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116
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1991
Wendy Blumfield, founder of the Israel Childbirth Education Center, gives
pre-natal classes in her Haifa home.
Childbirth Education
At Israeli Center
SHELLEY KLEIMAN
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Happy New Year!
from the
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Special to The Jewish News
W
hen Wendy Blum-
field, a licensed
childbirth educator,
made aliyah from Great Bri-
tain in 1974, she assumed she
wouldn't find much to do in
Israel. "I took it for granted
that such a child-oriented
country would be highly
developed in the field of
childbirth education and pre-
and post-partum care," she
recalls. She assumed wrong.
Although up-to-date techno-
logically, Ms. Blumfield was
amazed at how far behind
Israel was in medical trends.
In the United States, Great
Britain and Canada, peer-
support childbirth education
classes were well-established,
men were encouraged to take
an active role in the birth pro-
cess, and most important,
women were working togeth-
er with the medical establish-
ment in making decisions
that would affect them and
their babies.
In Israel, Ms. Blumfield
still found men pacing in the
waiting rooms — a portrait of
a by-gone era — while women
could be heard screaming
hysterically from the delivery
rooms. The emphasis of the
few childbirth preparation
classes that were available
was on the medical aspects of
birthing. "The message was,
`come in and be a good girl
and everything will be all
right,' " says Ms.Blumfield.
Ms. Blumfield soon found
herself flooded with requests
for childbirth education
classes mostly from English-
speaking immigrants, and so
she began giving informal
classes in English. Recogniz-
ing a more serious need,
however, Ms. Blumfield decid-
ed to return to England and
become a certified tutor. Back
in Israel, she began training
future instructors.
What began as one woman's
modest attempts at education
turned into a network of
women who wanted to change
medical policies and even
more difficult, attitudes
among health-care profes-
sionals and even amongst the
expectant parents. This net-
work was the basis for the
Israel Childbirth Education
Center, a grassroots organiza-
tion founded by Ms. Blum-
field and other like-minded
immigrants.
A sister organization of the
National Childbirth Trust of
What began as one
woman's modest
attempts at
education turned
into a network of
women who
wanted to change
medical policies.
Great Britain, the ICEC was
founded in 1981 and trains
childbirth educators and
breast-feeding counselors.
"The ICEC does not look
upon birth as an isolated
medical phenomenon, but in
the context of a person's
whole life," says American-
born Shulamit Green, one of
the first instructors to be
trained by the ICEC, which
covers everything from pre-
natal nutrition to medical in-
tervention during pregnancy
and labor, infant care and
post-partum depression.
The ICEC actively cam-
paigns for changes in hospital
policies, and allowing
husbands in the delivery