I strongly believe in a woman’s right to choose. I’m not talking about abortion or contraception (though I do have my opinions on those too), the right I am talking about is the right to BIRTH. I find it appalling that with everything in the news lately about “women’s rights,” you have to dig into the dark depths of the internet to find anyone talking about birth. I fully support a woman’s right to have access to avoid pregnancy, but what about those of us women who WANT to have kids? I strongly believe that women’s rights to have their babies, when, where and in whatever way is safest and most satisfying for each individual woman should be discussed a heck of a lot more often.
One in three babies in America are now born via cesarean section. The national c-section rate of 33% (and over 70% in some hospitals including one in my own backyard) is absolutely ridiculous. Many people justify this rate by saying the outcomes are better, but it’s not true. Did you know I am twice as likely to die in childbirth as my mother was when she had me? (And that’s a statistic for the good ol’ USA, not worldwide). There are only 2 countries (Zimbabwe and Botswana) that had larger maternal mortality increases between 1990 and 2008 (according to the World Health Organization stats.)
It’s now been proven that women in the US are somewhere in the range of four times more likely to DIE after a cesarean birth than after a vaginal birth. With the C-Section rate steadily rising over the past few decades alongside the maternal mortality rate, any Joe Schmo (i.e. Me) can correlate the two: More women are dying because more women are having (unnecessary) c-sections. Unfortunately, the medical establishment doesn’t take kindly to such bold claims, they only listen to researched and proven facts (and even then it can take years to change practices!)
When we decided to return to the states from Ireland I had big plans. I had huge ideas of what I wanted to do with my life. Unfortunately, I got pregnant, sick and overwhelmed with mommy-hood in America and have yet to achieve anything. But, I still have things in the back of my mind of what I’d like to do with my life and one of the things I’d really like to get into is research. I want to find out WHY mothers are dying, WHY the c-section rate is so high and WHY no one cares. Unfortunately these kinds of questions need to be answered by medical researchers and I am not qualified. And even more unfortunately (and disturbing) is from what I can tell no one who IS qualified is asking these questions or at least not looking for answers (or very few people, anyways). How do I know? Well, I found this fantastic website out of the UK that lists every maternity related research study completed (http://www.chimat.org.uk/default.aspx?RID=78458) and I only found two that even touched on maternal mortality.
In a book I once read (in an ideal world if I had the time and no screaming baby, I’d go find it to properly cite, but…) it was suggested by a male doctor that eventually all women in America will probably deliver by c-section. This doctor claims it will be safer, quicker and easier for everyone. What a scary world that would be and as a mommy of two gorgeous little girls who will (most likely) have babies in this proposed future, I feel obligated to do something, to protect their right to at least choose as I have if not have even more freedom and choice when it comes to birthing.
Every mother deserves to hold, cuddle and nurse her sweet, slimy newborn after birth, not be forced to simply kiss their swaddled, capped, eye-gooped newborn on the forehead before the baby is taken away so mom can “recover”.
I’m only one woman with one voice but hopefully if many women all scream together, something will get done.
Here are a few organizations I know of that are trying to fix birthing in America:
Wonderful post – I totally agree! I had a c-section with my first (out of fear brought on by the doctor) and a VBAC with my second. I am so happy to be a VBAC advocate – it was such an amazing experience. You can read my birth story here: http://huppiemama.com/every-birth-has-a-story/
What a beautiful and inspiring story, Carrie!