VBAC is Vital

Vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) is a crucial option in maternity care today. I see VBAC as one of the key ways for us to attack the growing maternal mortality.

Many people do not think about the cesarean rate as a two-part issue. There is the primary cesarean rate, the number of women having their first cesarean. There is also the secondary or repeat cesarean rate. Currently, both numbers are growing.

The primary cesarean rate is growing for many reasons. Some of these reasons women can help control, like choosing practitioners who have faith in the process and only intervene when truly necessary. A good example of an intervention that can increase the cesarean rate and isn’t truly needed would be non-medical inductions.

But the secondary cesarean rate is where VBAC comes in. This rate is growing as well, largely because women are not being offered the ability to give birth vaginally after a previous cesarean. The growing body of research is showing that VBAC is safe and successful for more women who try it. Many women want to try it but are turned away by their doctors or midwives – leaving them the option of a repeat cesarean or fighting for a VBAC.

More and more women are choosing to fight for the VBAC. The question becomes – why should women have to fight for something that is likely to be safer for her and her baby?

This is part of the ICAN Blog Carnival.

More Healthcare is Not Better Healthcare - well, duh…

I had to snicker when I saw the headlines that proclaimed that more healthcare was not better healthcare. I mean seriously, birth has been proving that time and time again. ?The more medicalized we’ve made birth the higher the cesarean rate has risen, and the higher the infections, NICU admissions, breathing problems in babies, etc. have risen. ?The more we induce labor, particularly before babies are really ready, the more we see a rise in NICU admissions, cesarean section rates rise, etc. ?Do you see the circle we are going in? ?We’re like a silly puppy dog chasing our own tails. ?

I’d like to suggest that we all just back away from the prenatal care. ?Prenatal care that means invasive tests and inductions of labor when not medically indicated, that is… ?Let’s use the interventions that we have as we really need them - sporadically. ?Just because a new fancy procedure is really cool and works really well to help sick mothers and babies, doesn’t mean it’s good for all mothers and babies.