While the 2013 Rally to Improve Birth was a worldwide event Monday, raising awareness to help prevent unnatural birthing methods hits home for many Baton Rouge residents.
Terrie Thomas, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Associates in Women’s Health, said Louisiana statistics are worse than national averages in regard to unhealthy prenatal outcomes.
Louisiana’s cesarean section rate is 39 percent, which is significantly higher than the 15 percent suggested by the World Health Organization.
“We have a higher pre-term birthrate. We have a higher cesarean section rate and so our goal is to help improve those statistics,” Thomas said.
Last year when the rally first began, Baton Rouge was the only location in Louisiana to sponsor the event, but this year, the involved cities include Houma, Shreveport, and New Orleans, according to local rally coordinator Hannah Birchman.
The increase in rally locations represents a growing interest to raise awareness for the issue of unnatural birthing methods, Birchman said.
ImprovingBirth.org warns mothers and families of the dangers of induced labors and C-sections outside of necessary circumstances and brings light to birthing practices, rights and evidence-based maternity care that affects nine out of 10 women.
Birchman said the goal is to inform mothers, families and healthcare providers about the risks of unnecessary birth practices and encourage them to use evidence-based procedures that are backed by science and research instead.
“Continual electronic monitoring increases a mother’s risk of having a Cesarean section, which is a surgical birth,” Birchman said. “After Cesarean section, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists actually recommends a vaginal birth, but most doctors often do not allow women to have a vaginal birth.”
Baton Rouge residents are similarly concerned about the harms of C-sections and artificial inductions of labor.
“We want evidenced-based birth care so that we can reduce the rate of C-sections and unnecessary inductions, which complicates labor for the mommy and baby,” said Jamie Collins, a Baton Rouge resident and Rally to Improve Birth volunteer.
From a medical perspective, Thomas said doctors are influenced by their patients’ desires during birth.
“People want to be induced, but sometimes that patient’s discomfort is at odds with what is best medically, which is to go into natural labor,” Thomas said.
Thomas said her practice has made some adjustments because of evidence-based maternity care. She said four months ago the Associates in Women’s Health decided to not do elective inductions and opt for medically indicated inductions only. Since then, Thomas said, the primary C-section rate has gone down.
“It’s funny that I’m out here questioning induction because I was medically induced based off of medical necessity,” said Allison Smith, a mother and rally attendee. “There are times when artificial induction is medically necessary versus ‘It’s an LSU football game, so I want to have my baby sooner.’
“It’s funny that I’m out here questioning induction because I was medically induced based off of medical necessity.”