Birth Matters Virginia announces a birth video contest!

* 1st place prize: $1000 * 2nd place prize: $500 * Honorable Mention: $100 * Deadline for Entry is 11:59pm on Mother’s Day, May 10, 2009*

As the national rate of c-sections surpasses 30%, it is more important than ever for women and their partners to be educated about the options they have during pregnancy and birth. Our organization works to improve the culture of birth in Virginia by promoting an evidence-based model of maternity care and supporting care providers who practice mother and baby-friendly care.

A series of feature length films (starting with the Business of Being Born). have inspired women to make decisions about their maternity care as carefully as they make other consumer decisions. Demand for evidence-based models of care is rising, and there is hope that we can turn the tide of medically unnecessary surgeries and interventions, saving them for when they are truly needed for the safety of the mother or baby.

As a step toward our goal of educating women about their choices and options, we are soliciting short videos about evidence-based maternity and delivery care. We want videos that will appeal to and inspire new audiences that may not have previously been exposed to any model of childbirth other than the version we see on television and in movies: dangerous, uncertain, excruciating, and usually in need of extensive and often emergency medical interventions. Birth doesn’t have to be this scary, and people need good information in order to make good choices.

See more details and contest rules here

See the Facebook page here