Posts Tagged ‘conference’

August 11th, 2011

Cyber Bullying Isn’t Just For Teens

Cyber bullying… It is everywhere.

Facebook, blogs, twitter… anyplace you can imagine… it is there. But why?  People wouldn’t feel that this type of harassment is ok in day-to-day life, of course because most know it is illegal and they would most certainly face criminal charges.

But little do these bullies know… harassing someone online, and cyber bullying is also illegal and can be punished in various forms, and I didn’t even learn that until this past weekend after being in the blog world, and being harassed online for almost a decade.

It originally started when I was 17 by an ex boyfriend and his friends, and it seems like with the websites like Myspace, Facebook, and back then it was Livejournal… the harassment did nothing but grow. Between rude comments, false statements about me, rumors, and of course the typical fake profile imitating and mimicking me, it made the internet simply unpleasant. I took quite the vacation… in fact my apartment in North Carolina didn’t even have an internet connection for the first three months I was there…  Hard to believe right?

Once I moved back to Connecticut in the mid 2005ish time frame, I think it was actually fall that year I began to get back into the internet community, and nothing ever changed.

Since that time I have had to call the police, as well as FBI… no joke because most of the harassment I had experienced crossed state lines.  Just when I thought most stopped… it started up again with the same two people.  One local, one not… you have to wonder how anyone can think harassing behavior is acceptable. Ever.  Especially for mothers!

But this week I took the time to read the transcript from the cyber bullying session at BlogHer 11 in San Diego.  One of the sessions I was most interested in checking out. I am really glad that the transcripts were available this year as well. I was able to take a lot away from it…  a lot!

It is amazing the levels people will go to, but what is most amazing is that as time goes on and this is becoming more of a problem, police departments are finally starting t take the problem seriously and actually take criminal action against these people.  There are also lawyers out there who are starting to specialize in Defamation stemming from the internet.  HALLELUIAH!  Finally!   And you can bet your bottom dollar I have kept a file of all of my harassment encounters like the panel in the session suggests.

One of the amazing panel members Erin Vest, also known as The Queen of Spain said:

But you need to document everything, even if you don’t think it crosses the line. Document it. Keep it in a folder and when you get really uncomfortable, you take it to your local authorities. They may not be able to do anything about it, but they need to start a file, as Elisa said. You must start a file and you must have them at least document it.
And then when the day comes where they do cross a line in your state that is considered a threat, you already have this nice big documented folder at either your sheriff’s station or local police station and on your computer with all of your screen shots and everything else. They are ready to move on it. The detective has a little less work to do because in a way you have done it for him or her. So make sure you document absolutely everything.

If you could only see some of the files I have, it would make you wonder why people have nothing better to do!

The other panel member, Andrea Weckerle also included:

If you’re put in something called false light or appropriation of your identity, if somebody is assuming your identity, you can pursue a civil case.
There are pros and cons to taking that course of action. You have to find out how much it will cost you from a money perspective, from an emotional perspective. Things often get worse before they become better. But you do have legal recourse in a lot of cases. You just need to really, really become familiar with what your legal rights are.

Writers… KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!  Know what action you can take! And know that you do not have to tolerate people harassing you!

Audience member Patty Fitzgerald said:

One of the things that I find is that I really like how you said take it to the brick and mortar world. There seems to be a disconnect. We think of the real world and we think of online. It’s really just an extension and I do think that it’s important not to feed the troll but also to document all of that.

Another great point. This is not acceptable behavior in the real world, it shouldn’t be acceptable online… ever. One thing I have also noticed is with the new generation of middle schooler’s, and teens… they find if this behavior is acceptable online then it must be acceptable in school, home, or in their day-to-day lives.   It is not. And it is NOT!   We need to start to teach these children that they will be held accountable for their actions.

Long story short, even though I wasn’t able to physically go to BlogHer this year I was still able to take a ton away from it.  Thank you to the panel members for putting their time, and resources into this amazingly helpful session. I am also looking forward to reading through the other sessions that I haven’t had a chance to get to yet.  They are long, and I have three kids, and a job. LOL!

For those of you who went to the conference, any sessions you highly recommend?

They aren’t learning these behaviors from strangers either.  They are learning it from parents who have started the cycles.  Apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree right?

August 9th, 2010

BlogHer Wrap Up

First things first!  I want to thank all the amazing companies that helped me make my trip possible.  Lamaze, Kandoo, Go Mama Go Designs, and RJS Designs. Without all of you, I would not have been popular because I had swag, but I also would not have been able to afford to go.

I was able to give women Potty training wipes, coupons, and awesome Lamaze pregnancy skin care sets.  Total scores all around especially since I became the queen of swag before I left!  LOL  (I will get to that later in the post)

Friday I hooked up with Gina, Jill, Jenn, and a ton of bloggers I have talked to over the past year and really become friends with. Of course my luck I ended up continuing to run into this woman I had no interest in associating with. She blew me and my roommate off sticking us with $450 of charges for our hotel room. She made a commitment and backed out the day before the conference. Shitty if you ask me. Of course I ran into her at The People’s Party, the newbie breakfast, EVERYWHERE!  I finally hooked up with Gina at the breakfast and we hung out basically all day. The Expo hall sucked us in, and I totally missed the first session I wanted to go to on Friday.  We made rounds till lunch time then grabbed some lunch.

Then went back to the Expo hall, I think I entered for almost everything, but of course I knew I wouldn’t win. I never win anything. We also spent some time at the Ecco shoe’s suite and get pedicures, and of course I stopped by the Windows Suite.

We have had such bad luck in the past couple years that I was almost certain I would go home without all the swag everyone was telling me about before I left for BlogHer.  WRONG!  4 on Friday I headed up to my room to relax, and blog, which didn’t get done. About a half hour into my “relax” hour I got a phone call from a random number, it was the Playtex booth calling me to tell me I won a Flip Cam!  No way!   So I headed down to the Expo hall to pick it up and it was for real!  I won a flip cam!  Something I have wanted, but just couldn’t afford to dish out the $200 for!  Score!

I headed out to the Babble.com party as a plus one of Jenn, it was fun, different, and certainly something I didn’t expect, but we had some totally exciting news at the party…  Gina found out she was pregnant! For those of you who don’t know the back story of Gina & her husband… they have been trying to get pregnant since January.

I also went on a great tour of NYC with NYCityMama and won a huge basket of toys valued at $300 for the kids. Needless to say between all the toys that were given away, the basket, and swag… I got my Christmas shopping virtually finished.

Needless to say, it made for an exciting night. I hung out with my roommates, made some rounds in the hotel, and conference space, and went to bed. I knew I had a long day on Saturday.

I woke up Saturday morning to some crazy exciting news…
“Congrats to @birthbabiesblog on winning 2 Dell Inspiron 14R PCs. Stop by the #Win7BlogHer suite (4331) by 2pm EST to collect your prize!” – BenThePcGuy on twitter

Um… no shit? Really? No!  It couldn’t be!
So I strolled up to the 43rd floor to the Window’s suite, and of course, it was right. I had won not one but TWO Dell laptops!  I couldn’t believe it. I really still can’t believe it, and I am home, checked them out, and gave one to my rockin’ husband.  Our desktop died about 2 months ago, so it has made it hard for him to get online, and download music because that is what he does best.  So, now I was up to 2 laptops, a flip cam, the toy basket, and all the free stuff I got in the Expo hall which included toys for the kids.  I hit up two sessions, and decided to make one last lap around the Expo hall.

I stopped by the diapers.com booth… and won $100 gift card!  Woot!  So needless to say, it was super eventful.

I had a dinner that eventing provided by Tavern Direct, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. A great cause I plan on getting involved with once things calm down a little.

Saturday night was for SparkleCorn, CheeseburgHer, A Bloggy State of Mind… and every other party I could get into, or sneak into considering I made friends with the event staff, and the guys watching the door. Smart huh?  Oh and don’t forget the wine party I rocked in my room provided by The Wine Sisterhood!

Sunday morning I was on The Feminist Breeder & Friends radio show, then headed over to 11th ave, to pick up my Lincoln MKT press car for the week.  Score huh?  I can’t wait to share some more about that!  Stay Tuned!

So overall, BlogHer was amazing. I met SO many awesome women I look forward to following, linking, and getting to know better, including another Fire Fighter wife, a couple women from Connecticut, and some rather interesting women.

Huge success all around, and DH and I are already planning our trip to San Diego for next year’s BlogHer 2011!
Check out some of the pictures!

July 5th, 2010

Which BlogHer Sessions?

I am having one hell of a time deciding which sessions I want to go to when I am at BlogHer. Everyone said don’t plan on going to more than 2-3 sessions for the whole weekend because of the amount of other events, parties, and networking there is going on.

On Day one I am certainly planning to go to the opening, and breakfast, Welcome… But then I have the option of going off to one of seven sessions.

There are three sessions during this time period that really strike me as something I want to go to, and listen in on. I just need to figure out which would really benefit me the best. Originally I wanted to go with Feeding the Conversation : How to Build a Community around your Cause.  After thinking about it more, I seem to already really have a community of bloggers, readers, and those who follow me regarding the causes I am passionate about, and I know that over the next year I want to span out from more than just birth and pregnancy, which I did in two posts this past week, Poop Doesn’t Discriminate, and But… What Will I say?

I have to be true to the mom in me, and move in the direction that is calling me. I love the birth community, and I love writing and helping to educate, and I really feel like I am reaching more people than here on the Giving Birth with Confidence blog.
I am taking on a ton more reviews of products that may appeal to Moms, and housewives like myself. One being a Lincoln MKT later on this summer.

Then I saw it!  The session I need to attend!  Passions : ROYO : Generation Y Passionistas : Leaving Your 9-to-5 to persue your passion.  Perfect!  DH and I have been going back and forth about me going back to work, mostly to save my sanity in the long run. But between the kids, daycare costs, teaching, and finishing up my Lamaze Certification this year, there just isn’t anytime for me to go back to the good ol’ 9-to5 again.  But then I scrolled down the page a little more… Jobs Lab : Self Marketing : Resume and Social Networking Profile Writing Clinic… Which would benefit me more?
AHH!  Such the debate!
I am still leaning towards the Passions session, but what do you think?

It was easy for me to skip the sessions right after lunch because none of them really…. PULLED at me. So I am going to enjoy my lunch and head over to the sponsors hall and do some good old networking.

The 2:45-4:00 session has a couple that stand out to me, but I am not sure if they stand out enough to attend… I would love to learn more about photography. They have an awesome session in their Geeks Lab aimed to improve your pictures. It is really open to everyone, whether you have a digital SLR like me (I love my Nikon!!!) or just a regular old point and shoot camera.
The other session that I am interested in is about authentic blogging. TMI or just being real?  Where is the line.  I personally try not to share too much, I know I have some people out there that aren’t following my blog for reasons of interest rather than stalker-ish motives. But at this point, I am leaning more towards the geek lab.  What do you think?

Day two’s morning session doesn’t strike me much, but in the afternoon, I am interested in the Pitch Me session in late afternoon. Once I hit that up, it is back to my room to get ready to parrrrtay!

Thursday night you can look for me at The People’s Party, and then Saturday night you can catch me at SparkleCorn!  I am not sure if I am going to be able to get into any of the other parties that I am on the waiting list for, but we certainly will see.

Overall, I am really excited, and anxious to get to NYC for BlogHer. I can’t wait!  Only about 5 more weeks.

June 14th, 2010

10 Things I want to do Before BlogHer 2010

I am starting to get prepared for my trip to BlogHer which is now less than 2 months away. I feel like, compared to other bloggers I am totally last minute on getting things together. Although I am sure there are others out there way behind me. Actually I know that for a fact because in the past 24 hours, I have learned that two of my favorites are going to be attending.   Kristine and Emily, two ladies who I love to read, and do a ton of good in the Blogging community are going to be joining all the news faces I am excited to meet!

So what do I need to get done??? EEK!

1. Go clothes shopping for something to wear to all these parties!  Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights all have important adventures I certainly need to shine up like a new penny for. Plus it gives me the excuse to get dressed up when I rarely have the chance since motherhood.
2. Collect all my favorite Bloggers telephone numbers so I can get in touch with them once I get to NYC. I heard since there are so many people at BlogHer it is sometimes near impossible to find some of the ladies you are looking for without cell phones. What the heck did we do before them?
3. Order my business cards. I currently have them in my cart of Vista, but I am going to hold out another 3-4 weeks until I know for sure if I do or do not have a second sponsor. I would HATE to waste money getting more printed to add another sponsor on the back.
4. Steal my Moms rolling suitcases to pack. I by no means have luggage. We never go anywhere and if we do, we have smaller overnight type bags we use. Not only that but I am going to need to have my stuff on wheels because of the train aspect of my travel.
5. Find a place in NYC that is not only reasonably priced but local to the hotel I am going to be staying in for dinner on Thursday night.
6. Get invited to one of these special parties being hosted by private companies. I would give ANYTHING to be invited to the Nikon party!
7. Find a babysitter for the children for Friday the 6th.
8. Manicure, pedicure, massage, and haircut.
9. Think about other materials I can make with my blog information on them to give out while networking. Since I know I can’t be giving out swag at BlogHer, I need to think of cool things to use my blog logo on. Bumper Stickers? Post Cards? Pens?  What do you think?
10. Thank my husband again for all the help he has been giving me with planning my BlogHer trip.

What are the to do stuff you plan on getting done before heading out to BlogHer?

April 29th, 2010

BlogHer Conference 2010

For a while it had looked like I would not be able to go to BlogHer in NYC this year. The biggest perk for me was it is in New York City and that could eliminate a hotel cost, because I could travel from Connecticut on the train directly into the city with no problems. Score for me!

Downside? I didn’t get a sponsor or ticket in time before all the tickets sold out!  There are tons of people out there that are selling tickets right now because they can’t go for whatever reason, or bought more tickets than they really needed.

Now that I have secured a sponsor, a super awesome sponsor at that (will reveal in time) now I have to go through the project of finding a ticket all over again!  So, if any of you are reading this post, and have an extra ticket, please let me know, or even if you know a friend of a friend of a friend who has a ticket, send them my way!

In my search for a ticket I found that Sears Portrait Studio was running a contest to win a ticket to BlogHer.  Part of the contest is to write a blog post about why you want to go to blogher, and you love professional portraits. So, I wanted to include that into this BlogHer post.

Why do I want to go to BlogHer? In the past year my blog has gone from some ramblings of my own, to a high traffic Mom blog focusing on the childbirth community and pregnancy as a whole for the most part. I went from a click here and there, to an average of 300 people a day clicking on a slow day. I feel like BlogHer would be an amazing opportunity for me to not only meet awesome bloggers like The Feminist Breeder, but to also learn about expanding my already passionate project. Luckily for me others agree.

Why do I love professional portraits? There is nothing worth more than pictures of your children as they grow. These moments can never be replaced, but through pictures we can have memories that bring us back to those moments with our children.

So who else is going to BlogHer?

March 13th, 2010

2011 ICAN Conference Chair

Well, as many of you already know, I am heavily involved in ICAN, better known as the International Cesarean Awareness Network, and I have been since shortly after the birth of my first child. I started my own chapter in my local area, and then I moved on around the time that I was ready to give birth to my second child to become the Northeast Regional Coordinator also. Because I am so passionate about ICAN and what they do, I have been always willing to go above and beyond to help.

So when the opportunity came up to be on the 2011 ICAN Conference Committee, I of course applied. Knowing that this conference, I will not be too pregnant to travel, heck, I won’t be pregnant at all! LOL So I knew there would be nothing holding me back this time. I desperately wanted to go in 2009, but Ben decided to join us just 3 short weeks after the conference in Atlanta, so had I gone, who knows what would have happened!

I originally applied to be the 2011 Speaker Chair, with a second option as the Registration Chair. I thought the speaker chair would not only be fun, but because of the awesome connections I have made in recent months, would be perfect. (Not only that but I am starting an ICAN movement towards a “Silver Fox” panel for the conference which would include Marsden Wagner, Eugene Declerq, and Sutart Fischbein) and the registration chair was simply a second pick.

Yesterday, Maureen, the woman who is the head for the conference in 2011 contacted me with a favor and of course, like I always do, I took on the challenge. Which was to accept the National Promotions and Publicity Chair instead of what I had applied for because of the lack of interest in the chair position. I was truly surprised at that because with all the social media today, I would have assumed that people would have jumped on something so easy!

Of course I told Maureen, like I normally tell any ICAN Board member, I would help where ever they needed me to, and then she told me to consider myself the official 2011 ICAN Conference National Publicity and Promotions Chair. Score!  While I was pretty confident that I would obtain a position on the conference board, I did not think it would be anything as important.

So what exactly am I supposed to do with this title right?  Sounds like it is pretty broad?  Well some of my duties include what I already do on a pretty much daily basis with social media connections.
Some others include :

• Advertising the Conference to ICAN members, and other National Organizations that would be interested.
• Develop advertisement for the conference.
• Communicate with National Publications (which I have already been doing heavily with the recent media on c-sections, maternal mortality, and the NIH VBAC Conference).
• Networking… Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc.. (So if you want to blog about the conference as it gets closer, I am your woman!)
• Work with the Local Publicity and Promotions director to write press releases

So many more things, it seems to be like a great position, and like I said before, I am in the habit of really doing most of anything they ask of me. One example is a video I made earlier in the year for ICAN. I obtained the music from a friend of mine (Rob Taylor) who is a local musician in my area, and all the pictures came from ICAN chapters and members Nationally.

I hope you enjoy!
I had a really great time making it, and I am super excited in my new future at ICAN, at least until it is over in April of 2011!

March 10th, 2010

The Draft Statement is Available!

The National Institute of Health’s VBAC Draft statement is now available to the public.
You can read it at
http://consensus-nih.org/omar-public/PublicComments/VBAC/PublicComments.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Please read, and leave comments, they will only be taking comments for a short period of time today!

March 9th, 2010

NIH VBAC Day 1

While I wanted to be the first Blogger to have my live coverage up from the National Institute of Health VBAC Conference today, between a toddler and 9 month old, dinner, cleaning, and working on moving furniture out of the house for our delivery tomorrow, I can’t say I will be the first. Oh well, housework happens right?  I neglected it enough today.

While I originally planned to have live and continuous coverage all day, again, life happens, and I did not realize how hard it would be to “live blog” with the time limits, as well as fast moving speakers. While the panel and speakers were on a strict time limit, things move quite quickly.

I was able to “tweet” live and I am going to use all the things I tweeted today to basically write my run down, as well as share some of the many things I learned today. I think after this conference I should have VBAC after my name just for all I know about it. I THOUGHT I knew a lot before this.

1. My day started off tweeting with Amy Romano from Science and Sensibility about the amazing amount of talk regarding evidence based medicine, practice and guidelines for this consensus.
   
2. Another awesome point at the start of the consensus, was the fact that one of the presenters started to discuss the blogging community, She used a screen for her presentation which I believe The Feminist Breeder caught a picture of, and surprised all of us. Yup, you see it right, on the top of the screen is the logo of the popular birth and cesarean section website, The Unnecesarean! I almost peed myself! Along with that is the ICAN logo, and other various PRO VBAC websites.
3. Discussion of placental problems after previous cesarean sections, and the increased risk of more serious and more dangerous placental complications with each cesarean birth.  We have seen in the past 20 years a large increase in things like placenta previa, placenta acretta, and other life threatening placental issues.
4. The risk of hysterectomy also increases, which is rarely discussed. The risk of having a hysterectomy with the 4th cesarean section is 2.5%
5. A quote from one of the speakers included “repeat cesarean section does not eliminate the risk of fetal injury” Which is a huge common misconception of women who are opting for elective repeat cesarean deliveries, also refereed to as ERCD’s.
6. Privately insured patients have higher repeat cesarean rates, and women who have medicaid coverage have higher VBAC rates.
7. 45% of providers stopped providing VBAC services completely due to the ACOG recommendations on VBAC.
   

   Kinda blurry, but my toddler and I watching the conference online

8. White women, are more likely to have a VBAC although African American women have lower risk of uterine rupture or adverse reactions to VBAC.
9. Rural hospitals have lower trial of labor after cesarean section rates, as well as lower VBAC rates, and higher VBAC ban rates. Which is something we all pretty much knew before hand.
10. Induced VBAC success rates are 63%, lower than the over all VBAC success rate of 73%.
11. There was a lot of talk about VBAC outcome prediction tools, which I am not sure how I really feel about them, on top of this, my child decided to start acting up around this point which took me away from the computer for a little bit.
12. Another quote “trying to give women the information they need to make an informed decision” which is what the VBACtivist community has really been saying all along.
13. Countries that use the Midwifery Model of Care have high VBAC success rates. Someone from the audience chimes in “Does that mean we need to move?” LOL!  No, that means we need to get our OB’s to practice like midwives. Ya think we will be able to wrestle the knives out of their hands?
14. Then the first audience question came. And I fell in love with my second, much older husband. Only second to Marsden Wagner. Dr. Suart Fischbein got up, and spoke about liability, VBAC bans, and posed several amazing questions. My heart melted!  I am so glad to have him coming on my radio show in a couple weeks!
15. A friend of mine, Stacey Gregg of New Jersey also spoke, asking questions about racisim in VBAC and medical care, and the panel was very quick to dismiss her, but the worst part was, she had very valid concerns, comments, and questions.
16. Then came my favorite part of the whole day… One of the panel members made a statement about home birth data, and how there really isn’t any, or at least any accurate data and the WHOLE ROOM ERUPTED!  “YES THERE IS!!!!”  Maybe they missed that CDC release last week?
17. When comparing ERCD to VBAC, per 100,000 births, there are 9 less maternal deaths with VBAC than elective repeat cesarean delivery. Hence showing that VBAC is safer, despite all the discussion of risks.  Those are 9 mothers, sisters, daughters that can and should be saved!
18. Now, on to something I was not aware of today… cesarean ectopic pregnancies. Meaning, ectopic pregnancies IN or ATTACHED to the cesarean scar which are deadly!   Something again not spoken of in the risks of cesarean delivery. This happens in 1 out of 200 pregnancies after a cesarean. I wish I had a picture of it as it was fascinating.
19. Another thing I never knew was the increased risk of stillbirth after cesarean sections, and each elective cesarean after!
20. Factors that affect uterine rupture… hmm… right on the slide it said INDUCTION and OXYTOCIN!
21. There was a great discussion on using ultrasounds to look at the thickness of uterine scars and access the risk for a uterine rupture in the weeks before labor.
22. Another great Birth Advocate Shannon Mitchell was able to get up and ask a question.
23. Got to see The Feminist Breeder ask an awesome question about post cesarean emotional impacts.  The panel agreed that there certainly should be more research on the topic itself.
24. Jen from VBAC Facts was able to get up and question VBAC bans and the hospitals that say they are not “equipped” for VBAC. Basically covering and having the panel agree with her about hospitals not being properly equipped is an excuse.
25. You should have seen the look on the faces of the panel when a mother got up and introduced the baby on her hip as a breech HBAC birth meaning, vaginal breech birth at home, after a cesarean.  GASP!
26. Then moved onto the Trial of Labor and the impact on the infants, and again my children started raising hell, so I only got bits and pieces, but I will share what I did get.
27. 2007 marked the 11th year of constant increases in the cesarean rate in The United States.
28. There looks to be a direct connection between the rise in cesarean section rates, and women in the US putting off having children till their later childbearing years. (Interesting graph I will have when they publish the full report)
29. The risk of uterine rupture is 0.8% and the risk for fetal death out of that small percent is only 6%!
30. 1 out of every 3 elective repeat cesarean deliveries takes place BEFORE 39 weeks gestation, when the recommendation is NO elective deliveries before 39 weeks. Showing that providers are picking and choosing which guidelines they want to practice.
31. NICU admission rates in the above babies are higher.
32. Increased risk of Type 1 diabetes in children born via cesarean section.
33. One speaker called ACOG’s current VBAC guidelines “overkill”
34. The same speaker also said home births are not something women should be doing for VBAC’s. Which causes a problem, at least for me. What this speaker/provider does not understand is under the current VBAClash in the country, the ONLY option for many mothers interested in VBAC is out of hospital births, or even UNASSISTED births.
35. Desirre Andrews, the current ICAN President was able to stand up and address the amount of hospitals nationally with VBAC Bans, De facto bans and why women are being forced into alternative birthing options because of these guidelines. She shined like a star!

Now, I would like to add a short disclaimer that all of the above information is NOT information of mine. This belongs to the National Institute of Health’s VBAC Consensus presenters today. These are all studies THEY brought to the table, these are all numbers they they cited, and if you would like further information on ANY of this, you can pre order the full presentation and consensus report on the NIH Website.

These are FACTS that have come from medical professionals, scientific medical studies, and major universities.

March 8th, 2010

Afternoon update

I thought that I would be able to update live with everything going on, unfortunately I underestimated my children for the morning session. In reality with the vast amount of information being given, it is near impossible to really keep up.
I was able to tweet live on twitter, as well as watch the live twitter feed for the #NIHVBAC hashtag which is the current tag suggested for the conference itself. I am going to share some information I got off of there as well as some highlights from this morning.

The first thing I want to get out there is a CNM brought up in the question session was home birth, especially for VBAC mothers also known as Home Birth after Cesarean, or HBAC. The moderator promptly made a comment about how there are no accurate statistics for home birth. The room ERUPTED in YES THERE IS!!! And many people continued to speak out about it.

Other great highlights were Dr. Stuart Fischbein being the first person up to the question stand to talk about hospitals who have VBAC bans, hospital policy, and the lack of TRUE informed consent taking place nationally.  He is my hero, and I am so excited to have him coming up on my radio show in April.   Can I add him to the list of men I would like to marry?

Lots of other stuff included the difference in maternal death between VBAC and ERCD’s which out of 100,000 deliveries with previous cesarean sections, 9 out of 100,000 women will die from routine elective cesareans.  Nor are we talking about the serious risks to future pregnancies including life threatening conditions, placental problems, future infertility, etc.

They also tackled the issues surrounding informed consent and how many women are not being given accurate information regarding VBAC Vs. ERCD and the risks involved. Whether for monetary or liability reasons.

There is so much, but once the conference is over tonight, and my husband is home from class, I will be blogging in full.

P.S. The Unnecesarean logo ended up on one of the presenter’s slides!  I was so excited to see that, as well as the ICAN logo right next to it!

March 8th, 2010

Dr. Caroline Signore

• Low risk women have a 23.6% risk for a cesarean with their first child.
• With their second child they have a 90% chance of having a second cesarean
• Lack of VBAC coverage by insurance, and hospitals.
• Between of hospitals 17-58% do not allow VBAC
• In tough economic times cesarean deliveries are a more costly procedure when compared to vaginal birth.
• The rates of adverse outcomes from VBAC are as low as SIDS.

March 8th, 2010

Part 1

To start off, at the end of the next couple of days, when the consensus is over, you can obtain the report at http://www.ahrq.gov/ which is the agency that got the contract.

I am starting to watch, and blog and I am trying to get as much onto my blog as I can while following this myself.
I guess it is going to be harder than I though.

First thing I would like to point out is all the women on the panel, as well as all the different backgrounds of the panelists. Nurse midwives, OB’s, etc… A lot of my posts will e bullet points of statements from the conference.

Some appreciations to get familiar with for the next coupe days :
TOL = Trial of Labor
APC = After Prior Cesarean
VBAC = Vaginal Birth after Cesarean
ERCD = Elective Repeat Cesarean Delivery

• VBAC Access is certainly restricted
• Panel is going to look into why the VBAC numbers are decreasing as well as to if these reasons are VALID reasons.
• Lots of emphasis on EVIDENCE based medicine, practice, and research.

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!

March 8th, 2010

VBACtivist

Kicking off the National Institute of Health, VBAC Conference in Bethesda, Maryland, The Feminist Breeder, Michele Demont from Birthcut.com, and Desirre Andrews the current President of ICAN had an awesome radio show in which women could call in and talk about VBAC experiences and why VBAC is important, as well as an essential medical choice for women today.

To listen to the show, you can click here : VBACtivists

I was able to call in and share my experience, as well as my opinions on the reason why VBAC is so essential to our maternity care system.

Tune in tomorrow morning for more coverage on the National Institute of Health VBAC Conference.