birth activist

I've had several conversations over the last few days about the notion of responsibility for birth. The conclusion I've come to is that until women are willing to take responsibility for their actions regarding birth choices - they won't get the empowerment.

So let's say you have a particularly awesome birth. You had nearly every one of the desires met from your birth plan and you were in charge of the decisions. (Notice this does not say how or with whom you gave birth - but it was your choice.) You feel the empowerment because you took the responsibility.

But so many times women abdicate this responsibility by handing over the decision making ability to their care provider or make decisions that lead to a place they don't want to be and rather than accept the responsibility for that decision - they blame someone else. That person can be their practitioner, their husband/partner, their doula, the labor nurse... the list goes on.

For example, a woman says "The doctor saved my baby!" Great! I mean that's why we pay doctors and midwives - to be the life guards of birth. But a question that is often asked is - Why do we hear this statement so much? Are babies really needing to be "saved" that often?

The problem is two fold.

1) Women aren't as often standing up and making choices for themselves as well as making choices and then not accepting the responsibility for the outcome.

2) We have care provider who set up situations where they go from life guard to life saver. (Think of the arsonist who starts a fire only to rush in and save everyone and become the hero...)

The system is broken in many ways. This is but one angle. But it really points out the need for careful selection of your practitioner as well as the mental and emotional energy to delve into the decisions that you need to make as a parent wholeheartedly.

I've had allergies and asthma since I was a kid. I thank my mom all the time for breastfeeding me as long as she did - who KNOWS how much worse off I would be had she not!? But I think about this baby I worry about my child inheriting this less-than-wonderful trait. A new study suggests that there is a link between babies born by cesarean and allergies and asthma. Dr. Ly said "This finding is exciting because it suggests that the mode of delivery may be an important factor influencing immune system development in the neonate." By avoiding a c-section I might help the chances of my child not having these conditions. That's awesome! You can read more about the study here

or
AMA Plans to Remove Mother's Choice

We've seen Mother's choices restricted in the past:
Little or no access to midwifery care
Food restricted during labor
Pushing in the lithotomy position
No Option for Vaginal Birth After Cesarean
- Just to name a few.

Now, the AMA is adding another item to their list - Outlawing Homebirth!

At their recent annual meeting, the AMA stated that:
"That our American Medical Association only advocate in legislative and regulatory arenas for the licensing of midwives who are certified by the American College of Nurse-Midwives." In plain terms, this means that the AMA will only support hospital midwives, or CNMs.

The recent resolution by the American Medical Association opposing Home Birth is all over the message boards today. Resolutions were introduced by the AMA to support ACOG's position against home birth and to "develop model legislation in support of the concept that the safest setting for labor, delivery, and the immediate post-partum period is in the hospital, or a birthing center within a hospital complex, that meets standards jointly outlined by the AAP and ACOG, or in a freestanding birthing center that meets the standards of the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, The Joint Commission, or the American Association of Birth Centers."

Sign the Petition Today! Please help send a message to the AMA and ACOG, and to our state and federal legislators, to tell them that we object to these resolutions and we view legislation that would restrict a woman's right to choose a home birth as a being contrary to scientific evidence and a violation of women's basic human rights.

If you are looking for an inspiring little birth activism project for your area, I have an idea for you. Join hands with other women in your area and form a "VBAC Coalition." According to ICAN, over 3,000 hospitals across the United States have instituted facility-wide bans on Vaginal Birth After Cesarean. In our town, women are being told that they must have a repeat cesarean regardless of their present health status and regardless of the reason for their previous cesarean. We know that these bans are not only un-supportable by good evidence, but they are also a basic violation of a woman's Patient Rights and Human Rights.

If you would like to take on the hospitals, here's a place to start. Check back on birthactivist.com for further steps and updates as we go through this process.

Step 1: Form a coalition. Gather together with a small group of women representing your local birth network, ICAN chapter, La Leche League Chapter, as well as individual women who have been affected by the VBAC Ban (or who just care deeply, even if they've never had a C-Section)

Our coalition consists of a chapter leader of BirthNetwork, a mom who has had one previous cesarean, a mom who demanded for herself a successful VBAC despite the ban, a mom who had an "HBAC" or Home Birth After Cesarean because of the ban, and a Certified Nurse-Midwife who is our resident "safety and statistics expert." We met together today to discuss our plan of action to pressure our local hospitals to reverse the ban.

Stay tuned for step 2! "

This week my baby turned from transverse to breech. I am only 33 weeks pregnant, so the baby has plenty of time to turn. The one thing that really stood out to me, though, was the lack of concern by most of the people I talked to about it. Multiple people told me "You'll be fine. Baby will turn. Don't worry." But how hard is that? As a pregnant woman I worry about my baby and my birth. Luckily, I have a really good support team who I went to. They helped me voice my concerns and lead me to some resources about turning malpositioned babies. Not all women are as lucky as I am to have such a good support system. There is plenty of poor information available about pregnancy and birth-related subjects. How do we as birth activists spread the word about accurate and non-threatening information?

After our local BirthNetwork's community activist meeting, I got to wondering what was out there on the web in the way of birth advocacy. The Journal of Perinatal Education provides endless amounts of support for normal birth and evidence-based care, and of course there's CIMS advocating mother- and baby-friendly care.

Then I happened upon Birthing the Future, a Colorado-based 501(c)3 working on birth advocacy and education, headed up by Suzanne Arms.

In the "Take Action" part of the site, there's a list of 52 actions you can do to advocate birth, to "make every birth better for everyone," and other links to follow. 52! And these are things the average person can do. There's work to be done here, folks. May we all be busy!

Tori Spelling of Beverly Hills 90210 fame is expecting her second baby. Her first child was born after her water broke and an induction that failed by cesarean section. Tori had been outspoken about taking Lamaze classes and wanting a vaginal birth.

After Liam was born she was initially very happy and said nothing negative about her birth. But as the weeks and months followed she admitted to being disappointed that she wasn't able to have a vaginal birth. She never said she was upset about the cesarean or felt like it was a bad thing, but merely that she was sorry to have not had a vaginal birth - two very different thoughts.

When she got pregnant this time, with a daughter due any day, I really thought that she was someone who had a great chance of having a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC). Now the rumors are flying that she's in surgery, probably as I'm typing this, to give birth to her daughter. If that's true I wonder why. She's been healthy, looked great and been active. She had a non-repeating factor for her cesarean. So my guess is that if she's having a repeat cesarean, it's her doctor. One quote she made about him immediately after Liam's birth stuck in my head:

"I asked Dr. Rothbart if he'd do a good job, and he said, 'Well, Angelina didn't complain.' So I was like if Angelina let him do a C-section in Africa, I am ok. I felt comforted by that."

Yikes. She talked about the pain of recovery and how hard it made life. Tori discussed her difficulties with breastfeeding, which, while she never connected it to the c-section, studies show us it was the most likely culprit. I wonder if she's thought about how hard that will be with two babies? But she was seen getting a pedicure yesterday and her hair done last week. I just pray she's only nesting and not pre-surgical nesting.

A few weeks ago, I received an inspiring photograph of a police officer breastfeeding a baby. She is in uniform, but it is unzipped and unbuttoned, in order to nourish this tiny baby. The woman looks worried and the scene around her is filled with chaos. She is in an earthquake shelter, with people and blankets everywhere.

Many thousands of families were affected by the recent earthquake in China. It had been estimated that 50,000 people were killed. In the shelters, there wasn't enough dry food for babies.

The officer in the photograph was breastfeeding two babies when interviewed and had actually fed 8 babies over the last two days. Five babies were orphans, and 3 babies had mothers who were unable to nurse. The officer was quoted as saying, "My babies are babies, other people's babies are all momma's babies."

CIMS, the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services, is a fabulous resource for parents and practitioners who are seeking information on healthy maternity care.

In the 1990s, CIMS formed with the mission "to promote a wellness model of maternity care that will improve birth outcomes and substantially reduce costs. This evidence-based mother-, baby-, and family-friendly model focuses on prevention and wellness as the alternatives to high-cost screening, diagnosis, and treatment programs."

Perhaps you're wondering what Mother-Friendly or Baby-Friendly care entails? You can read the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative on the new CIMS website, http://www.motherfriendly.org/.