Con’t- Why the Controversies in Childbirth Conference?

I am continuing the last blog entry which was rather lengthy. During the months before the first, Controversies in Childbirth Conference, which was held in Fort Worth, Texas (Feb 2009), I had a conversation with a family physician who had obstetrical privileges. She was explaining all the obstacles that she felt were put in the way of her giving the best care to patients. I asked her if she'd gotten any birth advocate groups involved since she and they were trying for the same result. She informed me, that she did not know what a birth advocate was. You would think that birth advocates would be shocked at of this lack of knowledge. However, for the most part the birth advocate attends conferences of people that agree with them, such as; midwife conference, doula conference, breast-feeding conference, normal birth conference, etc.. Generally birth advocates don't go to conferences that are mostly inhabited by physicians. From the outside, it seems that most birth care professionals want to go to a conference to hear that they are right and what a great job they're doing. Rarely, at a conference do we find formats with presenters that vehemently disagree with each other. And that is what makes the Controversies in Childbirth Conference different. Professional, respectful, debate, information, and disagreements. At the 2009 conference, the attendees were shocked at the arguments that were made by speakers whose point of view was different from theirs. Quite frankly, they never heard the other side of the story. And this ladies and gentleman is why we have the Controversies in Childbirth Conference. Please go to our website www.birthconference.org for more information Alan