The Dangerous Claims of Birthing Blogs

Birth Without Fear is a very popular birthing blog that has wonderful information and inspiration for moms, including the new #takebackpostpartum movement, which inspires women to accept and share their real post-partum figures on Instagram. Unfortunately, I recently read a blog post on the blog titled, “Your Body, Your Birth, Your Baby” that I didn’t love as much. I agreed whole-heartedly with the title, but what followed I found concerning and inaccurate.

1. Your doctor is not a knight in shining armor here to save the day. You do not have to just be happy with what they will and will not let you do. You do not need saving.

Actually you may need saving and so may your baby. This past week I had the most frightening encounter with a laboring patient and her baby that I have had in my career. The patient was laboring and although she had high blood pressure in pregnancy, her labor was routine. The baby had had no signs of distress on the fetal monitor for many hours.

Suddenly, the baby’s heartbeat dropped.

I immediately decided on an emergency c-section and with the help of Anesthesiology, an amazing team of labor nurses and a well prepared OR staff we had the baby delivered in ten minutes. From the time I made the incision on her skin to the time the baby was delivered was less than a minute. Then the baby was immediately handed to the Pediatrics team where resuscitation on a baby that would have otherwise died began. After several blood transfusions and other treatment in the neonatal ICU, the baby is healthy and happy with her parents at home.

We may not be knights in shining armor.

But we are highly trained and educated surgeons who sometimes have to save not just the day, but a life.

2. You can birth a healthy baby at 42, 43 and even over 44 weeks (I have).

You can, this is true.

However, scientific studies have shown that babies after 42 weeks have a higher rate of seizures, respiratory problems from inhaling meconium (bowel movement of baby in fluid), admissions to the neonatal ICU, and increased risk of stillbirth and neonatal death.

You also can drive ninety miles an hour without a seatbelt on, crash into a wall and survive, but do you want to take the risk?

Or do you want to slow down and buckle up?

3. Your body can birth vaginally after one or more c-sections. You were made

     for this!

Yes, but it also might not. Only about sixty to eighty percent of individuals that attempt a vaginal birth after a cesarean (aka VBAC) are successful. And that attempt, if failed, is actually riskier in many ways than having an elective repeat cesarean. You have a higher chance of success based on certain factors. There are good candidates and bad candidates.

According to The American College of OB GYN, people who are less likely to have a successful VBAC include: people who stopped dilating in their previous labor, are over thirty-five years old, non-white ethnicity, past 40 weeks, are obese, have big babies, or have preeclampsia.

In addition, vaginal birth after a cesarean has a risk of the uterus opening up on the uterine scar. This risk is less than one percent if you’ve had one prior lower transverse cesarean (the most common type) and can be up to four percent if you have had more than one lower transverse cesarean, but if this happens you could die and so could your baby.

I fully support VBAC in a good candidate, but that patient also needs to be educated and understand the risks. And it needs to occur in a hospital that is prepared for an emergent delivery if the worst occurs.

You were made for this! Yes you were, but you were also made to possibly bleed to death and die in the process. Many mothers are still dying worldwide due to complications of childbirth.

4. You are not a victim. You are not helpless. You are not broken. You are a mature, beautiful, responsible pregnant mama that can choose to have a c-section 1 week post dates or choose to wait until your baby and body decide to start labor!

If that is what is the safest and healthiest choice for your baby.

I agree that you are not helpless, you can help yourself through the process of pregnancy and birth.

Empowerment comes in the form of knowledge.

One of the ways you can gain knowledge is by seeking the medical advice of a trained professional and not just taking the advice of mothers on the Internet. Just because someone has driven a car a few times doesn’t mean they understand all of the complexities of how the engine was built or how to fix the car when the transmission starts to go out.

OB/GYNs are there for you!

We did not undergo years of school, endless hours of training, rigorous examinations, and intense scrutiny simply to make a living. There are many ways that empathetic, talented people that graduate at the top of their class and score well on standardized tests can make a dollar.

Being an OB-GYN is also consistently rated one of the most stressful jobs in America.

We literally aren’t doing the job for our health.

We are doing it for yours and your baby’s.

When your baby is an infant and develops a fever are you going to try and wait a fever out at home because Sally Joe’s baby had a fever and everything turned out fine?

When your little girl is in kindergarten and she falls down and breaks her arm are you going to try and splint it with a stick and some cloth because “you can”?

When she is in junior high and gets her first cavity are you going to read what to do on a blog on the Internet titled Your Teeth, Your Choice or are you going to take her to the dentist?

When she is a teenager and has heavy menstrual periods that make her weak and tired and cause her to stay home from school are you going to refuse she see a doctor because her body was “made for this”?

Part of being a responsible mama is seeking and listening to the advice of medical professionals.

Not just after your child is born, but also before.

I believe in receiving support from other mothers, sharing stories, and learning from others’ experiences, but this shouldn’t replace the guidance of someone that is formally educated and intensively trained to help and save Your Body, Your Birth and Your Baby.

 

*Sources: ACOG Practice Bulletin 146: Management of Late-Term and Postterm Pregnancies, ACOG Practice Bulletin 115: Vaginal Birth After Previous Cesarean Delivery