Things I'm pondering

Here are some things going on in the world of women's reproductive health that I think don't compute:

- As a member of ICAN, I have heard numerous stories of women who were given primary c-sections, were unable to find a provider to help them have a VBAC, and were then told that their OB would not let them have more than 3 c-sections. Of course, they can't have a vaginal birth unless they want to do it alone at home, because so few providers will attend a woman with 2 or more c-sections who wants to try a vaginal birth. So these OBs are essentially telling these women that they cannot have more than 3 children. I'm not sure what the OB does if a woman with 3 sections gets pregnant again...she can't have a vaginal birth, and she can't have a c-section...how is that baby coming out?

- As referenced above, having a VBAC is becoming far more difficult than it used to be. Many hospitals are refusing to allow women to have a vaginal birth if she has had a c-section before, because they don't feel they can accommodate ACOG's guidelines, including having immediate access to a surgical team to perform a c-section in case of uterine rupture. Nevermind that there are plenty of other emergencies that could happen during labor, some of which are statistically more likely to occur than uterine rupture, like cord prolapse or placental abruption. These could happen in any laboring woman, so if a hospital is unwilling or unable to perform an emergency c-section for a woman with a uterine rupture, it is unable to perform an emergency c-section for any other reason. So why are we having babies in hospitals if they can't perform an emergency c-section?

- Access to birth control is getting harder, especially for women living in rural areas of states (including mine) where pharmacists are legally allowed to refuse to fill prescriptions for any drug they disapprove of on moral grounds (usually birth control pills or Plan B contraceptives...presumably there are few pharmacists who are opposed to high blood pressure meds, unless they are Christian Scientists, and the idea of Christian Scientist pharmacists is hard to imagine...but I digress). A woman trying to get contraception in a rural area with only one pharmacy may find that she has to drive to another county to fill a prescription if the pharmacist in her town refuses to fill her prescription. I sure hope that woman hasn't already had 3 c-sections, because now she's at risk of starting a pregnancy that no one will help her deliver. Obviously, an abortion is becoming harder to get, too.

So I'm thinking that the reproductive rights movement has a few other issues than just abortion they should focus on. There is new legislation in our state government that is looking into licensing direct-entry midwives, which would make homebirth more accessible. This is a good start, but seriously, the assault on women's reproductive choices doesn't seem too family-friendly to me.