A reader asks, “my hospital says that they will do a vbac but they aren’t set up for it because the labor side is far away from the c-section side so if i try to do a vbac and end up having a c section it will take a lot longer to get me to surgery. do you think this is a legitimate reason to consider not having a vbac?”

Removing the “immediately available” standard while supporting VBAC with twins, after two prior cesareans, and with unknown scars is a huge step in the right direction. It seems that the option of VBAC is now available to hundreds of thousands of women, many of whom, up to this point, were left with no choice at all.

Stand and Deliver recently conducted an excellent interview with Dr. Stuart Fischbein, a Southern California VBAC and breech supportive OB.  It’s an excellent read and I’m including my favorite parts below.  You can read the entire article here: Stand and Deliver: Interview with Dr. Stuart J. Fischbein.
First, our definitions of the day from Wikipedia…
Evidence-based medicine [...]

It’s interesting that ACOG is only interested in collecting stories of out-of-hospital births with poor outcomes… what about all the women who give birth in hospitals who otherwise would have had a completely normal labor and delivery but for the hospital procedures, unsupportive staff, and resulting stress?  There are wonderful OBs and great hospitals, but [...]

I love this!  I meet women all the time whose confidence in their bodies has been dashed by the “failure to progress” diagnosis they received in past labors.  This woman had three cesareans, all with that same diagnosis, because, as she says, she got to the hospital to early.  And look what happens when she [...]

“Since 1980, the use of EFM has grown dramatically, from being used on 45% of pregnant women in labor to 85% in 2002,” says George A. Macones, MD, who headed the development of the ACOG document. “Although EFM is the most common obstetric procedure today, unfortunately it hasn’t reduced perinatal mortality or the risk of cerebral palsy. In fact, the rate of cerebral palsy has essentially remained the same since World War II despite fetal monitoring and all of our advancements in treatments and interventions.”