a mother's thoughts on birth today

i just came across this post and thought i would share it. i liked what this mother had to say, and found it interesting to hear her perspective since her first birth was very different than mine. it is interesting to see the battles she is having to fight and i appreciate her passion for birth. she had a c-section with her first and now would like to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). she's having a tough time finding doctors who support her wishes, though. i liked these passages:

"So, where do women go when they are refused to be treated by all? What options are we left with with when our only option is to have major abdominal surgery performed for unnecessary reasons? Most women are left with more healing to do and more pain because they have been cornered into having a repeat cesarean. Our women have been given false information about what is the safest options for them and their baby. The only way to get our rights given to us and taken out of the hands of the hospitals and doctors is to become educated and to stand up for ourselves. We need to push the fear of labor and natural birth aside and become more afraid of the epidurals, the lack of choices and the high rates of cesareans.

In a day when so many women believe they are free and equal we are blindly having our choices stripped when it comes to birthing our children. We have been buying into the fear and the ignorance that has been seeded into American women. It’s time to to stand up for ourselves and refuse to be cut. It’s time to stand up and let the doctors know that our bodies are made and structured to be able to labor and birth babies. It’s time to have a choice."

(emphasis added)

go here to read her full post.

i came across this quote yesterday and loved it...so i thought i'd end with it...

as roberta scaer says, “if you don’t know your options, you don’t have any.”