Where Rinat Dray’s forced cesarean lawsuit stands and what every birth professional should know
In 2011 a woman with two prior cesareans named Rinat Dray was forced to have a cesarean at Staten Island University Hospital in New York. She sued the hospital and two physicians for ‘improperly substituting their judgement for that of the mother’ and ‘pressuring and threatening her.’ During the course of her lawsuit, it was revealed that this hospital had a secret forced cesarean policy. When I learned about this policy, I was shocked. Yes, forced cesareans happen. They are woven into the culture of some hospitals as are other forms of obstetric violence. But to have a formal, written policy saying that it was OK?
Accreta spectrum disorder tied to increased risk of PTSD
We often think of the physical risks and benefits when talking about VBAC versus repeat cesarean section, but what about the toll on mental health? The stress of having a complication like placenta accreta is often not addressed and parents are left on their own trying to figure out how to cope with this serious diagnosis. So I was thrilled to come across a study finally addressing this issue and to include it in our monthly Grand Rounds for VBAC Facts Professional Members. Join me for this Grand Rounds excerpt where we review Tol 2019, a study looking at the connection between abnormally invasive placenta and post traumatic stress disorder.
How can one support VBAC after witnessing a uterine rupture?
So what matters more: Our personal experience? Or the conclusions of medical evidence? I suspect that most of my readers would say, the evidence. Hands down. And that is what most people believe… until they experience a bad outcome. That’s when things become more complicated. That single event can override all their knowledge. Everything they believed to be true. Suddenly all those statistics from the research come flying off the page. They are no longer just a number. They are now associated with a face… a baby… a parent.
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