Comments on: Hospital VBAC turned CS due to constant scare tactics

By: mumofar

mumofar — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 10:13:36 +0000

I am all for what Gina and Miriam have to say above, I hate to see Obs demonized. However, it does make me very angry that these women were not properly informed. I hear so many women saying they were coerced into an unnecessary c-section and I’ve always wondered how it happened. When I hear their stories, it was the smallest things made out to be huge risk factors, things I think, now, I would just shrug off.

My story was similar in ways though. I ended up with a complication that I was told necessitated surgery and a concurrent c-section. I still haven’t worked out if there was any possible way I could have avoided it even though I have researched high and low. My main objective now is to avoid the situation the woman in your story, and others like her, got into.

Thanks for your analysis of her story, it helps a huge amount to see your feedback about each step of the process that led to c-section. I understand that, to do this, you also need to point out where the Obs were at fault. They are there to save lives, and they do a great job at that, it’s just a shame there is now too much surgery due to everyone’s fear – whether it be fear of death or fear of being sued or fear of not getting home to the family in time for dinner…

By: Jen from vbacfacts.com

Jen from vbacfacts.com — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 06:11:05 +0000

Miriam,

I replied to your comment here.

Warmly,

Jen

By: Miriam

Miriam — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:43:25 +0000

Many of the stories on this website point to the ob/gyns as the bad guys. While I believe there may be some doctors that use tactics and lies, it is overlooked that the doctors are just as misinformed and scared as the patients!
I would like to add a little clarity based on my experience as a patient who has had 2 c-sections. I had a section 5 years ago due to “failure to progress”. (5 minutes after the consent, while the doctor was prepping for surgery, my body signaled the progress I had been “failing” to reach with the most incredible urge to push. However, I thought he knew best and stupidly agreed to continue with the c section.) I have regretted it ever since. However, I believe that the doctor truly was concerned and I trusted it, despite the fact that I personally believe I could have delivered vaginally.
The reason I believe some doctors’ concerns are sincere if not valid is because of the education, both formal and informal, they have received. My ob/gyn was a specialist in many fields of womens’s medicine and so I trusted that. Little did I know I was signing on an expert in surgery. A doctor’s entire training revolves around how to interfere with something very natural… childbirth. They are taught about evey possible bad case scenario, so they are prepared, so they are trained in intervention.
Then they go into the field and begin to learn the hospital and insurance policies that insist the doctor use these scare tactics becase they have been bitten so badly financially by unsatisfied women who sue them into making this policies in the first place. The problem is the high costs associated with lawsuits and therefore, the rest of the vbacs suffer. In my case, I was not ever “allowed” a second c-section because the hospital had lost a single lawsuit against a woman who hemmoraged during her vbac. It was my “bad guy” doctor that has to pay the high cost of mal-practice to the point that, combined with the overhead of his office, he had to deliver 150 before he began to make any money. So out of fear he falls back on his training which tells him that women need help to get a baby into the world.
Instead of blame (another product of fear) we should look to ourselves and educate each other about how to accept disappointment and best of all, how to avoid it by educating ourselves. We can have more confidence for it’s own sake instead of walking into birth/labor with the attitude of going to war with our practitioners.

By: pinkluna

pinkluna — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:04:44 +0000

Dear Gina good for you to be supportive and talk about all possibilities, but the truth is most of the others don’t and do as this sad story tells if not worse, here in Italy where I live they perform C-sections for the most idiotic stupid things and I had a c-section because THEY took me to it, not because it was necessary or wanted, at all, in fact they did all they could to ruin my labor and make a healthy pregnancy end up with a c-section. The hate and mistrust is therefore created by what these doctors do to us and since the majority is like this cause they believe to be gods just cause they studied medicine, there is nothing to be surprise of and you can’t be offended if you know the truth that surrounds you. And you should know it.

By: Ooo…. Scary…. « Woman to Woman Childbirth Education

Ooo…. Scary…. « Woman to Woman Childbirth Education — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:54:22 +0000

[...] “You’re 6 days away from your due date and there’s still no sign of labor and the … — said to scare a woman into scheduling a C-section instead of a VBAC. [...]

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:02:26 +0000

Thank you so much for your comment! My response ended up a lot longer than anticipated. You can read it here.

By: Gina Hoods

Gina Hoods — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:31:18 +0000

I am very disheartened by the tone of this website. I am a board certified Ob/gyn and a very strong advocate for VBACs, IF a patient chooses one within the hospital guidelines. I DO believe and say to my patients my goal is “a healthy mom and a healthy baby” because I truly believe this statement. You would not believe the number of patients who believe that I want to do XYZ to go home to my family, go shopping or improve my golf game. A vaginal delivery is easier for me in the long run because I have less paper work, less rounding and have avoided performing a major surgery on a patient. I have no desire to perform a patient’s 6th c-section!

But each patient who chooses a VBAC has to realize there ARE risks associated with the procedure. I would be committing malpractice if I did not inform each patient of the risks and benefits of both options. The risk of uterine rupture is than 1 percent, but if it happens to my patient she will be upset that I did not inform her of the risks. The “seeds of doubt” you discuss are all things that I have told patients considering a VBAC. I prefer to stretch the informed consent process over the entire course of the prenatal visits versus just one 5 or 10 minute conversation. If I have discussed all the options ahead of a patient’s actual labor, if I come in and say that I need to perform a repeat c-section for XYZ reason, I am not having that discussion for the first time in the LDR, but rather we have discussed the possibility months ago. I use my prenatal visits to build a repoir with my patients and to educate her/her family about the scenarios we may face in the delivery room.

In an ideal world, every patient would be presented with the option to have a VBAC if she desires. Unfortunately due to the malpractice climate some doctors and hospitals no longer feel comfortable giving patients this choice. The rhetoric in this article does nothing healthy to advance the cause of ensuring this happens. It only serves to create mistrust between patients and doctors who are true advocates for patients.