Another day, another woman supressed by the big, bad corporate, conspirital medical community. What else is new?

The situation reminds me of the irony in a story of a woman who sold her hair to buy her love a watch chain while unbeknownst to her, her love sold his watch to buy her jeweled hair combs in  The Gift of the Magi.

The skepticism of medicine and doctors, coupled with the desire to dismiss techonological intervention in spite of how many lives have been spared and expanded has caused a serendipity of sorts. The “naturalists” moms who believe themselves victimized by the patriarchial medical community and derive much self worth from the empowerment of natural birth (including claims of increased bonding between mother and child) are the very ones that have made it more difficult to choose a vaginal birth after c-section. The very people that refuse to support tort reform and in turn, champion windfalls of cash over the slightest medical disagreement, are at partial fault for the decline in VBACs and the rise of c-sections in general. This very example of rising c-sections for political gain only makes trial lawyers very rich and directly contradicts the promotion and free personal choice of VBAC’s. To me, this is an exemplorary reason why I believe that most left leaning individuals are very short sighted.

Landon, Ohio State’s director of obstetrics, worked on a 2004 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine and another in this month’s edition of the medical journal Obstetrics and Gynecology that have helped clarify the success rates and risks of vaginal delivery.

In the first study, three in four women had successful vaginal deliveries and a uterine rupture risk of less than 1 percent.

The new research, which included four years of data from 19 medical centers, shows that the risk remains just as low in women who have had multiple C-sections.

“Women should be told in absolute terms the risks. They should not be given incomplete or biased information,” said Landon, who was the lead researcher on the study.

“There is little reason not to offer trial of labor enthusiastically to women.”

C-section carries its own risks, including hemorrhage and hysterectomy, Landon said out.

But many doctors won’t try VBACs, particularly in women who have had more than one C-section, based on a recommendation from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Also, a fear of lawsuits has fueled a downturn in vaginal birth attempts. Some malpractice insurers refuse to insure doctors who oversee VBACs and others charge higher premiums.

Many rural hospitals have stopped allowing them because they can’t guarantee a full surgical team will be available in the case of a complication.

The national C-section rate rose to its highest point, more than 29 percent, in 2004.

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