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

Sunday, March 30, 2008

The story is unfolding

My odometer on my old car with 180,000+ miles with new tires is approaching 8,000 miles on the "trip odometer. " I am having breakfast at "Big Boys" in Ann Arbor, MI where they have WI-FI. This afternoon I will be in Northport, MI, waaaaaaaaaaay up there, and interviewing Dr. George Malcom Morley about cord clamping. His site is www.cordclamp.org.

Dr. Morley has just returned from his granddaughter's birth. She was born by cesarean section and her cord was left unclamped and uncut. The placenta was allowed to release still attached to baby.

I have about 5,000 miles to go before I begin to edit the film .... and to present you here with a trailer. My producer friend in L.A. is also waiting for it ... we have a "celebrity" spokesperson in mind. She is an actor who has had a hospital birth and a homebirth.

The documentary is about the consciousness of the human baby and compares the experiences of babies born in homebirth and hospital. It transcends the debate over where the baby is safer -- home, hospital, or birth center -- and with whom -- doctor, CNM, CPM, or lay person, or Unassisted Childbirth. It is about what an aware being, a conscious human baby needs, where ever birth is to be safe. It is about the touch, the respect, and the scientifically based care the human baby needs from who ever attends his or her birth.

I am lamenting this morning that I did not keep an online journal of my journey to capture video for my documentary. I had no idea how profound the experience would be, but yet, of course, I knew it. I have an amazing story about seeing the risen Jesus the day after Easter -- on the road to Flagstaff (to be posted later). I am hardly surprised. The story has been whispering to me, guiding me to new places physically, emotionally, and spiritually for three years. The film organic and wants to be made and following my guidance, the unfolding has been amazing. This film has been waiting to be told (born) -- it is like stories women tell of their awareness of a soul hovering about, wanting to come into her. The "story" and my cat, Puddy, conspired with the Universe to create an opportunity for me to "just go do it." THAT is another story, of course, connected to my year and a half being in "in the cave" over my son's deployments to Iraq, and now in Afghanistan. I have emerged better and stronger ... and on this mission to complete the film.

As I put my belongings in storage and prepared for the trip, I thought about investing in wireless Sprint so I could be online where ever I had Sprint; but the expense was too much. This video is self-financed. I gave up my home to go on the road and interview people in the fields of obstetrics, family practice, midwifery, trauma healing, and pre and perinatal psychology. It is a venture in faith ... that all will be provided.

I have been on the road since late January and interviewed nearly forty people ... in California, Phoenix, Ohio, and now Michigan. I have interviewed Michel Odent, MD (France, UK); Sarah Buckley, MD (Australia); David Chamberlain, Ph.D.; William Emerson, Ph.D.; Raymond Castellino, D.C., Mary Jackson, CPM, Gladys McGarey, MD, Marti Glenn, Ph.D., and many others. I will make stops in Illinois en route back to Missouri before heading to Oklahoma and Texas and then Minnesota, South Dakota, Connecticut, and Boston. I have asked Dr. Amy Tuteur for an interview when I go to Boston ... hopefully in late April or early May. Her perspective can be a very important contribution to this project.

In Illinois I will be interviewing a couple of fathers and the Homefirst folks. In Missouri for a few days I will interview the physician who attended the homebirth of the baby featured in my documentary. I will also interview a couple of fathers ... and fathers-to-be, including my son Andy in Minnesota. His son, Jackson, has joined our family. He will be coming into his mama's arms in August. My documentary is for fathers ... I feel the urgency of getting the info all complied for my son and my grandson ... and his mama.

My video (baby) got a name last night .... since "she" is not yet born... just gestating ... I will not reveal her name yet. I will tell you it came from a father sharing the pain, the guilt and the powerless of his experience at his daughter's birth. Fathers are the audience for my documentary.

I wish I had the financial resources and techno savvy to bring you ongoing clips on the road. I expect to be back home in Missouri by the end of April and complete the trailer in May. I will be posting it here as soon as possible. I had planned to be set up to accept donations via PayPal when I post the trailer. As I wrote this, I decided to set up now, if you wish to contribute now. I appreciate any support you can give me. I figured if 1500 people donated just ten dollars - less than the price of attending a Hollywood movie with popcorn - I would have the resources to finish the trip easily and to do the editing. If I edit full-time I can finish it by my goal of March, 2009.

If 400 people donated ten dollars between now and May 1, I will be able to re-establish my home in order to focus on the film. If 1500 people would gift $10 I will be able to realize that March 2009 goal. Anyone who donates $100 will receive a free copy of the finished film. Anyone who contributes anything will be honored on the upcoming website. Would you consider joining me in this effort? If I had 24 more hours in the day ... and the financial resources I would do a marketing campaign that includes a relevant gift for contributing. Sorry, I can only offer gratitude and appreciation for your support and a warm feeling for contributing to an effort to make the world a safer place for the newborn human baby.

As I edit, I will be posting more information and excerpts. I would love and honor your energy and your company in this effort .... it is for all of our babies. It is to give consumers -- women and men -- the information they need to make sure their baby is safe where ever they give birth.

Thank you and bless you ....

Janel
Baby Keeper

No comments:

"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