ACOG president suggests that physicians haven’t caught up with ACOG’s current practice!!!!

Based on a recent study, the president of ACOG agrees that physicians aren't staying current with evidenced based science.  No kidding!!!!!!!  

Just another reason doulas are so important! It actually takes effort and dedication to stay abreast of the latest birth related research.  Make sure there's someone on your birth team that has done extension research.  

If your OB/midwife isn't comfortable with practices like delayed cord camping and true skin to skin please switch providers or hospitals.  Your birth location and team are crucial choices.  Know your options!

Why "skin to skin" and "rooming in" are important

The science and benefits of skin to skin and rooming in are important and backed by actual studies/science.  

Research shows that you are likely to get just as much sleep with your baby in your room as you would if your baby were in the nursery. Research also tells us that babies who go to the hospital nursery at night cry more and are more likely to have trouble breastfeeding than babies who room-in with their mothers. 

Watch a quick 3 minute video here.  

Benefits for Babies Held Skin to Skin After Birth:

• They have more stable temperatures

• They cry less

• They have more stable blood sugar

• They breastfeed sooner, longer, and more easily

• They have lower levels of stress hormones

• They are exposed to the normal bacteria on the mother’s skin, which may protect them from becoming sick due to harmful germs

Friedman’s Curve and Failure to Progress: A Leading Cause of Unplanned C-sections

“Failure to progress” is the number one reason for unplanned C-sections in the U.S. 

In 2013, researchers published a report of 38,484 first-time C-sections that occurred among a national sample of women. The overall C-section rate among first-time mothers was 30.8%. More than 1 in 3 (35%) of these Cesareans were due to a diagnosis of “failure to progress,” or slow progress in labor. This means that 10%, or 1 in 10, of all first-time mothers in the U.S. had a Cesarean for failure to progress during the years 2002-2008 (Boyle, Reddy et al. 2013).

To stop the flood of over-diagnoses of “failure to progress,” the following recommendations were made:

• Inductions should only be labeled “failed” after at least 24 hours of Pitocin (plus water broken, if possible)—this clock should not start until after cervical ripening is completed, if needed
• Women should be given an adequate time for both labor and pushing—and an “adequate” time is much longer than what has traditionally been allowed in the past

To read more on this topic from Rebecca Dekker, PhD, RN, APRN  click here.

What's the big deal about birth?

"Birth is one of the last places in America where a modern woman is expected to lie back, shut her mouth, and take what's done to her.  In many ways, our medical and legal systems support the total disempowerment of women in a major life event they'll always remember, and that can have lasting health consequences.  And this is all happening in a system that delivers dismal outcomes for moms and babies, and costs more than anywhere else on the planet. The big deal is that when women take back the life event that defines their biology, we will see safer and healthier births, happier moms and babies and a new value on women themselves -- by women themselves."

Read more of Cristen Pascucci's (improvingbirth.org founder) interview here.