Newly Posted (Nov 24, 2004) ~ 2003 Cesarean Data

Preliminary birth data for 2003 was released by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics today (www.cdc.gov/nchs/).  Among the troubling findings:
• The cesarean delivery rate rose for the seventh straight year.  Preliminary 2003 data show that 27.6 percent of all births were cesarean deliveries, a marked 6 percent increase from 2002.
• States with a cesarean rate over 30% included FL, KY, LA, MS, NJ, TX, and WV.
• Since 1996, the primary (first-time) cesarean rate has climbed 31 percent and the VBAC rate has plunged 63 percent.  The 2003 VBAC rate was only 10.6%.
• The percent of babies born preterm or low birth weight also continued to increase.
ICAN President Tonya Jamois is available for media interviews to provide context and consumer comment regarding the rise in cesareans.  Contact president@ican-online.org or (760) 744-5260.

According to a newly published Canadian study of 308,755 mothers who gave birth from 1988 to 2000 after a previous Cesarean section, maternal in-hospital death was significantly higher in elective cesarean group (5.6 per 100,000) than the trial of labor group (1.6 per 100,000). While uterine rupture rate (0.65%) blood transfusions (0.19%) and emergency hysterectomy rate (0.10%) were slightly higher for women who had a trial of labor, one must consider that these statistics cover years in which it was customary to use Cytotec and other cervical ripening drugs and Pitocin to induce or augment post-cesarean labors, factors which can increase uterine rupture up to 12 times over normal spontaneous labor w/o uterine stimulants.

Study Conclusion reads: "Trial of labor is associated with increased risk of uterine rupture but elective cesarean section may increase the risk of maternal death".

Book Recommendation
Susan Hodges of Citizens for Midwifery recommends The Medical Delivery Business: Health Reform, Childbirth and the Economic Order by Barbara Bridgman Perkins (2004).  “[In this] carefully documented scholarly work, Perkins describes how we have ended up with a health care system whose primary focus is on making money rather than improving health outcomes.”

Vaginal Birth After Cesarean and Uterine Rupture Rates in California  for 1995
Gregory K, Korst L, Cane P, et al. Obstet Gynecol 94:985-9, 1999   Just the Numbers / Risk Ratios

Rebutal by Henci Goer on fatally-flawed ACOG study claiming
Home Birth results in increased baby deaths as compared to hospital delivery

Story of the original "Naked Truth" protest by the Women of Nigeria

Aug 22, 02 ~A Response to the biased newspaper coverage of the Washington State study on "Planned Home Birth Outcomes" published in the ACOG journal Obstetrics & Gynecology  August 2002 edition 

Open Letter to the Press and Media on their Unsatisfactory Coverage of the NEJM VBAC Study

Mennonite Midwife Freida Miller Arrested in Ohio 
for properly using Pitocin to prevent a dangerous PP Hemorrhage

Canadian Medical Journal ~ CMAJ 2002;166(3):315-23
Outcomes of planned home births versus 
planned hospital births after regulation of midwifery in British Columbia 
 authors: Patricia A. Janssen,*‡ Shoo K. Lee,* Elizabeth M. Ryan,† Duncan J. Etches,‡ 
Duncan F. Farquharson,§ Donlim Peacock,¶ Michael C. Klein‡ 
A Report on the Home Birth Demonstration Project of by 
the certified midwives of British Columbia, 

Follow up article article on the Safety of Home Birth also 
published in the Canadian Medical Journal

Click here to read newspaper article #1

Newspaper article #2 in Vancouver paper about the Home Birth Demonstration Project

Ithaca Newspaper article about Home-based Midwifery Care 
-- supportive quotes from local physicians

  American Public Health Association Passes Resolution 
"Supporting Access to Midwifery Services in the United States"
  American Journal of Public Health,  March 2001, Vol 91, No. 3, pp. 482-485 

  National Organization of Women's Resolution 
acknowledging the right of healthy childbearing women to control 
the manner and circumstance of their labor and birth, including midwifery home birth

Science Discovers a safer   better way to provide Birth Care  
Radio Talk Show in Idaho

The best kept secret in the United States is that "the midwifery model of care is the safest form of maternity care for healthy mothers with normal pregnancies and that midwives are the most appropriate and cost-effective attendants for normal birth". (1. Marsden Wagner & W.H.O Practical Care for Normal BIrth.) (2. Schlenzka “Safe Alternatives in Childbirth”) (4. Rosenblatt “ Interspeciality Differences in Obstetrics”)

Surprise!  ~   Midwifery is  the evidence-based model   of maternity care!
  ~ part two of above material for Radio Talk Show

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Denial of Reimbursement by Aetna Insurance Company 
for home-based Midwifery Services

Episiotomy Controversy 
~ Part 5 of Dr. Robert Woolley's Literature Review

International Midwifery News

June 2001 Digest Professional Articles~ 

  ACOG Committee opinion issued May 2001:
Optimal Goals for Anesthesia Care in Obstetrics

British birth activists upset by dramatic increase in national CS rate 
and off-label use of Cytotec / misoprostol for labor induction 
~ reprinted from "Daily News", UK

Cited article on Management Options for Shoulder Dystocia 
-- by UK midwife, originally published on ARM web site 

OBG Management July 1999
Meconium-Stained Amniotic Fluid: Meaning and Management
By Henry Galan, MD

Is meconium-stained amniotic fluid an independent marker of fetal distress? 
What role does amnioinfusion play? What are the most common mistaken notions about meconium?

Ina May Gaskin 

Reprint of email on 1 and 2 layer uterine closing after Cesarean surgery 
& increased complications -- placenta percreta and maternal death --
 for VBAC mothers after 1-layer closing

Who Speaks for Science in Court?  Peter Huber

George C. Marshall Institute  ~ dedicated to providing rigorous, 
unbiased technical analyses of scientific issues which impact public policy
Legal Scholar identifies the unscientific nature of obstetrical care, 
what he refers to as the ""gadgets and knives" phenomenon, 
perhaps most evident in obstetrics today".....

Full text of document on the Internet  
http://www.marshall.org/who_speaks_for_science_in_court.htm

Ricki Lake Has Baby Boy

The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Talk-show host Ricki Lake and her husband, Rob Sussman, have a new addition to the family. Lake gave birth Monday to Owen Tyler Sussman, who weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces. They also are the parents of 4-year-old Milo.

The water birth took place in the family's bathtub with the help of a nurse-midwife, Lake's publicist said Wednesday. "I wanted to 'give birth' as opposed to 'being delivered,' and the best way for me to do that was at home with the guidance of a professional midwife," the 32-year-old Lake said in a statement. 

IT’S A BOY!!!
TALK “QUEEN” RICKI LAKE EXPANDS
HER “KINGDOM,”DELIVERING HER SECOND SON

Ricki Achieves Personal Goal with Natural, At-Home Water Birth

Baby Owen Tyler Sussman Weighs in at 8 Pounds, 7 Ounces
New York, NY – June 19, 2001 – With her top-rated talk show on summer hiatus, Ricki Lake has had more time to focus on her latest “project:” the birth of her second son, Owen Tyler Sussman. Weighing 8 pounds and 7 ounces, the newest addition to the family arrived June 18 at 3:38 p.m. A staunch believer in natural childbirth and midwifery, Ricki made the decision to deliver her baby in the familiar surroundings of her New York City apartment. The actual birth took place in her bathtub, with the expert help of a Certified Nurse-Midwife, and two Doulas. Rob Sussman, her husband of seven years, lent his support during the birth, while Milo, Ricki’s four-year-old son, chose to go to summer camp.

Explaining her decision to have her second child at home, Ricki said, “I wanted to ‘give birth’ as opposed to ‘being delivered,’ and the best way for me to do that was at home with the guidance of a professional midwife.”

Ricki announced her pregnancy in December and continued her daily duties as one of America’s most successful talk show hosts for the remainder of the series’ eighth season. She even mustered up the energy to participate in a tremendous landmark for the series – the celebration of its 1500th episode. By the time production wrapped in mid-May, Ricki was eight months pregnant.

Ricki begins taping the ninth season of her top-rated nationally syndicated daytime series in mid-August as scheduled. She plans to have Owen right beside her when the new season starts, bringing him with her to the studio where a new nursery awaits in Ricki’s dressing room, so mom and baby can spend quality time between tapings.

Ricki Lake is produced by The Garth Ancier Company in association with Columbia TriStar Television Distribution and is distributed in syndication by Columbia TriStar Television Distribution.

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Pamela Anderson Lee Gives Birth at Home .c The Associated Press

MALIBU, Calif. (AP) - Former ``Baywatch'' star Pamela Anderson Lee gave birth to her second son Monday morning at her home in Malibu. The natural childbirth of 6-pound, 14-ounce Dylan Jagger was attended by two midwives and Mrs. Lee's husband, Tommy Lee, the lead singer of Motley Crue, said publicist Marleah Leslie. ``He's a very healthy baby,'' Ms. Leslie said. The Lees' 1 1/2-year-old old son Brandon also was born at home. ``Pamela is resting comfortably at home,'' Ms. Leslie said. ``She and Tommy are thrilled over the birth of Dylan.'

 

AP-NY-12-29-97 1936EST

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Richard Thomas and Wife Georgiana have Home Birth"

Home size is important for Thomas and his wife Georgiana, who have six children by previous marriages: his son Richard Francisco, 21, and triplet  daughters Pilar, Barbara and Gwyneth, 15; her teen-age daughters Brooke and

 Kendra. A boy, Montana James Thomas, was born to the couple on July 28, 1996.

 ``He was born right here at home,'' Thomas said proudly. ``We had a midwife, and all the kids were there. It was good. It's amazing how when you remove all  the things that make it seem like a medical procedure, it's kind of a

domestic  event.

 ``The great thing is he's like everybody's baby now. Her kids, my kids were all joined by this little guy.''

   American Public Health Association passes resolution calling for 
Increasing Access To Out-Of-Hospital Maternity Care Services 
Through State-Regulated and Nationally-Certified Direct-Entry Midwives ~
 acknowledging the safety of skilled midwifery, home-based  birth services 
and the value of NARM certification of direct-entry midwives  

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