Julie and I had a wonderful time tonight at the Trust Birth Dinner in Redondo Beach. Thank you Carla, Heather and all the dedicated birth goddesses who honored me along with so many other deserving people. I am grateful for the energy you share that rejuvenates my drive for our common goals. So nice to meet Sara Buckley and see Paul Fleiss among the honorees, too.
Sunday from 1:30 to 5:30PM at my Century City Office is the VBAC education class led by Jen Kamel of VBACfacts. There is still room if anyone is interested. I will be attending and offering my 2 cents worth. Below is the information. If interested contact Jen through facebook or leave a comment here and I will get back to you. Dr F
There are still tickets available for the class this Sunday which will be the only class offered in Los Angeles for 2010. The class is close to being sold out, so if you are interested, don't delay!
Another reason to RSVP as soon as possible: I am printing up bounded books of the presentation and want to make sure I have enough for everyone.
Dr. Stuart Fischbein OB/GYN will be present to answer questions.
The latest couple who registered are driving 170 miles one way. Don't let distance hold you back from attending!
Warmly,
Jen
You are invited to the following event:
The Truth About VBAC - Los Angeles
Date:
Sunday, March 14, 2010 from 1:30 PM - 5:30 PM (PT)
Location:
Offices of Stuart Fischbein, MD
10309 Santa Monica Blvd, Suite 300
Los Angeles, CA 90025
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" Edmund Burke, 18th century Philospher.
"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of it being right." Thomas Paine
"The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants." Albert Camus
"Choice is the essence of ethics: if there were no choice there would be no ethics, no good, no evil; good and evil have meaning only insofar as man is free to choose." Margaret Thatcher, March 14, 1977
"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of it being right." Thomas Paine
"The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants." Albert Camus
"Choice is the essence of ethics: if there were no choice there would be no ethics, no good, no evil; good and evil have meaning only insofar as man is free to choose." Margaret Thatcher, March 14, 1977
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” ― Upton Sinclair
Explaining the Cause
I am a practicing obstetrician who is a strong supporter of patients rights to informed consent and refusal. I believe a patient has the right to choose her own path given true and not skewed informed consent. Following that tenet, just as a woman should be able to choose to have an elective c/section she should be able to choose not to have one, as well. The American system of hospital based obstetric practice has been eroding those choices for women for quite some time. Due to concerns of economics, expediency and fears of litigation women are being coerced to make choices that may not be in their best interest.
I have had a long relationship collaborating with midwives and find the midwifery model of care to be evidenced based and successful. I was well trained at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the mid 80's to perform breech deliveries, twin deliveries, operative vaginal deliveries and VBACs, and despite evidence supporting their continued value, hospitals are "banning" these options. Organized medicine is also doing its best to restrict the availability of access to midwives.
Home birthing is not for everyone but informed choice is. Medical ethics dictates that doctors have a responsibility and a fiduciary duty to their patients to provide true, not skewed, informed consent and to respect patient autonomy in decision making. Countries with the best outcomes in birthing have collaboration between doctors and midwives. This is not what has been happening in the hospitals of America. Its time for a change and the return of common sense.
The midwifery model of care supports pregnancy as a normal function of the female body and gives a legitimate and reasonable alternative to the over-medicalized model of birth that dominates our culture. Through this blog I hope to do my part to illuminate what is wrong with our maternity care system and what is right with it. I do not expect all to agree and that is OK. We must all understand that given honest data it is not always reasonable to expect two people to come to the same conclusion. Our differences should be respected.
I have had a long relationship collaborating with midwives and find the midwifery model of care to be evidenced based and successful. I was well trained at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the mid 80's to perform breech deliveries, twin deliveries, operative vaginal deliveries and VBACs, and despite evidence supporting their continued value, hospitals are "banning" these options. Organized medicine is also doing its best to restrict the availability of access to midwives.
Home birthing is not for everyone but informed choice is. Medical ethics dictates that doctors have a responsibility and a fiduciary duty to their patients to provide true, not skewed, informed consent and to respect patient autonomy in decision making. Countries with the best outcomes in birthing have collaboration between doctors and midwives. This is not what has been happening in the hospitals of America. Its time for a change and the return of common sense.
The midwifery model of care supports pregnancy as a normal function of the female body and gives a legitimate and reasonable alternative to the over-medicalized model of birth that dominates our culture. Through this blog I hope to do my part to illuminate what is wrong with our maternity care system and what is right with it. I do not expect all to agree and that is OK. We must all understand that given honest data it is not always reasonable to expect two people to come to the same conclusion. Our differences should be respected.
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It was a great class...thanks again for hosting, Dr F! The VBACFacts gig is statistically jam-packed...Jen does an amazing amount of work, and it was especially helpful - to us and to her, i'm sure - to have you there to sprinkle in details, definitions, anecdotes, and insights from the proverbial trenches!
ReplyDeleteYou are most welcome. It was enlightening for me as well, being my first Jen class. Now, to make your plans a reality!
ReplyDelete