ICAN of Southeastern Pennsylvania

ICAN (International Cesarean Awareness Network) is a wonderful organization which provides support and education about cesareans and VBACs (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) to families. Southern Pennsylvania now has its own ICAN chapter! ICAN of Southeastern Pennsylvania meets once a month at Ohm Chiropractic in Media, PA, on the second Saturday of each month from 10am to noon. Come join us! For more information about ICAN of Southeastern Pennsylvania, please visit www.icanofsepa.wordpress.com or www.facebook.com/icanofsepa.

Childbirth: Can the US Improve?

Once reserved for cases in which the life of the baby or mother was in danger, the cesarean is now routine. The most common operation in the U.S., it is performed in 31% of births, up from 4.5% in 1965.

With that surge has come an explosion in medical bills, an increase in complications -- and a reconsideration of the cesarean as a sometimes unnecessary risk.

It is a big reason childbirth often is held up in healthcare reform debates as an example of how the intensive and expensive U.S. brand of medicine has failed to deliver better results and may, in fact, be doing more harm than good.

Read more...

Ricki Lake and The Doctors

I was going to make a post about the TV show The Doctors and their take on birth and Ricki Lake, but then I saw Jill's post, and I figured I'd just let her do it. Go read!

Cesareans outnumber Vaginal Births in S Florida

Last year, for the first time, more babies in Miami-Dade County were born by cesarean section than were born vaginally, according to state records, and Broward's not far behind, with a rate of 43.7 percent -- both far above the national average.

At Kendall Regional Medical Center in Southwest Miami-Dade, seven out of 10 babies were delivered by C-section, a rate that University of Miami obstetrician Gene Burkett called ``just astounding.''

Locally and nationally, the cesarean rate has been creeping up annually for years. In 2007, the U.S. rate reached 31.8 percent, according to the National Center for Health Statistics -- an increase of more than 50 percent over the past decade.

Read more...

Essay on the Factory Model of Childbirth

If only more OBs thought this way! Please read this - the lack of choice in maternity care is something that people need to be aware of!

Obstetrician/gynecologist Lauren Plante has a remarkable essay in the International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics in which she condemns the rising cesarean rate and compares current U.S. childbirth practices to the industrial revolution.

Read more...

Birth by Appointment

A decade ago, surgical delivery mainly was reserved for emergency situations, such as when mothers had high blood pressure or were failing to progress in labor or the baby showed signs of distress. Today, several factors are leading to the rapid rise in C-sections, even though having one carries with it a longer hospital stay, longer recovery time and the risk of complications from anesthesia. Those factors include changing attitudes toward childbirth, the convenience of a scheduled birth for busy women, and malpractice concerns by doctors and insurance companies.

Read more...

The new 'natural' cesarean

The lights of the operating theatre are dimmed and there is a mood of calm among the hospital staff. A midwife softly narrates a continuing procedure to a patient who is squeezing her husband's hand. The surgeon gives the nod: it's time. The drape across the patient's abdomen is lowered and her head is raised. Her eyes widen as she and her husband watch their baby, tiny and pink with a mop of black hair, being gently delivered from her. There is a moment of collective awe before the newborn's cry fills the air. "It's a boy!" his mother gasps, before enveloping him in a warm hug.

Read more...

Caesarean link to surge in hysterectomies

Doctors in Dublin’s maternity hospitals are performing an increasing number of life-saving hysterectomies on mothers who have previously had caesarean sections. The upsurge in the number of births by c-section has led to a marked increase in emergency operations to remove women’s wombs due to a condition called placenta accreta, according to a new study.

Read more...

Personhood USA

According to Personhood USA, legislators in at least five states are sponsoring bills that would give the unborn full state constitutional rights from the moment of fertilization.

Cesarean beliefs 'misguided'

Women who choose to have an elective caesarean in the belief that it will prevent incontinence and genital prolapse are "misguided" and may be putting their health, and that of their baby, at unnecessary risk.

Read more...

Nigerian sextuplets' mother dies

A woman who gave birth to a set of sextuplets over the weekend in Nigeria has died of complications.

Ajoke Bello, 32, gave birth to the six babies by Caesarean section operation on Thursday and was initially in a stable condition.

Read more...

Want a VBAC? In a hospital??

Good luck with that! Here's an article about VBAC support, or lack thereof.

It would seem perfectly natural that a woman could give birth naturally if she wants to. Guess what? She can't.

An increasing number of hospitals in this country are refusing to offer women the option of delivering the way nature intended, if she had a cesarean section the first time around (and guess what -- chances are she has because the 31% of all births are now C-sections -- up 50% in 10 years).

C-Section too Early Risks Baby's Health

A team of researchers lead by Dr. Alan Tita from the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham examined the results of 13,258 women who had a scheduled, repeat C-section that was planned for no other medical reason than the fact that the woman had previously had a C-section.

The researchers found that, compared to babies delivered by C-section at 39 weeks of gestation, those born at 37 or 38 weeks had a higher rate of breathing problems, blood sugar problems and serious infections. Moreover, those babies were more likely to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit.

Read more...

Patient undergoing C-section dies

From the Boston Globe:

The risk of death from a caesarean section is estimated at fewer than 1 in 2,500, according to information on the hospital's website.

That is significantly more than the roughly 1-in-10,000 risk of death during a vaginal birth.

Read more...

Experts Worry About Rise in C-Sections

Once the delivery option of last resort, Caesarean sections are now all the rage: Nearly 1 in 3 pregnant women had a C-section in 2006, compared with about 1 in 5 a decade earlier.

Read more...

After Cesareans, Some See Higher Insurance Cost

When the Golden Rule Insurance Company rejected her application for health coverage last year, Peggy Robertson was mystified.

“It made no sense,” said Ms. Robertson, 39, who lives in Centennial, Colo. “I’m in perfect health.”

She was turned down because she had given birth by Caesarean section. Having the operation once increases the odds that it will be performed again, and if she became pregnant and needed another Caesarean, Golden Rule did not want to pay for it. A letter from the company explained that if she had been sterilized after the Caesarean, or if she were over 40 and had given birth two or more years before applying, she might have qualified.

Read more...