I just read Jennifer Block's blog post, and I couldn't agree with you more.  I get so angry at these 'well-meaning' midwives, doulas and other home-birth advocates who assume (why? why?) that any woman scheduling a C-section is uninformed and vain.  Or anyone considering an epidural, for goodness' sake.  Really, I had to stop similar well-meaning friends from giving me this same lecture when I was pregnant -- and I didn't even have a C-section.  

I say good for you Jennifer Block, Ricki Lake and others -- you had the birth experience you wanted.  And yes, it should be available and legal for anyone else who wants it.  But could you get out of everyone else's womb already?  Isn't that what women have been asking for for decades now?

Ya know, my OB had that "birth how you choose" attitude, and actually encouraged the intervention (surprise, surprise).  What she failed to tell me was that the epidural could: slow down labor, prolong the pushing phase, increase vaginal tearing, increase instrument delivery, drop your BP which in turn drops baby's, cause heart rate problems in baby, increase risk of infection, cause maternal and newborn fever, give you a spinal headache ... and the risks go on.  Because my OB failed to discuss the risks and actually do an informed consent, I stupidly trusted her and my son and I suffered the consequences.

I'm all for doing what you choose.  But thank goodness for Ms. Block, the midwives, doulas, and birth advocates out there who are willing to tell the truth.  Do what you want, but BE INFORMED.  You're right Joanie - I want people out of my womb.  Out with the unnecessary tests, out with the frequent "checks," out with the needles, out with the amniotomy, out with the drugs, out with the scalpels.

Thank you for the blog, Kelly!

I had to make myself get to the end of Block's incredibly presumptuous and preachy letter. So that if I got good and mad, at least I couldn't be accused of having read her entire piece.

Here's the thing - coming from someone who had to have a c-section but would have loved to not - no one, except for the mom in question, her doctors, and her family know exactly why Christina Aguilera decided to have an elective c. So it's incredibly condescending of Block to hold forth. That too based on hearsay from gossip columns.

And the invasion of privacy is utterly appalling to me. Aguilera is a famous person, but she's also a private citizen who is under no obligation to inform the public as to why she is having a c section. Maybe there are health reasons we're not privy to. Because she doesn't want to invite further intrusion and scrutiny. Has that occurred to the oh so smug Ms. Block?

Agh!

It's particularly annoying for me because I went through this a little. The number of people who assumed I went for a c because I was somehow too lazy to consider a version. Well here's the thing folks - the cord was wrapped around my son's neck. A version would have ENSURED an emergency C. Or better yet, I'd have labored as the anti-c folks would have approved of and then perhaps both my son and I would be nobly DEAD.

And you know what? If you've health issues of any sort going into childbirth, better have that scheduled c in your back pocket. It beats an emergency c with a stick.

Again, argh!

Thank you for letting me get this off my chest.

I hate hate hate hate hate the term "breast nazi." So it's disheartening to me that when I read stuff like this, I think to myself, "Vagina nazi." THAT'S how annoying I fund all this. Seriously, does it ever occur to natural birth advocates that their insistence that those of who chose our medicalized interventions are uninformed (or worse) just turns us off further from natural birth advocacy? Their insistence that home birth is utterly safe, that VBACs are like cotton balls in terms of danger, make me think they're fucking stupid and their advice isn't worth listening to.

And the main issue here is it is no one's business how Ms. Aguilera chose to give birth, and to print an open letter to her on the subject takes a lot of hubris.

Kelly,

Couldn't agree more.

This "news-item" has nothing to do with the safety of Mother and baby, and everyting to do with selling tabloids.

I held my wife's hand through 38 hours of labor that never got past 4 centimeters, and ended in a c-section. My wife is now the toughest, most amazing person I've ever known.

The result?

A perfect, beautiful baby girl who is the light of our lives. Her method of entering the world means nothing..that she is in our lives means everthing.

Childbirth is one arena where the ends, most deifiantly, justifies the means.

It's not about how you do it, it's about the miracle you recieve, and what you do with it.

A proud papa,

-Perry

Totally agree with you. It's interesting to me that "a woman's choice" when it comes to childbirth can be so frowned upon by the same women who preach the importance of "a woman's choice". Uh...

As a doula and an advocate of educated choices in birth, I am disgusted by Jennifer Block's article. Some natural birth advocates out there need to realize that their holier-than-thou attitude and rampant zealotry is what is more damaging to not only the cause they believe so blindly in, but the mothers they are so desperate to "help."

I do not understand why anyone thinks a c-section is chosen out of vanity.  You get a HUGE scar, the C-section shelf hanging over the tight scar and still cant get a tummy tuck until the uterus contracts back down which takes about 6-8 weeks.  Even then your tummy never looks as good as one does after a vaginal birth.  Only a dumbass would think a celebrity gets tummy tucks right after childbirth.  Helloo!  The uterus is still all stretched out and huge as a beach ball!  Most c-sections are done for valid medical reasons such as breech position, over due with placenta age issues or the mothers' health.  I do not see how I am more lovely with my scar and shelf.  My hoohaa is the same but so what?  It looks the same after a vaginal birth, too.  Besides, who am I going to impress with the thing?  

I think women who are really wierd about vaginal birth vs. c-section are really sad.  They have so little to crow about they have to act like that one thing they did was a big deal.  They are usually the same ones who tell me I shoudld have breastfed my kid until she was 5 years old.  I think they are oddly fixated on their bodies and the power it makes them feel.  

I've done the completely natural thing, the induction ending in a c-section thing and an emergency c.  I'm all about the c.  

It wasn't that awful.  Maybe I've read some of the worst horror stories out there, but I felt fine afterwards.  It really wasn't that bad.  

My end goal is a live healthy baby.  I don't give a damn how he got here.  Really.  Maybe it is because I have to go all the crap I do to get pregnant (shots, tests all that fun), but I've never felt cheated because of a particular type of birth.  If the end result is a healthy baby, who cares???

Christina's birth is her own, and none of our business.

Jennifer Block had no business telling another woman how she should or shouldn't have given birth, especially considering that she didn't have all of the facts.  Christina could have had the surgery for vanity reasons but there are medical reasons for having it as well.  

Block would never get away with these comments if she were a man.

I agree. Choice.

The thing that makes me angry though, is when people go around raving about cesareans, or choosing to remain ignorant or ill-informed about them. Especially a doc who is cut happy. A woman who chooses a c/s is 4 times more likely to die than a woman who chooses a vag birth. I wonder how anyone could see that as appealing. So, yeah, a c/s is a choice, but statistically, a bad one.  

here' my 2 cents on this issue:

Go ahead, choose your c/s. i dont fucking care. stop making an issue about it.

i honestly dont care if a woman wants to get sliced and diced for no reason (elective c, not medically necessary), but it doesnt stop me from thinking they are stupid and vain. i feel sorry for them, and their babies.

it must suck going through life that vain and silly. what a pity.

I too am an advocate for birth in the U.S. and, as an anthropologist, my research is specifically in this area of American culture.  I read Block's letter and I didn't find it to be preachy or harsh.  In fact, she seems to go out of her way to stay away from this attitude.  I found her letter to be an account of one person's thoughts on the subject and her unsolicited advice to someone in the public eye.

The reality is that every year for the past ten or so years, the c-section rate in the U.S. has increased to around 25%.  One quarter of all babies born today in the U.S. today are being born c-section which is the highest it's ever been in U.S. history.  The normal rate of c-sections that are necessary for life-or-death reasons in any culture is about 8-10% so, as you can see, our c-section rate suggests that there are more of them happening than is necessary.  This is dangerous and hurts women (and babies) far more than it helps them.

These c-sections are not, as a rule, mainly being demanded by women but are instead mainly being demanded by physicians and insurance companies.  C-sections today aren't about women's rights or women's choice.  They are about business (c-sections cost more than vaginal birth) and the ease of those working in the hectic American medical field.

Bottom line: Vaginal childbirth goes against almost everything that our culture holds dear.  It's low-tech, it isn't fast, it involves physical labor, it's painful and it's not predictable.  As a culture we have a hard time just letting birth be what it is and, for the past hundred years or so, we've tried to "improve" it with interventions that have, in some cases, hurt more than they've helped.  The increased c-section rate in the U.S. is yet another in a long line of these kinds of "improvements."

It's not hard to imagine that in the next 10-20 years we may live in a culture where giving birth is understood to mean going into the hospital to have a scheduled cesarean.  Perhaps to those of you who believe that the ends justify the means and that as long as a baby is born alive this is acceptable may not see the immediate danger in this.  But it is dangerous to tamper with nature.

Human beings have been living on this planet for around about 100,000 years and vaginal birth, along with everything else our bodies do so well, has been perfected in that time.  It isn't fool-proof and there certainly can be problems.  But if we can help, rather than hinder, vaginal birth and give women choices that are about making the experience empowering and fulfilling without encouraging more pain and damage than is necessary, we'd have more resources available for those women who actually need medical intervention when they give birth.  Let's save the interventions for actual emergencies and not use them as the bread and butter of our birth system.

It's certainly possible that Xtina didn't have a c-section, but, even if she did, and she did so for the reasons Block expressed fear over in her letter, the fact that this is all being talked about is a victory in my book.  I understand that Ms. Aguilera may not want to address this topic publicly, and I admire her for not doing so, but, as a public figure, her personal choices are going to be discussed whether people like it or not.  I, for one, am glad that they have been because we need to be talking about birth more and we need to shine a light on things that have been allowed for too long in our birth system without public critique or knowledge.

By the bye, there are women worldwide who do have orgasms when they give birth vaginally.  They say the feeling is a bit more intense than other orgasms they've experienced, but just as fun.  I have no experience with this myself, but my professional guess is that it's certainly possible if the woman feels comfortable, is in charge, is focused and is in tune with her body and the labor.

I write all of this, not to be preachy or to be holier/brainier-than-thou, but rather, I write it so that some of you who read this may look into it more yourself.  It's unfortunate if my choice of wording may rankle some people's sensibilities, but frankly I'd rather irritate and instigate thought than not.  Take or leave what I've stated here as you will.  That is what choice is all about.