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Alliance Francophone pour
l'Accouchement Respecté (AFAR) <http://afar.info> is a French-Language network of
citizens and non-profit societies involved in the support
of, and information about, gentle childbirth and care of the
newborn. The society has been registered in May 2003. AFAR
does not advocate specific choices with respect to places of
birth and its attendants, and it is free from any
philosophical, religious or political affiliation. Its role
is to share scientific and legal information, and actively
support informed choices by all actors of childbirth.
Today, parents are allowed less and
less freedom of choice for the places and attendants of
childbirth. This is due to two major reasons: first, the
pursuit of a profit-making policy enforced by a security
discourse devoid of any scientifical grounding, and the fear
of litigation. The marketting of birth, in France, is
obvious in the dismantling of small obstetrical units to the
benefit of "birth factories". Fear of litigation has pushed
professional attendants to shelter behind protocols imposing
an increasing number of interventions, most of which are
useless or detrimental to the natural process of birthing.
For instance, the cascade of iatrogenous interventions often
starts with induction of labour for the sake of reducing
hospital costs thanks to the scheduling of teamwork. This
absurdity of the "birth machine" has been put in the right
words by Prof. Malinas, a gynecologist-obstretician:
"The task of traditional obstetrics
was to monitor a physiological phenomenon, being ready to
act at every moment. Modern obstetrics aims at disrupting
this process in such a way that interventions will become
vital at the very moment there is available staff. This is
much more difficult!" (Le Dauphiné
Libéré, 8 May 1994)
Though AFAR's territory is
French-speaking countries, it is bound to work with
international partners on specific actions. Among these will
be the sharing of its on-line database of bibliographic
references. Its operation may be demonstrated clicking the
"épisiotomie" link on the page: <http://afar.info/biblio-liens.htm>
Access to this documentary resource
will soon become bilingual. AFAR welcomes well-trained
editors willing to take part in adding content to its
database which will remain accessible to all Internet
users.
The next international action will
be AFAR's participation in the European Social Forum
<http://www.fse-esf.org/> which is due to take place near Paris
on 12-15 November this year. AFAR is in the process of
submitting a proposal for a workshop on the topic of birth
rights and freedom, in which we hope to involve a number of
non-profit societies in France, plus more in the UK and
other neighbouring countries.
The third action will be SMAR, the
worldwide week for respected childbirth (Semaine Mondiale de
l'Accouchement Respecté) which has been scheduled on
May 3-9, 2004. The topic for 2004 will be "Episiotomy,
genital mutilation". Our presentation page of SMAR on
<http://afar.info/smar2004.htm> will shortly be available in
English.
The new phase of birth activism
embodied in the launching of AFAR has become possible thanks
to an increasing mobilisation of citizens in France and
French-speaking countries: more articles in
broad-distribution magazines, more items on the TV and
radio, more books... such as the recent one on women and
parent's rights, by Sophie Gamelin and Martine
Herzog-Evans:Les droits des mères (1) : La grossesse
et l'accouchement ; Les droits des mères (2) : Les
premiers mois. Paris : L'Harmattan. <http://perinatalite.chez.tiscali.fr/livre-droit/presentation.htm>
The snowball effect of these
interventions in the mass media is encouraging at a time the
situation of the French birth policy is worsening in the
direction of hypermedicalisation. It is felt that the ground
of action for the AFAR will be the places in which recent
laws on informed consent and freedom of choice are still
being ignored. AFAR's ambition is to support the birth
options of its members thanks to the availability of
scientific data, legal information, and taking legal action
whenever necessary. Currently, its law counsellors are
focussing on birth plans, their contents and submission
procedures in the framework of contractual links between the
caregivers and users of the health system.