About the Author

Jill Arnold is a consumer advocate who founded The Unnecesarean in August 2008 as a collection of big baby birth stories, as well as women’s accounts of their cesareans and VBACs (vaginal births after cesarean).  After refusing a planned cesarean for suspected macrosomia based on a 38 week ultrasound estimate of fetal weight, she gave birth vaginally to a healthy baby and later found that the midwives model of care better met her needs as a pregnant woman. 

Presentations:

Panelist at the upcoming Human Rights in Childbirth Conference at The Hague University of Applied Sciences on May 31-June 1, 2012 [link]

Arnold, J. (2011, October). Mandated Reporting of Maternity Care Utilization Data. Scientific session presented at the American Public Health Association 139^th Annual Meeting and Exposition, Washington, D.C. [link]

Media:

New Website Presents Comprehensive Collection of Cesarean Rates Throughout U.S. Hospitals [link]

Birthrights: The Risk of Choice (documentary), Al Jazeera English, April 2011. [link]

Modern Medicine: Unnecessary C-Sections on the Rise, LiveScience.com, November 2010. [link]

Articles and Advocacy: 

Stakeholder Workgroup Member on the Strategies to Reduce Cesarean Birth Among Low Risk Women project funded by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and conducted by Vanderbilt Evidence-based Practice Center.

Consumer delegate at the Home Birth Consensus Summit, October 2011. [link]

Reviewer for Pregnancy and Birth chapter of Our Bodies, Ourselves 2011 Edition. [link]

Author of “Call It A Comeback? The Many Faces of Nitrous Oxide for Labor Pain Relief”, RH Reality Check, December 2010. [link]

Author of “Discussing Your Options with Your Care Provider”, Lamaze’s A Woman’s Guide to VBAC, 2010 [link]

Cited in “Social Media, Power, and the Future of VBAC”, Journal of Perinatal Education, Summer 2010. [link]

Featured in a full-page in Our Bodies, Ourselves 2011 Edition. [link]