In my personal experience, Midwives know and will say when they believe a transfer of care is necessary but will also truly care about the woman's position an innate wisdom of what is going on in her birth and where she'd rather be. An OB just pressures a woman and scares her into doing what the OB wants by providing false evidence that appears to be real and relevant (which is what I say you are doing by providing your one-sided statistics). I am SO sick and tired of hearing Midwives say that their hands are tied by the law and that they have to transfer care, not because they are incapable of providing the quality care that's needed but because the government says so. I met with many OBs that plainly said that they did not know how to deliver a breech baby other than by cesarean but every Midwife I asked had dedicated the time to educating themselves on vaginal breech birth. It is my body, it is my baby and it is my right to choose.
Kelli Ward is sponsoring the bill SB1157 "to prevent vaginal births after c-section (VBAC) and breech births from being considered low risk in AZ.", which would mean a woman could not birth at home with a Midwife, and is looking for your input! Let her know we are here and will be heard. It is our body, our birth and our right to decide where and with whom we entrust our birth. Provide facts if you can!
*In the time it has taken me to talk to people, cite my sources, voice my opinion and write this blog (approximately 2 hours) the post on the Kelli Ward for Arizona Facebook page has been deleted. Apparently she only wants your input if you are on her side. So here are some screenshots:
In this post Kelli Ward states; "The reporting on home births has been spotty and poor despite rules and regulations requiring reporting - right now, AZ statistics report a little over 400 "low risk" home births with 15 infant deaths. Until we improve the data coming in and see if there are better stats, it is prudent to limit scope of practice of lay midwives to truly low risk home births."
Included in these 15 deaths were a few deaths that where due to life limiting chromosomal abnormalities diagnosed before birth. From the Birth Without Fear Blog "Breech Birth Statistics" post "The perinatal mortality rate does increase with breech presentation, but that is REGARDLESS OF THE TYPE OF BIRTH! The increased death rate is due to malformations already present, prematurity and intrauterine fetal demise!" Also there is debate on the issue being incoming data but rather it is the Health Department not properly dealing with, sorting and reporting the statistics.
On Kelli Ward's Issues page located HERE, I quote "Dr. Kelli Ward believes in personal responsibility, limited government intervention in the day-to-day lives of our citizens...". It also states she is Pro-Life, Pro-Family and Pro-FREEDOM.
Do I sense a bit of Hypocrisy? Is this not a Pro-Family and Pro-Freedom issue?
Kelli Ward claims she is a case of successful case of a hospital VBAC. Congratulations, Kelli! I love to hear stories like that. It gives me hope for more women to have successful hospital VBACs. A woman also asked on her post how would Kelli feel if her right to choose where she felt safest to VBAC was taken away. Well, Kelli?
Kelli Ward, are you not a representative of the people? Why would you silence and remove a debate, from your people, against your bill? Did we strike a nerve? Are you just a lying, hypocritical politician like the rest of them?
For those of you who can not click the links I created:
Kelli Ward for Arizona Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/KelliWardforArizona
Birth Without Fear "Breech Birth Statistics" Blog Post
http://birthwithoutfearblog.com/2011/09/06/breech-birth-statistics/
Kelli Wards Issues Page
http://kelliward.net/page.php?t=issues
For those that would like to be kept informed and join our discussions:
Arizona's Rights for Homebirth Facebook Group
http://www.facebook.com/groups/256480614406716/
