Info at the same site!

http://www.trustbirthconference.com/

Let us know more when you do.

-- Henci

There is another Trust Birth conference coming!!

I can't give a full report because I only attended one session besides my own. This was Sarah Buckley's excellent talk on prenatal testing and ultrasound. I haven't been following the ultrasound research, but what she said would make me extremely leery of having ultrasound imaging except for a limited set of specific reasons such as to rule out placenta previa when there is bleeding. Even more chilling, an audience member volunteered that she knew of women being fired by their obstetricians for refusing a routine sonogram. I  hope that this is no more than rumor or misunderstanding or not knowing the whole story. I would hate to think that we had come to such a pass as this.

-- Henci

P.S. Dr. Buckley is working on an updated version of a book she has written that up to now has only been available in Australia, where she lives, or through her website. The new version will be published in the U.S. 

Turning the tables, where is your “solid” evidence that women are sufficiently in tune with their bodies in labor that they will know to move into the hospital? Or that unassisted birthers can take care of complications themselves? Without training or prior experience and with the emergency happening to a loved one, my prediction is that those present would be just as likely to be overwhelmed and paralyzed as not.

To follow up to Carla's post, I think it is important not to huddle in little enclaves of People Who Think Just Like Us but to engage in reasoned discourse and exchange of ideas with those who don't. You don't really know what you think until you have tried to explain your position to someone who doesn't share it and have listened to them explain theirs. (This, of course, is assuming that those who hold different opinions will be treated with respect, which I have confidence that they will at the Trust Birth conference.)

I also think it is important that we who are advocates for, well, whatever you want to call it: normal birth, mother-friendly care, physiologic care, undisturbed birth, humane birth, safe motherhood, Midwives Model of Care, find common ground where we can as this allows us to form strategic alliances. We don't have to agree on everything to work together on issues where we do agree. 

-- Henci

Most notably, the research evidence is in a 1987 Missouri study of  home birth. There was an excess rate of neonatal death among the planned home births compared with hospital birth, but the excess was confined to the segment attended by those who were not members of the Missouri Midwives Association.

Schramm WF, Barnes DE, Bakewell JM. Neonatal mortality in Missouri home births. Am J Public Health 1987;77(8):930-5.

It is extremely unlikely that we will ever have "solid research" in unassisted childbirth given the difficulties of mounting a study on this topic. That being the case, I hold by my logic-based argument: we know there are situations where a skilled pair of hands and modest equipment can put things right or stabilize a woman or baby for transport. Therefore, if these are lacking, disaster may ensue. (I am aware, by the way, of one case where it did.)

Turning the tables, where is your “solid” evidence that women are sufficiently in tune with their bodies in labor that they will know to move into the hospital? Or that unassisted birthers can take care of complications themselves? Without training or prior experience and with the emergency happening to a loved one, my prediction is that those present would be just as likely to be overwhelmed and paralyzed as not.

Nonetheless, to restate my position, I respect the right of women to make their own decisions, and I agree that sometimes a woman may be better off with no professional birth attendant than with the ones available to her.

-- Henci

Yes, Carla is very pro unassisted childbirth, which will make me the petunia in her conference potato patch because I am not. On the one hand, I respect a woman's right to make decisions about her birth even if I don't think it is the wisest choice. I also understand that given the hazards of conventional obstetric management, where it is not possible to obtain the services of a qualified home birth attendant, unattended home birth may well be the lesser of the two evils. On the other hand, there are things that can go wrong unexpectedly that can be put right or stabilized or caught in time to move into an environment with greater resources if the woman is attended by someone who knows what she is doing and who carries simple equipment and a few medications to deal with it. The research, I should add, bears out that the safety of out-of-hospital birth depends on having a prescreened woman who is attended by someone with the requisite knowledge and skill.

-- Henci

Thanks for posting this. I will be speaking at this conference. My topics are "The Limitations of Evidence-Based Medicine" and "The VBAC Dilemma."

-- Henci