More About the 2010 Influenza Vaccine

Since my last post about Influenza, the Vaccine and Vitamin D I've come across more pertinent information:

• Several nations banning flu shots for babies: Here's more about the 2010 flu shot triggering neurological disorders in children and teens, and some countries banning the shot from children as a result.
• CDC: Vaccine Selection for the 2010-2011 Influenza Season: This talks about the makeup of the current vaccine, which includes the H1N1 vaccine along with 2 strains of influenza.  The vaccine administered in the Northern Hemisphere is the same as the one given in the Southern Hemisphere.

Given this information, one would think the United States would reconsider promoting the influenza vaccine, but doctors all over the US are still telling their patients to get the shot, along with propaganda everywhere.  Even pregnant women are being encouraged to get the vaccine, when we don't really know what effect it could have on them or their unborn children.

ACOG Issues Less Restrictive VBAC Guidelines

This has just been released by ACOG this week. It's far from perfect, but definitely a step in the right direction!

This is huge. Very important information for women and their care givers regarding vaginal birth after cesarean. Due to copyright issues I'm not including any direct quotes from the article. Please read the article here:

Ob-Gyns Issue Less Restrictive VBAC Guidelines

For information on the impact of the new guidelines, click here.

The Dangers of C-section and Benefits of VBAC

I've recently come across quite a few articles and blog posts about c-sections and VBAC's, and I want to share them with you.

Dangerous delivery shows peril of multiple C-sections - This article may be a bit shocking, but I appreciate the candor about the risks of multiple c-sections. The old adage that "once a c-section, always a c-section" is not necessarily true, although many doctors and women still act like it is. The truth is that the more c-sections a woman has the more dangerous it is for her, and vaginal birth after a cesarean can be a viable option.

"The case points out a fundamental truth about surgical delivery: a first cesarean for most women leads to a cesarean with every pregnancy. And while a first section is quick, easy to perform, and rarely complicated, each repeat surgery carries greater risk."

Does Electronic Fetal Monitoring Increase the Rate of Unnecessary Cesareans? - This blog post on The Unnecesarean outlines something that I've read about in other books and articles: Electronic Fetal Monitoring is unreliable and leads to unnecessary c-sections. You know those belts and monitors that are strapped on a laboring woman in the hospital? One of those is the EFM monitor, and that's the culprit we're talking about. If you haven't heard about this risk before please, PLEASE read this post.

"There are numerous reasons that one of three U.S. births now is by cesarean, but Dr. Alex Friedman blames some on an imprecise monitor strapped to laboring women. Too often, he has sliced open a mother’s abdomen fearing the worst, only to pull out a pink, screaming bundle."

"'Everyone knows it’s a bad test,' said Friedman of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. 'You haven’t done the patient a big service by doing an unnecessary surgery.'”

A Doula’s Journey to Vaginal Birth after Three C-Sections - This is a really cool post written by a doula who had a successful VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) after 3 prior c-sections. She tells her story, her journey, and how she came to experience what she has supported other women in experiencing in her years as a doula. It's a really beautiful story

Dr. Poppy Daniels Surprise VBAC - Dr. Poppy Daniels had scheduled her third c-section and ended up with a surprise VBAC on the same day her surgery was scheduled to happen! I love her perspective as a doctor who is supportive and trusting of women's bodies to birth babies without intervention. She also explains her journey and how she came to have a beautiful surprise vaginal birth.

International Cesarean Awareness Network - For more than just anecdotal evidence, go here for VBAC information and support. ICAN has local support groups everywhere to help women meet and support each other.

WHO: "Elective Cesarean Sections Are Too Risky"

"Despite medical advances and increasing access to improved obstetric care across the globe, surgical childbirths are still more risky for both mother and baby, according to an ongoing international survey by the World Health Organization (WHO).

"A new report from the survey... found that in Asia—in both developed and developing nations—cesarean section births only reduced risks of major complications for mother and child if they were medically recommended. Elected surgical deliveries, on the other hand, put both at greater risk.

"'Cesarean section should be done only when there is a medical indication to improve the outcome for the mother or the baby,' the authors of the report concluded. Common reasons for a recommendation for cesarean delivery included a previous cesarean section, cephalopelvic disproportion (when the baby's head cannot fit through the mother's pelvic opening) and fetal distress."

Click here for the full article in Scientific American Observations

Revealing the Real Risks: Obstetrical Interventions and Maternal Mortality

Dr. Marsden Wagner has written an excellent article about the risks of obstetrical interventions. It's long, but well worth the read. The information can be a bit shocking, but I feel the information he presents is extremely important and should be made known to everyone. You have no options if you don't know what your options are. Please educate yourself on the real risks of obstetrics so that you can make a real informed choice in your own care.

Motherhood: Revealing the Real Risks: Obstetrical Interventions and Maternal Mortality

12 Questions to Ask BEFORE Being Induced for Labor

Preparing for Labor

Inductions - Your Just About Complete Guide

12 questions you shoud ask BEFORE you are laying in a a hospital bed hooked to an IV, monitor and Blood Pressure cuff!

1. Why are you being induced? Are you overdue or are their some health concerns?
2. Would they be opposed to following the ACOG's stanadards and monitoring you till 42 weeks then inducing?
3. How favorable is your cervix? This can affect how they induce and how likely the induction is to be successful. Ask for your Bishop's Score.
4. How do they plan to induce? Are they going to use a cervical ripener to soften your cervix? Are they going to go right to Pitocin? The answers should be tailored to how favorable your cervix is.
5. Ask what they would do if you don't go into labor? Do they send you home and wait it out? How do they manage things?
6. Will they let you eat and drink?
7. Will they let you move about, use water, change positions...?
8. Do they require continuous monitoring or do they do intermittent?
9. Can you have pain meds? When can you have them? What narcotics do they have standard orders for? What dose? Is there a cut off point to recieving painmedications (if you are 8+cm, will you be able to get anything?)
10. If labor is progressing well can we turn OFF the pitocin for a while and see if my body will take over? I would like to have the opprotunity to have the kind of contractions that are perfect for my body and I would like to be able to get off of the monitor for a while so I can walk and change positions easily. I know that this will help ensure proper fetal alignment, more so than laboring in bed. What reasons are there that I couldn't have the pitocin turned off?
11. Is there a time limit on my induction before it is considered a failed induction or turns into a c-section? Do you follow active management? Do I have to progress Xcm in X amount of time? If I am well and the baby is well, can we take it slow and steady instead?
12. Can I decline having my amniotic sac ruptured as part of the induction process? I know that I can reconsider later, like if I get stuck at 8cm for a few hours, but as a matter of routine I would rather not have it ruptured. I worry about the added stress baby could face with the pitocin contractions if they don't have the benefit of the cushion. Fetal malpresentation, cord prolapse and cord compression are other concerns, as well as infection.

For more in-depth information about preparing for labor and the risks involved with labor induction, please click here.

Labor Induction Overused and Puts Mothers and Babies at Risk

My labor was induced with pitocin for the first 2 of my 5 children. After my second child was born I made the conscious decision that I didn't want to be induced again. I didn't like being hooked up to the IV and monitors for the entire labor and being confined to bed, as well as the lack of control over the process of birth itself. I felt that induction was unnatural, and I wanted to see what my body could do on its own with no medical induction or augmentation. That decision played a big part in my birthing journey, which has helped me learn to honor, work with, and trust my body, and has given me greater confidence in myself and faith in the natural order of life.

"In his classic book Husband-Coached Childbirth, Robert Bradley, MD, compares the arrival of human babies by nature's schedule to fruit ripening on a tree. Some apples ripen early, some late, but most show up right in season. Along with Grantley Dick-Read, the father of what we now call 'natural childbirth,' Bradley advocated relaxation, trusting nature, and allowing babies to show up when nature intended."

Let The Baby Decide: The Case Against Inducing Labor

This article goes into great detail in explaining the medical and cultural reasons and ramifications of inducing labor, and it touches on some of the same reasons I chose not to be medically induced again. There are so many reasons women and their care givers choose medical induction, and I think that expectant couples should understand the risks involved with those choices so they can make an active, informed choice in their own care.