Childbirth in one of the “Last Best Places”?

By Kimberly James, Unfiltered 10-21-07

It began at my post-partum appointment in 2005 following my cesarean section. She told me I risk experiencing an uterine rupture in future trials of labor.

It continued in 2006 as my husband and I contemplated adding to our family in a new town with new care providers. Should I find a certified nurse-midwife? Does the risk of rupture mean I'll be safer with an OB-attended hospital birth? Are vaginal births after cesarean (VBAC) even allowed in Missoula?

Yet the journey has only just begun. A recent subscription to the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) opened my eyes to evidence-based discussions of childbirth practices in American. It opened my eyes to deficiencies in maternal care in my own community and the inadequacy of policies handed down by the American College of Gynecology & Obstetrics (ACOG) which serve primarily to protect the interests of its members.

Yes, the journey has begun. ICAN of Greater Missoula was born from a belief in a woman's body and the miracle of life. Pregnancy and childbirth are physiological processes in crisis under the current medical system. Instead of being viewed as a natural life process, childbirth is treated as a condition that requires medical management. Recent studies demonstrate that the over-medicalization of childbirth is not improving outcomes for women and their children.

ICAN of Greater Missoula is bringing an important feature documentary film to Missoula. The Business of Being Born explores childbirth as "big business". Director Abby Epstein states: "I discovered that the business of being born is another infuriating way medical traditions and institutions - hospitals and insurance companies - actually discourage choice and even infringe on parents' intimate rites . . ." The Business of Being Born is showing one night only at the Roxy Theater, December 8 at 7:00 pm. Stay for a Q&A session with local care providers following the 85-minute film.

See this movie which Salon.com heralds as having ". . .very little of the screaming, gnashing, clenching horror that is the hallmark of most TLC-style obstetri-drama or, for that matter, of the kind of hirsute birthing filmstrip some progressively educated middle schoolers are shown in sex ed." Support natural childbirth as it aspires to be. Show our care providers than non-invasive medical practices are important to and expected by Missoulians.

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