New VBAC Guidelines Give Women More Decision-Making Power, Editorial States

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Article Date: 04 Aug 2010 - 4:00 PDT

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Although it is "understandable" that some health care providers are "cautious" about vaginal births after caesarean sections, it "should hardly be a controversial notion" that a woman who has had a c-section "should have a say in whether to try a vaginal birth during her next delivery," the Raleigh News & Observer says in an editorial.

According to NIH, one-third of U.S. hospitals and 50% of physicians refuse to allow women to attempt VBACs "due to a fear of lawsuits over uterine ruptures," which occur in 0.7% to 0.9% of cases, the editorial states. "Extremely small as that risk may be, even tiny numbers represent real women and real babies who can suffer serious consequences in a delivery gone bad," it continues.

However, "when up to 80% of women who are 'allowed' to attempt VBAC succeed, it's not so easy to understand why all women aren't 'allowed' to weigh the risks and to make their own choices regarding their own childbirth experiences," the editorial argues. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists " recently eased its guidelines to say that hospitals offering women trial labors after caesareans should have a surgical team 'readily available' instead of 'immediately available,'" the editorials notes.

"It's a small change, but one that might send the precipitously declining VBAC rates headed in the right direction again," the editorial argues, concluding, "Let these new guidelines be the impetus for giving women the information they need to weigh the risks and to be able to choose a trial labor or a repeat caesarean themselves" (Raleigh News & Observer, 7/31).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families.

© 2010 National Partnership for Women & Families. All rights reserved.

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