contact me at vbacwarrior at gmail dot com

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

In Honor of Cesarean Awareness Month

A terrible injustice was done to my daughter three years ago. She was prematurely, surgically sliced from my abdomen on an unusually warm January night.

I can’t change the fact that she was taken from my womb. That she now faces future problems such as asthma, IBS, and who knows what else! I can’t take that back and I can’t make it right.

But I’m standing up for my daughter now. I will not allow an insurance company, a hospital, a doctor, her majesty AABC, the almighty ACOG, lawyers with tied hands, nay not even the Supreme Court to tell me how, when, why, where or with whom I birth my future babies, or your future babies, or my daughter’s future babies.

These entities work for us, ladies! We hire them. I don’t tell Dr. Knifewielder how to pleasure his wife and I’m not going to let him tell me how I must birth my baby.

To these ends I hereby declare that I, vbacwarrior and United States Birthing Mother, revoke all current and future support of any individual, institution or governing body that does not support mother-baby friendly birth choices and practices.

What does this mean? It means that except in the case of a dire emergency,

I will not go to a hospital with a skyrocketing c-section rate.

I will also not go to a hospital that currently has a vbac ban, defacto or otherwise.

If I require medical attention, I will not seek care from a physician whose c-section rate is higher than 15% (I will drive to another city or out of state, if necessary)

I will not participate in conversations about obstetricians who have cesarean rates higher than 15% unless it is to speak about the dangers of seeing such a physician for normal pregnancy care.

I will see a non-OB affiliated midwife for well-woman care.

I will write to my congressman each month, encouraging him to help pass legislation in favor of mother-baby friendly birth practices and midwifery.

If asked, I will never recommend an OB to a woman with a low-risk pregnancy.

I will write letters-to-the-editor each month (or more often if allowed) about the dangers of the current c-section rate in this country.

I will become a doula and support women in their pregnancies, births and postpartum.

I will raise my daughter to know and appreciate what normal birth is.


I am only one mother, one voice, one pocketbook. Won’t you join me, beginning today, in my quest to hit the Obstetric Machine in the money belt?



For more information on Cesarean Awareness Month, cesarean sections or vbac (vaginal birth after cesarean) please visit www.ican-online.org


5 comments:

  1. Rah rah rah! (From your cheering squad). I just wrote a post about VBACs, ERCS, and VBAC bans today.

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  2. VBACwarrior - Thank you so much for writing what you do. I've been eagerly reading your blog, traveling back to the start of it and watching the videos, visiting links, and mostly getting mad! It's been a good, healthy anger, one that I've not really allowed myself to feel since my c-section last year.

    I'm done sugar-coating it, justifying, and trying to make myself feel warm and gooey over it. It was not terribly traumatic, as far as experiences go, but it was not good. I cannot change what happened, but I hope that I can get just a few mothers out there thinking about their options, the risks, what's at stake.

    Thank you for being honest about your sons VBAC, that it was not simply blissful healing. It makes so much sense to me, and yet I think that many women, broken from a c-section, expect the VBAC to fix everything, and it just can't. I can completely understand how it would renew the pain of the c-section. Thank you for sharing that, I think for me at least, if I am fortunate enough to achieve a VBAC in the future, I will probably feel similarly.

    Thank you for reminding me it's ok that I'm not "over" it, and that I probably never will be. It doesn't plague me every moment, I can function and be happy, but it will never be ok.

    Above all, I cheer for you, keep up the good work!
    Nastassja - Mama to Ray, born via c-section August 9th, 2007, and birth doula in training!

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  3. That's a great list of positive steps to take to change things. Perhaps you could post sample letters or sample facts to include in letters for other people to use too?

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  4. Excellent! I hope that many women jump on this bandwagon. I've been on it for a while now.

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  5. Brava VBACwarrior!! Brava!! More women need to speak up for how they feel they should or should not birth. More nurses need to advocate for what their birthing mothers want. More midwives need to advocate for birthing mothers. MORE OB'S SHOULD KEEP THEIR INTERVENING HANDS OFF OF OUR BIRTHING!

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