Comments on: On Culture, Cuts, and a Coherent Message.

By: Courtroom Mama

Courtroom Mama — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:02:46 +0000

Thanks for your response, and thank you for trying to humanize cesarean surgery. I’m sorry that you were met with such opposition! My theory has always been that ‘natural’ birth advocates are anti-surgery because of the way that women are degraded or ignored during surgery. Unfortunately, it seems that this is not unequivocally the case. If I were to find myself in a situation where I needed a cesarean, I would hope to retain some semblance of a “birth plan” (as in getting to see my baby as soon as possible, having things explained to me, not being unnecessarily restrained, etc) rather than losing all autonomy because I’m agreeing to surgery. I envision the primary agenda of birthing rights as being to ensure that medical care respects the dignity and informed decision-making of women, no matter what their circumstances of birth might be.

By: cpn

cpn — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:28:49 +0000

I loved this post.

I had a cesarean section last year. I’d had an un-medicated birth before and I expected the same, but that just not how it went down. I’ll never know if medical interventions caused my cesarean or not.

Due to the trauma I endured because of the impersonal way my cesarean was done I felt compelled to research and advocate for more human cesarean protocol. Luckily, I’m not the first person to think of this and there is some good information out there.

I was truly shocked and hurt when this good information was met with dramatic opposition. I was attacked for “promoting elective cesareans”. There really seems to be a need for middle ground folks as one way to birth is never going to be right for every woman.

Thank-you for bringing this issue to light. I’m hopeful that we can come together from all points on the birth spectrum to ensure physically and emotionally healthy mums and babes.

By: Courtroom Mama

Courtroom Mama — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:25:30 +0000

Thanks so much for the props. I totally agree that it is really hard to “zip it,” which is all the more reason that birthing rights people need to be doing a lot of serious outreach to women before they have their kids. People do a lot of mental gymnastics to make things make facts fit their mental schemata, and sometimes feeling that it was, say, a nuchal cord that caused their baby to be in distress and not the pitocin induction, and “oh my goodness thank god they saved my life” is a lot easier than trying to change their entire schema to realize that everything they were told was a lie. And why is it that sex education (to the extent that it exists in the country anymore) doesn’t include information about childbirth other than one gross-out birth video?

Lastly, I wish that we could get out of the adversarial relationship that we have with obstetrics for just a moment to say “look, we know that you are not all evil, but there are some docs out there who are telling women lies. They’re hurting the profession, and you need to check that shit.” I don’t know about medicine, but law is a self-regulating profession with strict ethical guidelines, and lawyers that fall short can be disciplined. If this exists in medicine, we shouldn’t be afraid to pull some cards, you know?

By: KM

KM — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:23:19 +0000

Wow! I really enjoyed that! It’s hard to separate our beliefs from our opinions in the sensitive area of child birth activism. It becomes a lesson in self control, and retraining our way of thinking to say “That is not what I would choose, but I will not judge you for choosing something I myself cannot understand”.

We claim to want to “the right to choose” but viciously attack a person who exercises that right.

All that being said, I think a fair amount of misinformation goes in to the choices many women are making these days, and it’s difficult to “zip it” in the face of a person who feels confident in the choice the made, based on a lie that they were told.

Keep up the thought provoking work!