NIH Releases Draft Consensus Statement on VBAC
The NIH Consensus Development panel released their draft statement on vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) today. For the most part, I think that the statement itself signifies a major step forward for birthing women–especially those of us with cesarean scars. And that in and of itself far exceeds my expectations of what such a statement could do.
I will leave my analysis of the statement, the public discussion of it, and the press response to it tomorrow. (That is when I expect my brain and body to have recovered from three days of conference participation and six-and-a-half hours of driving home from Maryland!)
In the meantime, you can keep yourself apprised of the conference proceedings, the statement, and the press responses by checking out:
- The online version of the draft statement.
- The archived videocasts of Day 1 and Day 2 of the conference. (If you’re interested, I appear on the Day 2 videocast around the 3-hour mark. I’m “Kristen [Indiscernible], the ‘dula’ [sic] from Columbus, Ohio.”)
- The NIH press release on the conference statement, “Panel Questions ‘VBAC Bans,’ Advocates Expanded Delivery Options for Women.“
- The Associated Press piece on the conference statement, “Women Need Chance to Avoid 2nd C-section.”
- NPR’s coverage of the statement.
- The New York Times piece on the NIH conference and the conference statement.
- The audio playback of the press telebriefing, given this afternoon at 2 p.m., by calling 1-888-632-8973 in the United States and 201-499-0429 for international calls. You can then enter the playback code 56036507.
The final draft should be available in approximately six weeks.
