Posts Tagged ‘VBAC’

February 20th, 2010

“Elective Cesareans are too risky!” – WHO

When I read this title of an article I recently read, I couldn’t be more happy. Finally a major health organization speaking out against elective cesareans, maybe the tides are really working on a change!  But I am sure it will be snubbed by many mothers who simply love their major surgery to deliver their baby and want to continue believing their choice is risk free.

There are many parts of this I want to write about today, while trying not to make this a long winded rant reflecting my own personal views. What I have learned over the past couple years, since I got involved with the “Cesarean Awareness movement” and became an ICAN Chapter Leader here in my state of Connecticut is how many women simply are not being given accurate information regarding a repeat cesarean as opposed to the choice for VBAC.  When the first thing out of a providers mouth is “Your uterus could rupture” most women will not think twice about their choice to go and schedule that second birth. But here is the problem…

Yes, your uterus can rupture, but they are not being told that…

1. Anytime during pregnancy after a primary cesarean section, you can experience a uterine rupture. While it may be a SMALL risk, it is a risk, and with each subsequent cesarean, that risk goes up.
2. The risk for uterine rupture in a health, and low risk woman during VBAC is 0.6%.  Not even a full 1%.

Nor are these providers coming out and saying VBAC is not only healthier for mother, but also for baby. Sadly when someone like myself shares the above information, in many cases it is just received in a defensive manner because what do I know?  I am not a Doctor… I am not even a VBAC mom!

According to many women, Doctors are all knowing Gods, and the way our society was raised, never to question the medical professional, it has started to do more harm than good in our childbearing women. I certainly know when I was growing up, Doctors were wonderful people, not someone I should question or think to ask for a second opinion. Into my adulthood is when that changed. But my personal experiences aren’t important in this.

“A new report from the survey, which was published online today in the medical journal The Lancet, found that in Asia—in both developed and developing nations—cesarean section births only reduced risks of major complications for mother and child if they were medically recommended. Elected surgical deliveries, on the other hand, put both at greater risk.”

“Cesarean section should be done only when there is a medical indication to improve the outcome for the mother or the baby,” the authors of the report concluded. Common reasons for a recommendation for cesarean delivery included a previous cesarean section, cephalopelvic disproportion (when the baby’s head cannot fit through the mother’s pelvic opening) and fetal distress.”

Above quote is taken from an article out of Scientific American.

But let me move on to all the risk factors of cesarean, after cesarean after cesarean.
Let’s discuss the risk of hysterectomy first.
With your first cesarean section, your risk for a hysterectomy is 0.65% or 1 out of 154, with your second cesarean that number drops to 0.42% or 1 out of 238, but jumps with your third cesarean to 0.9 or 1 out of 111, and if you wish to go on for a fourth child, it goes all the way up to 2.41% which translates into  1 our of 41.

Now onto the risk of a blood transfusion.
With your first cesarean section, your risk for a blood transfusion sits at about 4.05% which works out to 1 in 25, you second cesarean it drops to 1.53% which is 1 out of 65, then goes back up for your third and fourth cesarean. Third being 2.26% or 1 out of 44, and fourth being 3.65% or  1 in 27.

But one thing I wanted to touch on is the risk of uterine rupture during VBAC and the numbers associated with that.
With your first VBAC the risk for uterine rupture sits at 0.87% which works out to 1 in 115, with your second VBAC your risk for a uterine rupture does down to 0.45% or 1 out of 222, and third goes to 0.38% or 1 out of 263. So with each VBAC you do have, your risk for a uterine rupture, which scares the bejesus out of everyone goes down.

All above statistics came from this post, which cited sources.

The risk for adhesions with each surgery increases, making the risk of damage to other organs, such as your bladder increased.  Adhesions are something I personally have been battling with.

I just think if women were being given accurate information, and true informed consent, the repeat cesarean rate wouldn’t be 93%.
I am just worried to see in the next decade the kind of issues women who had cesarean’s 40 years ago are going to start happening as a result of the surgery.

All in all, I am going to throw my personal two cents in here and say Cesarean sections should not be elective procedures that are treated like getting your teeth cleaned. They are MAJOR surgeries with MANY risks.  Stop to consider ALL these risks before making your way into a hospital to give birth.

February 18th, 2010

It’s a Blogaversary!

Today, it has been officially 2 years since I started my blog. At the time it not only had a different web address, but a different host, and it was not nearly as pretty. LOL!   It has certainly come a  long way in two years.  I hope in another two years I can look back and have grown even more. Today to celebrate, I want to look back through some of my posts and highlight my favorites from the archives.
Sit back, relax, we are going back in time!

The Business of Being Born – My reaction to watching the movie for the first time, and the birth experience of my first child. It helped to shape me as an advocate today.
Patient Choice C-Sections? – When my sister’s provider offered her an elective cesarean, knowing her medical conditions, and risks for bleeding out.
A Generation of Women – Slowly becoming more radicalized in my beliefs… can you tell? LOL
When Did Natural Births Become so Taboo? – The title of it kind of explains it all.
ICAN Northeast Regional Coordinator – When I learned the news I was going to be taking over the position of the Northeast Regional Coordinator for ICAN in place of my mentor Rachel Zeller who helped me through my journey.
Elective Vs. Necessary – I hash out the real meaning of both terms, especially in regard to medical choices.
Volunteers : A Dying Breed – A post about volunteering and how today, volunteers are extremely limited because of the selfish nature of our society.
My Experience as a Labor and Delivery Nursing Student – A guest post from a good friend of mine, childless, and an RN now, she reflects on her rotation through Labor and Delivery in two of our local hospitals, and what made her so interested into becoming a full time L&D nurse.
Woman’s Rights Violations – A post about the limited medical choices women are being allowed to make regarding their reproductive choices and how essentially they are violating the rights of women Nationally.
A Major Problem with Birth as We Know It – A post about violence against birthing women, The National Advocates for Pregnancy Women, and a woman who was forced by the Marshall’s to leave her house and go to the hospital to be assaulted and forced into an unnecessary surgery. Sadly it is not the first case we have seen.
Dr Amy Beats a Dead Horse – Just because this list wouldn’t be complete without our resident Natural Birth hater.
Hospitals Cracking Down on Early Inductions – One of my… FINALLY! moments…
Your Baby is Too Big to Birth – A tale of a big baby in 1969… that baby being my brother.
I Never Thought I Would Have to Prove This – VBAC Safety and Michelle Duggar
My Birth Playlist – Just to add a little bit of my sense of humor into this post…
You Might Be A VBACtivist if… – A little more humor

I think that I have done a pretty good job of highlighting myself, and my changes over the past two years. It was hard to pick posts from this time because there are so many posts that I love, and would love to share over and over again, and many of them help to shape me as a person, writer, birth advocate, and everything else I see myself as today.

So here is what you guys should do!   Go back through time… read through some of my old posts, leave some comments, and comment here on what posts are your favorite, or why you keep coming back to read, or even how you found my blog to begin with!
Lets have some fun with this!

February 15th, 2010

Unpopular Parenting Choices & Extended Family

The other day, I was reading Sarah (One Starry Night)’s blog and I could more than relate to her post about natural parenting and being the “odd ball” in your family because of your parenting choices. I wanted to write something about it, not only in support of Sarah, because there were some people who got pretty… ugly… with her choice in not vaccinating her children, but I think that a lot of us who are on the more attachment parenting side of the spectrum get a lot of this from our families unless they are really parent, or parented the same way.

I have had so many experiences with my own extended family, as well as my husbands extended family that there are so many stories just to simply not get into, but it has certainly made me feel like a bad person on more than one occasion for the way I parent my children, or the choices I make/made regarding their and my health care.

Cesarean Awareness

I will start with a family member who has had 4 elective cesareans. Not one, not 2, but 4. All for no medical reason.  I am sure there is way more to it, but after I had my first I got heavily involved into the cesarean awareness community because of my feelings on my experience. Now, if you are in my shoes, and ever sat down with someone who had elective cesareans, or LOVED their c-section you can already know you aren’t going to get very far. But what upset me the most was the facebook remove for the ICAN stuff I posted.  Luckily I have my kick ass mom to back me up, and she unfriended her right back. BOOYA sucker!  No more picnics for you!

Vaccination

Virtually no one in my family, besides my mother knows that our oldest child we have selectively vaccinated, and our youngest, we have not vaccinated at all. Nor do we plan on even thinking about it until after he is a year old. I spoke of this choice one time in front of my FIL and his long time girlfriend. BIG mistake. I spent hours upon hours trying to explain my parenting choice, and why as a family we made this decision.
Again bringing me to the cross roads where I decided to simply not bring it up again.

Breastfeeding

With my oldest, I breastfeed much longer than my second (if you don’t know what happened with my second child, you can refer to this post) but I remember with my oldest I went to my sister’s baby shower.   Her pregnancy was a huge surprise as she had not told anyone until after my baby shower, which was October, and she was due in April… SURPRISE! Anyways, my youngest was about 2 months old, and clearly he became hungry. So my instinct?  Feed him.  I sat down on the couch, grabbed my blanket, and went to nurse him. I was interrupted 3 times by my grandmother offering a strangers bedroom to nurse in. No thanks, I got a blanket, I am all set!  Took 3 times before my mother stepped in and basically told her to go fly a kite.

VBAC

When I got pregnant with my second child, a few months into my pregnancy, we were having a sit down dinner with a couple family members when one chimed in and asked when my cesarean was scheduled for. If you had seen the look of horror on my face you would have got a pretty good laugh. After the initial shock wore off, my husband chimed in and said we were planning a VBAC with midwives and a doula. Said family member, ex nursing school student from 30+ years ago chimes in about how dangerous VBAC’s are.
My words could not come out of my mouth quick enough with statistics, and facts mixed in. I am sure I looked like a raving lunatic, but she is lucky she didn’t get drop kicked along with my words.

All in all, I think we all have some family members who think our choices as parents may be “extreme” or “radical” but I have come to realize it doesn’t matter in the end what they think. These are my children, and my choices to make.
They had their children to raise any way they deemed fit, and now it is my turn, and I think I am doing a pretty damn good job thus far.

They are both still alive right?  LMAO!

There are a lot of things people in our families may not like, but we have made the choice to simply keep the majority of our choices to ourselves now. It makes life so much easier in the long run. No drama, and nothing for others to criticize.

February 14th, 2010

Your OB said WHAT?!!?!

Ok, I have a guilty pleasure, and it is the blog “My OB Said WHAT?!?” and I must admit, while I should not read it for my own mental stability, I still have to go over there frequently to really just stare at some of the comments and shake my head.  It is like a train wreck, you just can’t stop looking… kinda like “Dr” Amy’s blog.

So last night, I was on twitter talking about some of the comments on My OB Said WHAT?!?! and it sparked a pretty good discussion about how there are really some women out there that take their providers word for it and never educate themselves or even question their provider, which as most of us really know can be dangerous especially in pregnancy and maternity care. Even more so with the current Obstetric Model of Care which is implemented in the vast majority of National hospitals.

I always think that education is key, and it is clear that some of the providers are lacking in the education department, especially when it comes to natural births. What are they teaching in medical school today?   It clearly isn’t bedside manner or any form of natural birth.  Understandable since Obstetrics is a surgical specialty, and Obstetricians are trained surgeons.

But anyways, I wanted to go through this blog again and share some of the comments that really stood out to me, and maybe leave some of my first impressions, or thoughts.  I am sure many of you will have the same sentiments I did.

“Why do you need to pay for a doula?  We will tell you everything that you need to do.” -OB”

WHAT?!?!  Yeah, I went that route with my first child, and honestly, my OB disappeared for hours on end, and when I asked a question, I got the same answer, “it is for the safety of your baby” in the end, it was all for her to be able to go home on time. FAIL!

“Let me do my job as the doctor and you do your job and be a good patient.” – OB  to the mother and her partner who were asking questions about procedures.

A good patient? I guess I was always under the impression that a good patient DID ask question and educate themselves. Silly me!

“Gravity doesn’t help with birth because if it did, babies would be falling out everywhere.” -OB to mother.

This is just a common sense one… Simply sounds like the OB would rather be in their chair staring at a crotch than renewing yoga moves to make sure their patient is comfortable and birthing in a position that is easier, and proven to help in delivery.

“I don’t want to scare you but you might as well get an epidural since you will need one when you end up having your cesarean.”  L&D Nurse to a first time mom, 2 hours into a 4 hour start to finish labor. Cesarean was not needed.

Now it is just sad that a nurse will say this to a first time mother. Is their hospital in such bad shape that all their mothers are having cesareans for no medical reason what so ever?  Things like this really make my blood boil.  This is one of the reasons women are scared to death of birth in our country!

“No one ever got a medal for having a vaginal birth.” -OB trying to convince a mother (who wanted a VBAC) into having a cesarean section again.

Sounds like something the OB who sliced me open would have said to me.  I mean, their office confronted me anyways about ICAN and an editorial I signed wit my own name mentioning nothing about their office. Sounds bad huh?  It gets worse!
I go to the front desk to pay my co-pay and leave before bursting into tears, and the woman behind the desk says that she thinks my feelings about my c-section are “just weird” and she “just doesn’t get it”.   That is a whole story for another day though.   I am so glad I will never have to deal with that place again in my life.

Moral of the story I guess is, become educated and if you are not comfortable with your provider, switch… It is never too late to find someone else.

I am sure this blog will continue to thrive as there will never be a shortage of shitty things providers say. And I will continue to watch like a train wreck. I just hope more women learn from the comments and experiences of others.

February 10th, 2010

When Feminists Draw a Line…

Since I have been a “member” of the feminism community, I have noticed a trend that is not seeming to change. The number of feminists that stop the fight for rights, and choice at abortion. Once a woman makes the decision to continue a pregnancy, they stop fighting for those rights. Now granted, not all feminists are like that. But this really has sparked thoughts in myself, as well as Gina, better known as The Feminist Breeder. Fitting blog title huh?

I found Gina through ICAN, but most people have stumbled upon her blog long before. But what drew me in the most was the amount of similar views that we shared. I was in instant … sistermance?  Is that kind of compatible to bromance? You get the point…

Yesterday she wrote an amazingly awesome blog about exactly what we are going to talk about tomorrow night, I encourage everyone to go over to her blog and read : I’ve Been Annoyed with Feminist This Week .  She in short articulates everything that I wanted to say. We have these giant woman’s rights organizations going to bat over the stupid 30 second Tim Tebow & Focus on the Family ad for the Super Bowl, but when it comes to an 11 minute segment on an elective cesarean section, or a 5 minute segment on water birth, both giving out horrid information to the mainstream public, screw that… it isn’t important enough.

I am so grateful for groups like The National Advocates for Pregnant Women who are truly working on this issue, and not just skimming over issues like this. We can hope that other big named groups such as NOW and NARAL will follow suit.

In light of this real issue, we decided to sit down and talk on the Momotics Radio show this Thursday Night at 10pm EST.  If you don’t know, Gina also has a kick ass radio show herself called The Feminist Breeder and Friends. Tune in Every Sunday night at 10pm CST.  I hope you tune in and join us this Thursday night.

This is not an issue that stops during pregnancy.

For some more cases on pregnant woman’s rights being violated, as well as birthing women, check out the links & video below :

NJ Case of VM
FL Case of Samantha Burton

It really all makes you think!