Our goal is to prepare families to have a natural birth by teaching a mom and her loving coach to labor together.  The reality is that even with the best preparation, birth is unique, fluid and unpredictable.  Our experience as natural childbirth educators is that even if your birth does not go according to your plan, a comprehensive education like The Bradley Method® will pave the way for you to have your best possible birth with a Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby outcome.

 Link to video: http://youtu.be/PmlPITHsFio

• They did their work throughout and after Class 7 when we talk about writing the Birth Plan. 
• They got great ideas, and then took it to their care provider and asked her, “Is everything realistic on here?”  She went through it line by line and said it was all in-line with what was possible in a hospital setting. 
• Care provider signed off on plan, put it in file, sent it to hospital to give the staff their a heads up on their desires for their birth. 
• When it was “go time”, they arrived at hospital with several copies of plan and 3 dozen cookies.
• Everyone who walked into the room was offered cookies and a birth plan

• “Going in, we knew there might be a possibility that things were not going to go to plan.”
• Came to terms with making an adjustment
• Once the bag of waters was broken, contractions completely changed and things progressed quickly
• Christine reasoned with herself, “This isn’t going to be how I planned it, but if I give up one thing, the birth can still happen unmedicated like I want it to”

Disclaimer: 
The material included on this site is for informational purposes only.
It is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The reader should always consult her or his healthcare provider to determine the appropriateness of the information for their own situation.  Krystyna and Bruss Bowman and Bowman House, LLC accept no liability for the content of this site, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided.  This blog contains information about our classes available in Chandler, AZ and Payson, AZ and is not the official website of The Bradley Method®. The views contained on this blog do not necessarily reflect those of The Bradley Method® or the American Academy of Husband-Coached Childbirth®.

Most Recent Draft: http://1.usa.gov/YZw4Xt

Most Recent Meeting: http://bit.ly/104ZtKT

In addition to agreeing wholeheartedly with Allyson Fernstrom's statement below, I want to direct the committee to THIS brief article with references if they want to dig deeper:

 

As the article and study succinctly show, "FTP" and "CPD" in the 21st century are mostly iatrogenic.  "Watchful waiting" IS the midwifery model of care in the hospital, in the birth center and in the home setting.  Many midwives have less than a 15% cesarean rate (defined as an "acceptable" rate by the WHO) in their practices because they do not intervene until necessary.  This does not mean emergency; read: most of these are non-emergent and appropriate.

 

At this point in our history, 99% of births are still occurring in the hospital setting (read more HERE), and a vast majority of those women are still under the OB model of care: the "do something to help this along" model.  A 32.8% cesarean rate calls into question the common practices that are being forced on women.  It should not surprise us that some of these women are demanding a different model of care with subsequent pregnancies.

 

It is unreasonable to essentially punish women who are seeking compassionate care after feeling abused in the traditional care system by doctors who subscribe to a different philosophy about birth.  By including FTP and CPD in the final version of the rules and regulations, you are essentially providing a VBAC option on paper without providing a VBAC option that will be a choice for the majority of the consumers who are now faced with choosing unassisted births instead of facing the trauma they faced in a previous birth.

 

Before a final draft is approved, I implore Dir. Humble to attend a home birth.  See what it is we are talking about.  Really understand why we are so passionate about this cause, and why we believe that birth is a fundamental human right and a woman's rights issue.  We are not asking for the sun, the moon and the stars.  We simply want you to understand the power of birth, and why we want our care providers to have all the tools they need at their disposal if we choose a home birth setting. 

 

Midwives have the ability, the training, and the knowledge to bring babies safely into the world without compromising the health of the mother.  They believe that mothers care about the life they carry within them, and will do their research when it comes time to choose or decline procedures.  Midwives also know how to recognize non-reassuring patterns and when it is time to safely transfer to a different birth setting in the rare cases that complications do arise.

 

I advocate for midwives to be free to choose the clients that they feel they have the training to care for, be that VBAC, breech, or mothers of multiples.  As an informed consumer, I ask for the state to certify that the women who offer this care are educated in the care and management of those labors.  Along with this, I trust that midwives will have the opportunity to continue their education so that they can assist at VBAC, breech and multiples births once they have completed training in those areas.  I am glad to see that there is a review process to keep midwives accountable for their decisions, none of which will be made lightly because at midwives care deeply about the women and the children that they serve. 

 

Dir. Humble, you have the opportunity to lead here and set a new standard for the great state of Arizona.  Please take it.

 

Respectfully,

Krystyna Robles-Bowman

Mother of 4

Chandler, AZ

 

Statement from Allyson Fernstrom:

"I am extremely grateful to see that VBAC is still included in the drafts. I believe this is a huge step in the right direction. It shows that the department is listening to the concerns of the consumers. I appreciate that more options are being opened up to the growing number of women who desire to achieve a VBAC. However, I have GREAT concern with some of the conditions suggested. It currently reads that a midwife can not attend a VBAC if their was a diagnosis of "failure to dilate" or cephalopelvic insufficiency". I heard in the last meeting that it is supposed to read "failure to progress". That does not make the problem better. Failure to progress, failure to dilate and cephalopelvic insufficiency/disproportion are ALL unacceptable. There is NO literature to support this rule. Listen to the members of the committee, including those from the medical community, who have mentioned may times that FTP is over diagnosed. FTP only tells you that a mother did not progress. It did not tell you WHY she did not progress. What if there was failed induction? What if it is an emotional issue that stalled labor? What if the baby was in a poor positioning? Maybe the care provider followed the Friedman's Curve, which does NOT allow the typical mother enough time to labor to full dilation? There are too many variables in play. A woman should not be excluded from attempting a VBAC because she had a failed induction, an emotional block, a baby in a poor position, an impatient care provider, etc. Because the diagnosis of FTP does NOT explain WHY the woman had a cesarean section, it should NOT be used to determine whether or not she is capable of vaginal delivery. CPD is also highly disputed in the literature. It is difficult to ever give a TRUE diagnosis of CPD. The testing is unreliable. FTP and CPD are subjective, over diagnosed and would be completely inappropriate in the rules. Director Humble mentioned that if he allows VBAC, he does not want to make it so restrictive that no one can do it. Leaving in FTP and CPD would essentially make it impossible for most VBAC clients to qualify for a homebirth VBAC. Consumers and members of the committee have been asking from the beginning that this be removed from the rules. Listen to these important stakeholders!"

The material included on this site is for informational purposes only.

We have had a couple of students have had textbook “NAPS” in the last two classes…and since we still have several couples waiting for their babies, I thought this might be a reminder and an inspiration to them for their labors.  NAP – no, they didn’t take epic naps in labor (although I am a big advocate for sleeping in labor)…what it means is that they were very patient in their labors.   

• It is important to remember that the graph is AN AVERAGE representation of labor.  It indicates that a mom should dilate 1 cm per hour, and push an average of 3 hours – for an average length of labor that is between 12-14 hours long.    
• Math class reminder:  The average number is the number you get when you add all of the data in a set of information, and then divide that total number by the number of units that provided the data.  Applied to laboring mothers: That means that there will be some people that have labors much shorter than 14 hours, and other people that have labors much longer than 14 hours, more will be around that number…and then a few will be right on with the average.  

•  Did you change locations where Mom is laboring? 
•  Is Baby posterior? (Click here for ideas to move baby)
•  Is Baby trying to figure out how to line up in the birth canal? 
•  Is there an emotional component that hasn’t been dealt with? 
•  Is Mom tired and does she need a nap? 
•  Is Mom making more hormones for labor? 
•  Is Mom's pelvis still stretching (and using the extra hormones) for baby to fit?
•  Is the Baby's head still molding for the passage through the birth canal?
•  Is Mom making more colostrum for baby? 
•  Has Mom surrendered to the birth? 
•  Has Baby accepted the birth process?  

•  Try a new labor position. 
•  Go for a walk to clear your heads. 
•  Take a nap to conserve your energy (It’s hard for a care provider to argue with a dad or doula who is protective of a sleeping mom.)  
•  "Talk" to your baby and encourage them that you are ready to meet him/her. 
  

In honor of Cesarean Awareness Month, I am going to devote the next two Tuesday posts with some information on cesareans.  I am not going to write a lot on how to avoid one in the first place or the specifics of a Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (“VBAC”) since there is already a wealth of information at the International Cesarean Awareness Network (“ICAN”) and Childbirth Connection websites. Instead I will offer an introduction to the topic for people who are not aware that cesareans are performed at an alarming high rate, and offer a quick look at causes and precautions.  At the end of the post you will find several links for more detailed information.

• Inability to relax
• CPD: Cephalo-Pelvic-Disproportion ~ the baby’s head is too big to fit through the mother’s pelvis
• FTP: Failure To Progress ~ the mother’s dilation doesn’t match the care provider and/or hospitals expectations, protocol or practice
• Fetal distress
• Prolonged labor
• Pain