Labor Day Picnic: Special Guest

We are delighted to feature Diane Tinker, birth doula from Des Moines, IA, as a special guest at our Labor Day Picnic and Silent Auction! Diane was recently published in an anthology titled Bearing Witness: Childbirth Stories Told by Doulas, and will be reading from that collection, as well as signing books, at the picnic. Books will be availabe for purchase. Diane says:

As a birth doula who has been practicing all over Central Iowa and beyond for nearly 15 years and having witnessed and supported women, their partners, and families through hundreds of births in both the hospital and home setting, I am very excited to have been choosen to be a contributing author of this book. It is a creation of poems and stories about birth written from a doula’s perspective. As doulas, we have an honor and privledge of being chosen to be part of a very intimate experience in a woman's life. We bear witness to one of life's greatest miracles - birth - time and again. In this process we also bear witness to the powerful forces of birth, the strength and capabilities of women and the the obstacles that are sometimes put in the way of a normal, natural process. This is a collection of our inside or bird's eye views from the birth space and our way of life as doulas that has been edited & authored by fellow doulas Lisa Doran and Lisa Caron.

More information about the collection:
Bearing Witness is an anthology of 50 stories about doulas working with birthing families. Stories of joy, awe, miracles. Stories that are gut wrenchingly funny and stories that are sad and difficult to hear. There is wisdom in these pages. These stories are presented here to you from the heart. The contributors to Bearing Witness are women who have made a lifestyle out of rising from their warm beds in the middle of the night to answer pages from their clients, of leaving their home and families sometimes for days on end. We do this because most doulas want to help change our birth customs. We want to educate women and advocate for natural childbirth so that they achieve a positive birth experience and feel strong and confident in themselves and will mother their babies in a healthy way. Birth needs to become human again. It needs to reclaim its wild primacy. Peace on earth does indeed begin with birth.

Auction preview: Enwrapture Vintage Silk Skirts

If you love wrap skirts, you will love Enwrapture Vintage skirts! These double layer skirts come in a variety of gorgeous tones and can be tied in over 100 different ways! Our auction will feature two 24" length Enwrapture Vintage skirts! They retail at $50!

Bid on these and more at our Labor Day Picnic & Silent Auction at Wetherby Park in IC from 2-6 pm!

Auction Preview: Tax Prep from Carrie Houchins-Witt

Item: Gift Certificate for preparation and filing of 2010 individual federal and state tax return.

Carrie Houchins-Witt provides honest, affordable and timely tax preparation and financial planning to ordinary families.

Carrie is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER(TM) Practitioner (CFPTM) with more than six years of professional tax preparation experience and an extensive background in business and finance operations. In addition to this professional experience, Carrie's own journey with personal finance has taken her through many common financial milestones.

Carrie can help you through ordinary or extraordinary periods of your financial life. She knows what it is like to struggle financially, to save for a house, and to put away money for her children's education. She has experienced debt, and better yet, knows the feeling of freedom that comes with shedding that debt. She explains taxes and personal finances in a simple, thorough way that anyone can understand. She wants you to be in control of our own life, and wants to help you reach your goals.

Carrie is a local work-at-home mother of two young boys born with the support of a midwife (one cesarean section and one beautiful VBAC).

Please explore her website at www.houchinswitt.com to learn more about Carrie and the services she offers.

Bid on this and lots more at our annual Labor Day Silent Auction and Potluck Picnic Sept 6, 2-6 pm at Wetherby Park in Iowa City.

Auction Preview: Bamboo Birth Doula Services

Item: gift certificate for a complementary upgrade from Economy to Full Service doula package, $75 value.

If you know anything about birth services in Iowa City, you know Jun-Nicole Matsushita and her amazing doula services, Bamboo Birth. Jun-Nicole is a certified doula who empowers women to achieve their goals of low- to no-intervention hospital births and specializes in hypnobirthing techniques. Know a mom expecting? Does she want a natural birth, but is delivering with CNMs or an OB at a local hospital? She will help you with a natural birth, low intervention birth or a medicated birth with a low intervention approach.

Bamboo is a vigorous and versatile plant that symbolizes grace, endurance and compromise as it bends but does not easily break. Bamboo survives in the harshest conditions and endures nature's challenges with resilience and flexibility. Standing tall and green year-round a bamboo forest sways in the wind reminding us of the strength, yielding and adaptability necessary during the powerful process of birth.

Learn more about Jun-Nicole at her website, Bamboo Birth.

Bid on this and lots mor at our annual Labor Day Silent Auction and Potluck Picnic Sept 6, 2-6 pm at Wetherby Park in Iowa City.

Create a website to raise money for FOIM!

Hey everyone! I just used a really simple, free website service to create a page to raise money for FOIM. Since we are having a Walk for Midwives in Iowa City this October, I'm taking the opportunity to use my social networking and ask friends and family for help as we work towards our goals this year.

It's Easy.
I used the website Weebly to set up my site very quickly. It allowed me to drag and drop elements I wanted to use and upload pictures.

To create a paypal donation button, you'll first need to create a paypal account. Once that's taken care of, click "services" and then "get paid." The site will generate a donate button. On Weebly, drag and drop "custom html" and then copy and paste the button code into that box.

I used the website Ticker Factory to create the fundraising ticker. Again, drag and drop "custom html" and then c&p the code into the box.

PLEASE NOTE: Being "sponsored" is NOT a requirement to participate in this or ANY walk in October!! I'm doing this of my own accord because...


It's Smart
With email, twitter, and facebook, publicity is already taken care of. How many times have YOU had friends or family ask you to sponsor them as they walked or ran for a cause? By sharing your website using social media you're already using, you raise awareness and money without hassling people or feeling embarrassed. I personally plan to post a link to my website once or twice a week until the day of the walk, and offer different reasons to donate money. Even if I only raise $100, that's a huge help to FOIM! That covers postage for our packets to legislators, the fee for an event, or a FULL DAY OF our lobbyist working on our behalf at the capitol. All from taking 30 minutes to create a site and share it on facebook.

It's Necessary
We have very ambitious fundraising goals this year (more details TBA). This year more than ever, FOIM needs support so that we can make our biggest push to license CPMs in Iowa in 2011. I have never asked family or friends who aren't in town, or who aren't parents, to support FOIM. Now I am asking them to support me and my personal stake in this issue.

My goal is to raise $500, enough to support a full week of lobbying. You can see my fundraising page here. I will update to share with you how well it goes!