women who've attended our Festivals tackling kinds of music in which women have always been under represented." she added.
Heralded by the New Yorker magazine as a kind of "women's Woodstock," the National Women's Music Festival has been written up in such diverse publications as Ms. magazine; the Chicago Tribune Off Our Backs, a national feminist monthly, and Sing Out! magazine, a national folk-song periodical Such varied musical styles as jazz, folk, protest, Afro-American, classical, and rock material have been represented at the Festival. There has also been an instrumental concert at each of the past two year's Festivals.
Workshop leaders and performers have included such people as Melissa Manchester, Arista recording artist; Victoria Spivey, blues great who died shortly after her last public performance at the Festival; Holly Near, singer-songwriter once active in the anti-war movement, and now active in the women's movement; Judy Roberts, well-known jazz pianist; Ella Jenkins, singer of children's and black ethnic songs; and many others less well-known to a national audience but equally gifted.
"One of the greatest things about the Festival is the exhilarating atmosphere created by the music, remarked Claudia Jordan, another organizer. "It's hard to realize just how many fine women are making themselves heard around the country until they are assembled in one place."
Festival attendance may be arranged on a full week or daily basis. Last year's admission price was $20 for the week which included day-care for children and access to low-cost housing arranged by Festival workers with community people and in University of Illinois residence halls.
Women work in all roles at the Festival, including running the sound and lighting system, leading the workshops, and organizing the Festival itself. This way, Festival organizers state, a great number of women can have the valuable experiences that can set them thinking seriously about All pursuing or continuing a career in music. concerts and workshops are open to the public. Both women and men are encouraged to share in the spirit as listeners and learners.
Confirmed performers include:Malvina Reynolds. reknowned activist song-writer now in her 76th year; Margle Adam, young feminist songwriter/ pianist who has just released her first album; Kathy Kahn, author of the widely acclaimed book Hillbilly Women and a singer of mountain music. Many other performers are pending. All those interested in attending or desirous of more information are urged to contact the National Women's Music Festival at P.O. Box 2721, Sta Champaign, IL 61820, 217-333-6443.
A.
June, 1977/What She Wants/page 9
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