Brazilian women are taking charge of their births. Will we?

A SYTYCB Entry

We thought our cesarean rate was bad…but check out Brazil’s! Our measly 31% doesn’t compare at all to Brazil’s 51% and 82% for those with private insurance. What’s worse is that research (obviously) points to non-clinical factors for all these cesareans such as time of birth, being married and delivering in a private hospital.  As reported by NPR, the latest peak in the Brazilian birthing controversy came in July, when a medical regulating agency in Rio de Janeiro declared that home births and doulas in hospitals were forbidden. Women took to the streets and organized marches in 13 cities protesting this regulation….and it worked!

The regulation was reversed by court order on July 30^th and women celebrated with painted bellies and babies covered with the words “Born Free” in Portuguese. Women also marched in other Brazilian cities for the right to refuse episiotomies and enemas during birth and to have birthing companions with them. Brazil’s federal government is now trying to reverse the C-section trend with $3.36 billion for “The Stork Network,” a program for educating medical providers and women about the benefits of natural birth in order to expand the way women give birth instead of directly opting into the surgical route.

How can we learn from this and take charge of our own births within the healthcare system that we have?  The natural birthing movement is wonderful, but when will we integrate both natural wisdom and medical knowledge and provide a spectrum of choices with mothers in the driver’s seat? With our own issues in birthing, such as VBACs (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) being increasingly forbidden (without the empirical research to support such a precaution) in hospital systems nationwide, I wonder: What will it take for us to hit the streets in multiple U.S. cities and demand that we have more choices?