Breech birth at home: BMC series guest blog

Dr. Stuart Fischbein and I were invited to write a guest blog about our recent article in BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth, Breech birth at home.

Here is an excerpt from my part of the blog:

We are doing women enormous harm by taking away their bodily autonomy when their baby is breech. In theory, state and federal laws support the principle of informed consent and informed refusal, and nearly every hospital has a patient’s bill of rights that ensures consent before medical procedures. Yet we throw these legal and ethical rights away when a baby turns bottom-first.

We can do better. We owe it to the women we care for. Women should not be forced to leave the hospital in order to exercise their right to informed consent. Every woman with a breech baby deserves access to skilled providers in her own community who can support her, whether she chooses a planned cesarean section or a vaginal breech birth.

Read the rest of the blog post here.