Maternal and child mortality outside of developed nations is also a no brainer and obviously has no bearing on the capacity of a well nourished adult woman to bear children despite how many scars she has on her uterus. Afghanistan, for example, has almost no access to healthcare, unbelievably poor nutrition and young women having babies. It's a war zone with no infrastructure not a suburb in New York! Other parts of the world where women die in childbirth have similar scenarios but also include genital mutilation which unsurprisingly leads to fistula and death in a large number of birthing women, many of whom are more strictly girls since plenty of girls are infibulated and sold in marriage under the age of 12. So that comparison is ridiculous. If you look at road traffic accidents in countries without tertiary healthcare being available you'd no doubt find many people dying of injuries that are relatively easily fixed in the developed world but you won't see people quoting those statistics to demonstrate why we shouldn't be driving cars. It's just nonsense. Healthy well nourished women with access to appropriate care, ie not malnourished girls in war zones, birth just fine. If they didn't, the human race wouldn't be surviving and thriving, right? Why does logic go out the window just because surgery is involved?
I have frequently engaged in public debate via the media with various surgeons in this country and on the one hand they argue that women in Australia shouldn't birth at home because women in developing countries die in childbirth and on the other, they argue that studies such at the 2005 N.American hb study can't be applied to Australia because it's from another country. That just shows the logic that's not involved in this POV. It is a point of view, it's not an evidence based position. It's the mix of our internalised misogyny with their own misogyny and all supported by the money that's to be made from carving up our healthy bodies and trying to convince us that one c/s means c/s forever despite the evidence.
Honestly, I feel so worn down by the whole "debate" when it's no more complex than whether formula or breastmilk is the appropriate way to nourish a baby. Women don't come to MDC to "decide" whether or not they want to ff or bf because it's an evidence based board thus bm is the acceptable norm. How did birth become optional and c/s on a par with vaginal birth? All choices are not equal, surgery is not safer than birth. Of course it's apropriate to debrief and learn in a situation where your breastfeeding relationship has not been successful (or you've ended up with a c/s despite not wanting one in case you don't follow my analogy) but presumably the point to that is to put in place better support for subsequent breastfeeding relationships, not debate whether or not you want to bf a second, third or fourth time. Birth is normal, breastfeeding is normal.
ETA: Australian maternal mortality 2000-2002 showed 14 women died as a direct result of pregnancy or birth. Yes, that small! But of those 14, 12 died because of complications related to previous caesareans for which they were having subsequent surgery, mostly pph from placenta issues. Surgery being safe is an invention of surgeons and so many of us buy into it that's it truly shocking to me.
I have frequently engaged in public debate via the media with various surgeons in this country and on the one hand they argue that women in Australia shouldn't birth at home because women in developing countries die in childbirth and on the other, they argue that studies such at the 2005 N.American hb study can't be applied to Australia because it's from another country. That just shows the logic that's not involved in this POV. It is a point of view, it's not an evidence based position. It's the mix of our internalised misogyny with their own misogyny and all supported by the money that's to be made from carving up our healthy bodies and trying to convince us that one c/s means c/s forever despite the evidence.
Honestly, I feel so worn down by the whole "debate" when it's no more complex than whether formula or breastmilk is the appropriate way to nourish a baby. Women don't come to MDC to "decide" whether or not they want to ff or bf because it's an evidence based board thus bm is the acceptable norm. How did birth become optional and c/s on a par with vaginal birth? All choices are not equal, surgery is not safer than birth. Of course it's apropriate to debrief and learn in a situation where your breastfeeding relationship has not been successful (or you've ended up with a c/s despite not wanting one in case you don't follow my analogy) but presumably the point to that is to put in place better support for subsequent breastfeeding relationships, not debate whether or not you want to bf a second, third or fourth time. Birth is normal, breastfeeding is normal.
ETA: Australian maternal mortality 2000-2002 showed 14 women died as a direct result of pregnancy or birth. Yes, that small! But of those 14, 12 died because of complications related to previous caesareans for which they were having subsequent surgery, mostly pph from placenta issues. Surgery being safe is an invention of surgeons and so many of us buy into it that's it truly shocking to me.
As of right now I have no healthcare provider at all. I am just about to make dinner (it's 5:30pm over here) but I will come back later on and post some of my thoughts.
: (p.s - she wants to come with me to hospital. My partner wasn't too keen at one point and i asked her if she would come instead. Now she thinks she is invited - even though i have un-invited her. She really isn't supportive of me having a VBAC. She thinks she'll be there to acompany me into theatre. In fact she and my dad were convinced I was going to die, because it was SO DANGEROUS for me to be having another baby after all these c-sections.... yet they think the safest thing is having another one??? Just after I told them my dad went out and bought a 7 seater car so he could fit in all these children he was about to inherit. I told my partner that, thinking he'd find it amusing, but he started freaking out too 
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), I just don't know if I can go through that again.
: Thank you so much for this. Reading it made me feel a lot more comfortable and in control.
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