Comments on: ICAN Releases VBAC Policy Database

By: Jamie

Jamie — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:10:17 +0000

I just got copies in the mail of my records from when I gave birth. The reason my doctor listed on paper for my episiotomy was that tearing was likely. The reason he gave me in the heat of the moment despite my begging him not to; to use massage and counter-pressure? “Baby’s heartrate is falling!”.

I switched hospitals earlier in the day of the night my labor started because my hospital was refusing to even consider a vaginal birth. The doc at the new hospital said that even if I wound up in labor with a doctor who didn’t want to do a breech birth, that I was safe by refusing because all doctors in the practice were more than capable of doing it. The docs at my original hospital were all about “OMG ur baby iz gunna DIE!!!”. I was with the midwives there and they were all behind my decision but it was out of their hands.

I wish I could remember all of the reasons behind why I “couldn’t” deliver vaginally. Looking back, it makes me laugh. At the time, though, I was livid.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:30:35 +0000

Ooh, Jamie, that would be interesting. I was once told by a nurse that breech babies can “never” be delivered vaginally, and I’d bet there would be a lot of responses along the same lines as that and what you experienced.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:25:29 +0000

It’d be interesting to get a similar study done regarding breech vaginal deliveries. I gave birth to my second daughter via breech vaginal delivery in May. I did find a practice of doctors who were willing to do it; out of 15 doctors in the practice, 12 were open to it as long as the conditions were right (baby’s estimated weight and exact position etc). As luck would have it, I went into active labor and to the hospital when one of the 3 doctors who was not ok with it was working. I refused and though I was met with the “waiver of warning of death” and pretty much forced into various interventions, she was born vaginally. I discharged us 12 hours after giving birth, against medical advice too. Birth should not be treated as an illness.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:51:45 +0000

Angela, that’s fascinating. I noticed ICAN did point out that “When you read the comments, please understand that we recorded them as they were given to us and they often contain statements that are contradicted by the medical evidence about VBAC. Sometimes the reasons given for a VBAC ban (“it’s illegal”) are simply untrue.” I’m going to have to dig around in the comments for what kinds of bizarre things people were told!

By: Angela

Angela — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:27:33 +0000

What I liked about the way ICAN did this was that we called as a regular “Jane Doe” kind of mom, never identifying ourselves as associated with ICAN. It replicated, as closely as anyone could, what any regular Mom would find out in calling a hospital for vbac info. Some of the calls were startling–hearing from L&D nurses that vbac is illegal (it’s not), that you and your baby are safer having a rcs (they’re not), and that a rcs is so much better than vbac (most times it’s not).

Sad, sad day when women who “support” 99% of the birthing women in the US don’t really support normal birth.

By: labornurse@nursingjobs.org

labornurse@nursingjobs.org — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:51:10 +0000

Thank you, Rachel, for elaborating on this. I didn’t do any investigative research on who was providing ICAN the VBAC info for each hospital and made the assumption it may have been some admins who may not even have been familiar with VBACs overall. Knowing the info came from the L&D nurses is interesting; you are right in pointing out that ICAN may have come across some nurses who were not familiar with the actual VBAC policies. On the other hand, hospitals that say they can do VBACs may not in reality, which nursing can identify to ICAN as the “de facto”places.