ICAN's response to ACOG and AABC

*For Immediate Release *

**

*ICAN's Response to ACOG AND AABC Statements on VBAC and Homebirth*

*Redondo Beach, CA, February 7, 2008:* The International Cesarean Awareness
Network (*www.ican-online.org*) would like to publicly condemn both the AABC
and the ACOG for their statements* this week that limit not only women's
choices in birth but imply that birth is a fashion rather than a safety
concern.

Since VBAC is the biological normal outcome of a pregnancy after cesarean,
ICAN encourages women to get all of the facts about vaginal birth and
elective cesarean before making a choice. This decision should not include
weighing the choices of your doctor's malpractice payments but only be a
concern of the mother and her support system.

Since some mothers will make the choice to give birth outside of the
hospital, we encourage the AABC to not cave into ACOG's demands that all
women give birth in a hospital facility with a surgical specialist, but
instead allow women to make their own choices about care providers, birth
settings and risk factors. ICAN respects the intelligence of modern women
and accepts that the amount of information available about VBAC and elective
cesarean should serve as informed consent.

ICAN further encourages the governments of individual states to look closely
at their cesarean rates (31.1% national cesarean rate as of 2006) and the
informed consent laws that apply and help women to reach a standard of care
that lowers the risks of major surgery and the risks of elective or coerced
induction without medical indication. Women and children should not bear the
brunt of malpractice risks being conveyed into physical, mental, emotional
and spiritual health risks in order to protect their physicians.

*Mission statement: ICAN is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to
improve maternal-child health by preventing unnecessary cesareans through
education, providing support for cesarean recovery and promoting vaginal
birth after cesarean. There are more than 94 ICAN Chapters across North
America, which hold educational and support meetings for people interested
in cesarean prevention and recovery.*

* AABC statement: *
http://www.birthcenters.org/files/file.php?id=2&file=file&file_type=file_type
*

ACOG statement: *
http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr02-06-08-2.cfm*

Have a Happy Labor

See? Labor can be fun!

9cm, (as yet) unmedicated, approximately 40th hour of labor
This was a planned homebirth (after cesarean), turned hospital transfer because we just couldn't get the little guy to come out! He was in a very bad position and neither he, nor my midwife, nor I could fix it. Something about that drive to the hospital though, for what everyone assumed would be a repeat-C, got him squared away. The thought of that knife again just scared my little man right out of me!

Obstetrician Proposition

Hey Doc. I have a proposition for you. You say that birth is dangerous and needs you to save the mothers and babies. You say birth is a medical event which requires a hospital. Many of you believe that birth "from below" (vaginal) is old-fashioned and that birth "from above" (abdominal) is superior.

Why did you decide to become a doctor? Why a doctor who "delivers" babies? I know that none of you would admit it's for the money. I'm sure your answer is something like "I want to help women and babies". That is admirable. But what if (humor me here), just what if it could be proven to you... and to the world, really... that you aren't helping mothers OR babies? What if your famous Hippocratic oath is making you hypocrites? You vow that you will "do no harm". Does that really mean you will "do no harm" to your bank account? Your practice? Your staff? Or are you honestly, truly, unabashedly committed to doing no harm to mothers and babies?

Now, my proposition:

The cesarean rate in the United States is horrific. According to the WHOs standards, at least half (if not more) of the sections in this country are unnecessary. Also, our infant mortality rate is shameful. Of all developed countries the United States has the second highest infant mortality rate, and more and more mothers are dying in childbirth as well.

In some countries, such as Sweden, the standard of maternity care is a midwife. Every woman sees a midwife for maternity care unless and until her pregnancy or labor becomes a threat, danger, or emergency to the life of the mother or baby. *GASP*, you say? How can they do something so DANGEROUS you say? Well, if a section rate of 15.4% (Peristat) and an infant mortality rate of 3 per 1,000 live births (Globalis) is dangerous... then let danger be my middle name!

If you truly have the best interests of mothers and babies in mind, then give up your fear-mongering, money-hungry death grip on maternity care in the United States. Afterall, there will still be a need for you. It's just that you will only see the mothers who truly NEED to see you. Aren't those the mothers you really want to help, anyway? Why not try it? Do your little studies. Give it, say, ten years. Five, even.

If the IMR and section rates remain the same, or get worse, I will gladly stand corrected, and you can again take your place on the Obstetric Throne.

The Wound That Can't Be Stitched

An OB cut my abdomen and now every year around this time I feel the need to spill my guts. This post is probably going to get (verbally) violent. In real life I'm a very nice young mother who loves her husband and her children dearly. Please know that today, however, I am speaking from my scar.


If you've noticed my counter box to the right then you know that my daughter's third birthday and the third anniversary of my section-surgery is just ten days away. Do you know that I haven't even cried about my section yet? Not once. I teared up a little while telling my "birth" history to my midwife, but that's about it. I WANT TO CRY! Desperately.

As my doula was driving me to the hospital to get cut she told me that everything was going to be fine. I told her I wasn't scared about the baby dying, I was scared that I was going to die. I didn't cry then. I didn't cry as I waddled under the blood-red EMERGENCY ROOM sign, or as I was handed a Property of Baptist Hospital gown and sent to the bathroom to change. When nobody could adequately explain to me exactly why it was that I was going to be cut, and as everyone stood around the hospital bed staring at the beeping machine I was attached to, and as my husband just STOOD there as I was wheeled past him down that ammonia-mopped floor. I didn't cry. When I was in that room with the metal table, needles, machines, masks and knives I didn't even cry. A needle in my arm, didn't cry. A needle in my spine, didn't cry. A pinch to see if I was numb, didn't cry. My arms tied down, a drape over my chest, not being able to feel myself breathe, I didn't cry.

The surgeon didn't even talk to me. I could have been a dead cow on that butcher block for all she cared. Maybe it's because I didn't cry. Maybe if I'd have cried she would have realized I was actually a real, live person with feelings and she was about to cut into me and leave a wound that she would be forever blind to and that would never heal. Maybe...

Then afterwards the morphine made me outwardly giddy and so no one knew that inside I was numb and horrified and dead. You're not allowed to have morphine forever so the next day I was weaned from the poison and given little white pills that were supposed to help. You have a new baby and white pills and sterile sheets so everything is wonderful and you should be so grateful. I didn't cry then because it physically hurt to cry. I was afraid that if I cried my stitches would burst open and I'd bleed all over the pretty white sheets, and everyone would know that I hadn't been a good little girl.

So I was a good little girl, took the pills, didn't complain and healed "nicely". I have a cute little scar to prove it. In the following weeks as I battled to nurse my baby and my scar I was too weak, weary and depressed to cry. The fear of my incision ripping open haunted me for well over a year.

Now here I am. It's January 2, 2008 and nearly three years after my section-surgery. I haven't "gotten over it", nor will I ever. I think that's fine and I don't believe it's unhealthy. I have since had a few birthdays (taking me to my mid-twenties and then a smidge beyond) and a vbac. While I didn't choose to have my son to help me heal from my section-surgery, I did wholeheartedly believe that it would. It didn't. It was a pretty good birth (though it was a planned homebirth turned hospital transfer) and I felt absolutely wonderful afterwards. With my section, I didn't know what birth was supposed to be and how fun it could be. All I knew was that I was robbed of something and that both my baby and I suffered because of it. After my vbac I saw what birth was supposed to be like. It made me mad! So, my daughter and I were robbed of THIS?! I was angry, outraged, shocked, sad. . . but I still couldn't cry.

I know those tears are inside of me. I feel them every day. They burn and they ache. I'm afraid that if I begin crying, I won't be able to stop. Because my pain is never going to go completely away, so why should my tears?

Top 5 Most Underreported Birth Stories of 2007

Following the lead of Time.com’s “Top 10 Most Underreported Stories of 2007” I thought we could take a look at our country’s top 5 most underreported birth stories of 2007. So, here it is:

Top 5 Most Underreported Birth Stories of 2007

A year-end review brought to you by www.nowombpods.blogspot.com

5. An Orlando mother goes into hospital to give birth and leaves without her arms or legs.

(http://www.wftv.com/news/6253589/detail.html)

The birth for this mother was smooth. It’s what happened afterwards that left her unable to hold or care for her newborn. Claudia Mejia went into a hospital to give birth but when she left the hospital, her arms and legs stayed behind. She is now a quadruple amputee and the hospital refuses to tell her why. She was told she had streptococcus and toxic shock syndrome but the hospital will not tell her how she contracted them. It is unlikely Ms. Mejia would have contracted the illnesses had her baby been born at home.

4. A Florida woman dies following induction of labor.

(http://www.sptimes.com/2007/05/19/news_pf/Tampabay/Why_she_died_a_puzzle.shtml)

Caroline Wiren was a young, healthy mother who was excited by the upcoming birth of her child. She touched his head, told her mother to tell the baby that she loved him, and then she was gone. Mrs. Wiren had her labor induced just seven days past her baby’s due date, even though it is common for a woman’s first child to be born as much as two weeks after the given due date.

According to http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/Pregnancy/dh/4334, one possible complication of induction of labor is amniotic-fluid embolism, which can lead to death.

3. 3. Two New Jersey women die just days apart following their cesarean surgeries.

http://www.nownj.org/njnews/2007/0518%20Moms%20decry%20high%20N.J.%20C-section%20rate.htm

Two young, healthy mothers entered a hospital in New Jersey to give birth to their babies. Both had cesareans and both were dead within days. The mothers leave behind two beautiful, absolutely healthy baby girls. This raises the question: then why the surgery?

2. The most updated birth data from the CDC shows that the cesarean rate in the United States has risen to 31.1%.

(http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_07.pdf)

This latest number (from 2006) represents a 10.4% increase from ten years ago, and a 3% increase from the previous year. The report also indicates that the percentage of low birthweight babies and preterm babies is on the rise. Consumer Reports names the cesarean as one of the 10 most overused tests and treatments (http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/health-fitness/health-care/medical-ripoffs-11-07/10-overused-tests-and-treatments/medical-ripoffs-ten-over_1.htm).

For more information on cesarean awareness and prevention, please visit www.ican-online.org

1. United States ranks among lowest of developed nations in terms of newborn death rates. (http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parenting/05/08/mothers.index/index.html)

According to Save the Children researchers, infants in the United States are more than three times as likely to die within their first 24 hours as infants in born in Japan. The United States has the second highest IMR (infant mortality rate) in the developed world. Latvia is the only developed country with a higher IMR than the U.S.

New Year's Resolution #1

from www.cowgoddess.com

How Dare You?

How Dare You?

by vbacwarrior

You said to me:

You're putting the life of yourself, of your child at risk—
How dare you?
What if he dies what if you choke what if they slip—
How dare you?
A selfish thought, and childish to birth at home—
How dare you?
To take responsibility for this child as if he was your own—
How dare you?
And oh by the way, you hate that they cut you?—
How dare you?
So you share with me thinking I'll care what they do—
How dare you?

What I heard you say:

You know what you're doing; you know that you're right—
I'm scared of you
You protect your baby and you're prepared to fight—
I'm scared of you
I'd rather not feel it, wake me up when they're through—
I'm scared of you
You really know so much more than I do—
I'm scared of you
If I sign my name on this paper here, they say—
I'm scared of you
Baby's fine, I'll be safe, I give my responsibility away—
I'm scared of you

What do you want from me? What am I supposed to do?
If you want me to say I'm wrong, or scared, or weak, or okay—
How…dare…you?

To learn more about cesarean prevention, please visit www.ican-online.org

To Ignore Someone Like Me

To learn more about cesarean prevention, please visit www.ican-online.org

Breathtaking Film Trailer

I just wanted to share this absolutely breathtaking film trailer.

http://www.birthasweknowit.com/theatrical_trailer.html

To learn more about cesarean prevention, please visit www.ican-online.org