Other Responses to the AMA and ACOG

Rixa at The True Face of Birth compiled a great bunch of responses to the AMA's and ACOG's recent statement about place of birth.

Go and have a read; they're great.

The one I liked the most was a letter by a Canadian obstetrician, Andrew Kotaska, which was posted by Jennifer Block at PushedBirth. Here's a snippet:

" I would invite ACOG to join the rest of us in the 21st century. Modern ethics does not equivocate: maternal autonomy takes precedence over medical recommendations based on beneficience, whether such recommendations are founded on sound scientific evidence or the pre-historic musings of dinosaurs. In the modern age, the locus of control has, appropriately, shifted to the patient/client in all areas of medicine, it seems, except obstetrics. We do not force patients to have life-saving operations, to receive blood transfusions, or to undergo chemotherapy against their will, even to avoid potential risks a hundred fold higher than any associated with home birth. In obstetrics, however, we routinely coerce women into intervention against their will by not “offering” VBAC, vaginal breech birth, or homebirth. Informed choice is the gold standard in decision making, and it trumps even the largest, cleanest, RCT.(randomized controlled trials)."

What a chivalrous and rational attitude!

~S~