Cesarean Epidemic & Birth Crisis
Planned cesarean: the mother is hardly visible and the baby will be whisked away to the team on the left.
American Birth Statistics
- The cesarean rate is 32% or almost 1 in every 3 births.
- More than half of all the cesareans performed were preventable or unnecessary.
- Most cesareans are performed on healthy women with normal pregnancies.
- Complications for new mothers & their precious babies are rising because of unnecessary interventions.
- Our infant & maternal mortality rates are worse than the other developed countries.
Why?
Today’s extreme techno-medical approach treats birth as a disaster waiting to happen and imposes many dubious interventions on even normal labors. Our maternity care system has become infected with the profit and power-driven agendas of insurance companies; hospital, pharmaceutical and medical supply corporations; and even the medical societies. Despite pretty labor rooms and more female Ob/Gyns, the cesarean rates skyrocketed. Unbelievably, our current system was never designed to be mother & baby friendly and has been criticized as pseudo-scientific by independent researchers. Our dangerous “unnec-cesarean” epidemic is the most glaring example that this very unbalanced approach needs a dramatic overhaul to become wellness & prevention oriented to meet the real needs of mothers, babies and their families.
About the Midwife
Dr..Vanita Lott
Certified Nurse-Midwife
DNP, RN, BSN, CNM
I share my 38 years of experience, knowledge and wisdom to empower YOU NOW to make your own fully informed choices for a safer, easier and more beautiful birth. Since 1983, I have attended approximately 1500 high-risk and normal births including delivering babies in a medical center, an independent birth center, and my former professional home birth practice. If you desire a joyful pregnancy and a deeply satisfying birth, this site is FOR YOU. I help you sidestep common snares that interfere over and over again each day with positive birth experiences.
Modern medicine has saved lives but many never realize their loved ones suffered needlessly from unwarranted interventions and surgeries. I want you to understand the downsides of modern obstetrics before your first birth. I long for the day when I no longer hear a new mother lament, “If I had only known what I know now”. For decades, activists and progressive professionals have been blazing trails to birth a more balanced and enlightened approach. Today, the time has come. The growing public outcry about this disgraceful crisis is awakening women and families to search for sane alternatives and insist the medical system respond.
What Families Are Saying
I cannot recommend Vanita highly enough. My husband and I loved having Vanita as our midwife. Vanita’s knowledge and expertise mixed with her heart, wisdom and practical skills made for such a positive and supportive experience. As new parents, Vanita helped us to feel confident in what lie ahead and always kept us informed on the most holistic choices available to us throughout pregnancy and labor, but at the same time respecting and giving us the space to make our own decisions.
I felt supported above and beyond my expectations and looked forward to my visits… From nutritional counseling, to visualization and affirmations, to helping my husband and I bond … as we prepared for this major life change… We appreciated her medical expertise as various issues came up during the pregnancy and birth, Vanita was always present and it made for such a wonderful journey! I hope that other very lucky women have the opportunity to have such a skilled and supportive experience as we did. What a blessing for our family she has been. Thank you for everything Vanita. We are so grateful!
~ Eliane Atwell, mother of Eleanor
A Midwife's Prayer
May you remember that labor is about opening,
Maybe opening wider than you have ever opened before.
And labor is about trusting,
Trusting in a force, an intelligence and a power,
Maybe greater than you have ever opened to and experienced before.
Labor is about surrendering.
Surrendering to that power, dissolving in it and allowing it to flow through you unhindered like a powerful river.
Birth is about letting go,
Letting go of all your ideas about yourself, life and birth,
Maybe letting go of fears,
And letting go of your baby.
It is time now to open up, trust and surrender.
In letting go of your baby you will have your babe in a new way,
Now in your arms and nourished at your breasts.
And you will have yourself in a new way,
Powerful and invincible,
“I now know I can do anything!”
Warmly,
Vanita Lott, Nurse-Midwife
~ Martin, Joyce. et al. Births: Final Data for 2015. (2017, January 5.) National Vital Statistics Reports, 66(1). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr66/nvsr66_01.pdf
~ World Health Organization (WHO), HRP. WHO statement on cesarean section rates. (2015, April.) http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/161442/1/WHO_RHR_15.02_eng.pdf
~ Haelle, Tara. Your biggest C-Section risk may be your hospital. (2017, May 16). Consumer Reports. https://www.consumerreports.org/c-section/your-biggest-c-section-risk-may-be-your-hospital/
~ Haelle, Tara. Childbirth: What to reject when you’re expecting. (2017, May 16.) Consumer Reports. https://www.consumerreports.org/pregnancy-childbirth/childbirth-what-to-reject-when-youre-expecting/
~ MacDorman, Marian, et al. International comparisons of infant mortality and related factors: United States and Europe: 2010 (2014, September 24.). National Vital Statistics Reports, 63 (5) https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr63/nvsr63_05.pdf
~ Central Intelligence Agency Country comparisons: Maternal mortality, 2015 statistics. Infant mortality, 2016 statistics. The World Fact Book.. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html
~ Haelle, Tara. What hospitals don’t want you to know about C-Cections. (2015, February). http://consumerhealthchoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/SafePregnancyCSection.pdf
Disclaimer: The professional views on Awakening Birth Now are those of Vanita Lott, CNM and do not necessarily represent those of Western Sierra Medical Clinic or Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital. This site addresses national and not necessarily local issues.