International Cesarean Awareness Network

Education, Support, & Advocacy for Birth Justice & Healing

Cesarean Awareness Month 2021

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 1, 2021


In 1982, Liz Handler and Esther Zorn dreamt of an organization that would spread awareness and education surrounding cesareans. Because of their efforts, and the efforts of all that have come before and after them, we have seen a cultural shift among consumers. Families are now taking more control of their pregnancies and births, and feeling the empowerment that comes along with recognizing your innate capacity to be the lead authority in the birth room.

The COVID pandemic has had many far-reaching effects on healthcare, including essentially banning hospital-based doula care in many regions. This action removes the evidence-based care that has been shown to reduce cesarean rates and improve outcomes.

We’ve also seen pregnant people being coerced into inductions and cesareans in greater numbers. Government policies have given the hospital-based providers more freedom to restrict our human rights in childbirth without fear of repercussions.

We know that awareness campaigns work. They reach far and wide by sharing the personal stories of the world’s birth givers, and by sharing these experiences, they work to change the future of birth for us all. When ICAN created Cesarean Awareness Month nearly 20 years ago, there was one goal in mind – to ensure consumers would hear the full risks of cesareans and other uterine surgeries before the first surgery. Many, if not most, do not hear terms such as “Accreta” until they are being diagnosed with it, even though data shows the vast majority of people that have a cesarean will have a repeat. This means people are not fully informed on the risks of cesareans before their first.


We must work together to ensure all births occur from an informed state of decision making. We must work to save the birth givers oft he world from the coercion and violence associated with biased counseling.


On this first day of April, as we begin the 2021 Cesarean Awareness campaign, we ask you to join with us to share education, support,and advocacy surrounding all cesarean topics, because Birth Rights Are Human Rights.

ICAN Board of Directors
Brianna Barker
Justen Alexander
Janelle Blackmore
Samantha Wall
Briana Smith
Brittany Healy
Tatiana Dudziak

CBAC Awareness Month – Anna’s CBAC Birth Story

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After my traumatic first birth which resulted in cesarean, I was determined to have a VBAC. The providers in my area were more VBAC “tolerant” than “supportive”, so I landed on having my VBAC at home with a midwife. I did endless research and felt confident in our birth plan.

My waters ruptured at 39 weeks and contractions started 12 hours later. My contractions came on hard and back to back, endlessly for another 15 hours. I had not progressed at all during that time and decided it was time for us to transfer to hospital. Some nurses were super supportive while others were a little more judgmental.

After an epidural, the on-call OBGYN came in and “told me” we were doing a cesarean despite me and baby doing great. I told her no, as long as we were doing well, I’d be the one to decide if we wanted to proceed with cesarean. I was required to sign a refuse to consent form and she made it clear she did not agree with my decision. Six hours later I still had not progressed at all and decided myself that I was ready for the cesarean.

Although the birth was not at all how I’d planned, I was informed and empowered and I called the shots. Overall it was a positive experience and my sweet baby boy joined our family!

Thank you for sharing your story with us, Anna!

Share your story with ICAN to be featured on our Instagram and Facebook! All cesarean and birth-after-cesarean stories are welcome: the difficult, the triumphant, the still-processing, and the stories which haven’t yet been shared. Sharing your birth story can be freeing, healing and profoundly powerful. It can bring others hope, comfort, and reassurance that they are not alone on their birth journey.

Submit your story HERE: https://airtable.com/shrJOtXla9O9MVBaj

Devan’s RCS Birth Story

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Share your story with ICAN to be featured on our Instagram and Facebook! All cesarean and birth-after-cesarean stories are welcome: the difficult, the triumphant, the still-processing, and the stories which haven’t yet been shared. Sharing your birth story can be freeing, healing and profoundly powerful. It can bring others hope, comfort, and reassurance that they are not alone on their birth journey.

Submit your story HERE: https://airtable.com/shrJOtXla9O9MVBaj

On August 4th I went in for a planned C-section. Although I was nervous, at least I knew what to expect this time around as my first was an emergency. Everything in the operating room went smooth. I was able to do skin to skin which was something I never got to experience with my older son.

After recovery they took me into my room and that is when everything changed. I started to feel very sick I couldn’t keep anything down, including water, and I felt weak and dizzy. The nurse insisted it was probably due to the spinal block and that it would go away. It never did and I continued to feel sick throughout the day and that night. They finally ran some blood work and discovered I was losing a ton of blood.

The next day I received two units of blood. I felt better but I still did not feel right. Later that night we were able to talk with my doctor and gave him our concerns. This is when we had found out that I had a hematoma and that was why I was losing blood. He decided it would be best to do a CT scan and see if I was still losing blood.

An hour after the scan my doctor came in and told me I was going to be rushed into emergency surgery. The hematoma was the size of a basketball and if we didn’t operate I would continue to lose blood. I was so scared and I could tell my husband was as well.

I was in surgery for two hours when I woke up I was alone in recovery and began to have a panic attack. They had put my belly band on too tight and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. On top of that with COVID restrictions I had a mask on. No matter what I said the nurse would not let me remove the mask. That had to be one of the most traumatizing parts of the whole ordeal.

I had to spend a total of 6 days in the hospital. I am almost 7 weeks post-partum now and am still dealing with complications. With all of what my body went through I was not able to breastfeed. My milk didn’t come in until I was almost 3 weeks pp and when it did my supply was so low it wasn’t even worth pumping, although I tried for weeks.

Although this is the hardest thing I have ever gone through it made me really appreciate life and realize how fragile it truly is. I am glad I get to be here today for my kids.

Congratulations, Devan, and thank you for sharing your story with us!

Jennifer’s CBAC Birth Story

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Share your story with ICAN to be featured on our Instagram and Facebook! All cesarean and birth-after-cesarean stories are welcome: the difficult, the triumphant, the still-processing, and the stories which haven’t yet been shared. Sharing your birth story can be freeing, healing and profoundly powerful. It can bring others hope, comfort, and reassurance that they are not alone on their birth journey.

Submit your story HERE: https://airtable.com/shrJOtXla9O9MVBaj

From the moment I found out I was pregnant with Baby #2, I fought so hard for a VBAC. I hired a doula and switched care providers twice to find the support I needed—settling on an independent midwife for prenatal care and checking into triage to give birth with hospitalists.

Then, I delivered my precious Baby Boy #2 (aka Tank) via unplanned repeat Cesarean. However, because of the choices I made, I feel empowered and grateful.

I went into spontaneous labor New Year’s Day at 41 weeks, 3 days. I hadn’t had a “normal” labor experience with Baby #1, so this was my first time having regular contractions.

The birth stories I’d read reassured me all the sensations I felt were normal, and I settled in to labor at home as long as possible. I enjoyed being in the comfort of my own home, despite knowing I’d be delivering at the hospital.

In the afternoon, I noticed contractions were getting a little stronger (5-8 minutes apart and about 45 seconds long). Laying down wasn’t as comfortable anymore. I kept checking in with my midwife and doulas, who encouraged me to take a bath and rest as much as possible.

I was a little worried because it was New Year’s Day and my care team was scattered, but they assured me I’d have help when I needed it.

I had planned for an unmedicated labor and drew on all my strength from prenatal yoga to breathe through each contraction. (We opted not to take another birth class this time around, figuring I’d listen to my body and rely on our doulas. Not sure if I’d change that, in hindsight.)

My favorite position was kneeling draped over my yoga ball. Sitting and laying down were NOT my friends.

Around 7 PM, I was 5 cm dilated. My midwife said I could likely labor at home longer, but the frequency of contractions was worrying me. I was also experiencing a stabbing/burning sensation through my back with every contraction (back labor), and felt more comfortable heading in before things intensified.

I decided I would probably need an epidural. I’d wanted to avoid interventions, but I could tell I was tensing up and knew I needed to fully relax or I might inhibit my body’s ability to progress.

Afterwards, I was disappointed in myself for this choice. I wondered why my support team didn’t try to talk me out of the epidural. I’ve since learned that since I was talking calmly about the epidural BETWEEN contractions, they knew I was making an informed choice rather than an emotional one. That was a cool realization.

I had progressed to 7 cm by the time I arrived. I was happy I’d made it almost to transition. I still felt confident in my decision to get an epidural to relax and work with contractions. Not only was the back labor intense, but I was nervous about feeling the pushing part.

By early morning, I was 9 cm and 90% effaced! But I stayed there, and that’s where things started to slowly take a turn.

The biggest concern was the discovery of meconium in my fluid. Baby started having heart rate dips, so I received a low dose of pitocin and extra positioning to see if we could finish things up.

Baby wasn’t liking pitocin, and I started melting down, seeing some of the same signs from birth #1 that things might take a turn.

When the doctor on call realized there was only a small lip of cervix holding things up, I was told I could push. I was so sure they were about to call the surgery. However, I got the experience – terrifying and amazing- of trying to push out a baby.

I pushed on two separate tries. The on-call midwife coached me while I held my husband’s and doula’s hands. They even said I was doing a great job with it, despite being able to feel NOTHING thanks to the epidural. I’m proud of that.

Unfortunately, Baby’s head kept peeking out during pushes then disappearing again, and decelerations continued.

After 29 hours of labor, we made the decision for a C-section. By that time, I’d made my peace and realized my strength–I really had done it all. I’d been given every opportunity for success, but baby had other plans.

There was no pressure and everyone on staff was supportive and reassuring. I remember when things first started turning, as I lay there crying, the on-call midwife told me it was okay to be feeling emotional and reassured me that I had done well. She took the extra moment to honor all the baggage I had brought with me into that room, and I will never forget that.

The fact that everyone acknowledged baby’s safety was #1 while also allowing me every chance to succeed and honoring my feelings made all the difference in the world. I delivered my 10 lb. 5 oz. Tank a short time later. We still can’t believe he was that big!

Tank’s real name means “healer,” and he certainly healed my heart through this experience. I realized we don’t always get the birth we want; we get the birth we need.

Through birth, we learn that things don’t always go according to plan. We learn acceptance. We learn how strong we can be. We are humbled. And as long as we can look back and say, “I did everything in my power to stack the odds in my favor,” and “I was seen, heard, and respected,” we find peace at the end of our birth journeys.

Congratulations, Jennifer, and thank you for sharing your story with us!

Hilary’s Unassisted HBA2C Birth Story

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Share your story with ICAN to be featured on our Instagram and Facebook! All cesarean and birth-after-cesarean stories are welcome: the difficult, the triumphant, the still-processing, and the stories which haven’t yet been shared. Sharing your birth story can be freeing, healing and profoundly powerful. It can bring others hope, comfort, and reassurance that they are not alone on their birth journey.

Submit your story HERE: https://airtable.com/shrJOtXla9O9MVBaj

Birth Story: The unassisted home birth of Aspen Juliet after 2 cesareans

Back story: My first baby was a csection due to being breech. I simply didn’t know any better. I didn’t know that a breech baby can be born vaginally, even though I am a nurse. I went in to labor, labored at home as much as possible, and then went to the hospital and told them she was breech so I had to have a csection.

My second pregnancy, I was set on having a VBAC. I switched providers to hospital midwives in hopes that these midwives would give me better care during birth. (Spoiler, they were actually “medwives.”) I induced labor myself because I was impatient. Labor started nicely and we headed to the hospital once I felt that the pain was getting to be too much. At the hospital I labored some and eventually started using the nitrous gas for pain relief When my water broke, the pain intensified greatly. I said I couldn’t do it and I either wanted IV pain meds or the epidural. The nurse told me that the CRNA was available now and right outside my door and who knows when she would be available again to do the epidural. I felt pressured and caved and got the epidural. As I was getting the epidural, my body was pushing involuntarily. Of course once I got the epidural they laid me on my back, which I told them I didn’t want. Soon after I got the epidural, the baby went into distress. After 2 hours of baby having late heart decelerations they came in and informed me of the decelerations. They basically said at this point that my options were A) a csection or B) a csection.

I was fully effaced and fully dilated and baby was at 3+ station. They said baby was too high. They wouldn’t even allow me to push. (Not to mention that shift change was soon, but they would never admit that that was why they pushed for the c-section).

During this second c-section, I had a uterine window that ruptured during surgery. The incision also tore 5cm down to the cervix during surgery. After the c-section, the doctor told me that I could never have a vaginal birth.

With my third pregnancy, I would not take no for answer. I would get my VBA2C even if it was the last thing that I did. When I found out I was pregnant, I called every birthing center in the region in search of someone who would take me as a patient. I consulted with an OB doctor at 8 weeks pregnant while searching for a midwife.

After an extensive search without much luck, I finally found a birth center that would take me. At 21 weeks the midwife, my husband, and I went in for an anatomy scan with her attending physician (the same physician that I saw when I was 8 weeks pregnant.). This doctor was very nice but said that he was not comfortable with me birthing outside of the hospital because of my uterine window that ruptured during surgery with my second c-section and the 5cm tear of the incision also from the second c-section.

At this point the midwife said that she could not allow me to birth at the birth center. She was willing to do co-care with the OB doctor, but I had no interest in paying her $5000 plus paying the doctor’s fee and the hospital fee. By the way, the baby could not have looked more perfect on the anatomy scan, and the placenta was in the fundus which was great!

After this appointment, I started my search over and began looking for any midwife in the area who would take me as their patient. I interviewed with a midwife pair and we planned to birth in a hotel DIRECTLY across the street from the hospital. They too had the same overseeing OB doctor and he wasn’t okay with that option either. So I ended up seeing this OB doctor until I was 32 weeks pregnant. Around 28-30 weeks along, I started feeling God working on my heart, pushing me towards having my baby at home. God was telling me that everything would be okay. He was telling me that I could have the birth that my soul needed. After years of research on birth and VBAC I realized that my best chance at achieving my healing VBA2C birth would be at home, away from doctors and hospitals and unnecessary protocols and arbitrary timelines.

So I decided on an unassisted homebirth. It was the best decision I could have made! I was getting so tired of hearing people tell me what THEY were going to LET ME do with MY body. I decided to take charge of my own birth! My husband took lots of convincing, however. We had several discussions and arguments about my choice to birth at home. He was afraid of the what-if scenarios. I understood his fear but I knew that my unassisted home birth was something that I needed to do. I told him that I was having the baby at home whether he was there or not. I told him I’d love to have him there but his presence was not required. He told me he wouldn’t let me do it alone. So, we spent a lot of time preparing and specifically educating my husband so that he would feel prepared and not be fearful or panic during the birth.

Birth story: The gender was a surprise! Baby spent the entire third trimester head down on the right side (ROA) with occasional changes to either transverse or head down on the left side (LOA) but would go right back to ROA with spinning babies exercises.

On Thursday 10/17 I was 40 weeks and 4 days. Surges started around 11am. They were few and far between and I didn’t really realize they were there until about 1:45pm. I watched the Spinning Babies parent’s class video and did the calf lift exercise from the video quickly before I had to head to my chiropractor appointment. At the appointment I realized that baby was now on the left side (LOA). I was so thankful as I knew I was in early labor! Surges continued from every 15 minutes to every 45 minutes for the rest of the day. I went for a walk to the park with my husband and my kids to encourage the surges, doing curb walking there and back. We put the kids to bed and I watched the spinning babies video again with my husband. We did some of the exercises from the video to encourage engagement and dilation. I then went to bed at around 10:15pm.

Friday 10/18, 40 weeks 5 days.

Surges continued throughout the night, interrupting sleep, about every 12 minutes. I had to concentrate and breathe through the surges while sleeping in between them. I got up at 4:55am since the surges were simply getting too uncomfortable to lie down through anymore.The surges were about 5-8 minutes apart, and though they varied in intensity, they were not too intense.

Around 7:15am, my husband and I went out for breakfast. I had to breathe through the surges but again, they weren’t terrible and I was fine between them.

When we got back home, I went to the bathroom at 8:48am and saw that I had lost my mucus plug and that it had a strand of bloody show. Things were happening and I was excited!

After losing my plug, the surges spaced out some so I went to lay down and rest for a bit. At about 10:30am surges were 6-8 minutes apart and started picking up in intensity. I was supposed to let the photographer know when surges were 3-5 minutes apart, so we weren’t there yet.

I wanted to make sure that I was doing everything I could to get baby to engage and dilate the cervix and do all the right maneuvers to have the perfect home birth. My husband found a link on the Spinning Babies website about doing a maneuver called the abdominal lift and tuck where you and a partner lift your abdomen up and inward with your hands while kind of tucking in your butt for 10 surges. I ate a chicken sandwich to recharge my energy, it was delicious, and then we did the abdominal lift and tucks for 11 surges since we kept missing some when I would go to the bathroom. I would go to the bathroom after each surge so that my bladder wouldn’t get in baby’s way. We started the abdominal lift and tucks at about noon. Those surges were getting pretty intense but all was still well between the surges, and they were still about 6 minutes apart. (I believe they were likely closer together than I realized since I wasn’t tracking the surges I was having in the bathroom because I had left my phone in the other room).

After that, I saw a video that in order to ensure that baby descends during labor, do lunges with your left leg lifted on a chair (if baby is in the LOA position) during surges So I did that for a couple more surges.

Then at 1:13 I lost some more plug. At 1:18 I had some very light leaking of translucent, odorless, pink-tinged fluid. There was a small trickle with the next surge. My water broke! I texted my photographer to come and had my husband start filling the birth tub.

While my husband was in the other room working on getting the pool filled, it became quite clear that This Was It! I was about to have my baby! I realized that I would not get the water birth that I wanted and I would not get this sweet labor or birth on video like I had longed for! But there wasn’t time for me to care about that. I was about to have my baby!

I was leaning into my husband and then got on the floor on my knees leaning over our ottoman. With each surge I SCREAMED and screamed and clawed at my husband’s arm as my body pushed and I pushed with it. Between the surges, I begged God to help me and had my husband give me cold water to drink and had him put the cold water on my face and neck. It was incredible to feel my baby coming down through the birth canal. As the baby was crowning I could feel all the tearing and pain. I reached down and felt with my hand. To me it did not feel like a head. It felt too slimy and squishy. I told my husband to look. He said he didn’t know what it was. I told him to tell me what it looked like. He said he thought it might be the cord. I told him to get me a mirror so I could look. He brought a mirror attached to a huge picture frame that would never work. I knew it wasn’t an arm or a leg. I thought then maybe it was the placenta. I told him to call 911. (We were both clearly too dumb to have him take a picture but that is neither here nor there haha). I never truly believed that what I was feeling was the placenta, since the placenta had been in the fundus the entire pregnancy and baby had been head down and engaged, but in the throes of labor I was not thinking clearly and I didn’t want to take any chances.

My husband called 911 as I continued to scream and push. Just then, the photographer showed up, and I yelled at her to come and tell me if it was the head or not.

Well of course, it was the head! She said “The head is out!” I kept pushing. The photographer told me to grab the baby but I told her I couldn’t grab the baby. I was working so hard to push baby out and holding myself up on the ottoman. I kept pushing and out came baby, head first and perfect!

The photographer actually caught the baby from behind me (which of course was not the plan but we improvised) and handed the baby to my husband. They then passed the baby up to me. I grabbed the baby and looked to see the gender. A girl!!! I couldn’t believe that I had just pushed out my baby and that she was a girl! It was AMAZING!!!

The ambulance showed up just after baby was born and checked us both out. She was absolutely perfect and I was a successful, victorious birth warrior! The placenta came about 10 to 15 minutes after she was born.

Aspen Juliet was born at 1:57pm, weighing about 10 lbs, 20 inches long, after about 35 minutes of pushing! We were so blessed to have a beautiful, healing, restorative, cleansing home vaginal birth and to have a completely healthy and perfect little squishy baby!

We did decide to go to the hospital to get checked out. I had some extensive tears that were bleeding and that needed to be stitched. We were going to go to the hospital anyway to get checked out in hopes that that would make getting a birth certificate and Social Security card easier for baby.

So we didn’t get the much anticipated water birth and we didn’t get the actual birth on film like I REALLY wanted, BUT I got to have my triumphant, healing, cleansing, restorative vaginal birth that I knew in my soul that I could have!

Congratulations, Hilary, and thank you for sharing your story with us!