Media Contacts & Press Releases

For Immediate Release

Babies Aren't the Only Ones Being Pushed in Childbirth

CINCINNATI, Ohio - Author Jennifer Block, former Ms. magazine editor and the author of Pushed, an award winning expose of modern obstetrics, will be in Cincinnati May 15th to speak on "Painful Truths About Modern Maternity Care" and sign copies of her book.

The event will be held at Xavier University campus from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., at the Long Recital Hall in the Edgecliff Building. There will be a $5 admission charge. Paperback copies of Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care will also be available for purchase at the event.

A former editor at Ms. magazine, Block traveled the country to witness several births (from a planned cesarean to an underground home birth) and to report the experience of women today. The result of her research - a Library Journal "Best Consumer Health Book of 2007" and a Kirkus Reviews "Best Book of 2007" - is a disturbing, compelling, and controversial book that challenges modern assumptions about childbirth. Block makes the case that we are overusing medical technology at the expense of maternal and infant health. But she discovered that for women who want to avoid the hospital, the alternatives can be hard to come by, unaffordable, or even illegal.

This rings painfully true for Cincinnati mothers who want to avoid routine hospital interventions. Because of the rising cost of liability insurance, Cincinnati's only freestanding birth center closed its doors in 2006, and the certified nurse-midwives there had stopped offering home births several years before. Some Cincinnati mothers are still having their babies at home, with direct-entry midwives, but because these midwives are not licensed in Ohio they're not sure how long that option will last. "Direct-entry midwives are at risk of legal prosecution for practicing medicine," says Stephanie Beck-Borden of Ohio Families for Safe Birth. "In Ohio there is no protection, no regulatory body for direct-entry midwives."

Ohio Families for Safe Birth is a consumer-based, state-wide organization advocating for families' access to midwifery care. They want Ohio to join the 22 other states that license Certified Professional Midwives. The group is working with other local organizations to bring Jennifer Block to Ohio. They hope her talk and her book will raise awareness of the problems with the obstetric status quo and the need for safe, legal alternatives. According to Beck-Borden, "We all deserve the right to choose where we birth and to use the care provider who can best help us to achieve that."

For more information about Jennifer Block, to schedule an interview or request a review copy of Pushed, please contact her publicist, Lissa Warren at (617) 252-5212 or lissa.warren@perseusbooks.com. For more information about the May 15 event or about Ohio Families for Safe Birth, please contact Stephanie Beck-Borden at (513) 546-1015 or beckborden@xavier.edu.

###