Donation to ICAN

For the month of April I pledged to donate 10% of my total sales to ICAN.  For those of you unfamiliar with ICAN it is the International Cesarean Awareness Network and a non profit that is very near and dear to my heart.  ICAN's mission is to improve maternal-child health by preventing unnecessary cesareans through education, providing support for cesarean recovery and promoting vaginal birth after cesarean.  There are over 150 ICAN Chapters across North America and internationally, which hold educational and support meetings for people interested in cesarean prevention and recovery.

ICAN has been a very big part of my life over the past years, and since a lot of us have had or will have children (I know most of you are women, hehe) I think it is important to all be aware of the growing cesarean rate (one out of three births in the US will be via major abdominal surgery) and it's implications on the health and safety of our women and children.  Really, you should all find your local chapter and check out a meeting!  Not only will you likely learn something, but I bet you will meet some pretty awesome people too!  A very brief history of myself with ICAN and then I will get on to how much money we raised for this awesome non profit!  

My first child was my little stinker and she was persistently in a modified footling breech position.  I was young and uneducated and didn't really know what to do to try to get her into a more appropriate birthing position...so I regretfully showed up for my major abdominal surgery.  It should have been a very joyous day in my life but I was scared, actually quite petrified and felt completely alone in my feelings.  I knew when I was pregnant with my second child that a repeat of this experience was NOT something I wanted.  So I read and read and took a natural childbirth class, hired a doula...did everything I thought I could within my current comfort zone (and my husband's) to insure that I would NOT be having another cesarean.  My  second child, my first son, was born after 55 plus hours of natural labor in the hospital.  A VBAC.  When I became surprisingly pregnant with my third I knew I was not meant to be a hospital birther.  It was just not for me.  The first 50 hours plus of labor that I did at home was glorious...but once I got to the hospital it was all quite horrendous for me.  So, we planned a homebirth.  My second son was born at 41.5 weeks in my living room, an HBAC, at a few minutes shy of 24 hours of labor, less than 5 minutes of pushing.  His brother and sister, my husband, my baby sister and my very good friend and doula were all there to welcome him on his day of birth.  

So enough about me...I'm sure you are all super bored by now!!!  On to the good stuff!!!  I was able to raise $75 for ICAN.  Since no one stated where they wanted the money to go, I have chosen to send the $75 to ICAN Lincoln, the chapter that I started after the birth of my second baby.   So, the money will be on it's way soon!  Thank you again to everyone who placed orders during the month of April.  I'm sad that I had to put my shop on vacation half way through the month, as I would have loved to raise more money...but I was SWAMPED!  Love you all and thank you so much for supporting my business and helping me raise money for a very important organization!

<3 Kristen