Oct 13 Valley Advocate article: thank you and response

A Hundred and Two and What Do You Do?

A mothers' group bucks business interests to go to bat for paid sick days.
By Maureen Turner
The Valley Advocate, Thursday, October 13, 2011

Dear Mo, 

Thank you for your powerful article on the necessity of passing paid sick leave policy in our state to provide fair access to sick days for workers. We know that earned paid sick time will provide necessary supports to mothers and fathers who are often the primary bread winner and caregiver in their famlies.

We, at MotherWoman, want to clarify part of Ms. Turner's article in which she gave us credit for facilitating support groups throughout the region and specifically in the prison. We train professsionals and lay leaders in the MotherWoman Support Group Model and they, in turn, are able to use the training as one tool in their tool box as facilitators or to run groups through their own organizations and in the communities they serve. The support group for incarcerated moms at the women's correctional center in Chicopee is administered and run by the Prison Birth Project, not by MotherWoman.

The Prison Birth Project is doing extraordinary work on behalf of currently and formerly incarcerated women. We are thankful for the many contributions they make to the social and economic justice movements in Massachusetts. For more information about The Prison Birth Project go to www.theprisonbirthproject.org

We would greatly appreciate if you would print this correction in the next edition of the Valley Advocate.

Thank you very much
.

Sincerely,

Liz Friedman, Program Director

Beth Spong, Executive Director

MotherWoman

Profile: Meg Baker

"For a dozen years, I witnessed women re-discover themselves, re-member themselves as able, loving, thoughtful people, given the space and support to do so. I watched utterly bewildered mothers become confident, isolated mothers connect, and anxious mothers relax. This is no accident. This is the job we do in a MotherWoman group. To hold the circle and let judgment and advice drop away, so each woman can find her own way along the path of mothering. It's not easy, but the transformative effects on women, and thus on their families, are profound and lasting."

- Meg Baker

13 years ago, while bringing the oldest of her three sons to the Amherst Family Center, Meg Baker agreed to participate in the first drop-in MotherWoman support group. The rest is history. 

Meg has been a bedrock member of MotherWoman from that moment on, and helped us to develop our founding principles: that speaking the truth of a mother's experience is revolutionary and necessary, that mothers need to include self care as a priority in their families, that unrealistic expectations for mothers to be perfect are untrue and toxic, and that women have the wisdom within to navigate through the complexity of their lives when they have respectful support. Meg stayed on and became the lead facilitator for the Amherst Family Group for over 9 years! Because of her warmth, wisdom, humor, and expert facilitation skills, hundreds of mothers have been guided through challenging times. Thank you Meg!

New! Postpartum group in Pittsfield

Click flier to download PDF version.

For years, mothers from Berkshire County have been traveling to Northampton for the only postpartum support group in the region to receive much needed support when in postpartum emotional crisis.  Now thanks to the leadership of Gathered Resources of Women (GROW), a Berkshire-based support organization for mothers, things are changing.  Alisa Blanchard and Liz Oakes, leaders from GROW, recently graduated from MotherWoman's Facilitator Training in spring 2011 and have begun a group for mothers needing support during the postpartum period.  Spread the word!  

Postpartum Support: This is Harder than I Thought 
MotherWoman Group offered by GROW

2nd and 4th Fridays of every month, 6:30 - 8:30pm

Community Room, 48 Elizabeth Street, Pittsfield

Contact Liz Oakes for more information or to sign up: (413) 822-6043 |  info@gatheredwomen.org

Cycon & Friedman Present at PSI

Annette Cycon, Director of Training, and Liz Friedman, Program Director, have been invited to return to Postpartum Support International this September in Seattle, WA, and present on the MotherWoman Support Group Model to the international postpartum leadership community. "An Introduction to MotherWoman's Perinatal Support Group Facilitator Training" will be a talk on MotherWoman's outreach model and facilitator training program. Cycon and Friedman will also be hosting a poster session, "Perinatal Support Groups: the First Line of Care for Mothers", sharing the organizations' unique perspective that high quality support groups are the essential first line of care for postpartum women. MotherWoman's national goal is to have one support group for every 2000 births in the United States. With 4.3 million new births each year, this goal requires sustaining 2,150 support groups across the country. Cycon and Friedman move that the on-going success of perinatal support groups depends on two things: community-based multi-disciplinary coalitions of providers of care to perinatal women and consistent support group facilitator training that includes an understanding of the impact of poverty and culture on Perinatal Emotional Complications. 

Stay tuned for the national response to this perspective!

More information on the conference at postpartum.net

Update on Friday, September 16, 2011 at 11:55AM by MotherWoman

An Introduction to the MotherWoman Perinatal Support Group Facilitator Training

Break out session #3, 2:45-4pm today at Postpartum Support International Conference, Seattle, WA

Download the presentation here:  MotherWoman PSI 2011

Copyright MotherWoman 2011, All rights reserved. For personal use only, please ask before reprinting or distributing.

For more on this talk and the following poster session on Perinatal Support Groups (5:30-6:30PM) check out our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter - PSI Hashtag: #PSIConf

MA Paid Sick Leave Coalition

Family-friendly policies are an economic justice issue. You are invited to join our work with MomsRising.org and the MA Paid Sick Leave Coalition to advocate for legislation guaranteeing MA employees the right to earn up to 7 paid sick days each year, ensuring their ability to care for their own health or that of a child, spouse or parent without risking their jobs.

Letter written from Denise Andrews, State Representative, Second Franklin District to Cheryl A. Coakley-Rivera, Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Developement.