CNN's Elizabeth Cohen on How to Fight for Vaginal Birth
Friday, December 18, 2009 at 11:09AMSenior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen sat down to discuss defensive medicine, cesarean rates and the fight for vaginal birth with Heidi Collins in the CNN Newsroom.
Cohen offers several tips on what she calls delivery room discussions:
- Is this an emergency or do we have time to talk?
- What would happen if we waited an hour or two?
- Are you sure the baby is too big for me to deliver?
The segment with Cohen touched on one of the biggest problems that pregnant and laboring women face today, which is being risked out of vaginal birth—not for medical reasons, but because doctors don’t like being sued.
Cohen also discussed Joy Szabo’s recent VBAC. Joy Szabo made news for protesting Page Hospital’s VBAC ban and threat of a court-ordered cesarean. She moved five hours away to Phoenix just to have the chance to give birth vaginally in a hospital.
Related articles:
Mom fights, gets the delivery she wants (CNN)
A typo of surgical proportions (ICAN Blog)
Defensive Medicine and Internet Message Boards
VIDEO: CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen Discusses VBAC and Cesarean Section
Joy Szabo Interviewed by Ron Reagan on Air America
Joy Szabo Made Some Noise about a VBAC Ban, CNN Listened
Reader Comments (14)
Oooh, those are good questions!
I am tickled pink about this. High five to Elizabeth Cohen AGAIN!
I would change the "are you sure this baby is too big..." to "HOW are you sure..." The first is easily answered with a flat "yes" which is just the doctor's opinion; the second requires actually transmitting knowledge and revealing the doctor's reasoning. Of course, s/he may still lie/mislead/misinform ("this baby is too big because we estimate the fetal weight to be 8 lb. 7 oz....."), but at least it opens up a bit of dialogue.
Here are the answers you can typically expect to those questions:
Yes it is an emergency and if you want to take the time to talk, your baby could DIE!
We can't wait, unless you want your baby to DIE!
Yes, the baby is too big and if you try to deliver it vaginally, the baby will DIE!
Sorry, I'm a little resentful.
Its more of the same advice that counseling mothers is all that is needed to change the unnecessary dangers that women and babies are exposed to during childbirth.
It totally puts the responsibility of the soon-to-be victim of defensive medicine, which I think is a shame. however, I'm still excited to see the seed planted that you can question your care provider.
I don't know. I can hear every intervention happy OB and L&D nurse in the country laugh out loud about this. Seriously, if it were only that simple. You have to understand the answers and understand how you got there to begin with.
I think it's awesome that I had a successful VBAC the same day Joy did!! And we both went past our "due date", too! Yay! Thanks Unnecesarean for all the wonderful posts helping to keep me motivated and informed during my pregnancy!
Kelly, I am so happy for you. I just went and saw all of your pictures. Beautiful! Congratulations on your new addition.
Jill
As a nurse (although not an L&D nurse), I agree with Maria. Those delivery room questions are laughable. I rarely see calm delivery room "discussions" going on between patient and doctor when the decision for a section has been made. Seriously, how naive is Elizabeth Cohen, senior CNN medical correspondent? These questions need to be answered prenatally. The best chance to avoid a C-Section is to find a provide with a low C-Section rate. Sorry if I sound a tad cynical.
Women should skip question one, because the answer will always be "yes" and they wont get anywhere. I did not like how the article implied that women don't have the right to question things if it is an emergency. Women always have the right to question what is happening and why. Question one just hands providers an easy way out. I mean, I guess it's good that women are being told to question this stuff at all, but why start with a question that will shut all the others down? She should know if it is a true emergency by the way they are rushing her to the OR - if that is not happening then there is time to talk. And even if that is happening, she should still be able to question what is happening on the way and be a part of the decision making process.
Interesting isn't it? I have become such a skeptic. However, some people who are more positive remind me that even these articles make people think and be more proactive. So who know, eh?
A girlfriend and I had this exact conversation this morning. She is currently pregnant with her first baby, low risk, and is planning a home birth with a midwife. A friend of her's from college just emailed this article to her on FB (and all of her other preggo friends) and was really "careful" with the issue. As in, "I don't know what your plans are, etc, but I just wanted to let you know this was out there."
My friend and I were laughing at the article at first, saying how the questions ARE a joke. But then we realized this:
This might be the VERY FIRST TIME someone is ever encouraged to question her care provider. Ever.
So while we birth geeks poo-poo articles like this because we know the difference between reality and what this suggests, but it does plant a very important seed that we are always wondering how to plant in a non-caustic kind of way.
Just my .02.
I know exactly what you're saying, maria and RR and others. But this:
"This might be the VERY FIRST TIME someone is ever encouraged to question her care provider. Ever. "
Pretty much sums up where I'm coming from. It's a start, from a MASSIVE news organization, which reaches more women than all of our beloved birth advocacy blogs combined. Believe me, I'm not always such a cockeyed optimist on this topic, but I'm just pleased to see that women are being encouraged to ask questions of their demigo- er, doctors.
I agree in the positive aspects of questioning the care provider that CNN presented, but not to START the conversation in the delivery room. The delivery room is the second worse place to start a conversation about your options....with the OR being the first worst place.