Happy Cesarean Awareness Month

April is Cesarean Awareness Month!  I am here to talk about my experience today, and why cesarean awareness is such an important subject for women to get involved with, even if you have not had one!

When I was 22 I gave birth to my first child via an unnecessary cesarean because my my physician wanted to go home for the day.  I never knew how much that experience would impact my life not only as a woman, but as a mother, and my mothering skills. I look back often and know that had I taken the time to take a childbirth education class, it would have prevented that experience completely, and honestly I would have never stayed with the OB/GYN practice I was with at that time.

When I got pregnant with my second child, only 9 months postpartum from my first, I knew that it needed to be different and I set off to find a midwife for a VBAC.  After the experience and postpartum emotional toll my first surgical birth took on me, I knew it would be best for my family to not deal with the emotional and physical repercussions of a repeat cesarean.

My Birth Journeys from Danielle Elwood on Vimeo.

But after over 26 hours of a VBAC labor, doing everything right from staying in shape, exercising, preparing for birth, having a doula, and receiving regular Chiropractic care for the duration of my pregnancy, my second child was born via a medically necessary cesarean that saved not only his life, but my own.

It gave me a different perspective on being a birth activist, and cesarean awareness supporter. I went from angry, bitter, and sad insisting most of cesareans were unnecessary (which statistically most still are) to grateful for my experience the second time around knowing and giving me the understanding behind a medically necessary cesarean birth.  It still sucked big time, it was painful, my recovery was much worse than the first time around, and emotionally it was devastating because of the hard work and commitment I had to working towards a VBAC.

I am thankful for both of my experiences as it helps me to know I can help women on all sides of the cesarean spectrum because I have been there myself.

I hope everyone takes some time to get involved this April in some way!

A couple great events taking place this month :

ICAN will kick of Cesarean Awareness Month today with a Radio show about Cesarean Mothers Experiences

I Will also be on The Feminist Breeder’s radio show this coming Sunday Night at 10pm CST discussing the recent Cesarean Feelings Survey I worked on with the Healthy Baby Network.

The ICAN Blog will be having birth stories from Cesarean Mothers, and VBAC Mothers all month long, so take some time to check that out.

Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week

Starting on February 7th, and going through till February 14th, we will be celebrating Congenital Heart Defect Awareness week. I was first touched by this subject on Twitter when I met a mother who had lost her daughter, Cora, to an undetected congenital heart defect shortly after she was born. Since that time, Kristine Brite, the mother of baby Cora has become an internet advocacy all star making strides to help others know about the issue and prevent other mothers from going through what she had to endure.

According to Congenitalheartdefectfact.com an estimated 10,830 babies are born a day, and 411 of them are born with a congenital heart defect, making it the most common birth defect according to the March of Dimes.

“In the US alone, over 25,000 babies are born each year with a congenital heart defect. That translates to 1 out of every 115 to 150 births. (To put those numbers into perspective, only 1 in every 800 to 1,000 babies is born with Downs Syndrome.)”

Knowing this information, and learning about Cora’s Story has made me realize that in the United States this is an issue we need to work on tackling, and work on testing, and mandatory pulse oximetry testing in newborns, which Kristine Brite is currently working towards, even only two short months after the loss of her baby girl.

On Sunday February 7th, 2010, at 3:00pm EST, to help kick off Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week, Kristine Brite will be joining myself for the Momotics Radio show to help kick off CHD awareness week with Cora’s Story.

Please join us and help spread the word on Cora’s Story.