Unnecesarean -

Friday

03Jul

Obnoxious Ad Placement Makes You REALIZE Something

Friday, July 3, 2009 at 10:44PM

I clicked over to Medical News Today to read what turned out to be a fairly uninteresting article about weight gain and how to terrify pregnant women about eating something besides a six ounce cup of yogurt as a sweet treat when I REALIZED there was some not-so-surreptitious ad placement going on.

Just in case readers didn’t REALIZE that weight gain is scary and dangerous and terrifying to many generations of women, there is yet another ad at the bottom of the page. It’s deliberate. An article on celiac disease featured a large ad for magical Japanese gluten-free noodles.

The study involved retrospective self-reporting of weight gain and other personal stats. The article involved some unusual subject-verb disagreement:

In 2001, each mothers was asked to recall her pre-pregnancy height and weight, her weight gain while she were pregnant with her daughter, and her daughters’ weight at birth.

Daughters whose mothers gained 15 to 19 pounds during pregnancy had the lowest risk of obesity.

Compared to this group, daughters whose mothers gained more than 40 pounds while pregnant were almost twice as likely to be obese at age 18 and later in life.

Too little weight gain was also linked with a daughter’s obesity risk. Pregnancy weight gain of less than 10 pounds was associated with a 1.5-fold increase in the odds of being obese at 18 and a 1.3-fold increase in odds of being obese in later life.

The Shape of a Mother has a lovely featured photo today. Here’s a preview:

Jill--Unnecesarean |

Doulas, Racism, Home Birth in Spain and DNA-Altering Cesareans

Thursday, July 2, 2009 at 8:06AM

Doulas as Essential Medical Care

Jane Fonda (yes, that Jane Fonda) wrote a post for RH Reality Check about the Community-Based Doula Program in Georgia.

Good news for the Latinos denied passports whose births were attended by midwives in Texas. The DOS will start staff trainings (pending court approval) on how to avoid improperly scrutinizing people whose births were assisted by midwives in Texas and along the U.S.-Mexico border. With a few exceptions, anyone birthed by a midwife who has filed an application for a passport between April 2003 and September 15, 2008 can reapply for free. (via Radical Doula)

Spain’s Ministerio de Salud y Consumo published a statement that home birth is safe. (via ZGZ Pro Parto Natural)

Dar a luz en casa es una opción segura

Un estudio publicado recientemente concluye que, en mujeres embarazadas de bajo riesgo, dar a luz en casa no se asocia con mayor morbi-mortalidad neonatal

Home birth is a safe option

A recently published study concludes that, for low risk mothers, giving birth at home is not associated with higher levels of neonatal morbidity-mortality.

Common Postpartum Pain Medications Removed (from About.com Pregnancy/Birth Blog)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted yesterday to discontinue the use of two medications that are frequently prescribed for postpartum pain - Percocet® and the less commonly used Vicodin®. The reason for the panel’s decision is that there are a good number of acetaminophen overdoses that occur accidently when a person takes one of these pain relievers in addition to other medications that also contain acetaminophen, like Tylenol.

Mom’s Tinfoil Hat just found out that she was quoted in the LA Times Health blog last year. Interestingly, she wrote this several weeks ago and I just found it in my feed reader.

In her post, New Study Shows C-Section Births May Increase Odds For Developing Diseases Later In Life, Melissa at Nursing Birth discussed the small Swedish study about the possible ramifications of birth stress, including effects on DNA-methylation. The linked article reports that the study examined the theory that when babies are born by planned cesarean section, they haven’t gone through the normal process associated with spontaneous vaginal birth through which stress gradually builds up before birth, thereby preparing the baby for life outside the womb.

Jill--Unnecesarean |

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Monday

29Jun

Perissomists, Philiaters and Iatrapistias: Medical Words You Don't Know

Monday, June 29, 2009 at 6:35AM

Have Mac Will Blog posted an interesting list of 10 Medical Words You Don’t Know. I love this post! Click on over and learn something besides the three that I have pasted here:

Perissotomist: House, bless his heart, is not a perissotomist, in fact he rarely enters the operating theater because he’s not a surgeon.

Surgeons must be very careful
When they take the knife!
Underneath their fine incisions
Stirs the Culprit - Life!

Well said, Emily Dickinson. A perissotomist is the kind of surgeon you hope never to encounter. A perissotomist is a knife-happy surgeon - the kind of practitioner who is a cut or two above the rest. There is scant information available on this word, partly I guess, because it is used only in circumstances where a surgeon is inclined to carry out “ectomies” inappropriately or even accidentally. (I don’t know whether “ectomies” ever happen accidentally but if you wake up from an operation to discover that you’ve experienced an accidental orchidectomy - my advice is to sue the perissotomist responsible.)

Philiater: A philiater is someone who is deeply interested in the study of medicine. The term can thus be used to describe medical students but it also applies to amateurs. Given the medical information currently available on the Internet one could maintain that many of us are philiaters now, at least where our own health is concerned. It must be galling to the medical profession, who once were the sole custodians of medical knowledge, to have a digital second opinion, sitting there waiting to be consulted, out on the Internet. A little knowledge may be a dangerous thing of course, but there is a clear upside.

More…

Iatrapistia: Whether you experience iatrapistia depends upon context. Iatrapistia refers to a lack of faith in the medical system and, looking at it in the broadest context, you might become iatrapistic in respect of the American medical system, because it is so economically inefficient. My brief encounters with American medical system have been positive in terms of skill and professionalism and so it’s difficult to be iatrapistic about US medical care. Nevertheless, the US health care system accounts for about 18% of the US economy, yet achieves less than in terms of general health than almost every health service in any other advanced economy, all of which are significantly less expensive. The system is clearly broken in a fundamental way.

More…

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Sunday

28Jun

Birth Videos, Cesarean Rage, Atul Gawande and the End of Vaginal Birth

Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 11:03PM

Some articles to enjoy on Monday morning.

The New York Times article Lights, Camera, Contraction! discusses the demand for and the censoring of birth videos on YouTube. Eugene Declercq was quoted in the article.

Women logging onto YouTube to watch birth is a natural inclination, said Eugene Declercq, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. “A hundred and fifty years ago women viewed birth on a pretty regular basis — they saw their sisters or neighbors giving birth,” he said, adding that it wasn’t until the late 19th century that birthing moved out of living rooms and bedrooms and into hospitals. “But now, with YouTube, we’ve come back around and women have this opportunity to view births again.”

Maternity leave - or reprieve? A Brisbane Times article by Julia Baird, an Aussie ex-pat living in Manhattan, examines the cultural trend of mothers seemingly ditching all evidence of pregnancy and motherhood as soon as possible.

What you can judge, however, is a cultural compulsion to leave behind as quickly as possible what in many societies has been considered a sacred space between a mother and child. In our race to prove our brains still function while our bodies respond to infant cries, we trample on something deeper than we acknowledge.

The Live Journal community Cesarean Rage is full of frank and uncensored accounts of cesareans.

A sublimely researched post on Science and Sensibility:

The Maternity Conundrum: One Thing Atul Gawande Doesn’t Get About Health Care Reform

The authors of Survivor Moms: Women’s Stories of Birthing, Mothering and Healing after Sexual Abuse have a blog called Survivor Moms Speak Out. Here’s an excerpt from one of the stories:

The only complication with this pregnancy was the baby’s position. He was footling breach. I kept telling my doctor that something was different about this baby, and that it felt like with each kick I was going to drop him. No wonder – that was a foot against my cervix, not a head! The doctor wanted to do a c-section right away, but I told her that I wanted to wait until I went into labor to see if he had turned. Everyone prayed for me and the baby, and sure enough, the baby turned. I went to the doctor the next week and told her the baby had turned, but she wanted to do an ultrasound, just to check. Just then, the baby tap-danced across my belly with little feet sticking out just below my ribs. She believed me then.

From the 2002 article entitled “Normal Birth as the Standard Versus Cesarean as a ‘Deserved’ Choice” published in The Journal of Perinatal Education:

An example of the support for the second trend is obstetrician David Campbell Walters’ book, Just Take It Out! : The Ethics and Economics of Cesarean Section and Hysterectomy(1999). Dr. Walters examines the high malpractice insurance rates of obstetricians. He thinks more cesareans could mean fewer lawsuits. He also claims that, in five years, births will almost certainly be 50% cesareans and, in 20 years, there will be no more vaginal births.

Also, thank you for all of the thought-provoking comments and e-mails lately. I appreciate them all.

Jill--Unnecesarean |

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Friday

26Jun

Brave Message Board Mom Questions Necessity of First Cesarean

Friday, June 26, 2009 at 11:55PM

I read a lot of message board threads about c-sections when they come up in my Google Alerts. Albeit just a little too voyeuristic for my taste, it is always interesting to me to observe how and what information and wisdom is shared from woman to woman.

Was I lied to?!

Thinking about going into labor this time around has made me start to think about the day I had J. And the more I think about it the more I think the doctor lied to me about needing a c-section. Nothing was said to me about why I needed one after trying to push for maybe 30 mins. I just figured the doctor knew what he was doing and I trusted him. He acted weird torward my husband and mom, even asked “Do you think I did the right thing?”, we thought it was odd but didn’t give it a second thought really. I was told in recovery that I could have died but when I go back and think….how was I going to die? I felt fine just really wanted to push but was told not too.

It wasn’t until my first appointment with C that I was told he was face up and trying to see where he was going (which is so very him). Never once was I told this when I had him. The doctor I saw that day said “you can try for a VBAC if you want”, after reading my birth story thing in my chart and after that I never saw that doctor again…I’ve been seeing the doctor who delivered J who says I have to have a c-section. He’s out of town for the month so last time I saw the midwife who said 40+weeks for a c-section, and tomorrow I see the dr who said I could try for a VBAC.

The reason I think I was lied to was because for the hell of it I’ve been reading about face up births, and everything I see says it’s possible just takes longer. It was almost 5 pm when they said “c-section” and it makes me wonder was he just wanting to go home and I was taking to long? Because right after my c-section he went home…

I have all these thoughts racing through my head about this and the more I read about it and the more I think about it makes me think he was in the wrong for making me have a c-section.

Tomorrow I’m going to demand to see my chart and read what was put by that doctor. I want the truth and I just feel like I wasn’t told the truth.

A few excerpts from responses:

I am going through this right now. When I was at 24 weeks my OB ALREADY scheduled my CS!! Oh and by the way the next day he is leaving for vacation!! Needless to say I went ballastic. I am very much jaded especially w/ OB’s from NY because **most** of them do CS because time is money and money is time.

I am not saying ALL doctors are like this but there is a trend going on and no one is sticking up for these woman which some are getting needless CS. We are born to give birth. Give us the support, time and encouragement and we can do it. I am sure there are defacto time limits each hospital puts into place with active birth. They don’t want a prolonged labor. They want the babies out, the beds filled and gone within two days!! Why you think they are so big on the interventions? Gotta break your water, or push the pitocin, etc. With each intevention it snowballs out of control.

I, too was forced into a CS and have all medical records from the first and sought out a second opinion. I was told, that there really was no medical reason why you had to get a CS. Yes, the **official diagnosis was** hydramnios (too much amniotic fluid) which was stated in my medical records after the CS as being borderline in the post-op report. THe other reason was Macrosomia (basically a big baby). H was 9 lbs. THe other opinion I sought said the “bookmark weight” for Macrosomia is usually 10.5 lbs. so she had no idea why I was diagnosed with that either. SHe also said “At the time your’re doctor probably felt it was the right thing to do”. Sure because he probably did not want to miss his tee time!!

I would go out and get a second opinion. I will be, if our meeting today does not turn out the way we planned. Today, I will ask him to give me a valid reason why I cannot try for a VBAC and don’t give me the BS about the 1% chance of uterian rupture either or “do I really want to push out a 9+ lb. baby” which by the way was one of his answers. For him it may purely be an insurance obstacle. VBAC coverage in NY costs the OB’s more and therefore alot opt out of it, NOT telling their patients!!

THere is another organization that may of be some help to you too, ICAN. International Cesarean Awareness Network International Cesarean Awareness Network

The best of luck to you. I hope it works out for you. You’re not alone in this there are a lot of woman who look back at the day which is suppose to be one the joyest occasions in their life as a day when they were not allowed to experience actual childbirth. I have a horrible memory of my daughter’s birth and it brings tears to my eyes. I feel cheated and often say she was “surgically removed from me” because in actual reality that is exactly what happened. I was never given the chance to feel a contraction, push or anything. I don’t even know what a contraction feels like. How crazy is that??? Of course there are times when a CS are medically needed but the current trend that is going on in this country is staggering.

***

Good luck at your appointment and getting the info you need! And remember, this is your pregnancy, baby and body, not the doctors. If you want to try for that VBAC you should be given all opportunities to do just that. Im so tired of doctors making us feel like we don’t have a choice. With my first 7 years ago, I felt I was educated when truly I wasn’t. I labored for 18 hours with out pain relief or much support from doctors or nurses. Instead of laying in bed they could of helped by telling me vertical positions help baby move down the birth canal. That laying in bed actually makes labor harder because you don’t have gravity. I was not told that you can have more heart decels after the breaking of the water because its no longer there supporting the umbilical cord. I don’t know, you go into the hospital thinking they are there to help, but really, each intervention can make things worse for a lot of women. I had zero problems with labor other than pain until I gave in and broke the bag of water and had the epi. I was 8 cm at that point and then baby started having heart decels and they were talking section. I guess I just feel our bodies were designed for birthing and our bodies know what to do the right way. I know not everyone can have a vaginal birth and c sections are truly needed, but I do believe sections are out of control. This time around Im more educated and I am truly hoping my education and past experience in the labor room will allow me to have the birth I truly want to have.

Jill--Unnecesarean |

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