By LEANNE ITALIE - Associated Press | AP – Tue, Jul 5, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) — One mother chose home birth because it was cheaper than going to a hospital. Another gave birth at home because she has multiple sclerosis and feared unnecessary medical intervention. And some choose home births after cesarean sections with their first babies.

Whatever their motivation, all are among a striking trend: Home births increased 20 percent from 2004 to 2008, accounting for 28,357 of 4.2 million U.S. births, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in May.

White women led the drive, with 1 in 98 having babies at home in 2008, compared to 1 in 357 black women and 1 in 500 Hispanic women.

Sherry Hopkins, a Las Vegas midwife, said the women whose home births she's attended include a pediatrician, an emergency room doctor and nurses. "We're definitely seeing well-educated and well-informed people who want to give birth at home," she said.

Robbie Davis-Floyd, a medical anthropologist at the University of Texas at Austin and researcher on global trends in childbirth, obstetrics and midwifery, said "at first, in the 1970s, it was largely a hippie, countercultural thing to give birth outside of the hospital. Over the years, as the formerly 'lay' midwives have become far more sophisticated, so has their clientele."

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which certifies OB-GYNs, warns that home births can be unsafe, especially if the mother has high-risk conditions, if a birth attendant is inadequately trained and if there's no nearby hospital in case of emergency. Some doctors also question whether a "feminist machoism" is at play in wanting to give birth at home.

But home birthers say they want to be free of drugs, fetal monitors, IVs and pressure to hurry their labor at the behest of doctors and hospitals. They prefer to labor in tubs of water or on hands and knees, walk around their living rooms or take comfort in their own beds, surrounded by loved ones as they listen to music or hypnosis recordings with the support of midwives and doulas. Some even go without midwives and rely on husbands or other non-professionals for support.

Julie Jacobs, 38, of Baltimore, who has multiple sclerosis, said she "chose midwives and hypnosis because I wanted to surround myself with people who would support me as a birthing mother, rather than view me as an MS patient who would be a liability in need of interventions at every turn."

Her first two children were born in a freestanding birth center operated by midwives. After the center closed, her third child was born at home in 2007. "If I had been in a hospital I probably would have had C-sections for all three," she said. "With the first, I would have been terrified to try a home birth. After the second one I was like, hey, I can't necessarily walk in a straight line, but I can do this."

Some home birthers cite concerns over cesarean sections. The U.S. rate of C-sections in hospitals hovers around 32 percent, soaring up to 60 percent in some areas. In some cases, there's a "too posh to push" mentality of scheduled inductions for convenience sake (Victoria Beckham had three).

Gina Crosley-Corcoran, a Chicago blogger and pre-law student, had a C-section with her first baby and chronicled nightmarish pressure from nurses and doctors to abandon a vaginal birth with her second. She followed up with a third child born at home in April.

"I do think there's a backlash against what's happening in hospitals," she said. "Women are finding that the hospital experience wasn't a good one."

In Portland, Ore., acupuncturist Becca Seitz gave birth to both her children at home, the first time in 2007 because she and her husband were without insurance.

"It was never on my radar, until we couldn't afford otherwise," she said. "I'm granola, but not that granola. It cost us $3,300, as opposed to over $10,000 in a hospital."

Her midwife was prepared with the drug Pitocin, oxygen and other medical equipment.

"They were both born over the toilet," she said. "It was a nice position. It's a way that we're used to pushing."

Dr. Joel Evans, the rare board-certified OB-GYN who supports home birth, said the medical establishment has become "resistant to change, resistant to dialogue, resistant to flexibility."

"Women are now looking for alternatives where they can be treated as individuals, as opposed to being forced to comply with protocols, which however well meaning, have the impact of both medicalizing childbirth and increasing stress and anxiety around delivery," said Evans, founder and director of the Center for Women's Health in Stamford, Conn., and an assistant clinical professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

By some accounts, in 1900, 95 percent of U.S. births took place at home. That slipped to half by 1938 and less than 1 percent by 1955.

Today, most midwife-attended births take place in hospitals in the U.S., and many midwives are licensed nurses. But there are also close to 1,700 midwives who practice outside of hospitals, said Davis-Floyd. In 27 states, so-called "lay" midwives who lack nurses' training but are licensed and certified as professional midwives can attend births legally.

Some women chose home births after learning about it from TV shows or documentaries. The show-all "House of Babies" on Discovery Health Channel from 2005 to 2009 was filmed at a Miami birth center run by a midwife. Actress Ricki Lake screened her movie, "The Business of Being Born," around the United States in 2007 after giving birth at home to her second child. The film also showed Lake's filmmaking partner, Abby Epstein, documenting her own frantic taxi ride to a New York hospital after abandoning her home birth because the baby presented feet first, with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck.

Michael Robertson, 27, of Poulsbo, Wash., knew nothing about home birth before watching the TLC series.

"I just really had my mind set on a water birth, like on the show," she said. "It looked so cool, so relaxing."

She had two babies at home, but opted for a planned hospital delivery for her third child due to complications. She's glad she had the choice. "If you don't know your options, you don't know what's out there to begin with," she said. "I don't think an OB will say to you, 'Hey, did you know there was this thing called home birth.'"

Most studies of home birth have been criticized as too small to accurately assess safety or distinguish between planned and unplanned deliveries, according to researchers Kenneth C. Johnson and Betty-Anne Daviss.

In 2005, they published a study in the British Medical Journal based on nearly 5,500 home births involving certified professional midwives in the United States and Canada. The study, considered one of the largest for home births, showed 88 percent had positive outcomes, while 12 percent of the women were transferred to hospitals, including 9 percent for preventive reasons and 3 percent for emergencies.

The study showed an infant mortality rate of 2 out of every 1,000 births, about the same as in hospitals at the time, Davis-Floyd said.

"Women who are truly educated in evidence-based maternity care understand the safety and the multiple benefits of home birth," she said.

Licensure will…

1. Make legal the practice of Certified Professional Midwives (CPM).
2. Increase access for consumers to CPMs and safe out-of-hospital births.
3. Make possible Medicaid and insurance coverage for care with a CPM.
4. Create a sustainable, viable career in direct entry midwifery for future generations of midwives.
5. Encourage better, safer hospital collaborations and transfers, when the need arises.
6. Provide a grievance and accountability mechanism for midwives.
7. Protect consumers and midwives from criminal charges for participating in out-of-hospital births.
8. Use the CPM credential, created by midwives, for midwives, and for out-of-hospital birth, as the standard of competency.
9. Provide qualification standards for midwives, helping consumers to determine midwives’ education and experience.
10. Join the trend of more than half the US states that license direct entry midwives and reap its benefits.
    

Health experts have long promoted that breast feeding is best for new babies, but a new trend may be taking it to the extreme.  With social networking and exchange websites, a practice commonly referred to as milk sharing is more accessible than ever.

Full Article Here:  http://dothanfirst.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=175077


What's your take on Milk Sharing?  Leave us a comment!

Safety

Using a sling incorrectly is not unlike using an infant car seat without proper installation, infant positioning, and restraints.

Do:     Check to ensure that your baby is not curled up tightly in a chin-to-chest position
Do:     Make sure your baby's back is straight and supported
Do:     Make sure that your baby is "close enough to kiss".
          
Don't:      Never jog, run, jump on a trampoline, or do any other activity that subjects your baby to similar shaking or bouncing motion

Benefits

·        Babywearing reduces infant crying significantly.
·        Babywearing helps infants fall asleep more easily and sleep longer, both of which also reduce the mother’s stress.
·        Babywearing promotes bonding between the mother and infant.
·        Babywearing allows a mother to care for her baby while attending the daily tasks of living.

Types of Carriers

· Wraparound Slings
A simple strip of cloth that is used to wrap and tie around the baby.  Wraparound slings can be short, for quick one-shoulder carries, or longer, to distribute the baby's weight evenly over two shoulders and the caregiver's torso and hips.

· Ring Slings
A ring sling is a shawl with a pair of rings attached to one end. Some ring slings have padding where the sling rests on the caregiver's shoulder or along the edges of the sling, and some depart further from traditional shawl carriers by having the fabric at the end of the sling folded and stitched into a rope-like tail.

· Pouch Slings
Simply a tube of fabric with a curved seam. Pouches are sized to the adult wearer, and what they lack in adjust-ability they make up for in convenience. Few carriers take up less space in a diaper bag or are as quick to put on and take off as a pouch.

· Mei Tais
The modern take on a traditional Chinese baby carrier with a body panel, shoulder straps, and waist straps still carries the traditional name, "mei tai". The new-generation mei tais typically have either wide, padded shoulder straps, or extra-wide, wrap-style, unpadded straps for the wearer's comfort. They also offer a variety of features such as headrests or sleeping hoods for the baby, pockets for diapers or other essentials, and fabric choices that range from strictly utilitarian to truly luxurious.

· Soft Structured Carriers
Also with a body panel and shoulder and waist straps, soft structured carriers replace knots with buckles and add a thickly padded waistband and shoulder straps. The result is a different weight distribution and overall different look and feel from a mei tai, putting this style of carrier into a category of its own. Soft structured carriers offer the convenience of buckles yet are vastly different from framed backpacks in that they hold the baby securely against the wearer's body. Unlike framed backpacks, soft structured carriers are suitable from birth through toddlerhood and provide the benefits of body-to-body contact for the baby.

By Rachel O'Donnell


Many of us think: “Birth is a natural event. Women have been giving birth forever. So why should I need to do a lot of research about it and record my preferences in a Birth Plan? Birth is going to happen whether I make a research project of it or not.” Nothing could be truer. It’s going to happen. But today what we may consider normal labor and birth, is not necessarily what the hospital considers normal management of your labor and delivery. Normal medical management of labor and delivery in Houston County in 2008 meant a Cesarean Section rate of 42% at SAMC and 38% at Flowers. Compared to a national C-section rate of 33%, those are pretty scary numbers. Enterprise comes in just below the national average, at 32% (Center for Health Statistics, www.adph.org/healthstats/assets/mch08table14.pdf). A birth plan is a great way to help stay off the slippery slope of medical intervention. For women hoping for an un-medicated delivery, a birth plan is an absolute necessity. With the majority of Wiregrass mothers choosing an epidural, the natural standard will not be hospital standard. For women planning on an epidural or other pain relief, there are still many choices being made for you and your infant that you may wish to consider. We are individual mothers and hospital standards of care are one size fits all. Once a mother is in labor is not the time to try to explain why you don’t want continuous fetal monitoring or an IV or why you don’t want to lay on your back to push. Most doctors and nurses are more than happy to do their best to accommodate and even advocate for patient wishes if they know what they are.

Making a birth plan is a great opportunity to research birth issues, find out what the current medical birth culture is like, and come to decisions about what your own preferences are. Some issues to consider in a birth plan are: Would you like to avoid Pitocin/induction or augmentation? Do you want to limit cervical exams? Do you want to know your progress? Does it really matter how far dilated you are? Monitoring: do you want continuous fetal monitoring, cordless or intermittent monitoring?  Do you want anesthesia or not- when, not unless you ask, do you want it never mentioned to you? Do you choose to have an IV, a hep loc, none at all? If things slow down would you prefer amniotomy? Nipple stimulation? Pitocin? Nothing?  What position do you favor for pushing- anything but on your back? Props (i.e. squat bar, birthing ball, etc). Coaching- mother directed pushes vs nursing directed? How do you feel about episiotomy? If you are beginning to tear, before any hint of a tear? Would you rather tear? Who do you want present or not in the birthing room?  Do you want immediate skin-to-skin for mother and baby?  Cutting of the cord: who and when- after it stops pulsating? Who would you like to announce the sex of your child? Placenta delivery: are you ok with cord traction, manual removal, Pitocin? Vernix- rub it in or wash it off? Do you prefer to delay routine tasks to enhance bonding and early breastfeeding; Do you want to insist on breastfeeding only  and your choices in case of problems, hypoglycemia etc? Do you consent to Vitamin K injection for your infant?  Hepatitis B vaccination? Does your baby need the gunk in his eyes? Do you choose to circumcise?  

The number of issues may seem overwhelming. Some of these routines will be very important to one individual mom, and others not at all. That is why we all need a birth plan! You want to have a good birth experience. The hospital staff want you to have a good birth experience. A birth plan is the beginning of the positive communication that can bring these goals together. 

The largest study of home births attended by Certified Professional Midwives, as published in the British Medical Journal, has found that home birth is safe for low risk women and involves far fewer interventions than similar births in hospitals.

Safe & Healthy Outcomes

• Results are consistent with most studies of planned home births and low risk hospital births
• Zero maternal deaths
• Intrapartum and neonatal mortality: 2.0 per 1000 intended home births (only 1.7 per 1000 intended home births when planned breech and twin births are excluded)
• Immediate neonatal concerns resulted in just 2.4% of newborns being placed in neonatal intensive care
• At six weeks well over 90% of mothers were still breastfeeding their babies

Low Rates of Medical Intervention

• Much lower rates of interventions for intended home births compared to low risk hospital births:

* These numbers differ from the BMJ article where data for CPMs included forms of induction and stimulation only used by midwives and not comparable to hospital births.

Satisfied Mothers

• Only 1.7% of the mothers said they would choose a different type of caregiver for a future pregnancy

Few Transfers to Hospital Care

• Only 12.1% transferred to hospital intrapartum or postpartum
• Five out of six transfers were before delivery, most for failure to progress, pain relief or exhaustion
• Midwife considered transfer urgent in only 3.4% of intended home births

High Credibility

• Included all home births involving Certified Professional Midwives in the year 2000
• 5,418 women in U.S. and Canada who intended to give birth at home as of the start of labor
• Prospective – every planned home birth was registered in the study prior to labor and delivery

“Outcomes of planned home births with certified professional midwives: large prospective study in North America.”  Kenneth C Johnson and Betty-Anne Daviss. BMJ 2005;330:1416 (18 June). 



This article and related letters to the editor are available online, free, at http://www.bmj.com. 
(Use the search feature and type Daviss for the author.)

©Citizens for Midwifery 2005 www.cfmidwifery.org/pdf/CPM2000.pdf  Permission to reprint with attribution.

by Ashley Motzenbecker, CD (CBI), PED

As our society has slowly placed more and more emphasis on the "due date", we have forgotten that babies don't keep a calendar with them in your womb. Each baby is unique. It grows at it's own pace. And frankly, it should be allowed to pick its OWN birthday. Why? Because it is safer. Safer for your baby, and safer for you.

Babies that are induced before they are ready can have trouble breathing, staying warm and breastfeeding, and they often need special hospital care after birth. In fact, we are beginning to see a large increase in pre-term births, mostly due to the fact that we are inducing and sectioning babies way before they are ready.

Induction isn't devoid of risk for mothers either. Research shows that first-time moms who are induced are twice as likely to have a cesarean as one whose labor starts on its own.

Actually, I've only scratched the surface here. The other risks involved are restriction of your movements, IV fluids, continuous fetal monitoring and denial of food and drink. These often lead to epidurals, because induced labors are significantly more painful. Epidurals lead to catheters, internal monitors and confine you to a bed. They can even lead to an assisted delivery with a vacuum or forceps. AND as mentioned above, inductions often lead to a cesarean, usually for fetal distress or stalled labors. Oh, and did I mention that sometimes an induction just doesn't work at all?

Some advice for pregnant women... skip the elective induction. No matter how miserable you think you are, no matter how many times your well meaning friends call and ask if you've had the baby yet, no matter how tempting it is to schedule when you'll meet your baby... be strong, for yourself, for your baby and for your birth. 

by Ashley Motzenbecker, CD (CBI), PED

Every baby deserves to be breastfed!  Nursing a child provides maximum nutrition and is a source of comfort for both mom and baby. But, for some moms, breastfeeding is hard and not at all what they expected.  They experience everything from engorgement to Mastitis, a breast infection.  To help prepare you for the wonderful experience that breastfeeding should be, here are some helpful tips if problems do arise.

Four of the most common breastfeeding difficulties include engorgement, sore nipples, Mastitis and plugged ducts.  Consequently, these are also the most painful of the breastfeeding problems, and often lead to the end of a breastfeeding relationship.  But they don't have to!  They are all easily remedied with the right help and support.

Engorgement refers to the swelling of the breasts, caused by expanding veins and the pressure of new milk.  Within 72-96 hours of birth, you will notice changes in your breasts as milk production increases.  The often causes a full, firm, warm and sometimes tender feeling in the breasts.  Your breasts will adjust over time, but until then, making sure that you are emptying the breast completely at each feeding, and doing so frequently, is the best way to avoid extreme or prolonged engorgement.  If the engorgement is painful, experiment with both warm and cold compresses, and gently massage the breasts during a feeding.  If the engorgement becomes severe or you are in a lot of pain, or if you develop a fever, seek help from a lactation professional.

Sore nipples are another common complaint among breastfeeding mothers.  Breastfeeding is not supposed to hurt, but many new mothers find that in the first few weeks of breastfeeding, they experience tenderness of the nipples.  This is normal and will improve as the baby gets better at nursing.  The key to avoiding prolonged or intense soreness is to make sure that you baby has a good latch, with the nipple deep in its mouth.  You can also apply a lanolin cream to your nipples after breastfeeding to soothe tenderness.  If your nipples are very sore or cracked, a moist environment is recommended for healing.  Medela Tender Care Hydrogel pads are a great product for this.  If after a few days of trying comfort measures the pain increases or you see bleeding, seek the help of a lactation professional.

Plugged ducts are one other common complaint among breastfeeding mothers.  A plugged (or blocked) duct is an area of the breast where milk flow is obstructed.  You will usually notice a hard lump or wedge-shaped area of engorgement in the vicinity of the plug that may feel tender, hot, swollen or look reddened.  The best way to treat a plugged duct is to unplug it.  Continue to breastfeed on the affected side, and pump if necessary.  It is important to get the milk out of the breast, so that the blockage can be dislodged.  Use breast massage and warm, moist compresses to relieve pain.  It also helps to vary the baby's position during feedings, so that milk isn't being pulled from just one section of the breast.  If you develop a fever, seek treatment, as a plugged duct can lead to Mastitis if untreated.

Mastitis is an inflammation of the breast that can be caused by obstruction, infection and/or allergy.  The breast becomes inflamed, and there is swelling, redness, tenderness and pain. You may feel tired, run down, achy, have chills or think you have the flu.  Mastitis also causes a fever.  The best way to prevent Mastitis is to relieve engorgement promptly and breastfeeding frequently.  If you do get Mastitis, don't quit breastfeeding!  Weaning increases the risk of a breast infection turning into a breast abscess that requires surgical draining. Continuing to nurse your baby is the best treatment, along with lots of rest and fluids, alternating warm and cold compresses and breast massage.

Most importantly, if you experience ANY problem with breastfeeding, even a minor one, seek help immediately! 

La Leche League of the Wiregrass

Web:  http://wiregrasslll.webs.com/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/La-Leche-League-of-the-Wiregrass/145790118827986

Wiregrass Birth Network

Web:  http://www.wiregrassbirthnetwork.com/index.html
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/wiregrassbirthnetwork 

Keitha Madrie, RNC, IBCLC

Lactation Specialist, Southeast Alabama Medical Center
334-673-4141 or 1-877-877-8724 ext 4 

by Stephanie Emfinger, CD (CBI)
Chapter Co-Leader

Happy Cesarean Awareness Month, everyone! That’s right--April is Cesarean Awareness Month. In honor of the occasion, the Wiregrass Birth Network’s April meetings will be focusing on c-sections, vaginal births after c-sections, and Dothan’s new chapter of the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) with leader Amanda Martin.

We all agree that the cesarean rate is too high--way higher than the World Health Organization’s recommendation of 10-15%. In 2008, 35.5% of all births were by a cesarean, and the Wiregrass’s main hospitals rates were even higher! More than one out of every three women giving birth in our area will give birth by an abdominal surgery. That is a scary number! So what can a mother do to lower her risks?

First, you have to educate yourself. You can do this by attending Birth Network and ICAN meetings, talking to other moms about their births and common scare tactics used by area doctors, and reading good books about birth and how birth interventions increase your risk of cesarean delivery. Ask your Birth Network co-leaders for a list of good books that they recommend, and let them know if you need more information on a particular topic.

Secondly, you have to set yourself up for success. You need to find a birth situation that works for you, including a birth attendant that will respect your wishes instead of putting your through the system of medical obstetrics. You also need to realize your own role in your birth outcome. It takes courage and a sense of consumer responsibility to stand up to a doctor’s advice or a hospital’s protocol when you know their information is wrong and you feel educated enough to be confident in your decision. A mother can always refuse any drug, procedure, or protocol; and no one can make you do anything if you refuse. If they do, they can be slapped in jail with assault charges! It is your body, your baby, and your right to tell the nurse or doctor that you are giving your informed refusal.

Thirdly, you need to prepare yourself physically. Giving birth is an athletic event, and a body that is not prepared cannot perform as well as it should. Physical preparation for birth includes eating right, exercising, and practicing optimal fetal positioning. Eating a varied and balanced diet is important during pregnancy to prevent pregnancy complications caused by poor diet and to give your muscles all the nutrients they need to perform during labor. Also, good nutrition does not stop when labor starts! A mother needs to stay hydrated and well-fueled during labor to prevent exhaustion.

Regular exercise is also a must during pregnancy. Exercise increases your body’s stamina and overall fitness--training your cardiovascular system, your respiratory system, and even your mental stamina to be able to “stay with it” and keep going during the rough parts of regular exercise and of labor. Walking, swimming, and prenatal yoga are some of the best exercises you can do during pregnancy.

Likewise, practicing Optimal Fetal Positioning (OFP) before and during labor can help prepare yourself physically by getting the baby into a good position for birth. Practicing OFP includes anything that helps put the baby in the best position for birth--head down, chin to chest, and nose to the mother’s back. Some OFP exercises are sitting on a birth ball or on the floor cross-legged, practicing pelvic rocks daily to encourage the baby up and out of the pelvis and into a good position, frequently sitting in good postures with the belly flowing forward and the spine straight, and avoiding couches or chairs that encourage slouching or rounding of the back.

Using mindful labor positions is also a part of OFP. In labor, keep your belly button always pointing down--whether you stand, sit, lie on your side, or use all-fours positions. This gives baby lots of room to rotate properly. Stay off your back during labor because back-lying can take away room from the baby and can cause the baby to have to be pushed against gravity during each contraction as your body tries to align the baby’s head through your pelvic opening. You can also use the lift and tuck, the belly dump, or the rebozo technique illustrated on the Spinning Babies website.  More information on OFP can be found on Amy Hoyt’s blog.

And lastly, along with educating herself, setting herself up for success, and preparing herself physically, a mother needs to be aware that many times a cesarean can be recommended even if there is no true medical reason. Absolute medical reasons for c-sections include a transverse lie (the baby is lying horizontally in the pelvis), a prolapsed umbilical cord (the cord comes down before the baby), and a placenta that separates before the birth (called “placenta abruptio”) or partially or completely covers the cervix (called “placenta previa”). Maternal medical conditions can sometimes demand the early birth of the baby, too; these include severe hypertension, diabetes, and true cephalopelvic disproportion.

But are these the only reasons c-sections are preformed? Not hardly! All kinds of reasons are given to mothers to make them think they need a surgical delivery. Common reasons include “failure to progress”, maternal exhaustion, convenience for mom or doctor, breech presentation, misdiagnosing cephalopelvic disproportion, and fetal distress. Some of these reasons are quite controversial as to whether or not they require a cesarean.

For example, a diagnoses of “failure to progress” could mean that the baby and the mother just need more time; often, the mother and baby are progressing, but mother might not be dilating fast enough to keep everyone else from getting nervous. Mommies and babies need lots of time in labor--time to rotate into a good position, time to let the mother’s birth hormones catch up with her progress in labor, time for immunities to build up in the mother’s colostrum, and time for mother and baby to mentally let go and give in to their labor.

Likewise, some of the other diagnoses that recommend a cesarean are not true medical emergencies. Breech babies can be delivered vaginally if the right conditions are met; they can also be turned using a lot of different methods: the Webster technique of chiropractic care, acupuncture, moxibustion, homeopathic remedies like pulsatilla, or an external version. Cephalopelvic disproportion can easily be misdiagnosed based on ultrasound measurements; but your pelvis loosens and expands during labor just as the baby’s head molds and conforms during labor! And lastly, continuous fetal monitoring can cause over-diagnoses of fetal distress, increasing the risk of a cesarean section without producing better outcomes for mom or baby.

With fears of malpractice suits and litigation increasing among doctors, it is often safer for the doctor’s protection to perform a surgical delivery than to let a mother continue attempting a vaginal delivery; but you can get the information you need before you consent to or refuse any procedure, including a c-section, by asking “B-R-A-N-D”. Ask your healthcare provider, “What are the Benefits? What are the Risks? What are the Alternatives? What if we do Nothing? What if we Delay?” It might not be a true emergency if the doctor or midwife has time to get you to sign a bunch of paperwork, watch an informed consent video, and get prepped for surgery. If the baby is okay and if the mom are okay, feel free to ask for more time so you can avoid being pressured into making a hasty decision.

Armed with these tips of educating yourself, setting yourself up for success, and preparing your body and your baby, you will be able to lower your risks of a cesarean delivery. Happy Birthing!

This excellent information sheet helps you understand the difference between the outcomes of planned vs. accidental home births.  Enjoy.