National Rally for Change event to continue annually “until American birth is safer”
San
Diego (Sharewellnewswire.com ) September 7, 2012 -- This Labor Day,
Sept. 3, more than 9,500 women, their families, and birth and medical
professionals gathered near local hospitals in over 100 cities across
the U.S. The first National Rally for Change was created to bring
awareness to the lack of evidence-based maternity care and the need for
safe, informed birth choices for women. Today, Dawn Thompson, event
organizer and founder of ImprovingBirth.org, stated: “With an estimate
of over 600,000 medically unnecessary cesareans in the U.S. each year
(per World Health Organization guidelines), we are committed to
continuing to educate and promote awareness for evidence-based and
safer birth practices."
Women
in the U.S. face a greater risk of maternal death than nearly all
European countries, Canada, and several countries in Asia and the
Middle East, according to Amnesty International.
“The
first step to fixing any problem is being aware that there is one. Most
women just aren’t aware how out of line we are with worldwide health
standards, and they often believe they are being given true and
accurate information by their care provider,” said Thompson. “We want
every woman in America to know: you and your baby deserve better than
the “routine” care that is often outdated and full of measurements from
technology that have proven to be grossly inaccurate—you deserve the
safest, most modern, science-based care. And you deserve to make safe,
informed choices.”
Many
U.S. hospitals and providers claim to practice evidence-based care, but
the numbers do not support this claim. If all hospitals were practicing
evidence-based maternity care, we would not have such a high rate of
artificial induction of labor (34%), high surgical birth rates (over
32%), or such low instances of Vaginal Birth after Cesarean (7%).
Routine use of non-evidence based maternity care practices contributes
to the one in three American births that end in surgical delivery.
Examples of other practices that have been proven not only unnecessary,
but potentially harmful, include denying a laboring woman food and
drink (60%), restricting the movements of a laboring woman to the
hospital bed (76%), artificially accelerating labor with medications
(47%), and continuous electronic fetal monitoring (94%). These
practices, while common, are not evidence based. (See References,
below.)
“Evidence-based
care is about continually updating our clinical practices using the
best and most current research available to us," said researcher and
university nursing professor Rebecca Dekker, PhD, RN, APRN. “In
academia, we’ve been pushing evidence-based care as the gold standard
for decades—but there have been barriers to implementing it in the
clinical setting. It is so exciting to see consumers discovering the
concept of evidence-based practice and gathering together to demand the
better care that can and should be available to them."
Thompson
said, “This isn’t about limiting choices—it’s about more information
and better choices. It’s about access to the very best information so
that women can work together with their health care providers towards
informed, safe decisions about their bodies and their babies.”
“We
are thrilled and humbled by the response to this first-time event. It
shows this growing outcry across our country for more modern and more
humane maternity care. This Labor Day, thousands of women and families,
doctors, nurses, midwives, and doulas came together to say, ‘We deserve
better. Our babies deserve better.’
“American maternity care must change, and we're taking to the streets until it does.”
For more information visit www.ImprovingBirth.org
References
National
Institutes of Health “Contemporary Cesarean Delivery Practice in the
United States” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2947574/
Childbirth Connection’s “Best Evidence: C-Section”: http://www.childbirthconnection.org/article.asp? ck=10166
National Institutes of Health’s Consensus Statement on Vaginal Birth After Cesarean http://consensus.nih.gov/2010/vbacstatement.htm
Chilbirth Connection’s “Listening to Mothers” Survey: http://www.childbirthconnection.org/article.asp? ClickedLink=205&ck=10068&area=2
Source: http://www.sharewellnewswire.com/nearly-10000-rally-for-the-largest-womens-rights-issue-in-decadesquot-2715.htm/#ixzz25mGn2FlA
