The Other Side of the Glass

Part One was officially released June 2013 in digital distribution format. To purchase to to www.theothersideoftheglass.com If you were a donor and want to download your copy send an email to theothersideoftheglassfilm@gmail.com.

The trailer

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

200 American baby boys die each year

"It is estimated that 200 American baby boys die each year from circumcision related complications."

Ending circumcision -- one more thing to help the infant mortality rate. Circumcision, like episeotomy during birth, was once promoted as "scientifically" based but now we know both to be terribly wrong -- physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Will the lowered infant mortality rate (as a result of ending circumcision) be further touted by anti-natural and homebirth physicians as evidence that hospital birth is safest (and become grounds for further denying that babies are unaffected by trauma due to drugs and interventions?) Or will we, as a society of peace seeking people, look more closely at other standard care of babies and mothers that we are lead to believe are scientifically evidenced, safe, and trauma free? Will the consideration of body-mind-spirit and the impact on a human being begin to be considered even if something is known to be safely used for a lifesaving measure? Will it translate into "best practices" and how to use life saving technology with awareness and respect when only when medically necessary?



Texas ends circumcision funding on Medicaid

Posted by: "Gloria Lemay" birth@uniserve.com gloria_lemay Tue Jan 2, 2007 9:37 pm (PST)
Texas Joins 14 Other States in Dropping Circumcision from Medicaid Funding.

The second largest state in the union has joined California, Oregon, Washington, Florida and other states in saying "no" to circumcision.

In a move that will save taxpayers millions of dollars, Texas stopped paying for CPT code 54150 circumcisions in 2006.

There are about 194,000 boys born annually in Texas and 48% of the births in Texas are paid for by Medicaid.

That means that 93,000 boys will not be covered for circumcision.

This could mean a drop of 50,000 circumcisions per year.

This could drop America's overall circumcision rate by 3 percent.

Circumcision involves the removal of all or part of the foreskin of a penis. The removal of the foreskin is a reduction of 50% of the skin of the adult male erect penis. It is now even being questioned as a religious ritual in Judaism and Islam.

Anti circumcision groups have pushed for this change for years. Not only is the foreskin healthy functioning sexual tissue but there is a danger of death or serious injury when boys undergo unnecessary surgery. It is estimated that 200 American baby boys die each year from circumcision related complications.

"This is taxpayer money, and circumcision is a procedure with no medical benefit," said Ronald Goldman, executive director for the Circumcision Resource Center <http://www.circumci/ sion.org/>, a Boston-based anti-circumcision group.

"We wouldn't use taxpayer dollars to pay for other cosmetic surgery," Goldman said.

"It's understandable that they would want to cut this funding because the American Academy of Pediatrics <http://www.aap/. org/> has said for many years that circumcisions are cosmetic," said Catherine Lynch, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of South Florida <http://hsc.usf/. edu/medicine/>.

For Ed Rose, head of the Pensacola chapter of the Circumcision Resource Center <http://members/. aol.com/nocircnw fl/NOCIRC. html>, the issue is simple: "Being born male is not a disorder requiring surgical correction." Rose has been lobbying lawmakers for years to stop paying for circumcisions.

Pediatricians have been moving further and further away from the procedure as new information about the importance of the foreskin is published in scientific journals. The annual rate of circumcision in the United States is dropping as more parents and professionals are researching the benefits of leaving boys intact.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thank goodness! Now if only other insurance companies would follow in these footsteps!!! I doubt as many people would chose it if they had to pay for it.

"Soft is the heart of a child. Do not harden it."

A public awareness reminder that things that happen behind the scenes, out of our sight, aren't always as rosy as we might think them to be. Perhaps its a restaurant cook who accidentally drops your burger on the floor before placing it on the bun and serving it to you. Here it's an overworked apathetic (pathetic) nurse giving my newborn daughter her first bath. Please comment and rate this video, so as to insure that it is viewed as widely as possible, perhaps to prevent other such abuse. -- The mother who posted this YouTube. How NOT to wash a baby on YouTube Are you going to try to tell me that "babies don't remember?" There is no difference to this baby's experience and the imprinting of her nervous system/brain and one that is held and cleaned by the mother or father either at the hospital or at home? By the way, this is probably NOT the baby's first bath. The nurse is ungloved. Medical staff protocol is that they can't handle a baby ungloved until is has been bathed (scrubbed if you've seen it) because the baby is a BIO-HAZARD -- for them. Never mind that the bio-hazard IS the baby's first line of defense against hospital germs.

Missouri Senator Louden Speaks

Finally, A Birth Film for Fathers

Part One of the "The Other Side of the Glass: Finally, A Birth Film for and about Men" was released June, 2013.

Through presentation of the current research and stories of fathers, the routine use of interventions are questioned. How we protect and support the physiological need of the human newborn attachment sequence is the foundation for creating safe birth wherever birth happens.

Based on knowing that babies are sentient beings and the experience of birth is remembered in the body, mind, and soul, fathers are asked to research for themselves what is best for their partner and baby and to prepare to protect their baby.

The film is designed for midwives, doulas, and couples, particularly fathers to work with their caregivers. Doctors and nurses in the medical environment are asked to "be kind" to the laboring, birthing baby, and newborn. They are called to be accountable for doing what science has been so clear about for decades. The mother-baby relationship is core for life. Doctors and nurses and hospital caregivers and administrators are asked to create protocols that protect the mother-baby relationship.

Men are asked to join together to address the vagaries of the medical system that harm their partner, baby and self in the process of the most defining moments of their lives. Men are asked to begin to challenge the system BEFORE they even conceive babies as there is no way to be assured of being able to protect his loved ones once they are in the medical machine, the war zone, on the conveyor belt -- some of the ways that men describe their journey into fatherhood in the medicine culture.

Donors can email theothersideoftheglassfilm@gmail.com to get a digital copy.
Buy the film at www.theothersideoftheglass.com.

The film focuses on the male baby, his journey from the womb to the world and reveals healing and integrating the mother, father, and baby's wounded birth experience. The film is about the restoring of our families, society, and world through birthing loved, protected, and nurtured males (and females, of course). It's about empowering males to support the females to birth humanity safely, lovingly, and consciously.

Finally, a birth film for fathers.

What People Are Saying About the FIlm

Well, I finally had a chance to check out the trailer and .. wow! It's nice that they're acknowledging the father has more than just cursory rights (of course mom's rights are rarely acknowledged either) and it's great that they're bringing out the impact of the experience on the newborn, but I'm really impressed that they're not shying away from the political side.

They are rightly calling what happens in every American maternity unit, every day, by its rightful name - abuse. Abuse of the newborn, abuse of the parents and their rights, abuse of the supposedly sacrosanct ethical principal of patient autonomy and the medico-legal doctrine of informed consent, which has been long ago discarded in all but name. I love it!

In the immortal words of the "shrub", "bring it on!" This film needs to be shown and if I can help facilitate or promote it, let me know.

Father in Asheville, NC


OMG'ess, I just saw the trailer and am in tears. This is so needed. I watch over and over and over as fathers get swallowed in the fear of hospitals birth practice. I need a tool like this to help fathers see how very vital it is for them to protect their partner and baby. I am torn apart every time I see a father stand back and chew his knuckle while his wife is essentially assaulted or his baby is left to lie there screaming.
Please send me more info!!!!
Carrie Hankins
CD(DONA), CCCE, Aspiring Midwife
720-936-3609


Thanks for sharing this. It was very touching to me. I thought of my brother-in-law standing on the other side of the glass when my sister had to have a C-section with her first child because the doctor was missing his golf date. I'll never forget his pacing back and forth and my realizing that he was already a father, even though he hadn't been allowed to be with his son yet.

Margaret, Columbia, MO

In case you don't find me here

Soon, I'll be back to heavy-duty editing and it will be quiet here again. I keep thinking this blog is winding down, and then it revives. It is so important to me.

I wish I'd kept a blog of my journey with this film this past 10 months. It's been amazing.

I have a new blog address for the film, and will keep a journal of simple reporting of the journey for the rest of the film.


www.theothersideoftheglassthefilm.blogspot.com


I'll be heading east this week to meet with a group of men. I plan to post pictures and clips on the film blog.

I'll keep up here when I can -- when I learn something juicy, outrageous, or inspiring related to making birth safer for the birthing baby.

Review of the film

Most of us were born surrounded by people who had no clue about how aware and feeling we were. This trailer triggers a lot of emotions for people if they have not considered the baby's needs and were not considered as a baby. Most of us born in the US were not. The final film will include detailed and profound information about the science-based, cutting-edge therapies for healing birth trauma.

The full film will have the interviews of a wider spectrum of professionals and fathers, and will include a third birth, at home, where the caregivers do a necessary intervention, suctioning, while being conscious of the baby.

The final version will feature OBs, RNs, CNMs, LM, CPM, Doulas, childbirth educators, pre and perinatal psychologists and trauma healing therapists, physiologists, neurologists, speech therapists and lots and lots of fathers -- will hopefully be done in early 2009.

The final version will include the science needed to advocated for delayed cord clamping, and the science that shows when a baby needs to be suctioned and addresses other interventions. Experts in conscious parenting will teach how to be present with a sentient newborn in a conscious, gentle way -- especially when administering life-saving techniques.

The goal is to keep the baby in the mother's arms so that the baby gets all of his or her placental blood and to avoid unnecessary, violating, and abusive touch and interactions. When we do that, whether at home or hospital, with doctor or midwife, the birth is safe for the father. The "trick" for birthing men and women is how to make it happen in the hospital.

Birth Trauma Healing

Ani DeFranco Speaks About Her Homebirth

"Self-Evident" by Ani DeFranco

Patrick Houser at www.Fatherstobe.org

Colin speaks out about interventions at birth

Dolphins