We are delighted and honored that Good Vibrations selected Our Bodies Ourselves as one of  four nonprofit organizations it’s promoting during the months of February and March. That means shoppers can select OBOS during checkout online and in stores and make a donation that goes entirely to the organization.

We’re in excellent company! From the Good Vibrations press release:

Good Vibrations, the trusted San Francisco-based company that takes pride in providing accurate information on sexuality and toys for grown-ups, is delighted to announce a new partnership with four regional non-profits as part of their corporate giving initiative, GiVe. Beneficiary organizations are La Casa de las Madres of San Francisco, AIDS Project of the East Bay in Berkeley, ACCESS Women’s Health Justice in Oakland, and Our Bodies Ourselves in Boston.

From February 1st to March 31st, Good Vibrations’ customers can support these regional nonprofits in Good Vibrations retail locations: San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, Boston and online. Shoppers can make a financial gift at the time of their Good Vibrations purchase and 100% of your contribution goes to the nonprofit of your choice. [...]

Staff Sexologist Dr. Carol Queen says, “With people celebrating romance and connectedness during Valentine’s Day, we invite them to experience the pleasure of generosity to these worthwhile organizations that support people through some of the more difficult aspects of relationships and sexuality. We are honored to be able to bring the GiVe program to this remarkable group of non-profits.

And if you’re in the Boston area, you can join Dr. Queen and OBOS’s Judy Norsigian this Sunday, Feb. 12, at a special pre-Valentine’s Day Mixer and Info Tour at Good Vibrations in Brookline!

It’s a free event, and you’ll enjoy a light reception and store tour led by Dr. Queen. This is a great opportunity to learn everything you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask.

Pease RSVP (anne AT bwhbc.org or call 617-245-0200) so we can provide Good Vibrations with an accurate number for refreshments. Here are the details:

Sunday, Feb. 12, 3 – 5 p.m.
Good Vibrations Brookline Store
308A Harvard Street Brookline, MA

Hope to see you there! If you can’t make it, stop in at a Good Vibrations store or shop online through March 31!

From the program description:

This is an action and solution-oriented leadership development event designed to reduce health disparities, improve breastfeeding rates and build capacity in the Southeast region of the United States. Our goal is to increase the number of midwives, doulas and healers so they can empower families…Midwives, doulas, birth workers, community members and all those committed to reducing health inequities in the SE region will have the opportunity to collaborate with ideas and skills to create leaders and advocates in their communities to ensure improved birth outcomes.

The International Center for Traditional Childbearing organizes the summit, to be held in D’Iberville, MS on October 14-16 this year.

Relatedly, ICTM has a page up on the history of Black midwives, including a video series, “The Legacy of the Black Midwife.”

Patients Before Profits: What You Should Know About the FDA, Big Pharma, and Breast Cancer
June 21, 2011 10:00AM – 11:00 AM Pacific (1:00 pm – 2:00 PM Eastern)

Featuring Miriam Hidalgo, BCAction Volunteer Program Coordinator and Jane Zones, Medical Sociologist and Former BCAction Board Member

We will focus on how the competing interests of pharmaceutical companies and regulatory governmental bodies can fail to deliver safe and effective drugs that patients need. If you sign up, you will learn about power players at the FDA, the origins of the accelerated approval process, and more.

You will need to register online for this webinar and then will receive an email with instructions on how to join in on the 21st.

We really appreciate your support and hope you will invite your friends as well. Thank you!

The Harvard Crimson has a write-up of the event – great article except for the erroneous statement that OBOS has a staff of over 40 people. (We wish! There are 7 staff and 2 consultants — though we often feel like we’re doing the work of 40 .)

The Harvard panel is one of many events leading up to our 40th anniversary celebration this fall. On October 1, 2011, OBOS will host a celebratory symposium at the Tsai Performance Center, a lovely venue graciously donated by Boston University.

The event will bring together our global partners who are culturally adapting and transforming “Our Bodies, Ourselves” into different formats for use in their own countries. That same day, we will launch the new 9th U.S. edition of this groundbreaking publication.

If you are interested in supporting the symposium, we’d love to hear from you. We would also love to hear from anyone interested in hosting a house party to support the organization and these efforts.

We’ll have additional details posted later, but please save the date!

Northeastern LSRJ, LSRJ National, and Northeastern Law School present:

“Race, Rhetoric, and Reproductive Justice: How Current and Proposed Legislation Will Affect Communities of Color”

A Panel Discussion Featuring:

• Loretta Ross, National Coordinator of SisterSong
• Reverend Madison Shockley, Pilgrim United Church of Christ, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
• Tiloma Jayasinghe, Executive Director, Sakhi for South Asian Women
• Elizabeth Barajas – Roman, Director of Policy, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
• Priscilla Huang, Associate Policy Director, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum

When: Thursday April 7th, 2011, 6:30-8:00pm, followed by RECEPTION (those wishing to attend reception MUST attend Panel). Event will begin on time.
Where: Northeastern Law School, Dockser Hall Room 240, 65 Forsyth Street Boston MA, 02115

Co Sponsored by:
Northeastern Black Law Students Association, Northeastern Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, Northeastern Latin American Law Students Association, Northeastern South Asian Law Students Association, Northeastern Human Rights Caucus, Harvard LSRJ, Boston University LSRJ, Northeastern Feminist Student Organization, and the Northeastern Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department.

Reception after! Open to the public! Please FORWARD and distribute widely!

This important milestone will be accompanied by another.

In 2011, we will celebrate 40 years of activism and the organization’s evolution from a small US-based group to a vibrant international network of social change activists.

“…We never considered writing a book, but simply planned to gather health information, talk with one another about it, hear everyone’s ideas and experiences, and share what we had learned with others…”
~ Jane Pincus, Co-Founder and Co-Author, Our Bodies Ourselves

Our journey started in Boston in 1969. Twelve women came together to talk about their experiences with the medical profession and share knowledge about their bodies, sexuality, and relationships. They published their discussions as a stapled newsprint booklet called “Women and Their Bodies” that sold for 75 cents.

In the midst of the Civil Rights Movement and protests against the Vietnam War, this booklet – renamed “Our Bodies, Ourselves” in 1971 – suddenly placed women’s health and sexuality in a radically new political and social context. It was an instant success. There was no looking back.

Forty years on:
“Our Bodies, Ourselves” has influenced three generations of Americans. It has, according to historian Sandra Morgen, “changed the landscape of women’s healthcare in the United States and throughout the world.” Along with our other resources – “Our Bodies Ourselves Menopause” and “Our Bodies Ourselves Pregnancy and Birth” – and popular website and blog, we continue to provide trusted information and shape public attitudes and policy on the health and rights of women and girls.

Our dynamic Public Voice and Action Program brings a consumer perspective to debates in the media and community, so people are fully aware of the issues that affect their health and decision making. Our Latina Health Initiative develops resources and training materials, organizes outreach, and builds networks in the United States, Latin America, and Caribbean.

“[“Our Bodies, Ourselves”] lends itself to other languages and cultures. It really has no rival in this field”.
~ Sanlaap, Author of a Bangla resource based on “Our Bodies, Ourselves” for India and Bangladesh

Beyond the United States, “Our Bodies, Ourselves” is inspiring women worldwide to create health resources that speak to their cultural needs. As a result, materials based on the book are available in over 25 languages and different print, digital, and social interactive formats in every geographical region – Africa, Latin America, South and East Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

These resources draw on local knowledge and experience. They increase awareness, encourage self-care practices, build grassroots and institutional alliances, and help secure policies that take the needs of women and girls off the back burner – often in places where health information is hard to find, female sexual behavior heavily regulated, and the work of defending women’s human rights an uphill challenge.

“Instead of ‘importing’ western notions of… feminism, [Our Bodies Ourselves] is creating sustainable grassroots health and women’s rights projects [by] working in cooperation across the world.”
~ Women and Their Bodies, Author of Arabic and Hebrew resources based on “Our Bodies, Ourselves” for Israel, Palestinian Territories, and the Middle East

It is hard to overstate the courage these ground breaking projects demand. Our partners rely on each other to succeed. They also receive dedicated technical assistance and support from the Boston-based staff of the Our Bodies, Ourselves Global Initiative and have constant access to our products, networks, tools, and expertise. Together, we are the Our Bodies Ourselves Global Network. We exemplify the power of voices raised in action and movement building in the 21st century.

Looking ahead:
Our Bodies Ourselves – its staff, board, and founders – is proud of the organization’s history and ongoing role in building women’s collective strength and knowledge; and with more than 22 network partners, we are honored to support the tenacious and visionary women and men behind these transformative projects.

As we gather with friends and colleagues to celebrate our 40th anniversary, it is also the perfect time to recognize the organization’s transition from a women’s health group in the United States to an international coalition indispensible to the global movement for health equality and justice.

On October 1 2011, we are hosting a symposium and reception at the Tsai Performance Center in Boston, a space graciously donated for the occasion by Boston University. This event will be an opportunity to meet our partners and listen to their extraordinary journeys of claiming “Our Bodies Ourselves” to empower their own communities. It will also be an opportunity to celebrate a legacy and support the Global Our Bodies Ourselves Network in its tireless effort to effect change for millions of women and girls over the next 40 years.

We invite you to join us.

Interventions to Reduce Early Inductions:
My local (Nashville, TN) newspaper has an article today on early inductions without medical indication. The paper reports that local hospitals implemented a pilot program that asked doctors to check a form if they were inducing labor for nonmedical reasons; rates of babies delivered at 37 to 39 weeks’ gestation with no medical reason subsequently dropped from 9.8% to 4.8%.

The Health Beat Blog also explored issues of inductions (including early inductions) and cesareans in a blog post last month.

Save the Date: Orgasm, Inc:
I expect we’ll have more on this soon, but readers are invited to attend a preview screening of the film Orgasm, Inc. at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, MA on March 24. More event info is available on Facebook. The film focuses on the pharmaceutical industry’s attempts to produce and market Viagra-type drugs to women.

OBOS Stories: Submit Your Own!
Just a reminder that we are collecting readers’ stories of how OBOS has touched their lives, in conjunction with our 40th anniversary celebration. You can read the submitted stories on our blog, and submit your own here.

Related resources:

• 2011 State of AIDS in Black America report, Deciding Moment – released today by the Black AIDS Institute
• Increasing HIV/AIDS Awareness among Blacks/African Americans – from the CDC; there are links to statistics at the bottom of the page
• HIV/AIDS Basics – from AIDS.gov

The house party will benefit both Our Bodies Ourselves and the EQUAL Health Network. Our own Judy Norsigian will be on hand, as well EQUAL co-director Ellen Shaffer. The invitation promises a brief talk about the organizations’ current work, dim sum and chocolate, and a good time!

RSVP: equal@equalhealth.info [address of the party will be provided upon response]

If you are interested in hosting your own house party in support of Our Bodies Ourselves, please visit http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/about/houseparty.asp to learn more.