Nurse-Out at Applebee’s – Update

I was so pleased to see a good number of breastfeeding supporters willing to stand out in the Las Vegas heat on Saturday, 9.8.07, in support of the harassed mother in Kentucky.

Apparently there were around 200 supporters at the main rally in Kentucky, and 100 supporters in Phoenix, AZ. Thirty cities participated nationwide. Awesome!

Read more details and see pictures from our Las Vegas Nurse-Out.

Thanks for helping bring awareness to a mother’s right, under the law, to feed her baby in a family restaurant.

Nurse-Out at Applebee’s

September 8
1-3 pm
Boulevard Mall Applebee’s
3340 S Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89169

Come show your support for a mother’s right to nurse her baby in a “family restaurant”.
View details, map and press release on PBi’s Activism page

Anne gets her placenta!

— Update – Details —

We will be parking near the SE corner of Maryland Parkway and Desert Inn, then meeting near the doors of the Maternal Health unit of Sunrise Hospital. My phone is 702.947.0879 if you need it. I plan to arrive by 12:45.

See you there!

——–

On Wednesday August 1, Anne Swanson will go to Sunrise Hospital at 1pm to pick up her baby’s placenta. After 3 months and a court order, the hospital is finally doing the right thing by releasing the placenta to her.

Join us at the hospital to show them that we support every woman’s right to walk out of a hospital with her baby AND her placenta! We give birth to both, we should be able to take both home to care for them in an appropriate manner, according to our beliefs and values.

Thanks for standing up and fighting, Anne! You are a wonderful advocate for women’s rights.

Injunction filed, and fund set up

Anne Swanson, owner of Hypnobirthing Las Vegas, filed an injunction today to stop Sunrise Hospital from destroying her baby’s placenta against her wishes.

The mother who was rudely denied access to her baby’s placenta (yet promptly billed for the cost of delivering at North Vista Hospital) has decided not to file an injunction, as her placenta has also been ruined for encapsulation by careless staff. She explicity requested that the placenta be placed in the freezer until she was able to proceed with the court order as they demanded. When she called today to verify that they had indeed saved the placenta, she was told that it was still in the refrigerator. Since her baby will be a week old tomorrow, the placenta has now been rendered nearly useless, since the beneficial hormones she planned to utilize via the capsules dissipate over time. She cannot justify the fees to file an injunction to save it when she can not use it for its intended purpose anyway. She is holding open her option for a lawsuit in the future, and said she will definitely join our cause and add her name to the growing list of women fighting for change.

Anne would like to make sure that we proceed with her case in a way that will be best for women overall. Allowing Sunrise Hospital to destroy her baby’s placenta at this point would render all future legal action moot. Therefore, she needed to go ahead and file an injunction, effectively buying us more time to explore the legal options open to us.

The cost to file an injunction is nearly $200, even with a team of lawyers donating their time, efforts and energy for free. As a result, I have created a fund to help Anne with these legal costs. If we raise an excess of money beyond what is needed for Anne’s case, the remaining funds will be used to help offset legal fees for women who are forced down the same path as Anne in the future, and to fuel efforts for legislative relief from this issue.

If you would like to help our cause, please send your donation via PayPal to LegalizePlacenta -at- PlacentaBenefits -dot- info, or click on the Make a Donation button.

If you believe that a woman has a right to take home what she created and birthed, which sustained the life of her child in her womb, and which would naturally be born still attached to that child…

If you believe that it is wrong for a hospital to claim possession and complete ownership of a woman’s placenta once it is born and the umbilical cord severed…

If you believe that, then please get involved in this fight.

Spread awareness by emailing your friends a link to this blog, write letters to the editor at the Las Vegas Review-Journal or the Las Vegas Sun newspapers, write to our local legislators, write to hospital administrators, call media outlets to tell them you want to hear more about this situation, educate people as to the natural use of placenta starting at PlacentaBenefits.info – do whatever is within your power to do, but please do something. Outrage without action is useless.

If you are a pregnant woman in Nevada, call the Unit Manager (sometimes referred to as the House Supervisor) who is over the Labor & Delivery floor at your hospital of choice and notify them immediately of your desire to take your placenta home after its birth. If they say they will release it to you , get that in writing before you walk in to deliver your baby. If they say they need to hold it for a certain number of days, ask if they will place it in the freezer for the duration of the holding period, then get that in writing.

If they tell you they will not release your own baby’s placenta to you after the birth of your child, get that in writing, and then contact me. After you get their denial in writing, and you really do want to take your baby’s placenta home, tell them you will be going to another hospital that will respect your wishes. YOU PAY THEM for their services – you are a customer and deserve to have your wishes respected. You would not go back to a restaurant where the staff openly mocked your requests or acted like you were a silly, foolish woman for asking a question; charged you full price for the experience of being within the walls of their facility; and then honestly felt that you had no right to complain after they denied your request because it’s their “restaurant policy” to do so. I would expect you would choose another restaurant, even if it is a few extra miles down the road.

We’re talking about the birth of our children, mamas. You have a choice, but you need to make that choice before you go into labor. Unfortunately, once you are within the walls of a hospital, it has been proven time and again that your opinion and desires for your birth experience do not matter as much as you would think.

Online Petitions Created

I have created two new online petitions for you to sign, so you can add your voice to the growing roar of opposition over hospitals having the  final (and only!)  say in what is a woman’s property.

Release Placentas to Mothers
We would love to have a strong showing of national and global support for this issue, and your name counts!

Create NV State Law
This petition is for the Nevada legislature, and should only be signed by residents of Nevada. We would like to use this one to create a state law giving mothers the right to take their placenta from the hospital. If you are in NV, sign both!

 These petitions do not count the 30+ signatures gathered in person at the rally Monday.

Thank you for your support!

Blessings,
Jodi Selander
Diva/Mama 

Rally is ON!

We are on, folks! Please come down to Maryland Pkwy, between Sahara and Desert Inn this morning at 10AM. We will meet in the Office Depot parking lot, across the street from Sunrise hospital. I just got off the phone with the Metro Police Dept, and he said we didn’t need a permit for our rally as long as we’re not blocking traffic or the sidewalk. So let the pedestrians pass, protesters! He also mentioned he’d seen the article in the newspaper, and wished us luck! Thank you Lt. Dennis, sir! We are pleased to have your support!

Show your support for a woman’s right to ALL of her products of childbirth! Sunrise hospital responded, and cited numerous errors in the facts of the situation, so they are incredibly misinformed (ie. ignorant, obstinant, arrogant… ok, I’ll stop now).

See you there!!

—-

Update on Monday, May 7, 2007 at 09:53PM

The rally was a wonderful success! I’m sending a HUGE blast of gratitude to everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to come stand with Anne and myself today. I loved seeing all of the mamas, dads and kids gather together for our cause, which we estimate to have been 30-50 total. I feel very blessed to be part of a community of forward-thinking, positive people who believe that we can make a difference in our world when we stand up against injustice, in whatever mode it presents itself. Thank you for putting your energy toward positive change – and that applies to all of you who could not be there physically, but were united with us in heart and spirit. It was felt and appreciated.

I’ve uploaded some pictures from the rally to the photo gallery. Channel 13 news was there, and ran segments at 4:00, 5:00 and 6:30. I’m going to see if they broadcast it again at 11, and will post links when they become available online. The Review-Journal reporter, Annette Wells, came out to follow up with us again as well. I am very grateful for all of the promotion this has received, and it will hopefully spread the word about hospital policy in regards to a woman’s right to the property of her own body. I am also hoping that more women will discover and utilize the amazing benefits of their placenta(s).

Women do not give birth to trash; we create beautiful human beings that enter our world accompanied by a powerful means to heal and nourish our bodies through the amazing transition to motherhood. When we are fully ourselves again, we can then save the remainder for our next major change of life transition that occurs at menopause.  Something this powerful must be worth saving. We live in a sanitized society enamored by all things clean and pretty, but we really need to give the placenta another look in a whole new light and learn to see it as the beautiful, powerful, magical path to wellness that it is.

I am obviously still buzzing from all the positive energy we generated! Sending blessings and gratitude for a wonderful day. Thank you for your part in making it so.
Jodi Selander
Diva/Mama

Update on Tuesday, May 8, 2007 at 10:17AM

In the news:

The RJ printed a followup piece on Anne’s story.

There’s a link to some video footage on Channel 13’s website under Top Videos: Women Protest Sunrise Hospital over placenta.

Rally postponed!

We need a permit to demonstrate on the streets of Clark County, and we won’t get one in time to meet at 2pm today. So we are going to gather Monday, May 7 at 10AM. We will be on the sidewalks along Maryland Parkway and Desert Inn, not on Sunrise Hospital’s property.

This will give us more time to get organized, and hear the hospital’s response to Anne’s request to save her placenta.

Thank you for your enthusiasm! We need everyone to come out in support of our cause!

Blessings, and Peace.

—-

Update on Friday, May 4, 2007 at 02:41PM

Our sincerest apologies to anyone who showed up at Sunrise Hospital this afternoon for the rally. Anne wanted me to share that she appreciates your show of support for this issue, but she asked me to let everyone know that she would be unable to participate in any function that could potentially be viewed as outside the bounds of the law. Her husband has been waiting for a decade to get into a police department position, and he will be testing for a position with them next week. It would be devastating to her family if her actions were to be called into question.

Therefore, we have to wait until we have a signed permit before we can peacefully gather on Clark County’s sidewalks. I’ve been working on it since first thing this morning, and have just now gotten in touch with the man in charge of Special Event permits.  He assures me that it should not be a problem to get a permit signed in time for Monday morning, even though typically they require 30 days’ notice. (!) As always, I will keep this blog updated with the latest. I am hoping to have permit in hand by close of business today. Keep the positive energy flowing toward that end!

Update on Friday, May 4, 2007 at 11:26PM

No permit by end of business Friday. Apparently the application has to go to Metro first, then they approve it and pass it on to the Dept. of Public Works. Metro had our fax by early afternoon today, and they open again Monday morning starting at 7am. I will be calling them immediately to make sure that our permit is the first one they look at. Mr. Herbert Arnold is the man at Public Works who has the final say, and he has said it should happen in time for our rally Monday morning, if Metro gets him the application right away. Anybody have a friend at Metro?? Specifically, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept, Special Events Section?

Rally at Sunrise Tomorrow!

As of 4pm today, Sunrise Hospital has not responded to Anne’s official request to save her placenta. We have to assume they plan to destroy it tomorrow, per their notice to Anne last Friday.

So let’s show the hospital that we support a mother’s right to possession of her baby’s placenta! The view that upon birth, a woman has universal, unquestionable rights to her baby as a mother yet NO right to the baby’s placenta is absurd. In fact, hospitals in this country view the placenta of the baby as THEIR property, not the woman’s. Let us peacefully demonstrate our opposition to this ridiculous stance. They would rather discard a placenta than release it to the mother, no matter how earnest her desire to take it home.

This is yet another example of a woman giving up control of her body as soon as she places one foot inside the hospital door to deliver her baby. She is forced to subject herself and her body to the hospital’s policies and procedures, regardless of the adverse consequences for her health. Anne has been forcibly denied the healthful properties of her placenta, simply because someone at the hospital had the opinion that the practice of placentophagy was disgusting. They shouldn’t be able to impose their will and point of view on somebody else – we do still live in America, after all.

If you agree that women should be able to have a right to their baby’s placenta, regardless of whether it is birthed within the walls of a hospital, then please join Anne and myself tomorrow afternoon.

Friday, May 4
2 PM
Sunrise Hospital

Details to follow – please stay tuned! I will post updates here as soon as we come up with a formulated plan.

Some ideas:

* I will bring bright orange Biohazard stickers to place on the front of baby’s shirts

* Have children wear shirts declaring “I am not a biohazard!” or “Release my placenta!”

Those of you with a creative mind, please contact me with your ideas for how to cleverly get our message across.

Channel 3 news has been notified of this already, and a reporter from the Review-Journal will be at my home tomorrow morning to interview Anne and myself.

PLEASE don’t leave Anne and I to stand outside by ourselves!! We need YOU!

—

Update on Thursday, May 3, 2007 at 11:57PM

We will meet across the street from the hospital in the Office Depot parking lot at 2 PM. We will stick to the sidewalks on Maryland Parkway and Desert Inn. Since the hospital is private property, they have the right to ask us to leave their premises if we were to meet on the hospital grounds. See Map

If you do not see us, you can call my office number which will ring to my cell phone. 702.947.0879

Bring signs or banners if you would like. Some suggestions:
“My Baby, My Placenta”

“Placentas are not trash!”

“Placenta = Health, not Hazard”

See you there, fellow activists!

Update – What you can do to help

We met with the lawyer this afternoon, and he is going to draft a letter to Sunrise Hospital reminding them that Anne’s placenta is evidence for a potential court case, and that it would be prudent not to destroy that evidence. Hopefully it will be enough to keep the placenta in its current frozen state while we gather information and resources to pursue the case further.

Activism Alert:
Please contact me by email or phone (702.947.0879) if any of the following situations applies to you:

* If your OB has already signed the Release of Liability form I previously gave you, I would love to have a copy of that. If you have a copy, please fax it to me at 702.953.7384, or you can contact the hospital and ask them to fax it to you personally, or to that # if they will.

* If you are currently expecting and plan to deliver in a Nevada hospital,  I have a letter that you can send to the hospital declaring your intent to take your placenta home with you once your baby is born.  We need to start gathering written responses from area hospitals.

* If you requested your placenta from a Nevada hospital and they refused to release it, I’d love to hear from you. 

* If you have ingested your placenta and would be willing to submit a statement as to the safety and/or efficacy of the practice of placentophagy, it would support our cause.

* If you have contact information for any physician or natural health activist who may be willing to help on our behalf , please let me know. It would also be beneficial to have a personal contact within the Southern Nevada Health District who would be willing to advocate for our position that the ingestion of a woman’s own placenta does not pose a health risk to her or the public at large.

 * There is a reporter from the Las Vegas Review-Journal who wants to write a story regarding this situation. If you are a former client of mine and would like to tell your story of using your baby’s placenta capsules during your postpartum recovery,  I will be happy to share her contact information with you.  She’s particularly interested in hearing from women who did not ingest their first baby’s placenta, but had a better postpartum experience in subsequent pregnancies after doing so.

We need your stories, help, activism and support! Thanks so much for your time and energy. Blessings!