A victory this Labor Day -250 plus people showed up to rally against the maternity crisis in the Untied States. For the last eight months I have been coordinating and planning this rally for the Los Angeles location. The National Rally to Improve Birth by improvingbirth.org took place in over 170 cities in all 50 states. Some advocates also participated from Japan, Canada and Brazil as well. This rally was not about natural birth vs medicated birth nor was it home birth vs hospital birth, but rather about women having maternity care that is based in evidence and being afforded true informed consent and refusal. The U.S.A. spends more money than any other country in the world on maternity care, yet we rank 45th in maternal safety. Yep... that's right! America shmerica! In the world of birth we are pathetic! It is safer to give birth in Croatia than it is here! Women in America just don't have real options. A woman who has had a surgical birth, 96% of the time, will not be supported or offered a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) for reasons that have nothing to do with the woman's chances for a successful VBAC. Instead it will be because of some strenuous guidelines that a doctor must follow which were put in place by insurance companies. The insurance companies have decided that a woman laboring who is attempting a VBAC must have their care provider on the labor and delivery floor the whole time she is admitted until the birth is completed. An obstetrician who has to pay $250,000.00 a year in malpractice insurance (common malpractice ins. fee) needs to have many patients a month to pay that kind of cash. This makes it nearly impossible for any doctor to spend that kind of time with any patient. If they hung around for as long as some labors take they could never get to their 32 patients a day that are waiting back in the office. That is why women are being forced into repeat c-sections, not because it is best for the mother or baby... put that in your pipe and smoke it! Also, babies are being forced out by artificial inductions (starting labor manually with drugs) or cut out by c-section because the doctor thinks the baby will be to big to birth. Really? Did the doctor X-ray the woman's pelvis and measure the inlet and outlet opening? I doubt it! I attend home births regularly and we never tell women that their body won't be able to get the baby out and guess what? The baby always comes out just fine. I have seen 8,9, even 10 pound babies birth like it was nothing and the mothers vajayjay wasn't even scratched! Then there is the whole "lets control the woman's every move" move. Get this,women can have child services called on them during their labor and delivery just for not signing consent forms that allow the hospital to do a c-section that may not even be needed. This kinds crap happens every day to women who may want anything outside the policy box. Grrrr! My last pet peeve I will bitch about for the day is on informed consent. Example: Any given healthy woman can walk into the hospital while having a normal labor and the staff will get the woman set up for an IV (which she usually does not need) and start a line of pitocin (a synthetic form of the hormone oxytocin which causes uterine contractions) without even asking her, telling her what she is getting, or informing her of the side effects. The kicker is that she didn't need that crap in her veins to begin with! This is some serious, criminal shit going on that violates the human right to not just informed consent but also to informed refusal. What we have here is a medical system that is rot with fear of litigation, fear of birth and fear of losing control. A system that has nine in ten women receiving maternity care that puts women and babies at risk of being harmed instead of keeping them safe. The only way things will change is when birthing families take to the streets and start demanding change. They are the consumers and generally 50% of a hospitals revenue comes from birth patients. We all know money talks! Well, the time has come mi amigos. A few of us birth professionals, including myself, got so sick of watching women's birth experiences get ripped away from them for no reason and sick of watching the hospital machine abuse women and babies. Finally, we got together and started this movement and the ball is rolling. I have so much hope and faith with this years turnout. Last years rally was a success nation wide but without much media coverage. This year we grew so much and had human rights lawyers, congress, and many more families come forth to strengthen our presence. We had national and local news coverage that held true to our message. Guess what? I look pretty good on the camera! Haha! Anyway, it is a start for sure and I am happy with the progress. I hope your Labor Day was as cool as mine and remember, when it comes to giving birth in America, the care that is received should be questioned, examined, and and weighed before handing over our bodies and babies.
here is a link to the CNN clip http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1031239
and the local spot http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=9233894
Peace,
Kimme M.
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