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 Find out what other moms-to-be are asking. Join in the discussion with Henci Goer, an expert in obstetric research. If you would like to contact Henci outside of the Ask Henci forum, send an email to Goersitemail@aol.com.
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Topic: ACOG at it again... |
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Posted By Henci Goer, BA on 07 Feb 2008 01:19 AM
Marsden Wagner has it right when he says ACOG is a trade organization. Trade organizations exist to benefit their members and protect their interests. Period. In ACOG's case, if that happens to overlap with what is best for mothers and babies, all well and good, but if it doesn't, it's mothers and babies overboard. I'm starting to think that the old saying about "lies, damn lies, and statistics" need updating to "lies, damn lies, and ACOG statements."
-- Henci |
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RE: ACOG at it again... |
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Henci Goer, BA
Ask Henci
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| 18 Feb 2008 05:04 AM |
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Tienchin Ho --
Thank you for your post. All of us have to keep plugging away. You never know which of us will be the snowflake that finally starts the avalanche.
-- Henci |
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Natalie (guest)
Posts:763
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| 08 Feb 2008 02:48 PM |
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You should send this to the ACOG. I sent them my thoughts already
The info listed at the top of the "statement" is as follows:
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Tienchin Ho (guest)
Posts:763
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| 07 Feb 2008 11:10 AM |
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| I absolutely could not resist:
My Statement on Home Births (A Parody)
Fresno, CA -- I reiterate my support of home births. While complications can arise with little or no warning even among women with low-risk pregnancies, childbirth is a normal physiologic process that most women experience without problems. Continuous monitoring of both the woman and the fetus during labor and delivery in a hospital or accredited birthing center has not improved maternal or fetal outcomes.
I acknowledge ACOG’s right not to support programs that advocate for, or individuals who provide, home births, but I do not support a system that fails to provide information needed for families to make informed decisions regarding maternal care. Nor do I support a system that lacks the resources to make VBAC a viable option for all women and ensure the quality of the mother-child dyad immediately after birth.
Childbirth decisions should not be dictated or influenced by what's fashionable, trendy, or the latest cause célèbre. Despite the rosy picture painted by hospital birth advocates, a highly medicalized labor and delivery can physically and emotionally scar both the mother and baby. Attempting a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) at the hospital is especially dangerous because seemingly benign interventions such as epidural anesthesia or Pitocin augmentation can lead to complications with potentially catastrophic consequences for both the mother and baby, including death. Unless a woman is in a supportive birth environment that allows the birth process to unfold on its own schedule, she puts herself and her baby's health and life at unnecessary risk.
Advocates cite the lack of rigorous scientific studies as one justification for promoting hospital births. The disregard for existing Level I evidence defining the risks of unnecessary interventions such as episiotomy, epidural anesthesia, and amniotomy has concerned proponents of natural childbirth for the past several decades and we remain committed to changing this. Birth advocates throughout the world use childbirth education, grassroots childbirth networks, and recently, the media to provide mothers and caregivers with the evidence. Multiple factors are responsible for the persistent exceptions to evidence-based medicine in maternal care, but emerging contributors include a fear-based climate that skews mothers’ decision-making abilities and forces caregivers to follow “standards of care” that ignore the scientific evidence.
The availability of a birth attendant to provide continuous labor support and of a midwife to provide expertise and intervention may be life-saving for the mother or newborn and lower the likelihood of a bad outcome. I believe that the safest setting for labor, childbirth, and the immediate postpartum period is one that respects and trusts the birthing process, that meets the Baby-Friendly and Mother-Friendly standards jointly outlined by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services(CIMS) and is supported by birth advocacy groups.
It should be emphasized that childbirth comes with inherent risks. Implying any guarantee otherwise is misleading and unjust to a birthing mother and her family. Although able to perform live-saving emergency cesarean deliveries and other surgical and medical procedures, board-certified obstetricians have been cornered into practice styles that perpetuate the need for these same measures. They have lost skills such as detecting and adjusting fetal position which can result in prolonged labors mislabeled “dystocia” and cesarean sections. They minimize the impact of a woman’s birth experience which profoundly affects her future relationship with her children as well as her own view of herself. Since suicide, homicide and substace abuse are leading causes of maternal mortality, disregard for a mother’s emotional health can lead to tragic consequences for her and her baby.
I encourage all pregnant women to get prenatal care and to make a birth plan. Safeguarding the process of giving birth determines a healthy and safe outcome for both mother and baby. Every woman should seek balanced information to guide her decisions throughout pregnancy, childbirth and parenting. For women who despair in the lack of choices, they should look for hope in mothers who have navigated this climate of fear successfully. We are here.
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maria (guest)
Posts:763
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Henci Goer, BA
Ask Henci
Posts:520
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| 07 Feb 2008 06:19 AM |
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Marsden Wagner has it right when he says ACOG is a trade organization. Trade organizations exist to benefit their members and protect their interests. Period. In ACOG's case, if that happens to overlap with what is best for mothers and babies, all well and good, but if it doesn't, it's mothers and babies overboard. I'm starting to think that the old saying about "lies, damn lies, and statistics" need updating to "lies, damn lies, and ACOG statements."
-- Henci |
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maria (guest)
Posts:763
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| 07 Feb 2008 05:26 AM |
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Not only that: statistics show that we have quite the high neo-mortality rate for a country with such a 'competent' OB care...
Don't they sound just a tad bit desperate?
:-D
maria.
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Tienchin Ho (guest)
Posts:763
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| 07 Feb 2008 03:59 AM |
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WOW!! There are so many loopholes in this statement. They certainly must feel threatened by Ricki Lake and her Business of Being Born. Makes me want to see it.
But ... ACOG really makes their agenda clear in this statement. Consider the very last statement.
ACOG: " Choosing to deliver a baby at home, however, is to place the process of giving birth over the goal of having a healthy baby. "
ACOG believes that the process of giving birth is separate from having a healthy baby. In fact, the process of giving birth may actually threaten the goal of having a healthy baby. Doesn't that just say it all? Here I always thought that the birthing process is what actually produces the healthy baby. To me those goals are one and the same. According to ACOG, the birthing process is just a mother's whim while the healthy baby is serious business reserved only for accredited institutions and licensed medical practitioners.
I think I might be a bit insulted. 
Tienchin HBAC mom, MD, FACS |
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maria (guest)
Posts:763
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| 07 Feb 2008 03:18 AM |
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Got to love this... NOT!!!
http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr02-06-08-2.cfm
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