Sunday, July 25, 2010

ACOG and Less Restrictive Guidelines

On July 21st, this press release informed us of ACOG's less restrictive guidelines for VBAC. For the most part, the immediate Twin Cities area does not have an issue with access to VBAC per say, but I am hoping this helps out not only our sisters in outstate Minnesota, but our VBAC sisters throughout the US who live in areas that restrict VBACs in one way or another.

It is too soon to tell if this will truly promote change, but if it does, I am hoping that even more changes will come about from this - like the overall climate towards VBAC in general. I still remember Gail Tully speaking at one of our ICAN meetings about working with another midwife in another country (Denmark or somewhere - don't quote me on the area, but somewhere else in the world where women give birth - how is that for vagueness) and she asked them how they handle VBACs and they said, "Oh yeah, you guys give that a funny name - for us - it's just a birth." That is my dream that we would not be these ultra high risk VBAC women - we are just women giving birth.

So, we hopefully continue to go step by step in the right direction.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Beautiful frank breech VBAC at home

Gail Tully, local midwife and "Spinning Babies Lady" has published a wonderful video and narrative on her blog about a recent frank breech VBAC at home. Don't miss this - click over and be awed and inspired by the beauty of birth, the strength of birthing women, and the safety of vaginal breech birth.

Gail also describes another recent breech birth that led to a necessary cesarean. She writes, "There is no place for ideology in birthing. Each birth has its own story and we must respond to what the baby tells us." How true! Well said, Gail. We are so fortunate to have many skilled and wise midwives in the Twin Cities.