Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Article in Canadian national newspaper

As promised, the Globe and Mail published an article today about UC: DIY delivery by Adriana Barton. Once again there were the obligatory negative comments from doctors and midwives, but I thought the reporter did a nice job! Marie Claire in the UK also published a UC article: The women having 'extreme births'. Short but nice!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Laura,

I am a big fan of your work and a fellow uc'er. I was mentioned in the Globe and Mail article (we had the ubac). I'm glad you liked the article. The author is very nice and quite favoured UC...which unfortunately led to the article being heavily edited. I have now been contacted by Global t.v. and asked for an interview. I am a bit concerned about what kind of attention UC will be getting in the media. I do feel like the more attention it gets and basically, the more people hear of it, the more it will be accepted - but there is still the worry that the negative "balancing" comments from medpros which are included in these stories will be harmful to the movement. I am a bit of a UC activist and would love to hear your perspective on how to move forward.

with sincere thanks,

Jodie Boychuk
www.ubirthcanada.ca

Laura Shanley said...

Hi Jodie - after reading the article and exploring your wonderful web site I'm a fan of yours, as well! I, too, would have loved to see the Globe and Mail article in its entirety. Who knows what gems ended up on the cutting room floor?! But unfortunately this is typical. The recent Reuters article was picked up by web sites and newspapers around the world. But in some countries the article was cut off in the middle - just under a negative quote from a doctor. In the original article, the last word was given to a mother who has had an unassisted birth. Apparently that didn't sit right with some editors!

In any case, yes, it's disturbing to read the inaccurate, fear-based comments from those who haven't done their research. But it comes with the territory. I don't seek out media attention but I generally don't turn down interviews when I'm asked. If I did, the reporters would simply write the articles without my input, and the inaccuracies would be even greater. And so I keep telling my story with the hope that those who are brave enough to think for themsevles and question the status quo will "get it." Thankfully many of them do.