In April, we would like to hold a multimedia presentation called "Positive Birth: Images to Inspire". But for this even to be a success, we need your birth pictures and stories. We are looking for your pictures and the accompanying stories of your empowering home/birth center/hospital birth, we would really appreciate it. Please know that this will be part of a presentation that will be shown to the public. Thank you for your support of ICAN of DC.
(If you would like to donate please email me.)
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Upcoming Midwifery Booth at NBC Health Fair
There will be a health fair at the Washington DC Convention Center sponsored by NBC 4next weekend (January 16-17, 2010). At this health fair will be a booth sponsored by the Citizens for Midwifery. They are looking for women willing to speak to others about their positive experiences with midwifery care and/or homebirth. If you are interested in volunteering an hour, please contact:
Cynthia Warren watershedrangers@gmail.com
This is an excellent opportunity to reach an audience that may not normally have much exposure to the midwifery model of care and/or homebirth.
Cynthia Warren watershedrangers@gmail.com
This is an excellent opportunity to reach an audience that may not normally have much exposure to the midwifery model of care and/or homebirth.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Recent Washington Post Article on Breech
Today in the Washington Post there was an article about the safety and prevalence of vaginal breech births. Breech is a common reason for primary cesarean sections; something that some mothers and obstetricians are beginning to question. In the article it talks about a flawed study in 2000 that resulted in the thought that across the board cesarean section was indicated for all breech presentations. However since then this article has been questioned as many of the providers who performed the breech extractions/births were not skilled enough in breech birth to attend the women. This provided the authors of the study with inadequate data regarding the true safety of breech.
Recently in Canada the breech protocols were changed and doctors were encouraged to support vaginal breech deliveries under a limited set of criteria. This is promising as vaginal delivery of a breech baby would limit the need for many primary and secondary cesareans. Of course, fear of litigation is a driving factor as not all breech births (or births in general) have a necessarily desired outcome. But that should not limit the ability of other mothers to try. True, individualized care is what is appropriate for women, not fear-based protocols.
And also accepting that not every breech presentation is appropriate for vaginal delivery is another important factor to changing the mindset. It is almost universally accepted that footling breech and transverse presentations are not a good candidate for vaginal birth. That is not to say women have not successfully delivered this way, it is just not optimum for success. For more information about breech and breech vaginal deliveries please click here for the ICAN article on breech.
Recently in Canada the breech protocols were changed and doctors were encouraged to support vaginal breech deliveries under a limited set of criteria. This is promising as vaginal delivery of a breech baby would limit the need for many primary and secondary cesareans. Of course, fear of litigation is a driving factor as not all breech births (or births in general) have a necessarily desired outcome. But that should not limit the ability of other mothers to try. True, individualized care is what is appropriate for women, not fear-based protocols.
And also accepting that not every breech presentation is appropriate for vaginal delivery is another important factor to changing the mindset. It is almost universally accepted that footling breech and transverse presentations are not a good candidate for vaginal birth. That is not to say women have not successfully delivered this way, it is just not optimum for success. For more information about breech and breech vaginal deliveries please click here for the ICAN article on breech.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Upcoming NIH Conference on VBAC
In March the National Institute of Health (NIH) will be hosting a conference on vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) nearby in Bethesda, MD. This conference will be free and open to the public. If you cannot attend the conference, it will be broadcast live via webcam.
This will be an interesting event. Many of the speakers lined up and the topics seem to point to a resistance towards positive outcomes for women looking for vaginal birth after cesarean. I think it is important to have some represenation of mothers who have had successful and empowering VBACs to attend, especially for the Public Discussion on the 10th. It will be interesting to see what the outcome of this conference is. Hopefully not more of the same with a smattering of lip service played to women who are looking for true choice for their maternity care and birth options.
This will be an interesting event. Many of the speakers lined up and the topics seem to point to a resistance towards positive outcomes for women looking for vaginal birth after cesarean. I think it is important to have some represenation of mothers who have had successful and empowering VBACs to attend, especially for the Public Discussion on the 10th. It will be interesting to see what the outcome of this conference is. Hopefully not more of the same with a smattering of lip service played to women who are looking for true choice for their maternity care and birth options.
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