48 min
Episode 291 Meg & Julie + What is Cesarean Awareness Month? The VBAC Link
-
- Parenting
“If you don’t know your options, you don’t have any!”
April is Cesarean Awareness Month and we hope this month is one of information, empowerment, and love from us here at The VBAC Link to you. Referring to the amazing resources provided by the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN), Meagan and Julie break down the mission of Cesarean Awareness Month.
Whether you are a first-time mom, VBAC mom, CBAC, or RCS mom, there is space for all of you! This month is meant to not only reduce Cesarean rates overall. It is also meant to inform everyone about birthing options, hospital rights, and ways to make Cesarean births better. We need all of our experiences to make positive changes in the birthing world for future generations!
ICAN's Website
Cesarean Awareness Month Toolkit
Infant Mortality Statistics from 2022
Informed Pregnancy Plus
Needed Website
How to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for Parents
Full Transcript under Episode Details
07:03 Review of the Week
09:29 Why we need Cesarean Awareness Month
13:12 ICAN’s Cesarean Awareness Month toolkit
16:00 Ways to make Cesarean births better
21:20 Common reasons for Cesareans
25:59 Your hospital rights
32:10 The safety of home birth
36:52 Lower Cesarean rates = lower infant/maternal mortality rates
40:38 A message to the CBAC community
Meagan: Hello, hello everybody. It is Meagan and I have Julie with us today. I always get so happy.
Julie: Hello, hello.
Meagan: We are going to be talking about International Cesarean Awareness Month. Now, this is sensitive. It’s sensitive. It can be sensitive. It’s a month, a whole 30 days or 29 days. I don’t actually know how long April is.
Julie: April is not 29 days you crazy. That’s just February once every four years.
Meagan: That’s just February. Maybe 30, maybe 31. I don’t know.
Julie: April is 30 days always every year.
Meagan: Is it? I don’t know my months apparently.
Julie: Apparently.
Meagan: It can be a long month for people and we’re going to talk a little bit more about that. But it stands for International Cesarean Awareness Month and it is a month that is truly just brought to create awareness around unnecessary Cesareans, around advocating for vaginal births after Cesarean, improving Cesarean recovery after, and really just spreading the word and getting the information out there because as someone who has been in the VBAC world before, we have been told many times that VBAC isn’t possible and Cesarean is a must.
You know, Cesarean isn’t desired by everyone, and a VBAC isn’t desired by everybody, but it’s important to know the options. One of the coolest things is that ICAN which is a nonprofit organization created this mission and I’m just going to read it. Does that sound appropriate?
“ICAN is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve maternal/child health by reducing preventable Cesareans through education, supporting Cesarean recovery, and advocating for vaginal birth after Cesarean for VBAC.”
We are really grateful for ICAN. They do a lot of amazing things and I know that they were a big part of my journey. I mean, wouldn’t you say yours too, Julie? I think that’s actually where we might have met is an ICAN chapter meeting maybe.
Julie: Where did we meet? Now I’m going to think.
Meagan: I feel like I can picture you in a living room in a chair up front. You were very involved with the presenter and I was just there.
Julie: Wasn’t it at your house?
Meagan: No.
Julie: Okay. Yeah, I remember that one.
Meagan: It was at someone else’s house and anyway, that’s the first day I remember seeing your beautiful face. Crazy, but we love ICAN and we support them. Julie was just looking and they had a t-shirt. One of the things it says is, “You have options.” That is going to be one of the things that we are talking about today.
Julie: Yeah. That was last year’s theme but they haven’t posted this ye
“If you don’t know your options, you don’t have any!”
April is Cesarean Awareness Month and we hope this month is one of information, empowerment, and love from us here at The VBAC Link to you. Referring to the amazing resources provided by the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN), Meagan and Julie break down the mission of Cesarean Awareness Month.
Whether you are a first-time mom, VBAC mom, CBAC, or RCS mom, there is space for all of you! This month is meant to not only reduce Cesarean rates overall. It is also meant to inform everyone about birthing options, hospital rights, and ways to make Cesarean births better. We need all of our experiences to make positive changes in the birthing world for future generations!
ICAN's Website
Cesarean Awareness Month Toolkit
Infant Mortality Statistics from 2022
Informed Pregnancy Plus
Needed Website
How to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for Parents
Full Transcript under Episode Details
07:03 Review of the Week
09:29 Why we need Cesarean Awareness Month
13:12 ICAN’s Cesarean Awareness Month toolkit
16:00 Ways to make Cesarean births better
21:20 Common reasons for Cesareans
25:59 Your hospital rights
32:10 The safety of home birth
36:52 Lower Cesarean rates = lower infant/maternal mortality rates
40:38 A message to the CBAC community
Meagan: Hello, hello everybody. It is Meagan and I have Julie with us today. I always get so happy.
Julie: Hello, hello.
Meagan: We are going to be talking about International Cesarean Awareness Month. Now, this is sensitive. It’s sensitive. It can be sensitive. It’s a month, a whole 30 days or 29 days. I don’t actually know how long April is.
Julie: April is not 29 days you crazy. That’s just February once every four years.
Meagan: That’s just February. Maybe 30, maybe 31. I don’t know.
Julie: April is 30 days always every year.
Meagan: Is it? I don’t know my months apparently.
Julie: Apparently.
Meagan: It can be a long month for people and we’re going to talk a little bit more about that. But it stands for International Cesarean Awareness Month and it is a month that is truly just brought to create awareness around unnecessary Cesareans, around advocating for vaginal births after Cesarean, improving Cesarean recovery after, and really just spreading the word and getting the information out there because as someone who has been in the VBAC world before, we have been told many times that VBAC isn’t possible and Cesarean is a must.
You know, Cesarean isn’t desired by everyone, and a VBAC isn’t desired by everybody, but it’s important to know the options. One of the coolest things is that ICAN which is a nonprofit organization created this mission and I’m just going to read it. Does that sound appropriate?
“ICAN is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve maternal/child health by reducing preventable Cesareans through education, supporting Cesarean recovery, and advocating for vaginal birth after Cesarean for VBAC.”
We are really grateful for ICAN. They do a lot of amazing things and I know that they were a big part of my journey. I mean, wouldn’t you say yours too, Julie? I think that’s actually where we might have met is an ICAN chapter meeting maybe.
Julie: Where did we meet? Now I’m going to think.
Meagan: I feel like I can picture you in a living room in a chair up front. You were very involved with the presenter and I was just there.
Julie: Wasn’t it at your house?
Meagan: No.
Julie: Okay. Yeah, I remember that one.
Meagan: It was at someone else’s house and anyway, that’s the first day I remember seeing your beautiful face. Crazy, but we love ICAN and we support them. Julie was just looking and they had a t-shirt. One of the things it says is, “You have options.” That is going to be one of the things that we are talking about today.
Julie: Yeah. That was last year’s theme but they haven’t posted this ye
48 min