Breastfeeding and Skin to Skin in the Operating Room

"With a Cesarean birth the baby can be brought to mom's chest and feed even as the incision is being closed."

Skin to Skin in the OR

The routine is generally to whisk the baby away for weighing, drying, and doing newborn checks while the doctors close the incision and the mother lies on the operating table. As long as the newborn is in stable condition, it can be brought to the mother and held skin to skin just as many would after a vaginal birth.

There are other things that can be done differently to make a cesarean section birth more meaningful. A friend of mine had a positive experience with her cesarean birth. Her midwife gave some really good suggestions to them before going in for surgery. One of those suggestions was for the father to hold the baby and not let the nurses have him back. When the nurses wanted to put the baby in the bassinet to take him to the nursery, the father gently refused and told them he would hold his son. Even after they told him he wasn't allowed to do that, he held tight to his newborn and insisted on carrying him to the nursery himself. He stayed with the baby when the mother couldn't be there.

There are options other than the normal routine, but you must ask for them. You need to know your rights and how to ensure you get them. Do you have any suggestions for expectant parents on what they can do in the event of a cesarean section?

NY Midwives Lose Right to Deliver Babies at Home

"It's pretty shocking that in a city where you can get anything any hour of the day a person cannot give birth at home with a trained practitioner"

Article: NY Midwives Lose Right to Deliver Babies at Home

As I bask in the glow of the memory of my wonderful home birth, my heart aches for those in NYC who are now being denied that opportunity.

San Diego's Beloved OBGYN Dr. Robert Biter Lost Scripps Encinitas Privileges

Date: Friday, May 14, 2010

Time: 1:30pm - 3:30pm

Location: Scripps Encinitas Hospital

Street: 354 Santa Fe Dr.

City/Town: Encinitas, CA

As of Friday May 7, Dr. Robert Biter's privileges to deliver at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas have been suspended. The hospital refuses to give a reason, and Dr. Biter is legally unable to comment at this time.

Dr. Biter is a Board Certified, capable obstetrician gynecologist, who is famous in the community for his dedication to his patients and commitment to natural childbirth. He does not cut episiotomies or rush his patients off to the operating room for Cesaerean. Dr. Biter is a physician who truly cares about his patients and respects their birth plans.

The suspension of Dr. Biter's privileges has left hundreds of pregnant women without a doctor. It is also part of something bigger. The 'medical' establishment is fighting hard to remove our rights to birth naturally, peacefully and without unnecessary intervention. Midwives have recently been barred in North Carolina, California and Ohio, and the closing of St. Vincent's hospital in New York City left midwives without a hospital backup, as required by law for them to practice.

We must stand up for our rights and act now. We will not be bullied or fearfully forced into birthing according to what the 'medical' establishment deems best. It is our right as women and mothers to choose our birth place and our care providers.

This Friday, May 14, join Ricki Lake, Anna Getty and many others who support choices in childbirth. We will be peacefully rallying in front of Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas in support of Dr. Robert Biter.

Please wear green to represent peace, nature & eco-consciousness, which are all things Dr. Biter supports.

Please bring signs that read:

Bring Dr. Biter Back!

Bring Biter Back!

How is this Mother-Baby Friendly?

This is NOT Mother-Baby Friendly behavior!

Hey Chief of Staff! Bring Biter Back!

Shame on MacCormick-Chief of Staff!

Please bring 5 of your closest friends or family members!

Can't make it? Here's what you can do from home:

Write letters to Dr. Ron MacCormick, demanding that Dr. Biter be reinstated immediately.

Please direct letters to:

Dr. Ronald MacCormick

Chief of Staff

Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas

354 Santa Fe Drive

Encinitas, CA 92024

and cc them to:

Mr. Chris Van Gorder

President & CEO Scripps Health

4275 Campus Point Court

San Diego, CA 92121

Please also send a digital copy to:

Carol Yeh-Garner

awelllivedlife@hotmail.com

Sign the online petition at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bringbiterback/

Join Ricki Lake, Anna Getty and Others in Showing Support of Birth Options

Click here to access the facebook event page for this rally

Informed Consent

When a woman goes to the hospital to have a baby she is given forms to sign, and is usually immediately placed in a hospital room with a bed and hooked up to all kinds of gadgets and strange machines. In the throes of labor does she read through all of the forms and know exactly what she is agreeing to when she signs them? When a doctor, midwife or hospital staff want to intervene somehow with her labor and birth, do they explain all of the benefits and risks associated with that intervention? By law, physicians are required to provide full disclosure to the patient, and this is called "Informed Consent".

The American Medical Association has laid out requirements for Informed Consent as follows:

“Informed consent is more than simply getting a patient to sign a written consent form. It is a process of communication between a patient and physician that results in the patient's authorization or agreement to undergo a specific medical intervention.

In the communications process, you, as the physician providing or performing the treatment and/or procedure (not a delegated representative), should disclose and discuss with your patient:

• The patient's diagnosis, if known;
• The nature and purpose of a proposed treatment or procedure;
• The risks and benefits of a proposed treatment or procedure;
• Alternatives (regardless of their cost or the extent to which the treatment options are covered by health insurance);
• The risks and benefits of the alternative treatment or procedure; and
• The risks and benefits of not receiving or undergoing a treatment or procedure.

In turn, your patient should have an opportunity to ask questions to elicit a better understanding of the treatment or procedure, so that he or she can make an informed decision to proceed or to refuse a particular course of medical intervention.

This communications process, or a variation thereof, is both an ethical obligation and a legal requirement spelled out in statutes and case law in all 50 states.”

Informed Consent is required by law, yet I don't recall being given informed consent for every intervention done on me or my baby in any of my 4 hospital births. This is of grave concern, as I believe all women should be fully aware of the reasons, risks and benefits of what is being done.

I urge every woman to take charge of her own care and insist on having informed consent. After all, it is her legal right and her doctor's legal obligation.

AMA - Patient Physician Relationship Issues - Informed Consent

Family Fights for the Birth They Want

After having a successful vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) at her local hospital a few years ago, Joy Szabo was denied the option of having another VBAC at the very same hospital.

Due to an erroneous interpretation of ACOG guidelines, the hospital changed its policy on VBAC births, and no longer allows them.

"After they lost that fight, Szabo and her husband, Jeff, made an unusual decision. About three weeks before her due date, Szabo moved nearly six hours away from their home in Page, Arizona, to Phoenix to give birth at a hospital that does permit women to have VBACs.

"In the end, the Szabos got the birth they wanted. On December 5, their son Marcus Anthony was born in Phoenix via an uncomplicated vaginal delivery, weighing seven pounds and 13 ounces.

"'It was such an easy birth,' Szabo says. 'I was in the pains of labor for about four or five hours, then I pushed once, and he popped out.'

"The Szabos' story has a happy ending, but it shows that with the rising C-section rate -- now one in three babies is born via Caesarean -- women who want vaginal births sometimes have to fight to get them." (italics added)

What can women do to help ensure that they are given their rights? This article gives some good advice about asking questions, being specific and keeping open communication with your care givers:

Mom fights, gets the delivery she wants

I love this story, because it shows what we can do when we know our rights and insist on them. It also shows that hospital policy is not always what's best for mothers and babies. This woman avoided an unnecessary c-section, and even though it meant temporarily moving her family 6 hours away from their home, she got the birth she wanted. The local hospital refused to let her have a VBAC because of a policy change, even though she had already had a successful VBAC in that same hospital just a few years earlier. I think more women should know their rights, and I'm really glad this story is getting nationwide coverage.

Click here to read more about the rights of Childbearing Women