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Suzanne Arms

Suzanne has been a guest on all three national network talk shows, was interviewed by Barbara Walters, and chosen to debate a leading spokesperson for the American College of Ob/Gyn. She has given dozens of keynote speeches on three continents, including the 25th annual March of Dimes conference, whose theme was perinatal issues. Creator, producer, writer and director of the documentary series Birthing the Future®. Her passion and lifetime work is to transform the way we think about, and care for, mothers and babies, and create positive, cost-effective models for our nation's prospective parents.

Now a grandmother, Suzanne has a BA (with honors in Literature and minor in anthropology) from the University of Rochester. She began her adult work as a nursery school and day-care teacher in the San Francisco Bay area, where she lived from 1965-1992. At the age of 22 she was the head teacher at one of the pilot Head Start programs in the nation.

It was the traumatic birth of her own daughter in 1970 that ignited her passionate advocacy and commitment to transform both attitudes and practices with regard to childbearing. Now author of seven books on the subject, Suzanne and her photographs are frequently featured in journals and books on birth, mothering, babies and parenting.

As a single mother on welfare (left with no support from the father of her daughter), Suzanne became a self-trained, unpaid East and West Coast of the U.S. and document what was really going on behind the closed doors of the obstetric units and newborn nurseries. This was accomplished with the help of various obstetric and pediatric residents who were upset with what they were expected to do to birthing women, new mothers and babies.

Suzanne founded the country's second out-of-hospital birth center and the first resource center for pregnancy, birth and early parenting. She researched, developed and taught the first course ever on the evolution of childbirth practices around the world. In 1977 she was appointed to the State Birth Practices Committee by the Governor of California and was a founding member of the Plane Tree Model Hospitals project in San Francisco. She has previously produced a 30-minute educational video, Five Women, Five Births: A Film About Choices, which is still the favorite of many birth educators. In 1995 she received from Lamaze International, the largest childbirth education organization in the world, the prestigious 25th annual Marjorie Carmel award for her outstanding life's work.

Her first book, A Season To Be Born, was a product of Suzanne's inability during pregnancy to find any books that spoke to a pregnant woman's emotions and concerns. She kept a diary throughout her pregnancy and her baby's father kept a photographic diary of her, and that became her first published book, A Season To Be Born, which she hand carried to NYC. She walked into the office of an editor at Harper and Rowe and sold her story on the spot. It sold 40,000 copies and Suzanne still gets occasional letters from men and women now in their 40's and 50's for whom that book made an indelible impression when they were children or young adults.

Immaculate Deception was named a "Best Book of the Year" by the New York Times and sold over 250,000 copies in its 1975 hard and paper edition and mass market pocket paperback.

In 1977 Suzanne made her debut as a video filmmaker with a half hour black and white documentary called Five Women, Five Births, a film about choices. Many childbirth educators continue to use this film in their classes, as it takes the uninitiated gently into the feelings and reality of labor and deliver.

In 1983 Knopf Publishers brought out Suzanne's first book on adoption called To Love And Let Go. This book was groundbreaking because it focused on the stories of the women who made the painful decision to place their yet unborn child with strangers. In 1990 Suzanne wrote a second book on the subject called Adoption: A Handful Of Hope, which incorporated not only the stories of birth mothers but also birth fathers, adoptees and adoptive parents. This book included eight years of follow-up on the original stories of birth mothers and their children.

In the same year, Suzanne brought out her fifth book, Bestfeeding, with a collaborative effort with two renowned British midwives, Cleo Fisher and Mary Renfrew. This book has sold 100,000 copies and is widely considered the very best how to book on the subject for professionals and mothers. A new edition of Bestfeeding came out in 2000.

In 1994 Suzanne published a timeless book called Seasons of Change, an illustrated, fictionalized diary that chronicles a woman's inner journey from conception to three months after birth. Seasons of Change includes more than 250 photographs in color and black and white of women of a wide range of ages, backgrounds and ethnicity. It is the story of a woman's transformation into a mother and her growing consciousness about each of the decisions she must make regarding her prenate's welfare and her own. This includes where, how and with whom she and her partner will give birth to their baby, and how best to meet all of their baby's needs.

In 1994 Suzanne published a new edition of her classic Immaculate Deception (left) and in 1997 she brought out a revised and updated version (right). While the original Immaculate Deception (1975) focused primarily on issues related to women and birth, the new book focuses on the baby as well as the mother, and on their relationship. This book is considered "The Bible" of birth by millions of mothers, birth educators, midwives, doulas and many nurses and nursing instructors who still believe in the value of natural, normal birth.

Suzanne continues to be concerned about how much the procedures and specific drugs and other interventions differ from one decade to the next, yet how nothing has significantly changed in birth. As an international spokesperson and observor of trends around the world, she finds that women in virtually every part of the globe continue to be denied the full information they need to make informed and conscious choices for themselves and their babies

"Women continue to be denied access to alternatives to routine and standard approaches to birth that have no basis in scientific evidence and which dis-empower and hurt themselves and their babies. I watch with pain in my heart as the level of fear among childbearing women, birth professionals and young people grows and the public's passivity and numbness about birth deepens."

"I am deeply concerned that technology and aggressive medical management now dominate most births in the industrialized world and reshape birth in urban areas in much the rest of the world. Even in Greece, Mexico and the island of Bali, induced labor, drugs, episiotomy, vacuum extraction, cesarean, and the forced separation of babies from their mothers right after birth have become the norm, and hemorrage, infection, birth trauma and bottle feeding follow."

Suzanne's interests cover a broad range of social issues, but her focus continues to remain on childbirth, mothering and early child development because of its profound and direct relationship to other crucial social issues of our time. She is a leading proponent of the growing position that what happens to us at the beginning of life (in the womb, during birth and the year following birth), and as birthing women, directly affects our emotional, physical and spiritual well being throughout the rest of our lives. And, on a larger scale it relates directly to the level of anxiety, violence and addiction in this society.

To that end she helped found an organization called Plane Tree that created model hospital projects around the U. S. and set standards for transforming hospitals into healing centers. Plane Tree created the first independent health resource center in the U.S., which continues to offer tailor-made searches of the Med Line. These information packets are designed to help individuals and families looking for up-to-date research on all available treatments for medical conditions and diseases to enable them to make wise decisions on their own behalf.

In 1996 Suzanne organized a 5-day Consortium on the Roots of Violence in the U.S. Her co-coordinator, Terry Arnold, is an internationally respected expert and White House advisor on terrorism and drug trafficking. This working retreat brought together thirty men and women from different backgrounds, aged 17 to 72 ê gang members, healers, activists, parents, researchers, politicians, program directors and visionaries from every race ê to examine their direct experiences with violence. It examined violence in all walks of American life ê in the family and neighborhood, the work place, in industry, in the military, in hospitals - beginning with birth. The sessions were filmed and it is Suzanne's and Terry's hope that one day the proceedings will be published put into video form and distributed, and that this important project will continue the work it started.

In the mid-1990s Suzanne was invited to participate in CIMS, the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services. She helped expand the group to include individuals and organizations concerned with all aspects of caring for the well being of childbearing women, mothers, babies and families. CIMS mission is to promote a wellness model of maternity care that will both improve birth outcomes and reduce costs. It's motto is family-friendly, woman-centered, evidence-based practices that focus on prevention and wellness as the alternatives to high-cost screening, diagnosis and treatment. CIMS produces a groundbreaking consensus document called The Mother-Friendly Initiative and has already been endorsed by over 50 organizations that represent over 90,000 members in the field of birth. (Visit the CIMS website at www.motherfriendly.org)

In 1998 Suzanne assisted John Travis, MD, (widely considered to be the founder of the Wellness Movement in the U.S.) to conceive and birth an organization to integrate ancient wisdom and modern evidence-based knowledge about childrearing and the education of children. They believed it was time to put forth an integrated vision that embodies the principles of body, mind, emotions, and spirit. It is called The Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children, www.atlc.org. aTLC considers its role to be gathering and synthesizing the wisdom from ancient cultures and modern scientific and clinical evidence to show the art and science of parenting from pre-conception through teen years.

The goals of aTLC goals are to help parents, families and communities rear and educate healthy, happy and creative children who participate fully in thriving, cooperative and non-violent communities. In the summer of 2001, after 6,000 hours of volunteer time by its board members, aTLC completed a groundbreaking consensus document, A Proclamation for Transforming the Lives of Children. aTLC launched into the world in December of 2001 at the bi-annual conference of The Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) in San Francicso. (To read this document and the accompanying Blueprint for Changes, visit aTLC. To learn more about APPPAH, another significant non-profit organization focused on birthing, visit their website at www.birthpsychology.com).

Suzanne started a small business for social change called Birthing the Future® in 1998. It's first work was the creation of the television-quality inspirational video, Giving Birth: Challenges & Choices. This video features 4 obstetricians, including Christiane Northrup (author of Women's Bodies: Women's Wisdom), a labor doula, an obstetric nurse, a nurse-midwife, a cesarean mother, and a young woman speaking about their experiences and the issues involved today in giving birth. It includes extraordinary live footage of a home birth with a professional couple in the 30s and a second birth in water. This video is now considered by many to be the first educational film on birth ever produced, and has been seen by hundreds of thousands of people world wide. Read what many professionals and parents have said about this extraordinary half-hour video.

In August of 1995, Suzanne Arms received the coveted Lamaze International "Lifetime Achievement Award" for her outstanding contributions on behalf of mothers, babies and families. Today Suzanne lives and works in the town of Bayfield, Colorado, on the Western slope of the Rocky Mountains in the Four Corners region that is considered by many Native Americans to be the center of the continent.

In august, 2004, Suzanne created the non-profit 501c3 organization in order to focus on the vital importance of mothers and babies during the primal period, from pre-conception to the first birthday. This unusual organization is intended to draw together men as well as women who are passionate about birthing, bonding and breastfeeding, who want to empower women and foster happy nurturing mothers and happy healthy babies. BTF, a membership organization, is creating inspired projects across North America and internationally. Its board members come from four continents. To express your passion see the Get Involved page.

Suzanne loves being a grandmother and playing and traveling with her daughter Molly and grandson Kinjah. Her favorite activities include spending time with friends, cooking and eating fine, wholesome food, reading novels and poetry, swaying in hammocks, riding ferry boats, taking long walks and bicycle rides and wandering in deep forests and by the edge of the sea. She does her best to attend to her own inner healing and growth. Suzanne takes pleasure in collaborating with friends on projects that are both visionary and practical. She maintains a passionate interest in learning and exploring realms of consciousness.

Suzanne today spends her time researching and reflecting upon ancient teachings and current knowledge in birthing. She is an involved member of the board of aTLC, and teaches, consults, writes, photographs and produces films about the birth and the nature of the feminine. She is beginning with (with Los Angeles co-producer Christopher Carson of Reverie Production www.ReverieFilms.com) a television special intended for prime time broadcast on public TV called 100 Years of Birth. European and other international versions are being planned and she hopes to follow this with 100 Years of Babies and 100 Years of Parenting.

Her interests cover a broad range of social issues, from ecology to community-building, from healing to spirituality. Yet her focus remains on birth, which she views as a continuum that begins before conception and continues well into the postpartum year. For during this entire period the mother and pre-nate and baby are a symbiotic pair, their development is intertwined, and their relationship sets the foundation and patterns for all other relationships in society. As Suzanne says:

"Birth is a paradox. During our life's journey, from conception to death, a woman and her child are forever connected and always responding and adapting to the primal experiences they have had separately and together. And their lives are also connected to and affected by the generations of mothers who walked this earth before them.

Every mother and baby are a profoundly sensitive pair, who are affected not only by each experience that they have, but also by the experiences of the other. And the baby experiences the entire world through the filter of its mother. Their relationship forms the foundation for all cultures.

Each of us who comes in contact with a pregnant, birthing or postpartum woman or baby has the ability to enhance or diminish their lives. Thus we each have a special responsibility toward every childbearing woman and baby."

source: www.birthingthefuture.com

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