**
*ICAN's Response to ACOG AND AABC Statements on VBAC and Homebirth*
*Redondo Beach, CA, February 7, 2008:* The International Cesarean Awareness
Network (*www.ican-online.org*) would like to publicly condemn both the AABC
and the ACOG for their statements* this week that limit not only women's
choices in birth but imply that birth is a fashion rather than a safety
concern.
Since VBAC is the biological normal outcome of a pregnancy after cesarean,
ICAN encourages women to get all of the facts about vaginal birth and
elective cesarean before making a choice. This decision should not include
weighing the choices of your doctor's malpractice payments but only be a
concern of the mother and her support system.
Since some mothers will make the choice to give birth outside of the
hospital, we encourage the AABC to not cave into ACOG's demands that all
women give birth in a hospital facility with a surgical specialist, but
instead allow women to make their own choices about care providers, birth
settings and risk factors. ICAN respects the intelligence of modern women
and accepts that the amount of information available about VBAC and elective
cesarean should serve as informed consent.
ICAN further encourages the governments of individual states to look closely
at their cesarean rates (31.1% national cesarean rate as of 2006) and the
informed consent laws that apply and help women to reach a standard of care
that lowers the risks of major surgery and the risks of elective or coerced
induction without medical indication. Women and children should not bear the
brunt of malpractice risks being conveyed into physical, mental, emotional
and spiritual health risks in order to protect their physicians.
*Mission statement: ICAN is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to
improve maternal-child health by preventing unnecessary cesareans through
education, providing support for cesarean recovery and promoting vaginal
birth after cesarean. There are more than 94 ICAN Chapters across North
America, which hold educational and support meetings for people interested
in cesarean prevention and recovery.*
* AABC statement: *
http://www.birthcenters.org
*
ACOG statement: *
http://www.acog.org/from_home
This is so unbelievably maddening. Note there is no actual medical EVIDENCE for any of this, but the misinformed public will swallow it, poisoned hook, line and sinker.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wonder if I should even feel bad for those whose obstinate blind faith in doctors earned them major surgery. After all, I've tried to tell them!
I have friends who tell me their awful birth experience (even vaginal) and then say, "maybe I'll think about switching doctors." MAYBE?!?! He screamed at you that you are doing an awful job and you're going to MAYBE *THINK* about changing doctors? I honestly don't know what to THINK anymore. Maybe they routinely inject a stupidity drug when women give birth....