Friday, December 18, 2009

Joyful news

If you've been watching CNN, you probably saw that Arizonan mom Joy Szabo had a successful second VBAC--but not without a fight and a 6-hour temporary move away from her family. I blogged about her story a few months ago in Elective(?) Repeat Cesareans. Take the time to read the CNN story (which includes links to other stories and articles) and watch the video about "How to get the birth you want."

Reality Rounds has responded to the news of Szabo's VBAC, wondering if the public might see her story as one of (selfish) entitlement, rather than empowerment.

CNM and MPH Nicole Deggins of It's Your Birth Right just blogged about what patient empowerment means to her. Her favorite thing about attending births is when she sees "The Shift." It happens after a laboring woman is ready to throw in the towel, after she is sure she can't do this anymore. Then..."The Shift" happens and the dynamic changes:
Immediately after “The Shift” she gets a surge of energy from somewhere and then WOW! The miracle of birth and life happens. And as she delivers her baby, she realizes that YES not only could she do it...she just DID it and the pride, the energy, the happiness, the beauty of it all. OMG!!! If we could put it in a bottle we could send love and stop war around the globe.
She has a lovely story of a young teenage mother with lots of emotional and personal baggage, a "social history that had worn her down." But she found her voice and her inner strength through giving birth.

My bottom line on the Szabo drama: it's a great story of one woman's empowerment, determination, and courage to follow what she feels is right for her and her baby. But it's a story that shouldn't have happened in the first place. A pregnant woman shouldn't have to move six hours away and rent an apartment in a big city, away from her home and family during the final weeks of pregnancy, just to escape an unnecessary surgery that her local hospital would have forced on her by court order.

5 comments:

  1. I said it on Jill's post as well, but I think the whole segment was rather naive and I can just hear all interventive happy OBs and L&D nurses laugh at this.

    Seriously, if it were only that simple. You have to understand the answers and understand how you got there to begin with. Most of the work needs to be done prenatally. You can't wait till birth.

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  2. Oops, I thought you had linked to the CNN segment about how to get the birth you want. My bad for not reading correctly!

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  3. No, I did link to that Maria. It's part of the article about Joy Szabo.

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  4. LOL If I didn't know any better I would think I am pregnant. I thought it discussed that in the article, but then I checked and was looking for the CNN video where the CNN reporter Elizabeth Cohen discusses these questions, and didn't see that... and did something like 1+2 =4 hahaha

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  5. If only Szabo's ordeal would make the hospital that refused to let her try for a VBAC would change it's policy. Then I would consider it a true success story.

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