WW Survey

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Here's a thought:

While we were discussing getting someone like Oprah interested in this project, some one had mention doing a study.

What if we created our own study and interviewed women in our locals, and compiled this info? This has been rattling around in my head for a while now and I think it a good idea.
My DH also thinks that in order to get anyone's attention such as thru twitter, that we should ALL be sending the same message to the same people and bug the hell out of em. (would that be spamming?)

We need to start really making some noise ladies.

Back to the survey, what do we need to know

1.Age:
2. # of Vaginal Births:
3. race
mmmm n(cat)

4. degree of symptoms (mild) (moderate) (severe)
5. have you had vaginal surgery ie Hystorectomy?
6. how long post surgery?
7. When did you first notice your symptoms?
8. If provided with an alternative to surgery, would you pursue this route?

All of this could be done up on WW letterhead, and be completely anonymous. Just hand out the questionare and if they want to partake they can.

What questions do you think would be valuable to help proving this method of treatment/selfhelp?

Can't wait to here your thoughts on this!

(thinking)

Pro12 ;-)

Hi prolapse 2012,
I really agree with you. In the UK at least, the powers that be don't take much notice of anecdotal evidence. A lot of credence is given to evidence based research in the UK at least. At some point the WW community need to find ways of researching and compiling evidence which shows that the WW is safe and effective.

Thank you for getting this ball rolling. Re the survey, I think it would be helpful to have a clear idea of what the aim of the survey was. This would affect how it was designed.

I think the questionairre would need to show that women have improved and benefitted from the WW approach. 1 idea is some kind of 'before' and 'after' evidence. At some point, not necessarily in this survey, it would be helpful to have a control group, ie compare women who have mainstream treatment and women who have WW treatment. - and have outcome measures.

I think it would be great to have conduct a survey and research. As well as being useful to show others, it would be really helpful for us too.

Great stuff!
xwholewomanuk

Yet again for your enthusiasm and willingness to do good works for WW. What you are trying to do is huge.

WholewomanUK, I am certainly not against evidence based assertions but I must say evidence based research is a long way from 2012's original suggestion to attempt to attract a celebrity to promote wholewoman. We, I think have already realized that we need a multi-strategy even if our first strategy to gain the attention of a celebrity should prove successful.

Kylie Minogue is the Australian celebrity who is known here to have encouraged women to have their breasts checked for cancer. This was easy for there was a government policy put in place called BreastScreen which provided free screening on mobile trucks which traveled the country and targeted a different age group of women on a progressive basis. Women received invitations and those who didn’t could still present themselves.

If we were fortunate enough for a celebrity to take up the prolapse challenge, where do women go to have done what needs to be done? Accessibility to Christine is limited geographically, as it is to her few accredited teachers, not everyone can learn out of the ‘Saving the Wholewoman’ book or even the exercise DVDs, otherwise there is international access to the WW site and the forum.

For the young woman postpartum much healing will as a rule happen over a few months. For older menopausal and post menopausal women a two year posture, breathing, dieting and exercise program is no mean ambition. Neither of these examples can be compared to a quick half-hour test as in the breast screening mobile.

Living with prolapse involves other issues; sex and everyday living habits and toileting techniques to mention a few and these can’t necessarily be proscriptive: no one size fits all.

So that is my first question: If a celebrity alerts the American public to an alternative to surgery for prolapse where do the women with prolapse go?

This is all to say that having a celebrity promoting a certain message is just one strategy. What allied strategies do we then need to put in place?

Another celebrity you may be familiar with is the English cook, Jamie Oliver. He was able to do what government public health nutritionists were unable to do i.e. gain government support in establishing healthy school lunches, a foundation to promote healthy cooking and even won over a few corporates.

There is a lot to be gained from attracting a celebrity, but we need to be ready for them.

As to the research aspect: I just have moral objections where there is talk about control groups where women are denied information about WW and are allowed to have operations we believe to be dangerous and sometimes unnecessary and another group of women who are offered neither.

best wishes Fab