PUNAHELE MISSION STATEMENT
click here for Spanish translation

Civilization is at a turning point. We are a community of parents, childbirth educators, youth, scientists, physicians, researchers, midwives, doulas, elders, psychologists, attorneys, and concerned individuals who gathered in March 2005 on the Big Island of Hawaii because of our common concern for all children, present and future. It is our intention and commitment to heighten awareness and inspire others to join us in taking action to better the health of our earth and all her children.

We recognize that:

Widely used synthetic chemicals, environmental contaminants, and interferences with the normal, natural processes of pregnancy, birthing, and caring for babies have been widely proven to permanently and negatively alter the optimal development of the world’s children. Identifying these toxic substances and damaging interventions is crucial. Halting their use is imperative.

In the service of these goals:

We collectively endorse a public outcry, and the initiation, at all levels of society, of the actions listed below.

1. Educate parents and physicians about the unnecessary pain, suffering, and lifelong consequences of harmful hospital interventions that have become routine. These include premature severing of the umbilical cord, separation of mother and baby during the crucial bonding period, and the unjustified practice of circumcision.
2. Compile and broadly distribute information about synthetic chemicals that confuse and interfere with normal hormonal responses (endocrine disruptors). The listing will include where these chemicals are found in the environment, indicate how to avoid them, and provide resources to detoxify from them.
3. Publish and broadly distribute information about the benefits of midwifery, doula participation, home birth, and natural birthing centers on pregnancy, labor, and delivery.
4. Compile and broadly distribute comprehensive information to support healthy conception, pregnancy and birth, which are free from nonessential pharmaceuticals.
5. Develop and mainstream an educational program that emphasizes empowerment and provides a thorough comprehension of sexuality, prenatal life, and the immediate postnatal bonding period.
6. Actively encourage a Child Protection Act to regulate products that threaten reproductive health and the health of fetuses, newborn babies, and children.
7. Create support groups for the nurses, doctors, midwives, and other healthcare professionals who take risks to secure the objectives put forth in this document.
8. Facilitate an ongoing, interactive working relationship between the environmental community, the birth-advocacy community, and other likeminded organizations that serve these objectives.
9. Create a resource bank that encourages the adult repatterning of prenatal and birth trauma.
10. Produce documentation of the findings of the PUNAHELE Gathering and Summit in March 2005 and facilitate broad dissemination of this material so that parents, professionals, caregivers, and educators have access to this information.

Finalized 4/26/05 by the PUNAHELE Mission Statement Committee on behalf of the presenters and participants in the PUNAHELE Gathering and Summit on the Big Island of Hawaii, March 16-20, 2005.

Copyright © 2005 The Dom Project and the TARA Approach for the Resolution of Shock and Trauma