MOTHERS AND BIRTH PROFESSIONALS HOLD MAJOR RALLY TO DEMAND EVIDENCED BASED CARE

On Saturday, December 17^th at 10am – 12pm, dozens of women, men and children gathered in front of Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women in a “Rally for Change”. In 1964 the national c-section rate was 6% and the most recent numbers just released for 2010, the rate is 36%. “This means that more than 1 out of every 3 women is having major abdominal surgery in order to bring their child into the world” says Dawn Thompson of San Diego Birth Network. This peaceful rally is meant to help educate new mothers about the risk of both elective induction and elective c-section.

The rally for change is meant for the vast majority of the birthing female population that has normal healthy pregnancies. Dawn goes on to say “Women deserve evidence-based care that is based on scientific studies, not tradition or "doctor convenience" based care.”  The definition of Evidence based care is; the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. Many women are being told dubious things like; their baby is too big, pelvis too small, and low amniotic fluid, even after all of the studies have shown that the means in which they measure these things are grossly inaccurate. The greatest cause for induction, which 50% of time ends in c-section, is going past their due date. Most doctors do not support a women going past 41 weeks even though their own governing agency, ACOG, states that post dates is not until 42 weeks. Even more incredulous is that many inductions are happening before 39 weeks of pregnancy.

The Rally for Change was meant to make a statement and encourage birthing families to do their own research and understand the clear risks and consequence to elective induction and elective c-sections. Any induction that does not have a “specific medical indication”, such as Pre-Eclampsia, which the life of the mother or baby is in mortal danger, is considered elective. Women are daily misled by their doctors about the easy and casual affects of induction. Women are being traumatized by their birth experience and given arguable reasons for why their induction failed. Doctors rarely state the possibility that the failure was caused by intervening before mother and baby were ready for birth.

Birth trauma specialists like Mary Obata, MFT, see women suffering from PTSD reactions caused by birth experiences that did not go as planned.  She states, "I treat women with symptoms that include flashbacks and trouble bonding with the baby from inductions that resulted in complications and c-sections. The emotional and behavioral consequences are serious for both mother and baby."