Not many people know but this past week, The National Institute of Health in Maryland took on the issue of Vaginal Birth after Cesarean, better known today as VBAC. Since 1996 The United States has seen the VBAC rate drop steadily, as well as the cesarean birth rate increasing to what some experts call “scary numbers” as well as dangerous.
Now as someone who has worked in the activism community, as well as advocacy community to not only promote VBAC but help lower the local cesarean birth rates, I have been met with a lot of resistance, as well as ignorance on the subject. Many people have been lead to believe that the safest option after having a cesarean section is to repeat the surgery for all subsequent children, but as I have shown in several of my posts, as well as the information that the National Institute of Health provided this week that age old myth is simply not the case.
In their presenters, it was found that the safest option after having one cesarean section, is to have a vaginal birth with your next, or all subsequent children.
In the end, not only did the panel who tackled these issues say that women should not only be encouraged to VBAC, but that ACOG should re-visit their recommendation’s about VBAC which is essentially what caused the decline in this process (many called a procedure, but giving birth the way a woman’s body is made to give birth simply is not a procedure in my eyes) and re-write them. While I do not expect ACOG to do this, what has come in the past few days is nothing short of a miracle for the childbirth community in what we have been saying for years.
Now we are seeing loads of attention on a National level on the subjects such a VBAC Bans in hospitals (which this panel has encouraged end), the criticism in the rising number of cesarean sections, and the drastic rise in Maternal Mortality rates in our country. Something that the grassroots organizations have been discussing and screaming from hilltops for a very long time.
Will we see a change in the tides? I certainly hope so, for the future, and safety of our mothers and babies.
