Int'l Doula Month - Giveaway #3

For our third giveaway, I spoke with Jenna Brand over at the Birth Project. The Birth Project is an awesome endeavor that has a self-published magazine that strives to demystify birth, normalizing pregnancy, birth, and the entire "childbearing year".

One lucky winner will win a set of three pins and their last issue of The Birth Project!

My name is Jenna Brand and I am one of four women piecing together "The Birth Project." We are a self-published magazine that strives to normalize pregnancy, birth, and the entire “childbearing year” through articles, stories, poetry, and artwork. In my real-life I am a mother to a 1 1/2 year old, and a wife, and I work from home doing PR for investment banks.

When I was pregnant with my son, I became obsessed with the culture surrounding birth. I knew that I would be a "birth junkie" long after I brought my son into the world. I started working towards becoming a doula, and attended one beautiful birth - but it was too hard for me to be away from my family. Lucky for me my birth class teacher, Kate Stroud, asked if I'd be interested in joining the small and dedicated staff producing our magazine. It's a really wonderful way for me to stay connected to the incredible world of birth workers and pregnant women.

Whenever I hear a pregnant woman sound excited about the process of birth, rather than cut herself short or make it seem like an act she'll have to "suck-it-up and get through," my heart warms. I truly believe birth is a beautiful step towards becoming a mother - as spiritual and empowering as a vision quest!

Every issue has been wonderful in its own way, but I feel like we're constantly improving on our content and layout. Besides the magazine, we also sell buttons on etsy. I love our "Birth: Trust the Process" pin. It really sums-up our whole philosophy!

When you think of a doula, what do you think:

Doulas are advocates for the birthing mother and her partner. It's impossible to expect first-timers to navigate the birth experience breezily when there is so much at stake. A doula's been around the block: she speaks the language, and knows the tricks and is there to ease the minds of the parents.

Consequentially, what do you think of birth practices in the U.S. right now:

There's a lot of misinformation out in the world, and many pregnant women do not know their options when it comes to birth practices. So many women do not even know birth centers, home-births, midwives, nurse-midwives, or doulas are all realistic options. I feel like too many women are pushed into choices that they do not fully comprehend, and they're too scared to ask for more information. At "The Birth Project" we push for informed consent leading mothers to feel empowered about their birthing experience.

Anything Else that you would like us to know about you:

We're a quarterly publication - putting an issue out every season. Subscriptions are cheap - just $18 for a year! That's less than most movie dates. We're always looking for contributors, so please feel free to contact me with any of your writing, photography, or artwork: jenna@birthproject.com

You can follow them on twitter @thebirthproject. They're on facebook, and keep a blog on their main site. They also sell their funky birthing buttons over on etsy.

RULES FOR ENTERING:

Remember, EACH OF THESE count as one entry. You have to complete the first entry to be able to be able to have the other entries counted. To have them counted as one entry each, they must each be fulfilled with their own, separate, comment. Be sure that your comment contains your email either in the body of the message, or through your profile.

• For your initial entry, you must post a link to this giveaway on your FB OR create your own blog post regarding this giveaway, with a link to this post, then comment with a link back to your blog post/FB post.. Then, copy and paste a link to that in a comment here on my blog.
  
• For an additional entry, "Friend" them on FB, then notify me by commenting.
  
• For an additional entry, follow them on Twitter, then notify me by commenting.
  
• For two additional entries, write your own article and submit it by email, ccing me, and commenting here on my blog.
  
• If you took advantage of the Early Bird Entries, you can add any/all of your Early Bird entries to this giveaway by commenting with the words "EB Entry".
  

Entries will be closed on May 29th, at midnight, and the drawing will occur on May 31st, at noon.

Happy entering!!!