Cesarean Section Booklet

Got this from another list, it's a booklet called "What Every Pregnant Woman
Needs to Know About Cesarean Section". I'm not associated with this
website, but the booklet was a pretty interesting read. As far as I can
tell it's based on very sound research, and is only biased in favor of
pregnant women.

http://www.maternitywise.org/mw/topi...n/booklet.html

--Jodi

Jodi wrote:

Got this from another list, it's a booklet called "What Every Pregnant Woman
Needs to Know About Cesarean Section". I'm not associated with this
website, but the booklet was a pretty interesting read. As far as I can
tell it's based on very sound research, and is only biased in favor of
pregnant women.

http://www.maternitywise.org/mw/topi...n/booklet.html

Very nice booklet, and the charts of reference
material are *awesome*.

Best wishes,
Ericka

MATERNITY CENTER ASSOCIATION
Maureen P. Corry, MPH, Executive Director
Carol Sakala, PhD, MSPH, Director of Programs
281 Park Avenue South
5th Floor
New York, NY 10010
212-777-5000
, ,

Maureen and Carol,

Emergency! Please rewrite your booklet, What Every Pregnant Woman Needs to
Know About Cesarean Section [2004].

Tell women that OBs are knowingly closing birth canals up to 30% and KEEPING
birth canals closed up to 30% when shoulders get stuck or when forceps,
vacuums are applied - i.e. - in instrument-assisted vaginal birth.

Maternity Center Association is setting women up to accept this bizarre
obstetric behavior!

For example, on p. 15 of What Every Pregnant Woman Needs to Know About
Cesarean Section [2004]:

"[To avoid assisted vaginal delivery - forceps or vacuum - TG]...Try pushing
in an upright position, or lying on your side. Avoid lying on your back.
Some hospital beds can be adjusted to help you with these positions..."
--What Every Pregnant Woman Needs to Know About Cesarean Section
MATERNITY CENTER ASSOCIATION BOOKLET [2004]
http://www.maternitywise.org/pdfs/cesareanbooklet.pdf

WARNING #1: A commonly recommended "upright" position - SEMISITTING - only
closes the birth canal with more force. The biomechanics are simple. See
Gastaldo TD. Letter. Birth 1992;19(4):231.

WARNING #2: OBs should NOT pull with hands, forceps or vacuum with mother
on her sacrum (on her back or buttocks, dorsal or semisitting)...yet this is
standard.

ON A POSITIVE NOTE...

From p. 10: "[A] caregiver can ask a mother who is lying on her back to move
to another position...can also be used to prevent...problems."
http://www.maternitywise.org/pdfs/cesareanbooklet.pdf

That's the spirit! PREVENTION! Why not tell women outright that standard
medical delivery positions close the birth canal up to 30%?

WARNING #3: Sometimes MDs and CNMwives let women "try" "alternative"
delivery positions - then move them back to semisitting or dorsal (close the
birth canal!) for the actual delivery!

To summarize:

1. Women and their uteri should not be made to push with birth canals
senselessly closed up to 30%.

2. And when there are problems, OBs themselves should not be pushing on tiny
spines (with oxytocin, Cytotec, PGE2) or pulling (with hands, forceps,
vacuums) - with birth canals senselessly closed up to 30%.

If the Maternity Center Association does not offer women this key
information, they can't use it to help themselves.

I see that the American College of Nurse-Midwives - the CNMwifery trade
union - tops your list of endorsers...
http://www.maternitywise.org/pdfs/cesareanbooklet.pdf (last page)

BE ADVISED: Yale CNMwifery Prof Helen Varney ignored my pleas years ago and
promoted semisitting (closing the birth canal) a various editions of her
book. She also promoted KEEPING the birth canal closed (lithotomy) when
shoulders get stuck!

CNMwifery Prof. Varney is STILL doing this in her 2004 edition, as in,

"The usual positions in a hospital delivery room are lithotomy or dorsal.
Midwives believe that in neither of these positions does the woman have to
be
flat on her back; rather, they encourage a semisitting, or 'back up' and
'legs
down,' modification of these positions." (!)
[Varney H. Varney's Midwifery. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett. 4th ed.
2004:839]

CNMwife Helen's Fig. 28-12 shows a CNMwife "helping" a woman into
semisitting!

That CNMwife is "helping" a woman close her birth canal up to 30%!

Also, on p. 839: "In the event of...shoulder dystocia...the woman should be
in a
lithotomy position..."

Excerpted from: Criminal medical CAM at Hawai'i's John A Burns School of
Medicine
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group...t/message/2256

Maureen and Carol, please forward this email to all of your endorsers.
Please copy me when you do.

Feel free to post this email on your website.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Todd

Dr. Gastaldo


PS My thanks to Jodi for posting to misc.kids.pregnancy about the MATERNITY
CENTER ASSOCIATION'S 2004 Cesarean booklet.