Dear Senator,
I am writing today as a woman whose birth story, like many, involves medical intervention. Unlike most women, however, I actually needed the interventions I had. I planned and prepared for a totally natural birth at Nebraska’s only birth center. Unfortunately, at 40 weeks and 6 days gestation, I had to be induced for legitimate medical reasons. After 36 hours of induction and about 6 hours of real labor, I was rushed in for an emergency c-section because of a cord prolapse. I hate that I had to have a c-section but I also knew that my midwife would not have recommended any of the procedures she did without strong evidence supporting the medical intervention.
The story of unnecessary medical intervention runs rampant in the United States, and with only one birth center in the entire state of Nebraska and without the option of midwife-attended homebirths, women across the state are being subjected to unnecessary or inappropriate interventions. Many women don’t know their options and are inclined to simply listen to what their doctor says, trusting the person who has probably never really studied or seen more than a handful of natural births. Some women may know what they want but they don't have the support of their caregivers and may be talked into interventions they don’t want or need. Childbirth is such a fragile time and telling a woman who is in labor that she “needs” an intervention for the safety of her child is manipulative but it happens on a daily basis. There are hundreds, thousands of these stories. Ask any woman who’s given birth in the last few years and you’ll undoubtedly find at least one, but sadly probably many more than that.
Currently Nebraska state law does not allow for a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) to attend home births within the state. This drives many women to either leave the state to give birth or to attempt an unattended homebirth where the risks run much higher. The Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health recently posted an article that studied 16,924 planned homebirths across the United States. The numbers indicate that midwife-attended homebirths are as safe as, and may be safer than, hospital births for low risk mothers. The homebirths also come with better breastfeeding outcomes than hospital births. The abstract can be read and the full PDF downloaded here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jmwh.12172/abstract.
I am writing because this issue is important to me. Because my birth experience left me with PTSD, I do not want to see the inside of a labor and delivery unit ever again. I’m told that my views may change with time, but even if they do, I should not be deprived of the right to birth my second child in an incredibly safe and comfortable environment with the oversight of a trained professional who I can trust enough to tell me if I do need to head to the hospital.
For now, I’m researching my options in Iowa because CNM attended homebirths are legal there and I will undoubtedly be able to find a midwife who will attend my Trial of Labor After Cesarean (TOLAC) that will hopefully result in a successful Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC).
My plea to you is this: please read the study I provided. Please research the safety of TOLAC/VBAC and the dangers and outcomes of unnecessary intervention in hospital births. I could throw statistics at you all day, but it’s something you need to research yourself. Half of your constituents are women. Please look out for them. Please consider legislation to allow CNM attended home births in this great state. I don’t want to have to have my second child in Iowa. I love Nebraska and have loved it all my life. I am so proud of this state. I tell everyone I know from other places that this really is “The Good Life”. But now that I’m looking toward my options for birth for my second child, I’m seriously doubting that claim. Because now, I live in a state where I don’t have options. I will (most likely) be a low risk pregnancy forced to give birth in a hospital and to labor attached to unnecessary machines, or I’ll be giving birth at home with no one to tell me if I am, or my child is, in danger. There’s not really room to find the positive here.
You may not be “my” senator, but we are both citizens of this great state. Please consider writing legislation that will enable all of the women in Nebraska to have a choice to birth how they desire. Please consider legislation that will give me, a woman with PTSD, options that don’t give me flashbacks to the scariest, most terrifying moments of my life.
Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
Kelsey Leick
Kelsey Leick
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