In honor of Larms and her nearly-here bundle of joy!

That’s right. In about 48 hours give or take (I’ll cross my fingers for take!), the more accurate title of this website will be “Our Simple Green Babies”. Go, go Larms!

I thought it only appropriate, then, that we spend a moment reflecting solemnly on what is completely backasswards about giving birth in the grand ol’ U.S. of A.

As usual, this was picked up by Larms, who never met an informational link she could resist clicking, and is no doubt reading and re-reading it right now (Step away from the computer, woman! Find your happy place!!), and fuming on behalf of all moms-to-be who are not served well by our current, broken-from-start-to-finish system.

VBAC’s ahoy!

While I don’t have time to delve into the entire topic of “birth in the American culture” right now, someday (after we have proven we can follow through with our existing projects!) Larms and I will give it a properly thorough treatment, since we each have SCORES of pent-up rants about the over-medicalization and de-simplification of childbirth waiting to be unleashed upon you, our innocent readers.

For the moment, let me just point you to the newly-released NIH findings regarding vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC). (Full panel statement here, for those who like primary sources!) This is a subject near and dear to my heart, as I was my mother’s first child and born of emergency cesarean, but because she had her 2nd two children in the mid-80′s during the great VBAC revival (and with the aid of a forward-thinking OB), she was easily able to choose NOT to have a c-section for the births of my siblings. (I should note, however, that although this male OB was radical enough to steer her toward a vaginal birth for my brother, he was not, apparently, aware that a woman enduring 20 hours of back labor with no pain medication might benefit from more range/flexibility of movement than FLAT ON HER BACK IN A HOSPITAL BED. Props to you, Mom. Seriously.)

Unfortunately, that option would most likely no longer be readily available to her today (to varying degrees depending on where she lived), possibly leaving her consigned to two more automatic c-sections and exposing her to the additional and increasing risks involved without giving her a real choice in the matter. So I was thrilled when my husband, alert-Morning Edition listener that he is (good work babe!), told me all about the new study and its findings. Score one (I hope!) for treating each birth on a case by case basis and, when possible, letting women decide for themselves how they’d like to bring their kiddos into the world!