I’m in danger of becoming a groupie. I was already wildly grateful for her work but after a morning of reading about pole dancing being a sport, how Australia lacks women in parliament, and how women aren’t too fussed by the unspeakable misogyny of Tony Abbott (and neither are men), it was such a relief to read something that actually acknowledged women as human and deserving of human rights.
Go forth and enjoy.
The NIH VBAC Consensus Conference: Will It Pave the Road to Hell with Good Intentions?
TweetWe rightly should applaud any effort that helps women and clinicians decide between planned VBAC or repeat cesarean but lament any attempt to curtail a woman’s right to refuse surgery, be it on clinical or nonclinical grounds. VBAC is a right, not a preference, a right, let me add, not abrogated by the clinician’s opinion of its wisdom. It does not matter if you, me, and everyone on the planet were to line up and say to a woman VBAC is a bad idea in your case, she still has the right to say “no” to surgery. Clinicians and institutions must be brought to accept their ethical and professional obligation to provide best practice care to every woman wanting planned VBAC. If the conference fails in this task, then whatever it accomplishes, it will fall short of its duty to childbearing women with previous cesareans.
