March 8th, 2010

Hospitals not “equipped” for VBAC

Since the NIH VBAC Conference is starting today, I wanted to touch on this subject. We often head hospitals with active VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean) bans in place use the excuse that they are not “equipped” for an emergency that could come from a VBAC in the case of something like a uterine rupture, etc. I have pondered about this thought over and over, and realized that if these hospitals are truly not equipped for an emergency that would or could come from a VBAC, then maybe they should not be operating a Labor & Delivery unit…. period.

Emergency situations can happen in any kind of childbirth, previous cesarean or not, and there have even been cases of uterine rupture without any type of a previous cesarean section. So because of this I feel as though this excuse on many levels is simply that, and excuse.

Why not just come out and say we are

• lazy
• scared of getting sued
• misogynistic
• anti reproductive choices

We don’t want women to use their own vagina to birth their babies, we want the big bucks from the repeat cesareans!

Here’s to hoping NIH’s VBAC conference will help turning around all the National VBAC Ban’s and help the VBAC rate rise again!