The AYC 2023 conference was four incredible days of powerful panel discussions and community dialogue around the very topical issues raised in the award-winning documentary, At Your Cervix. The speakers offered enlightening perspectives on so many important issues such as: reproductive justice & bodily autonomy, patient advocacy, the ethics of touch, Gynecological Teaching Associates and finally a comparison of care in the US and the UK and where we go from here!

The conference was so amazing that we are offering it as a recorded package for people to continue to learn about these important issues in their own time.

DO YOU WANT ACCESS?

 And if you’d like to support our legislative and medical advocacy work – you can choose to add a donation to your registration. Every dollar you donate is greatly appreciated and goes directly to our impact work. 

Opening Discussion: Why Is Medicine Just Catching Up? #MeToo

Featuring:

A’magine (Sexuality educator, GTA & Director/Producer of At Your Cervix)

Renée Bergan (Filmmaker, Activist, Co-Producer/Cinematographer/Editor of At Your Cervix)

Pamela Samuelson (Feminist Health Educator & Somatic Practitioner, Co-Founder School for Ethical Touch & Center for the Advancement of Body Literacy)

Emily Carson (Manual Therapist & Birth/Postpartum Educator, Co-Founder School for Ethical Touch)

Medical assault is far too common in healthcare and even within the larger scope of the #MeToo movement, conversations, it has never come to bear on the culture of medicine. At Your Cervix depicts a specific and common way that patient violation happens and the roots of these behaviors in the history of medicine. In this opening session, we will look at the particulars in healthcare that fuel this abusive dynamic and begin to talk about ways we can directly address and change the culture of healthcare. 

Our opening discussion will welcome all participants to the conference, let everyone know what to expect and give some guidance on self-care, and offer some framing of the issues in and beyond At Your Cervix. 

How To Be Your Own Best Advocate

Moderated by A’magine

Featuring:

Ari Silver-Isenstadt MD, (Pediatrician & Researcher)

Justice Gatson (Social Justice Doula, Activist, Organizer & Founder of the Reale JusticeNetwork)

Livia Fry (At Your Cervix Legislative Director)

People almost always ask immediately after seeing At Your Cervix, how do I make sure nothing unwanted happens if I am going in for surgery? 

It’s natural to think about your own experiences and wonder if something could have happened to you in the past and how to prevent it in the future. We don’t think it is the patient’s job, but the reality is that this is the system we are in, and learning to advocate for ourselves is critical to our wellbeing.

In this conversation, we will give you all the ways you can protect yourself and speak up for your boundaries and needs in your medical care. We want to help each other better advocate for ourselves in our own healthcare, and make it possible to support medical/nursing student learning (if that is on the table and you wish to), and simultaneously protect yourself from having anything happen without consent.

Join us for this useful, practical conversation about how to be your own best advocate.

Navigating Reproductive Justice & Bodily Autonomy

Moderated by A’magine

Featuring:

Jamani LaShawn (Full Spectrum BIPOC Doula)

Mandy Irby BSN, RNC-OB, C-EFM, LCCE (“The Birth Nurse,” Trauma-Informed Labor & Delivery Nurse Educator)

Jeff Koetje MD, (Director of Reproductive Health Project, American Medical Student Association)

Pati Garcia (Certified Professional Midwife & Somatic Educator)

Justice Gatson (Social Justice Doula, Activist, Organizer & Founder of the Reale JusticeNetwork)

We are seeing relentless attacks on abortion access, transgender youth, gender-affirming care, moms and pregnant folks. Our choices around birth are getting narrower. Trans youth are the new target. In these times of tremendous threats to reproductive justice and rights, and gender-affirming care, how do we protect our bodily autonomy? How do we embolden our advocacy for bodily autonomy and reproductive justice in this time? Let’s reimagine what a world that respects each and every person’s right to bodily autonomy and their own reproductive choices gets to look like.

The Ethics of Touch:
A panel discussion on power and consent in clinical care

Moderated by Emily Carson & Pamela Samuelson (School for Ethical Touch)

Featuring:

Dr. Jennifer Lang (OB-GYN & Author)

Mars Lord (Abuela Doulas, Birth Activist)

Erik Simon (Gynecological & Forensic Teaching Associate, Trans Health Education)

Pati Garcia (Certified Professional Midwife & Somatic Educator)

When we enter into a clinical setting, whether as a patient or as a provider, we step into a role with complex assumptions around power and authority. What are those assumptions, and do they serve the ultimate aim of care provision, which is to support the health and wellbeing of the patient? 

What is the place of consent in this setting, and why is it so different than in other professional care contexts? Who, in fact, are providers working for? 

In this discussion, we will be looking at the role of consent in patient/provider interactions, hashing out these questions and much more.

The Gynecological Teaching Associates (GTA):
What it’s like to work as a GYN educator using the body as a teaching tool

Moderated by A’magine

Featuring:

Robin Burdulis (NYC GTA Program Trainer, Coordinator & GTA)

Lynn Frederick-Hawley (Executive Director of Mount Sinai Sexual Assault & Violence Intervention Program (SAVI) & GTA)

Antonia Marrero (NYC GTA)

Jenny Rebecca McLaughlin (RN, BSN, CLC, Midwifery Student & GTA)

Stenmark (Trans GTA Educator)

The work Gynecological Teaching Associates (GTAs), or Professionals do is unusual. With a history that started in the 1970’s, the GTAs have revolutionized the way that medical and nursing students learn to perform pelvic exams. As simultaneous patient and instructor, the GTA holds a sacred and rich space of learning for students, sometimes as they touch and examine a body for the first time as a budding medical provider. We will explore what it is like to work as a GTA, why GTAs are called to do the work, what it has meant for us in our lives and why it is so very important for healthy medical education programs.

The Culture of Care:
A panel discussion on medical education and gynecological practice in the US and the UK

Moderated by Emily Carson & Pamela Samuelson (School for Ethical Touch)

Featuring:

Dr. Jennifer Lang (OB-GYN & Author)

Mars Lord (Abuela Doulas & Birth Activist)

Gabe Bradley (Certified Nurse Midwifery Student, UCSF)

Nicola Mahdiyyah Goodall (Founder Red Tent Doulas)

 At Your Cervix exposes the use of non-consensual pelvic exams as a long-standing aspect of medical education, a practice which is both a violation of the patient and an unequivocal demonstration to young providers-in-training that patient consent is unimportant. 

What are the similarities and differences in gynecological care provision in the UK and the US, under the conditions of two very different healthcare systems and medical cultures? How are the ethics of patient consent framed in each? How does medical training affect the way providers view their patients’ authority over their own bodies and the importance of consent across all contexts? What has changed in recent years, and what has yet to change?

Closing Discussion: Aftercare + Next Steps

Featuring:

A’magine (Sexuality educator, GTA & Director/Producer of At Your Cervix)

Pamela Samuelson (Feminist Health Educator & Somatic Practitioner, Co-Founder School for Ethical Touch & Center for the Advancement of Body Literacy)

Emily Carson (Manual Therapist & Birth/Postpartum Educator, Co-Founder School for Ethical Touch)

After four days of provocative conversations about consent, bodily autonomy, reproductive justice, medical education and the healthcare system – where do we go from here? 

What are next steps we can take to improve patient, student and provider experiences in medicine, envision real and lasting change, and work toward a more just medical system? 

On a personal level, what do we each need for self-care as we process this material for ourselves? What support do our communities need in order to work toward changing the culture?

We will make time post-recording for personal sharing and reflection for anyone who wishes to have that time with us. Whether you attended none, one or all of the talks, you are welcome to attend the closing session!