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Back issues of Birth Issues are available here.  Birth Issues is published quarterly, mailed directly to ASAC members, and distributed to many locations around northern Alberta.  In Edmonton, Birth Issues can be found at National Distribution stands in grocery stores and drug stores throughout Edmonton and surrounding communities, parents' places, children's clothing, toy stores, libraries, etc. for several weeks following publication.

WHAT IS BIRTH ISSUES

Birth Issues is a magazine published by the Association for Safe Alternatives for Childbirth (ASAC). It is 60-72 pages of information on pregnancy, childbirth, parenting, breastfeeding, related health issues, birth stories, informational articles, prenatal education, as well as local and international birthing news. Birth Issues is run by ASAC volunteers who are passionate about childbirth, community education, and building bridges. It is professionally designed and is published every season.

The birth of Birth Issues

(This section was adapted from a longer article published in the Summer 2009 Birth Issues called “Multiplying alternatives: ASAC and the development of midwifery in Alberta 1979-2009” by Cherilyn Michaels.)

The birth of Birth Issues is inextricably tied with the birth of ASAC and the desire of families to have home births. In December 1980 the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta ruled that no Alberta doctor was permitted to attend home births without obstetrical admitting privileges. This effectively eliminated the possibility of physician attended home birth as an option for all Alberta families.

Midwives were not part the debate at the time because there were so few of them and because they weren’t part of the Health Care system. That meant that they did not have any hospital privileges, they had no access to medications and could not order lab tests. They usually assisted doctors during home births or supported motivated families in rural communities.

This was the context in which the newly formed Association for Safe Alternatives in Childbirth (ASAC) was defining itself as an organization. In January 1981 the major purpose of ASAC became education; educating families regarding childbirth alternatives so that doctors could again attend births at home. For this purpose ASAC created a member-only newsletter to train its members to debate and argue the case for home birth so that they could educate others about it. There were study questions in the newsletter, along with photocopied articles in which relevant information could be found.

By June 1981, the original ASAC newsletter had evolved into the ASAC News, still a member-only newsletter, but with a strong educational component. Issues in the early years contained informational articles on topics such as breastfeeding, episiotomies, vaginal deliveries after caesareans, comparisons of obstetric care at home and in hospital, immunizations, circumcision, midwifery care, postpartum sexuality, ultrasound, and birth control; on the whole content that would be entirely at home in Birth Issues today. It's easy to forget, though, how much more difficult it was to obtain good information on many of these topics at that time, before the advent of the internet, and thus what an important role ASAC publications played in disseminating information to the membership, and later on to many others.

In the summer of 1983, ASAC began to publish ASAC News every 2 months in a newsprint format, in order to attract advertisers and reach a larger audience. The distribution was increased from 250 to 1000, representing the first time ASAC had attempted to produce a publication primarily for the general public. Birth stories were included in ASAC News for the first time: the first two stories, contributed by Wendy Antoniuk and Heather Brown, reported a positive hospital birth experience and a positive home birth experience, starting a tradition of depiction of a variety of safe choices in childbirth that continues to this day.

Later that year, ASAC and its sister organization, the Calgary Association of Parents and Professionals for Safe Alternatives in Childbirth (CAPSAC) merged their publications to form Birth Issues, and the province-wide circulation increased to 3000 by 1984.

One aspect of Birth Issues content that was very much in evidence in the early years was the presence of statistics on home birth outcomes reported by local midwives. For example, the "Domiciliary Midwifery Report" published the July 1984 issue of Birth Issues includes a complete report on births attended by midwives from 1980 to 1983. It supplied detailed information about outcomes, such as length of gestation, apgars, transfers, presence of meconium, episiotomies, cord wrap, and much more. This kind of information was an excellent resource for evaluating the safety of midwife-attended home births.

In the following years, Birth Issues underwent several other transformations: back to a newsletter format, complete with fancy Mac fonts (remember those?) and later to its current newsprint magazine format. In 1996, ASAC and CAPSAC decided to once again run independent publications. ASAC kept Birth Issues, and CAPSAC started publishing Birthing. By 1997, Birth Issues had a circulation of 5000, which was doubled to 10,000 in 1998, and is presently 11,500.

By the way, doctors in Alberta can again attend home births, if they have a sanctioned 2nd attendant. To our knowledge, no doctor attends home births in Alberta today. If they do, let us know at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Birth Issues Readers

parents, prospective families, young families
people who explore pregnancy, birth and childcare issues thoroughly
people with midwives as well as doctors
people who give birth at home and at the hospital
people who experienced a cesarean section
people who take responsibility for their care
people who may have been previously traumatized by childbirth
people who have a positive vision of birth

Birth Issues Distribution

Birth Issues is mailed for free to women who are pregnant or have recently given birth (new ASAC members)
Birth Issues is published every 3 months (Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall)
11,500 copies of Birth Issues are distributed 
You can pick one up for free at National Distribution stands in grocery stores and drug stores throughout Edmonton and surrounding communities, parents' places, children's clothing, toy stores, libraries, etc.
A number of professionals distribute them for free or have them available in their clinics or classes such as:
·      midwives, doctors, nurses

·      lactation consultants, acupuncturists, chiropractors, physiotherapists, massage therapists, doulas, and yoga instructors

·      prenatal and postnatal instructors

·      breastfeeding support groups such as La Leche League

·      vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) support groups such as the Edmonton VBAC support association

·      teachers and researchers

You can find copies of Birth Issues on the ASAC website
Your ASAC membership comes with a subscription to Birth Issues