foodconsumer.org: Vaginal birth okay for women who have had Cesarean section

Vaginal birth okay for women who have had Cesarean section
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admin on 03/13/2010 14:40:00
 
A panel of medical experts on Wednesday recommended the majority of women who
have had a caesarean section in the past should be allowed to give birth
naturally.
Currently, doctors don't allow women who have had a caesarean section to give
vaginal birth fearing that a natural birth would lead to uterine rupture
endangering the baby and they may be sued by their patients when something major
occurs.
The rate of vaginal birth after caesarean or simply called vback has been on the
decline from 28.3 percent in 1996 to currently less than 10 percent.
VBAC is a safe alternative for the majority of women who’ve had one prior”
Caesarean if the incision was horizontal and low on the uterus, Dr. F. Gary
Cunningham at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas was
cited as saying by New York Times.
About 70 percent of women who have received a caesarean section may try to have
a vaginal birth and 60 to 80 of them would succeed, according to a report by the
times.
A Caesarean is riskier for the mother while a vaginal birth is riskier for the
baby.  Both methods carry risk either for the baby or the mother.
The high rate of VBAC may not indicate that doctors like doing a Caesarean,
which assumably make more money for the doctors. They have some legitimate
concern.  a medical researcher was cited as mentioning a case of uterine rupture
during a VBAC in which the baby died and the hospital lost a lawsuit for $35
million.
By Jimmy Downs
Readers' comment:
Mr. Downs, I think the spirit of your article is in the right place, but I urge
you to be careful with absolute statements like, "doctors don't allow women who
have had a caesarean section to give vaginal birth fearing that a natural birth
would lead to uterine rupture endangering the baby and they may be sued by their
patients when something major occurs."
I am on the side of the women who fight for VBAC, but I think it's risky and
perhaps poor journalism to minimize and compartmentalize the argument with that
sentence. Perhaps you should link to the NIH statement on the VBAC so your
readers can get a full picture of what both sides are saying:
http://consensus.nih.gov/2010/vbacstatement.htm.
Then, we can get down to arguing for a stronger position in support of VBAC
based on the evidence presented.
From Katy