"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

“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.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Events and Updates

A few months back I was interviewed on the internet about my philosophy of birthing. You can view the Skype interview at : http://yourbabybooty.com/interviews/how-to-be-fearless-in-pregnancy-childbirth-dr-stuart-fischbein-interview/ A word of caution about the transcript. There are a lot of obvious transcription errors and such but the content is worthy of your time. Also, want to announce another successful external version this week at the Sanctuary. This first time mom had exhausted all other remedies and using hypnosis by Luree the unmedicated procedure took less than a minute. It feels great to use the skills I learned years ago for the benefit of our clients and the honoring of informed choice. Of the nine deliveries I have attended over the last 3 months there have been 2 breeches and 3 VBACs (Including 1 VBAC after 2 c/sections). All nine families had joyful and amazing out of hospital birthing experiences. Makes one have to stop and think that in my Ventura County community at least 5 of these 9 would have ended up being delivered by the only option available in the hoapitals - a cesarean section. Necessary? Elective? Is that how you would describe the diagnosis placed on their operative reports by the obstetric surgeons who performed them? Tomorrow, Thurday, August 2nd at 11:30 AM I am being interviewed on internet radio by Mary Oscategui's International Maternity Institute. The topic is "Fearless Pregnancy". Please tune in or catch the podcast later. http://maternityinstitute.com/ This Sunday, August 5th, is Boobie Palooza in Los Angeles sponsored by The Berlin Wellness Group amongst many others. I am on a panel that includes Ricki Lake at 12:30. See: http://www.boobie-palooza.com/ Please check these events and interviews out. Thanks, Dr. F
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1 comment:

  1. UnknownAugust 3, 2012 at 1:06 PM

    Hey Dr. F. I loved all that you said. The subtitles were so wrong in some cases I wonder if it was a computer, not a person. An aside, would you suggest a delay in trying to concieve for an obese mother who would like to avoid a second c/s until excess weight is lost. The first section was 4 1/2 years ago d/t failure to progress + sunny side up baby. Do you have any opinion on soft tissue dystocia? Uterine contractility can be decreased for obese women, as published in literature.

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