THE STATE OF BIRTH IN AMERICA

The "State of Birth in America" week? Really, Lisa?

Really.

How can we not talk about birth in America (in general) and in New Jersey (specifically) when the most recently released CDC data tells us that New Jersey bears the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of birth by cesarean section in the country — AGAIN.

New Jersey's average is now 38.3%; the 2007 national average is 31.8% [Source: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_12.pdf]

Those numbers become more frightening when you also learn that women who have this surgery are four times more likely to die than women who give birth vaginally.

And compare our rates to the World Health Organization's recommendations:

• The best outcomes for mothers and babies appear to occur with cesarean section rates of 5% to 10%. Rates above 15% seem to do more harm than good. [Source: http://www.childbirthconnection.org/article.asp?ck=10456.]

Why so high?
Why are so many babies being 'born' via major abdominal surgery? Is it making birth safer for mothers or babies? And what does it say about contemporary attitudes towards women and their bodies?

This week we present the responses of three local women whose work is dedicated to educating and supporting pregnant and nursing women, plus one writer whose only choice for giving birth — three times — was at home.

Our series begins today with
You're So Brave (I Bet You Think This Birth is About You)
by Helena Holgersson-Shorter (see below)

Then tune in this week for these articles:
THURSDAY, APRIL 16
Corporate Undermining: Setting Up Mothers to Fail
by Maria Parlapiano

FRIDAY, APRIL 17
You Make Me Feel Like a Natural...Cesarean?
by Kim Collins

SATURDAY, APRIL 18
Medicate, Subjugate, Dominate, Operate
by Gayle Lemke

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Resources
We urge women to educate themselves fully about their options for birth, including all the risks associated with cesarean sections, and vaginal birth after cesarean section (VBAC):

Childbirth Connection: http://www.childbirthconnection.org
A source for up-to-date, evidence-based information and resources on planning for pregnancy, labor and birth, and the postpartum period. Founded in 1918, Childbirth Connection is a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of maternity care.

VBAC.com: http://www.vbac.com
A woman-centered, evidence based, website providing childbearing women and maternity care professionals access to research-based information, resources, continuing education and support for VBAC* (vaginal birth after cesarean).

International Cesarean Awareness Network: http://www.ican-online.org
The International Cesarean Awareness Network, Inc. (ICAN) is a nonprofit organization that was founded by Esther Booth Zorn in 1982. ICAN’s mission is to prevent unnecessary cesareans through education, to provide support for cesarean recovery, and to promote VBAC. Information about local ICAN chapters can be found on the website.

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You're So Brave
(I Bet You Think This Birth is About You)
by Helena Holgersson-Shorter

“You’re so brave, I could never do that.”

I’m always baffled when you say this to me after I mention that I had all three of my kids at home. First, I have to wonder when bravery became an optional part of giving birth. Isn’t it supposed to hurt? Aren’t you supposed to be scared shitless? Might that soul-rending pain and fear not serve a higher purpose of some sort? Second, I get angry. How fucking sick and divorced from reality is our society if you really, really believe that you could “never” give birth without a team of nurses, insanely intrusive beeping devices, arrogant and disconnected doctors whom you may not even know, and the confines of an impersonal institution filled with disease, the sick and the dying?

I want to shake you.

Whose fault is it you have never in your childhood witnessed your mother, your aunt, or your neighbor giving birth? Who is responsible for the violation of nature that results in a thirty-five year old woman never having assisted a friend, cousin or sister giving birth; either by watching the woman’s other children, or bringing fresh water and linens, or getting down on her knees to murmur words of encouragement and lay cool hands upon the laboring woman.

Yeah, yeah, we all have advanced degrees and work full time and have comprehensive health insurance. I get it, but….fuck that. Really.

Fuck. That.

Birth is as real as it gets, my sisters. Birth is when you literally stare annihilation in the face and put your life on the line in the name of life and love and love and life. Birth is when you incrementally adjust to your entire being fissuring of its own accord: you are no longer in control. And guess what? That’s a pretty apt analogy for motherhood: you are no longer in control of your life, how much sleep you have, the course of your day, or your emotions. From now until you die, your heart will live outside your body in the persona of your child/children, who are free to fill it up or abuse it at will. When you think about it, nature has devised the perfect rite of passage for this transition of status in the act of birth itself.

Do I sound hysterical? Well considering that the origin of the term comes from the Greek word for “uterus” I most certainly am. I’m also pissed — Malcom X, Bill Ayers, Assata Shakur, Leonard Peltier and Angela Davis — pissed.

Who the fuck robbed you of your birthright as a woman? Who convinced you that you don’t have the power to do what you are literally born to do? Who the FUCK stands to benefit from your inculcated fear, your deliberate ignorance, your passivity when it comes to the fruits of the most intimate and dearest of your labors?

It is no accident that our dying society sustains its capitalist, industrialist power in part through a Brave New World health system designed and perpetuated through the denial and destruction of health, in the true sense of the word. So don’t be impressed by my homebirth: I just happen to have some primitive Wolf Woman gene that seems impervious to years and years of cultural brainwashing. You can do it too, of course you can. If you couldn’t, the entire race of homo sapiens would not exist. We need a revolution to rival Descartes’, except our motto will be "Gero ergo sumus".

Investigate. Question. When they tell you your baby is “too big” and try to schedule a preemptive C-section, stand up and flip over a table. When they tell you to lie still so that their machines can take away and interpret your body’s own most ancient, inherited knowledge bite them, scratch them and scream at the top of your lungs.

Is it trite when I beseech you to not believe the hype, to educate yourself about the health benefits to both mother and child of natural, normal birth? I’m sorry, my rage on this particular topic robs me of what I, perhaps narcissistically, persist in considering the irony and wit that normally characterize my style.

Birth is power.
Knowledge is power.
It is, and always has been
yours, mine, and ours.

Helena Holgersson-Shorter is a freelance writer and mother of three beautiful girlz living in Maplewood, New Jersey. She writes the “Because I Said So” column for The MotherHood magazine, which returns to print in the Fall of 2009. Meanwhile, you may read more of her spirited musings on motherhood at New Jersey Moms blog.

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To read more about The MotherHood magazine, or order back issues, go to:
www.themotherhoodmagazine.com, or contact us at themotherhood@comcast.net.