By Michelle Grimm-Gossett
September 1, 2014 will mark this year’s Labor Day. It is also the date of the Third Annual Rally to Improve Birth, of which Champaign-Urbana has been a part since the first. Two years ago, local mom Anne DeAtley heard of Improving Birth, and decided to coordinate a rally here in town. DeAtley coordinated the first and second rallies, and this year Kate Lovett is the new coordinator.
Improving Birth is a national organization whose goal is to raise awareness that the standard protocol for laboring women in most hospitals often does not line up with what is known as “evidence-based care.” In other words, there is no scientific data that what is being done during labor and delivery improves the outcome of births.
The way this often plays out is a pregnant woman may feel bullied or pressured into something she does not want or is uncomfortable with. Often these are seemingly benign choices such as an internal fetal monitor (placed on the baby’s head while still in utero), administration of fluids in an IV, or administration of Pitocin (either to prevent hemorrhage after the birth, or to artificially induce labor). Sometimes, the woman feels that she is subject to a “cascade of interventions” that she never wanted, and sometimes, those interventions lead to the C-section she hoped to avoid.
Those who rally are neither for nor against hospital births, C-sections, inductions, or any other intervention. However, participants attest that the rise in unnecessary C-sections in the U.S.—and in particular, in Champaign-Urbana—are above the recommended guidelines. Additionally, most interventions seem harmless or even helpful, but based on the evidence we know, they do not help the birth in any way and may cause other complications or interventions. For instance, according to a gathering of research (found here), 60% of women in a hospital birth setting are given intravenous fluids, as a matter of routine. The birthing women are not often asked if they would like to have an IV line placed. Rather, they are told this must be done as it is hospital protocol. However, there is currently no evidence that having IV fluids during labor improves birth outcomes.
Another example is induction of labor. There are cases where induction is necessary and continuing with pregnancy would be harmful to mother and/or baby. However, more and more we are seeing the rise of inductions for convenience’s sake. A suspected “big baby” is not an evidence-based reason for induction, because often the estimates of baby’s weight are wrong—measurements estimating baby’s weight in the third trimester are notoriously inaccurate—and even large babies have no trouble coming out most of the time. Rather, complications where baby get stuck (such as shoulder dystocia) sometimes happen even with average-sized babies (about 7 pounds).
These are just a few ways evidence-based care can be ignored. There are many others, and we all need to stand up and support a woman’s right for informed consent OR refusal of the things she would have for her birth, especially wherein the evidence is in her favor.
The bottom line is that all mothers-to-be deserve the best quality of care, and according to the research, we’re not receiving that yet.
Come rally with us! We’re gathering at Meadowbrook Park on Monday, September 1 at 10 a.m.
Source:The State of Maternity Care on Rally to Improve Birth
Michelle Grimm-Gossett struggled for many years to become pregnant but then miraculously conceived and had a wonderful pregnancy and ideal birth of her first daughter. She has been a birth junkie ever since. She has gone on to have two more births, one a surrogate birth of twins, and then her own second child (another daughter). All were hospital births.