May 2011 Moms
NJMom050911
member
Mom defies doctor, has baby her way
NJMom050911
member
This is a great article, do you think she was being irresponsible or do you think this was a great thing for her to do? I agree that doctors should not push Csection after having one but I'm not sure why she couldn't find a doctor closer than the one 90 miles away that would let her VBAC at the hospital just in case some complications arrived.
https://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/12/16/ep.vbac.birth.at.home/index.html?iref=obinsite
Logan Alexander born May 9th 2011. He has stolen my heart forever.
BFP #2 05/24/12 EDD 01/31/13 D&C 06/26/12 Missing you.
Diagnosed with Ashermans 11/06/12 Surgery 01/18/13, Cleared for TTC 03/01/13 BFP 03/26/13 IT'S A BOY!
Please Be Our Rainbow!
BFP #2 05/24/12 EDD 01/31/13 D&C 06/26/12 Missing you.
Diagnosed with Ashermans 11/06/12 Surgery 01/18/13, Cleared for TTC 03/01/13 BFP 03/26/13 IT'S A BOY!
Please Be Our Rainbow!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Mom defies doctor, has baby her way
She couldn't find one because it was a VB3C. It is rare to find one that will do VB2C, and many hospitals have a ban or defacto ban on even a plain ol' VBAC.
I think women should give birth their way but I am not surprised.I am glad she found a midwife who would work with her so she did not try to do a UC.
I had no idea, I thought you should be able to sign something and deliver any way you please, or at least try to.
I am of the opinion that any hospital like this shouldn't be doing births at all. If they aren't equipped for a uterine rupture they are not equipped for a crash c-section.
I agree. Some hospitals scare me with what they think they can handle.
If anyone has the time read the comments under the article.
Personally I think it was irresponsible. While I do think she should have been allowed to have a vbac with her second child the risks are increased after additional c-sections. I personally don't think she should have had a c-section the first time. 10 hours and her doctor said no more? Sounds like a lazy doctor. She obviously had the hips for delivery if she was able to push out a 9 pounder.
This is why we need to advocate for what we want the first time we have a child. Education is key. I've talked to my doctor and she knows that a c-section is absolutely my last resort. She also knows that I don't want an episiotomy at all or epidural before about 6cm. I also talked to the nurses at the hospital while I was on my tour and they actually applauded me for my education and choices. They told me to make sure I wrote it all down for them so when I come in they know and they can advocate for me.
Obviously we all have to be willing to change our plans in order to have a healthy delivery no matter how that happens but just going along with whatever the doctor says may give you an unpleasant or even awful birthing experience.
I lost my angels 07/2010, 04/2017, 10/2017
Meimsx no more
If a hospital isn't equipped to handle an emergency c/s for uterine rupture, they aren't equipped to handle an emergency c/s for anything--whether it's a cord prolapse, a placental abruption, sudden fetal distress or any number of things that can happen in anyone's labor. So I guess by this logic, no one at all should be giving birth in those hospitals.
It's not like that at all. 1/3 to 1/2 of hospitals in the US have either official or de facto bans on VBAC and many obstetricians not only refuse to do them but keep telling women that they are dangerous when a mountain of evidence, ACOG, ACNM, and the National Institute of Health say it's a safe option for most women.
I don't know that I would have made the choice this woman made but I think it's kind of silly for us to sit around and judge her. We aren't in her shoes and it's her body, not ours. The real issue we should be discussing is why we live in a country where so many women are being cut in the first place, why the c-section rate has risen 60% since 1996 without any equally significant improvements in maternal and fetal outcomes to go with it, and why so few women are given the chance to have even a VBA1C.
OB's in the US are the HIGHEST sued of the medical profession. I'm not defending them but if mom and or baby die due to a uterine rupture during a VBAC, there are plenty of people in the US that would sue which can devastate a career that they worked very hard for. I think it puts them in a no-win situation sometimes and part of me can't blame them and the hospitals they practice in since I think sometimes their insurance limits them from doing them anyways. I will add that I have seen both a uterine rupture during a vaginal delivery and a baby die during what seemed to be a totally normal vaginal delivery first-hand and I still have nightmares...8 years of working in level 1 trauma centers and the operating room and they are some of the most horrifying memories of my career to-date. Bottom line, bad things happen and I think attempts to minimize those aren't necessarily OB's trying to not let women do what they want.
I think she should have found a doctor, any doctor, that would have helped her in a hospital if were that important to her, no matter the distance. Even if the chance of a uterine rupture were low, what if something else went wrong? It isn't like she was just assigned a doctor and that was it. She had months to discuss her birthing plan with her doctor, and if that OB didn't approve, she should have started searching for another, just like anyone else would have.
I think she was irresponsible and incredibly lucky.
It's not like she was going for a home birth after two previous successful home births...she put herself and her baby in more danger than I would be willing to.
While I absolutely agree that she could have chosen to search for a doctor who agreed with her plan, just FYI there is nothing statistically more dangerous about a home birth than a hospital one. Midwives are generally very trained, very qualified professionals, and if her midwife saw complications of any kind arising, she would have called an ambulance immediately. I think she was brave, and I agree with her, every woman should be given the CHANCE to birth naturally.
I know that OBs get sued a lot and the litigious climate of this country is a big problem. But the issues of maternity care in this country are more complex than that. No one here is minimizing that bad things can happen in childbirth. But a lot of OBs are telling women that VBAC is dangerous and that they can't have one when it's simply not the case. The OBs may be doing that out of ignorance, rather than evil intentions, and yes lawsuits, malpractice insurance and other issues factor in--but the fact remains that an extraordinary amount of women in this country are not being given evidence-based maternity care and that is a big problem that needs to be addressed. Pointing a finger at one woman who had a HBA3C is just a distraction from the real issues.
FWIW I used to work in an L&D department as well. I'm well aware of what can go wrong and I've also seen things go wrong firsthand.
ETA I agree the issue of lawsuits needs to be addressed somehow, but I'm a bit sick of it being used as an excuse over and over again for putting women through medically unnecessary procedures that may be harmful to them and their babies. I don't want to get my body cut open and have my life, my uterus and all my future pregnancies put at more risk because someone doesn't want to get sued. I think that's understandable. At the very least, doctors and hospitals should be more upfront when legal issues interfere with care--e.g. "I can't do VBAC because of my medical malpractice policy, but there is a lot of evidence showing it's safe and I can refer you to another doctor in the area who does them" as opposed to "VBAC is dangerous and if you try one there's a high chance that you and your baby will die."
A home birth in her situation might have been a bit riskier but it was her body and her choice to make. It's not like she was given a whole lot of other options. I am LOL at the notion "she should have just found a doctor" who would let her have a VBA3C. It's difficult or impossible to find a doctor who will even let you do a VBA1C or VBA2C in much of the US. To say nothing of VBA3C.
For anyone who is interested, there aren't a whole lot of studies on vaginal birth after 3 cesareans, but here is one that says it's quite safe.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-0528.2010.02498.x/full
Granted, this study looks at VBA3C in a hospital environment, so it's plausible that the outcomes would be worse at home. But we don't have any studies on that. The only study I've seen on VBAC outside of the hospital is a study on VBA1C in birth centers and although the authors concluded that VBACs should be done in hospitals, they found that VBAC in birth centers had good outcomes overall, comparable to the outcomes in hospital VBACs. There are also studies finding that the risks of multiple cesareans increase a lot after you have 3-4 c/s, so I can understand why avoiding a c/s was a priority for this mother, especially if she wanted to have another child after this. Given these studies and the lack of any statistical information on HBA3C, I think it's a bit unfair to say that this mother was irresponsible.
I actually don't get why it's a big deal.
Do I want it? Nope. Would I do it? Nope. Do I care that she did? Nope. If something would have happened, it wouldn't have been my decision, my issue, or my consequences.
Every woman should have the birth they choose - but at the very least, they MUST have the right to attempt to.
I don't disagree with you in any way, was simply presenting another view point that people outside of medicine rarely consider....