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BOLD Locations | California Yucca Valley, California On September 3 BOLD organizer Quincy Bates produced a BOLD kitchen table reading of the play. Quincy writes: We had a small group for the reading. It went well and the director (who will direct a performance of BOLD in our area in January) was there taking many notes! It is a really powerful play! I took pictures of us reading. The cool thing is that the midwife who we will be doing a much larger fundraiser performance of Birth (in January) for her brought some of the ladies from the ABC Recovery Center where she works and they read some of the parts. Two are pregnant and one had her baby (water birth) in July at the midwife's Birth Suite.
Quincy sent BOLD an email several days after the reading to tell us: One of the ABC ladies who participated in our reading, Sharon, delivered last night. She was laughing up until about 1am and had her baby at 2.20am. She kept saying, "I want what my dog got". When she was first checked at 9:30 pm she was 6 cm with bulging BOW, signs of rapidly advancing labor, but getting in the tub slowed it down. Sharon had gastric bypass and lost 240 lbs 4 years ago, she has been in recovery from chemical dependency only about 2 mos. and worked hard to improve her nutrition so she could have "the waterbirth experience." It was great that she got to read the play and she had a really beautiful birth. Cameron weighed 7lbs 2oz. A little more about the ABC Recovery Center from midwife Mary Earhart: “ABC Recovery Center is a non-profit 12 step based, peer-oriented social model long term residential recovery home for men, women and families who are recovering from drug addiction or alcoholism. ABC has many on site programs including a perinatal program run by a licensed midwife (me) since 1991. I have learned from the women about the impact of childhood sexual abuse issues on childbirth. In the hospital people you have no relationship with confine you and tell you to relax while they touch you and do things "for your own good." Body memories trigger terror and more interventions. But when these same women have the option of waterbirth in a home environment they don't need medications for pain. They are also willing to eat right, exercise and stop smoking and using drugs (mostly methamphetamine these days) to get the birth they want. We have good outcomes and great breastfeeding experiences. The women support and encourage each other, long after they have "graduated" they keep in touch with me and each other. They are confident mothers with much less depression than others of this population. For Generations, Inc. is the non-profit I, with the help of my board of directors, formed to provide the birth services. We raised funds to build a homebirth suite attached to my home, with a jacuzzi and fireplace and kingsize bed. I have a caseload of 10 to 12 women, who stay at ABC from 2 months to 2 years, the babies stay with them of course, and sometimes other children join them as well. For Generations provides midwives and doulas to educate and assist women enrolled in ABC's program as well as other women in our community. We are breaking intergenerational patterns of abuse and neglect by promoting healthy bonding behavior. Thank you for a great play!”
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