We want to share with you our excitement about a new documentary that
reframes childbirth as the most pressing global Human Rights issue
today.
There are 1000 planned screenings premiers, in 51 countries,
in 17 languages to launch the movie all over the globe on the same
day–Thursday 20th September 2012 . It it our hope that our members,
chapter leaders, and the larger ICAN comminty will join in those
events accross the United States and internationally as an opportunity
to bring awareness and educate our commnities about the importance of
this subject and our work in ICAN.
If anyone wants to host a screening on Sept 20th, the producers will
send the DVD by Airsure so it should take 5 working days to arrive in
the US. So all you need to do is to click STEP 3 on the website – the
screening DVD costs $50.00
Or for a more expensive but guaranteed to arrive option, they can
courier the DVD for an extra $60.00 by FedEx that will take 3 working
days to arrive. For this, please e-mail info@altofilms.com so they can
send a Paypal invoice. As soon as we receive payment, we will dispatch
the DVDs and we will email the screening kit!!
But if this date is too soon, then anyone can have a screening after
the launch date of 20th September.
More about the movie:
Freedom For Birth is a 60 minute campaigning documentary featuring a
Who’s Who of leading birth experts and international Human Rights
lawyers all calling for radical change to the world’s maternity
systems.
Hermine Hayes-Klein, US lawyer and organiser of the recent Human
Rights in Childbirth Conference at the Hague, the Netherlands says,
“the way that childbirth is being managed in many countries around the
world is deeply problematic. Millions of pregnant women are pushed
into hospitals, pushed onto their back and cut open. They are subject
to unnecessary pharmaceutical and surgical interventions that their
care providers openly admit to imposing on them for reasons of finance
and convenience. Women around the world are waking up to the fact that
childbirth doesn’t have to be like this and it shouldn’t. Disrespect
and abuse are not the necessary price of safety”.
Made by British filmmakers Toni Harman and Alex Wakeford, Freedom For
Birth film tells the story of an Hungarian midwife Agnes Gereb who has
been jailed for supporting women giving birth at home. One of the home
birth mothers supported by Ms Gereb decided to take a stand.
When pregnant with her second child, Anna Ternovsky took her country
to the European Court of Human Rights and won a landmark case that has
major implications for childbirth around the world.
Toni Harman, one of the filmmakers says, “the Ternovsky vs Hungary
ruling at the European Court of Human Rights in 2010 means that now in
Europe, every birthing woman has the legal right to decide where and
how she gives birth. And across the world, it means that if a woman
feels like her Human Rights are being violated because her birth
choices are not being fully supported, she could use the power of the
law to protect those rights. With the release of “Freedom For Birt
h”,
we hope millions of women become aware of their legal rights and so
our film has the potential to spark a revolution in maternity care
across the world. In fact, we are calling this the Mothers’
Revolution.”
Cathy Warwick, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM),
says: “A safe childbirth should be a fundamental human right for
women. Sadly, for many, many millions of women and their babies across
the world this is not the case. The world is desperately short of the
people who can help to ensure and deliver this human right; midwives.
There is a real need for leaders of nations to invest in midwifery
care in their countries. I hope that the making of this film which the
RCM is supporting with a screening will go a long way to help make
skilled maternity care a reality for those women who currently do not
have access to it.”
Lesley Page, President of the Royal College of Midwives adds, “Too
many women across the world are dying or suffering terribly because of
a lack of skilled maternity care. This is unacceptable and I call on
all Governments across the world to give women the right and access to
safe care in pregnancy and childbirth.”
Ms. Hayes-Klein concludes, “Freedom For Birth” holds the answer to
changing the system. Birth will change when women realise they have a
right to meaningful support for childbirth and claim that right. Birth
will change when women stand up against the abuses that are currently
suffered in such high numbers and say, No More.”
