© 2010, Carol Peterson, ICCE, CD(DONA) Erie, PA

Birth Journeys

Carol Peterson, ICCE, HCHI, CD(DONA)

Instilling Confidence in Birth Since 2004

814-899-7722  * cbecarol@yahoo.com

 

Natural Childbirth an Option after C-Section

(reprinted from The Erie Times News wire report, March 15, 2010)

 

In recommendations that could make a dent in the nation's rising C-section rate, a national group of experts called last week for a revision of hospital guidelines to allow more women to avoid a repeat Caesarean birth.

 

Vaginal birth after a C-section "certainly is a safe alternative for a majority of women," said Dr. F. Gary Cunning-ham, chair of the consensus committee for the National Institutes of Health.

 

Hospitals and doctors also should make public their rates and policies about vaginal birth after a C-section, the committee said.

 

Citing a lack of research, the committee said it could not go further to pinpoint which women can safely undergo a vaginal birth after Caesarean -- known by its abbreviation, VBAC -- or how factors such as age and weight affect a woman's ability to undergo natural childbirth.

 

"We can't go stronger; these are the strongest recommendations we can make," Cunningham said. The recommendations are to be posted soon on an NIH Web site for consensus reports, www.consensus.nih.gov.

 

Debra Bingham, president-elect of Lamaze International, a proponent of natural childbirth, said her group and others will circulate findings so couples can discuss birth choices with their doctors. "The pendulum has swung too far," she said, citing C-section rates at 31 percent, an all-time high in the U.S.

 

The recommendations will put pressure on two large doctor groups to change their guidelines saying hospitals should not allow women with a prior C-section to undergo natural childbirth if the hospital does not have obstetricians and anesthesiologists round-the-clock. Those recommendations from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Society of Anesthesiologists are under review, an ACOG spokesman said.

 

Dr. Sonia Hassan, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, said the new recommendations should trigger "a push for doctors to educate women in a more individualized way."

 

 

-- from wire reports