She’ll VBAC

I was floored by this article about a woman from Page, Arizona who has to move 300 miles from home in her last month of pregnancy in order to deliver at a hospital where they’ll allow her to deliver her baby vaginally. Her husband, who will have to stay home to care for their three young sons, won’t be able to be there, and she won’t be able to have her familiar comfort and support systems nearby. The reason? Her local hospital, where she delivered all three of her other children, will no longer allow VBACs (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean section). But the story gets even crazier. This woman, who had to have an emergency c-section with the birth of her second child, has already delivered successfully via VBAC at the very same hospital that now refuses to allow her to avoid surgery. I was even more flabbergasted to read that nearly half of all hospitals refuse to do VBACs because of their “higher than usual risk for complications” even though the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists says that risk is less than 1%. It seems that liability insurance is getting in the way not only of good medical practice (not to mention a good practice that actually drives DOWN the cost of care), but also the most basic, longstanding human event in history. I didn’t have a c-section with the birth of my daughter, but I wouldn’t hesitate to if my doctor recommended I needed it. And I’m not the home birthing type, though I applaud my friends who are. And, hey, when push comes to shove, who really wants to have any type of medical care at a place or with a person who doesn’t want to do it. But still and all, this just seems so wrong.

--News Mom