Birthing Beautiful Ideas

I am thrilled to announce that “A Woman’s Guide to VBAC: Navigating the NIH Consensus Recommendations” is now up at Giving Birth with Confidence!

Inspired by NIH Consensus Development Conference on Vaginal Birth after Cesarean and the statement that resulted from this conference, “A Woman’s Guide to VBAC” is a collection of articles intended to help women understand the NIH recommendations and the research that helped to inform those recommendations.

In a word, the Guide is awesome.  Better than I could have ever imagined back when I first came up with the idea for it.

And this is due in large part to all of the humbling and amazing work that so many women devoted to this project–most notably, my co-coordinator, co-editor, and co-contributor Amy Romano.  I am so honored to be a part of this community of maternity care advocates, and I am so proud of the work that we have all dedicated to this VBAC Guide.

So if  you have questions about VBAC research and/or the NIH Consensus Statement on VBAC, please head on over and check out “A Woman’s Guide to VBAC!”  There you’ll find:

• Information on weighing the pros and cons of VBAC and repeat cesarean delivery
• An examination of VBAC success rates and prediction models
• A look at how the occurrences and outcomes of uterine rupture compare to other obstetrical emergencies
• An exploration of what it means to be an “ideal” VBAC candidate and what your options are even if you aren’t an “ideal” candidate
• A critique of the “immediately available” language in ACOG’s former practice bulletin on VBAC and of the effects that this language has had on VBAC access in the United States
• An examination of the gaps in the current research on VBAC and information on how to make informed choices in spite of those gaps
• Advice on discussing birthing options with one’s care provider
• An explanation and analysis of the legal rights and protections for VBAC
• Tips on how to take action in order to expand VBAC access in your community

I wholeheartedly encourage you to read, share, and empower yourself and others with this information!

After attending the NIH Consensus Development Conference on VBAC back in March, I returned home inspired, excited, and motivated to empower other women about their birth options.

At the height of my inspiration, I came up with the idea to create an “NIH VBAC Primer“–something to simplify the NIH recommendations and the latest research on VBAC so that women could use that information to advocate for themselves.

With massive amounts of help from the inimitable Amy Romano, the great Lamaze folks at the Giving Birth with Confidence site, and (last but not least) an amazing group of doula, midwife, childbirth educator, and VBAC-mom contributors, “A Woman’s Guide to VBAC: Navigating the NIH Consensus Recommendations” will be launched next week at Giving Birth with Confidence!

I cannot express enough how proud I am of this project and of everyone who contributed in ways great and small to it.

This has been a grassroots effort, a triumph of social media, and an empowering collaboration all in one.  And I am thrilled with the final result.

So if you’re looking to compare the risks and benefits of VBAC and repeat cesarean delivery, or if you’d like some advice about discussing the NIH statement with your care provider, or if you have any other questions about the NIH recommendations on VBAC, make sure to check out Giving Birth with Confidence for “A Woman’s Guide to VBAC” early next week!

Amy Romano and I are currently in the process of collecting and editing all of the fantastic contributions to the NIH VBAC Statement Primer.

As we get closer to publishing the primer on the new Lamaze community site, Giving Birth with Confidence, we’re also starting to think about the sorts of images we’d like to include in this project.

Although Amy and the site administrators at Giving Birth with Confidence do have a good number of stock images related to pregnancy and childbirth at their disposal, we’d like to keep with the grassroots spirit of this project and include some personal photographs in the primer.

And we’d like to receive some of these photos from you!

Do you have pregnancy pictures you’d be willing to share?

Cesarean section pictures?

Pictures of you during labor?

Pictures of you and/or your family with your VBAC baby?

Pictures from the NIH Consensus Development Conference on VBAC?

Pictures of you at an ICAN meeting, a birth rally, or any other pregnancy and childbirth-related event?

If you’d be willing to include any of these photos in the online version of the NIH VBAC Statement Primer (which, to reiterate, will be housed on the Giving Birth with Confidence site), then please send them via email to me at:

koganowski (at) gmail (dot) com

Just to be as clear as possible, these images will be shared on a public site, so please don’t send any photographs that you wish to keep relatively private.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Women making a difference! Jen Kamel (from VBACfacts.com), Desirre Andrews (president of ICAN and contributor to the primer), Gina Crosley-Corcoran (The Feminist Breeder), and yours truly at the NIH Consensus Development Conference on VBAC.