We, the women and mothers, have been telling them for years. We have been in a ridiculous battle against the "powers that be" to be able to birth our babies OUR way. To follow our intuition and allow ourselves the dignity of choosing where, when and how we will give birth. It has ALWAYS been OUR births. We shouldn't of needed a big green light from a commercially motivated "association" (just another word for "corporation") to tell us this- to allow this to be denied to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of mothers!!
Sad. It really is.
Then I read Mama Births article on the topic, and she sums it all up soooooo well:
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
ACOG Still Sucks
HERE to read the entire article on Mama Birth
The road to hell is lined with the heads of card carrying members of ACOG. Step softly, they often carry knifes.
They think they know what is best for you, and because they are doctors, they are used to being listened too.
I am happy today to hear the news that ACOG has made a new statement about VBAC. You can read the statement here. I know I sound negative about something that is actually WONDERFUL news for the VBACing natural childbirth community. It is just fantastic that ACOG is coming out in support of the relative safety of VBAC.
Despite how great this news is I simply can not bring myself to praise ACOG. I am glad that they are finally admitting what many women have known for years now, that having a vaginal birth after a Cesarean birth is possible, doable and SAFE.
So I am glad that ACOG has had a change of heart, that they recognize that the c-section rate is too high and that VBAC rates are too low. I am glad they are finally loosening their restrictions so that hopefully VBAC is more doable. But I don't really think they deserve any credit....
...Who deserves the credit for this change? VBACing women do.
Instead of praising ACOG for realizing that despite all the gobs of money they can make off of c-sections, their anti-evidence approach to VBAC is hurting them in the long run, I would like to praise all of the women out there who have fought for VBAC.
Thousands of women have fought, bled and died for this change to come about. They have gone through the stigma of birthing at home in order to have a birth that they chose. They have been attended by supportive midwives. Some of them have birthed unassisted. Some of them have had hospital births in hostile environments where they were disrespected but in the process have shown hospital staff that VBAC is possible.
These are the women who deserve the praise for this recent statement.
Not ACOG. To ACOG I want to say this:
What can you do for all of those women who were denied VBAC because of you? Can you remove their scars? Can you remove their fears? Can you give them their births back? Can you change what you have already done?
You can do none of these things. Thousands if not hundreds of thousands of women have already suffered at your hands. Many more will because of the refusal of many OB's within your community to even acknowledge these new recommendations. You can not fix the pain that you have caused.
Thank you ACOG for changing your policy.
Shame on you for all of the bad births, scars, pain, depression and death that have come at your hands because of your unwillingness to do this sooner.
Yes, Shame on ACOG (and SOGC) for their tyrannical disregard of women and babies. The mothers have won this battle... but not the war. Oh yes, as I said in my earlier post, this war has only just begun. Now the battle to get hospitals and doctors to FOLLOW these recommendations is about to begin....
