Episode 96: Cut, Stapled and Mended

"'At least you and the baby are healthy.' That’s what they said when they handed him to me. And they were right. Why then, so long after my body has healed, do I still feel broken?" 

Join the Conversation tonight, Tuesday, July 30th at 6pm ET as Ryan and Laura welcome Roanna Rosewood,  author of Cut, Stapled, & Mended: When One Women Reclaimed Her Body and Gave Birth on Her Own Terms After Cesarean. Roanna will take us through her raw, emotional, and at times hilarious journey to healing and may even share her recipe for French Onion Soup...with placenta.   

Tune into WSLR 96.5 LPFM or online at www.wslr.org tonight, Tuesday, July 30th at 6:00pm ET. The program will also available later in the evening via podcast at maternallyyoursradio.com.

For more information or to submit questions for our hosts our our guest, please contact the hostesses of Maternally Yours at MaternallyYoursRadio@gmail.com, or on our facebook page at facebook.com/maternallyyours.

Maternally Yours, 

Cheryl, Carmela, Ryan and Laura

Episode 95 (Epilogue): Writing Your Birth Story

Before we delved into tonight's topic, we welcomed Charlie Rae Young, a mother and student midwife who is all over Florida news lately for her Barefoot Bus Project. The refurbished bloodmobile will be taken into the Tampa Bay community 1-2 days per week to see women for prenatal visits, using local Healthy Start Coalitions, local churches, and public women's health services to make expectant mothers aware of where the bus will be situated for visits each week and how they may go about referring people for care. Women will be able to access information on women's health, pregnancy, early childhood health, find assistance with applying for Medicaid if needed, and be seen for prenatal and/or postpartum care. No births will take place on the bus. If you would like to support this amazing project, please click here.

Next we heard from our very own Carmela, who brought us exclusive footage of midwife interviews about yesterday's Royal Birth. "Everybody seems to be very excited, although we've got no details yet," said mentor midwife Sue Noble. "It would be nice to know precisely what happened, but I don't suppose they're going to share that with us."

On tonight's episiode, Laura and Ryan talked about the act of writing your birth story, and transforming what many consider a transcendent experience into words on a page. We referred to this post from Birth Without Fear about the reasons women write and share their birth stories.

We next introduced our guest, Kate Hopper, author of Ready for Air: A Journey Through Premature Motherhood (to be released in October) and Use Your Words: A Writing Guide for Mothers. Kate holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Minnesota and has been the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, a Minnesota State Arts Board Grant, and a Sustainable Arts Grant. Her writing has appeared in a number of journals, including Brevity, Literary Mama, The New York Times online and Poets & Writers. She is an editor at Literary Mama and teaches writing online and at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, where she lives with her family.

During the conversation, Ryan mentioned this piece from Renegade Mothering, reminding us to TELL THE TRUTH, for the partial truth--the story about the image, the perfect mother, the one who is never unhappy or experiences discomfort or orders fast food for their kids--hurts, not only our own self-images but those of future mothers as well.

Kate lead us on a journey from starting with a single image, to listing words and ideas, to essay to story, through tense and voice and character. We highly recommend her book for anyone trying to get those words on the page, whether about birth or any of the other bazillion evocative maternal experiences we share.

To learn more about Kate's work, please visit her website at katehopper.com or her blog at motherhoodandwords.com.

Finally, at the end of the show we were thrilled to announce that after almost 100 episodes on the local airwaves, we are thrilled to tell you that a sister community radio station from Bend, Oregon, KPOV, is picking up Maternally Yours and will air it every Sunday morning at 8am! This is a dream come true for us and we are so grateful that The Conversation will be carried in the Pacific Northwest.

Episode 95: Writing Your Birth Story

Join the Conversation Tuesday, July 23rd as Laura and Ryan welcome Kate Hopper, author of Use Your Words: A Writing Guide for Mothers and the soon-to-be-released Ready for Air: A Journey Through Premature Motherhood. We'll talk about the value of writing your birth story, and learn how to put those seemingly indescribable moments into words. Have questions for our hosts? 

Tune into WSLR 96.5 LPFM or online at www.wslr.org Tuesday, July 23rd at 6:00pm ET. The program will also available later in the evening via podcast atmaternallyyoursradio.com.

For more information, please contact the hostesses of Maternally Yours atMaternallyYoursRadio@gmail.com, or on our facebook page atfacebook.com/maternallyyours.

Maternally Yours, 

Cheryl, Carmela, Ryan and Laura

Episode 94 (Epilogue): Working Moms Part II- Choosing to Work Outside the Home

           

    Tonight we continued our series on maternity and work, focusing on mothers who work outside of the home. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 2012 labor force participation rate for all mothers with children under the age of 18 is just over 70 percent. Ryan and Cheryl joined guests and working mothers Rae Mulligan and Bonnie Silvestri to dig a little deeper into what the experience of being a working mother is really like. Rae Mulligan grew up in Sarasota, Florida and graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in Women’s Studies and Sociology. Rae has worked at Northern Trust as the Food and Beverage manager for over 14 years and is currently working on a Master’s Degree in Hospitality Management. Strongly committed to family, equality and the community, Rae is a Committee member of several different non-profits including Equality Florida, Planned Parenthood and the Glasser/Schoenbaum Human Services Center. She currently lives in Sarasota with her husband, Mark and 2 1/2 year old daughter Piper. Bonnie is a faculty member at University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee in the College of Arts and Sciences, where since fall 2007, she has taught Constitutional Law, Women in Law, and Special Topics courses, including a service learning course called “Ending Homelessness:  How Can We Work Toward Social Change?” Additionally, she is the advisor to the Social Justice Initiative at USFSM, which engages students in community service projects to raise social consciousness. Previously, Bonnie practiced law in New York, where she served as the first executive director of the Judicial Campaign Ethics Center of the New York State Unified Court. Today she lives in Sarasota, Florida with her husband Mike and daughter Daphne.

                Rae and Bonnie each shared with us how they became working mothers, and discussed the experiences of arranging maternity leave, going back to work, being newly postpartum in the workplace, and organizing child care. They each shared with us the complex range of emotions they experiences along their journey, including joy, guilt, pride, and stress. We delved into examining how support for new mothers in the workplace can have a deep impact on families success and happiness, and Rae and Bonnie discussed ways in which they had been support, as well as places where they could have used more support.

                We closed our discussion by looking at the impact that gender has on how outsiders view family member’s work choice. Ryan and Cheryl discussed the idea of the “do no wrong” father, whose choices are praised as heroic whether he stay at home or provide for the family financially. On the other hand, we noted that women seems to be able to “do no right” facing scrutiny whether they stay at home or return to paid labor. We also discussed strides which have been made as a whole to create more gender equity in families, as well as the importance of equity in a family where both parents are working.

TONIGHT’S TIP: End right by starting right—keeping all of your prenatal appointments helps ensure a healthier ending.

BIRTH IN THE NEWS:

The Rising Cost of Childbirth in the United States

Evidence of Support Needed for Breastfeeding

Episode 94: Working Mothers, Part II: Choosing to Work Outside the Home

Join the Conversation again tonight, Tuesday, July 16th as Ryan and Cheryl continue the summer series on Working Motherhood. We'll meet moms who have chosen to work outside the home for income. Have questions for our hosts? Please email us or post to our facebook page. 

Tune into WSLR 96.5 LPFM or online at www.wslr.org tonight, Tuesday, July 16th at 6:00pm ET. The program will also available later in the evening via podcast at maternallyyoursradio.com.

For more information, please contact the hostesses of Maternally Yours at MaternallyYoursRadio@gmail.com, or on our facebook page at facebook.com/maternallyyours.

Maternally Yours, 

Cheryl, Carmela, Ryan and Laura

Episode 93 (Epilogue): Baby's First Library

 Tonight’s show focused on children and reading. Some parents may feel concern about raising children who are avid readers. We know that as children age, they read for pleasure less and less, and rate their enjoyment of reading as lower too. So it becomes so crucial to inspire children while they’re young, and to show them the many gifts reading has to offer. On tonight’s show Cheryl and Ryan helped provide information on how parents can lay a solid foundation for their children’s literary development.

  Our first guests of the show were Grace Moore and Alisa Mitchell. Grace moved to Sarasota one year ago to start as the Children's Librarian at Selby Public Library in Downtown Sarasota. She studied English and minored in French at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida before moving to North Carolina, where she completed her Master's degree in Library Science at UNC-Chapel Hill, with a focus on youth services in public libraries. Alisa is a Florida native who was raised in Sarasota. She’s a graduate of Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts. Having worked in Raleigh and Boston, Alisa returned to Sarasota in 2001. Her background includes non-profit development, community outreach and writing. She’s been a columnist for the local Mommy Magazine, and for the last five years she’s coordinated the library’s early literacy outreach program.

  Alisa and Grace discussed the benefits of early reading, as well as how an active role on the part of parents to foster a love of reading is invaluable. We also discussed potential issues that can hinder a child’s love of reading, and how to create the best space for children to become comfortable with books and reading.  Finally, we delved into potential issues of disparity when it comes to creating a promising reading future, and discussed some area programs which are working to combat these issues. One such program is Literacy Empowers All Families (LEAF). Additionally our guests also discussed avenues for getting books for low or no cost.

              

  Our next guest of the show was Connie Manson. Connie has a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master’s of Science in Early Childhood education. She founded Starlite Puppets in 1990. She has shared music and the magic of puppetry with children as teacher in early childhood programs, and as a professional puppet story teller in various settings throughout the United States for the last twenty years. She created the Tea ‘n Puppets Parent/Child Program and Story Hour. This delightful story series is currently being held at Waldorf Sarasota, where Connie teaches The Little Seedlings Parent Child classes and the Sunflower Nursery Class.

  Connie discussed the power that storytelling can have in shaping children to become avid readers, as well as what a valuable part of a parent/child relationship story telling can be.  Connie provided a variety of tips and suggestions to listeners for making story time special with their own children. Finally, Connie told a story for us, and later highlighted how this story provided examples of what parents can do with their own children.

Author and Book Suggestions from Our Listeners:

Sandra Boynton

Eric Carle (Cheryl: one of our faves- we have a few in English and in French!)

Robert Munsch (a super famous Canadian children's author)

Richard Scarry

Tommy dePaulo

Maurice Sendak (including Little Bear)

Satomi Ichikawa

Jane Yolen

Listeners’ Reading Tips and Suggestions:

Nyssa said they love reading books by John and Ian Schoenherr (literary relatives). She also says: “my mom read to us early and often, and continued to read to us, even after we could read all by ourselves. I still remember The Black Cauldron, The Chronicles of Narnia, A Wrinkle in Time (series), and the Hobbit coming to life in my mind's eye as my mother read.”

Petra said: “I thought black and white cards with pictures and words are the best for newborns before they see in colors. Moms can even make books like that as well.”

Renee said: “Using sign language while reading doubles the experience!! Makes it more interactive! The wee ones love the visual.”

Julia said: “Hope you'll give a shout out to Jim Trelease  - a big advocate for reading to young children whose book is my favorite baby shower gift”

Cheryl  checked out Jim’s site and notes that he has a great book called the read-aloud handbook, and also has free handouts on benefits of reading aloud, do and don’ts, and more!

Alejandra said:  “I didn't pick a specific author or set of books. I knew I wanted her to start grasping Spanish so I had family members ship me Spanish only books from South America. It is just colorful little picture books with the Spanish saying on the bottom. She loved them and still does till this day. And it was something both my husband and I could read to her and make up stories along with the words.”

Ciera said: “As a mother who has a Master’s degree in Reading Education I knew that inspiring a love of reading in my children was very important to me. Not only that but as a child I was an avid reader. If I was naughty the punishment was typically removing my books from my room, which was quite effective. I don’t feel like we have done anything out of the ordinary or novel when it comes to integrating books and reading into our daily routines. Starting at a young age, around one, with my oldest child we would read one or two books as a part of his bedtime routine. As a family we would head to his room and lounge for up to 30 minutes playing together and reading him books as he asked. There was no "limit" to how many books we would read at that age. As he has grown older I myself limit him to 3 picture books or 1 chapter book (like Little Bear) because if not we would read all night long. I have started to integrate books into my youngest child’s bedtime routine as well, starting with one short board book with lots of engaging pictures right before nursing to sleep.

A few more things we do include having books accessible to the children at all times. They have a bookshelf with their books in their room that is within reach of both children (and is securely anchored to the wall to lessen any risk factor of falling). I also have a "never say no" policy to reading books. If my son asks me to read him a story I make every effort to say yes always. I make it a point to read around him, and model good reading habits (as does his father), and we just make it fun. Early readers need lots of interaction with books on their own terms. Let them explore, and be there when they wish to share that experience with you.”

Thank you so much to all our listeners who contributed these great suggestions!

Additional Links from Tonight’s Show:

Sarasota County Libraries

2013 Kid and Family Reading Report

TONIGHT’S RIGHT:  Every woman has the right to decide collaboratively with caregivers when she and her baby will leave the birth site for home, based on their conditions and circumstances. To learn more about your rights, please visit ChildbirthConnection.org.

BIRTH IN THE NEWS:

Baby Comes "Back to Life" After Being Pronounced Dead by Doctors

Let Her Play Facebook

Episode 93: Baby's First Library

 Join Cheryl and Ryan tonight, Tuesday July 9th at 6:00pm ET as we explore Baby's First Library. We'll be delving into the ways parents, educators and community members can promote a love of books and some pre-reading skills in the first few years, with children's librarian Grace Moore of Selby Public Library. Joining them will be Alisa Mitchell, a youth librarian and the coordinator for Sarasota Library System's Early Literacy Outreach Program, as well as Connie Mason from Sarasota Waldorf School. 

We'd love your input too! Head to our facebook page to share your questions, your favorite books for babies through preschoolers, and stories of how your family makes book time special. 

Tune into WSLR 96.5 LPFM or online at www.wslr.org tonight, Tuesday, July 9th at 6:00pm ET. The program will also available later in the evening via podcast at maternallyyoursradio.com.

For more information, please contact the hostesses of Maternally Yours at MaternallyYoursRadio@gmail.com, or on our facebook page at facebook.com/maternallyyours.

Maternally Yours, 

Cheryl, Carmela, Ryan and Laura

Episode 92 (Epilogue): Times Two: Lesbian Motherhood

In the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Laura and Carmela discussed gay rights and parenting. We began the show with a discussion of DOMA, and what impact the recent Supreme Court decision will have on gay couples in our nation.  Currently, the biggest impact will be on individuals who are already legally married in their own states, as it will impact their ability to receive federal marriage benefits. However, the ruling does not establish a constitutional right to gay marriage. We spoke to Nadine Smith, an executive director of Equality Florida in order to gather more information about the ruling.  

We then welcomed  Kristen and Sarah Kate Ellis-Henderson to the show. In April of this year, one of two Time magazine covers for the same issue featured the words "Gay Marriage Already Won" and a black and white photograph of two women kissing. Those two women were Kristen and Sarah. As wives and advocates for equal rights, their story is fascinating enough. As mothers, it is downright incredible.

Kristen Ellis-Henderson is a founding member, bass player, and songwriter of the all-female popular country/ rock band Antigone Rising. Sarah Kate Ellis-Henderson has spent the past seventeen years working on such top brands as Vogue, In Style, and most recently as Executive Vice President of Real Simple Magazine. They joined us to discuss their own relationship and parenting journey, and to share a bit about what the recent Supreme Court ruling has meant for their family.

Kristen and Sarah shared the remarkably story of how they came to be pregnant on the same day, and discussed their coinciding pregnancy and birth stories. Our guests shared to importance of finding support, particularly in a world where prejudice can still be prominent.  Kristen and Sarah also discussed their own advocacy with us, including how they came to be featured on the cover of time magazine!

Equality Florida

Antigone Rising

TONIGHT’S RIGHT: Every woman has the right to receive complete information about the benefits of breastfeeding well in advance of labor, to refuse supplemental bottles and other actions that interfere with breastfeeding, and to have access to skilled lactation support for as long as she chooses to breastfeed. To learn more about your rights, please visit ChildbirthConnection.org.

BIRTH IN THE NEWS:

National C-section Rate Holds Steady

Preventing Pregnant Immigrants From Shackling During Labor

Healthcare Reform and Pregnancy Coverage

Episode 92: Times Two: Lesbian Motherhood

Join Laura and Carmela tonight, Tuesday, July 2nd as we discuss lesbian motherhood. We welcome back Nadine Smith of Equality Florida to break down last week's historic Supreme Court ruling, and we'll meet wives, mothers, and April 2013 Time Magazine cover models Kristen and Sarah Kate Ellis-Henderson, who will share the amazing journey to motherhood they wrote about inTimes Two: Two Women in Love and the Happy Family They Made. Questions? Comments? Please email us or post to ourfacebook page!

Tune into WSLR 96.5 LPFM or online atwww.wslr.org tonight, Tuesday, July 2nd at 6:00pm ET. The program will also available later in the evening via podcast atmaternallyyoursradio.com.

For more information, please contact the hostesses of Maternally Yours atMaternallyYoursRadio@gmail.com, or on our facebook page atfacebook.com/maternallyyours.

Maternally Yours, 

Cheryl, Carmela, Ryan and Laura