Support - International Cesarean Awareness Network

Traumatic Birth Recovery

September 18, 2017 by blog Leave a Comment

“The axe forgets but the tree remembers.” ~ African Proverb

What is a Traumatic Birth?

To many, it is a birth that leads to a diagnosable postpartum mood disorder such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Postpartum Depression (PPD), and/or Postpartum Anxiety (PPA). There are also many other possibilities for how a stressful birth can express itself after the particular event is over. Whether a person has enough symptoms to qualify for a medical diagnosis or not, symptoms and experiences can still interfere with daily life and bonding with the baby.

How to Recover from a Traumatic Birth?

Many people have different coping skills that can be used in recovering from a traumatic birth. Important to note, no matter what methods or therapies are utilized, recovery is not an automatic overnight process. All births take time to process and be incorporated into a personal history, whether it was ecstatic or traumatic. Many therapeutic methods can be helpful, no matter the overall birth experience.

Seek Professional Help

If a person has thoughts of harm, to themselves or their child, it is vital to immediately call emergency services and get emergency mental health help. After the crisis has passed, it is extremely important to follow up with a medical provider to discuss medication and psychological therapy services as a component of the overall treatment plan.

Seek Support

Exploring the birth, discussing it with other mothers, and having a support system in place is important for ongoing recovery throughout the process. A local ICAN chapter that hosts in-person support meetings and has a private Facebook group is a great place to start finding a mothering tribe.

Journaling the Birth Story

Writing down the birth experience, possibly also including the prenatal experience, is a great step in mentally and emotionally processing a traumatic birth. There are several ways this can be accomplished, with and without professional oversight. Finding examples and even writing prompts online can be an easy way to start when it seems too painful to put down the first word.

Read Birth Stories and Recovery Experiences

Reading other women’s experiences of birth, both positive and traumatic, can help hard emotions to release and be processed. Knowing that a traumatic birth does not stand alone but that there are others who have also experienced one can be a large part of the healing process.

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No matter what components are added to a treatment plan for recovering from a traumatic birth. It is most important to actually start the recovery journey. Reach out today to the nearest ICAN Chapter Leader and begin the healing path.

Find a local ICAN chapter here.

Find the ICAN Traumatic Birth Recovery Pinterest board here.

Photography Credits: Frank McKenna; Swaraj Tiwari; Ben White; Ksenia Makagonova; Christopher Windus – www.UnSplash.com

Who Sees Me?

August 7, 2017 by blog Leave a Comment

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It’s been six weeks since you gave birth to your first precious baby. You finally feel strong enough to leave the house with just the diaper bag, car seat, stroller, and baby wrap. Today is a “play date” with your birth education class. You are excited to show off your newborn but you are also anxious about sharing your birth story. Why? Because it didn’t go as planned.

You had spent months with these other pregnant women planning an all natural, drug-free, no intervention birth. You had spent weeks poring over books and blogs, adding details to your birth plan and emailing the updated list to your doula every day. But it didn’t happen. Labor didn’t start on its own, your baby’s heart rate kept dropping during contractions, the pain was intense and so much more breathtaking than you had expected. After hours upon hours, the words you had so feared were spoken: “Cesarean.”

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You don’t know if anyone else in your class had a cesarean. You aren’t sure if you can tell your story and truly be heard. But you go anyway – surely you have enough of a bond with these other moms that you’ll still be a part of their community. After arriving and getting settled, it happens – someone innocently asks how your birth went. As your heart starts to race, you choke back tears and reply, “I had a cesarean.” The idle chatter around you slows and stops. The moms start looking at you, then sharing glances with each other. The comments start:

“At least you have a healthy baby.”

“So many people have cesareans these days, it’s no big deal.”

“Well, maybe if you’d stayed home longer to labor, it wouldn’t have happened.”

“Did you hire a doula? You should have had more support.”

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You whisper, “It’s okay, I’m fine. The baby is fine, it’s all good.” You just want them to move on and stop talking about it. But you can’t help feeling like an outlier. Like you don’t belong or fit in anymore. You start to wonder, “Who sees me? Who really understands what I’ve been through?”

We see you. We welcome you with open arms. We can be your community.

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ICAN (International Cesarean Awareness Network) is dedicated to supporting women recovering from cesarean births – not just physically, but emotionally and mentally too. Our support groups across the world offer you a local community of women who have walked the same path as you are now walking. Women who share the mixed emotions that come with an unplanned birth outcome. Women who believe a healthy mother is important and necessary.

If you feel like you haven’t found your community after a cesarean birth, please reach out to us locally and online.

Find your closest chapter here: Find us on Facebook here:

ICAN Chapters www.facebook.com/ICANonline

We are here to educate, advocate for and support you.

Photography Credits: Alex Pasarelu; Frank McKenna; Cristian Newman; Corinne Kutz – www.Unsplash.com

Giving Birth After A Cesarean: It’s Your Decision

July 10, 2017 by blog

vep-1 Care providers have an obligation to share information with you about your care. To present the risks and benefits of planning a VBAC or choosing a routine repeat cesarean. When you have received all the information you need to feel confident to make a decision, the choice is yours. No provider should frighten or coerce you into having a routine repeat cesarean.The decision to have a repeat cesarean or labor for a VBAC is yours.

Prenatal visits give you the opportunity to have a frank discussion with your caregiver about your concerns and how you will be cared for. It is your right to participate in all decisions regarding your health and the health of your baby.

During your pregnancy, you should have several discussions about the benefits and risks of VBAC and repeat cesarean.
Ask your caregiver about his/her VBAC rate, repeat cesarean rate, and VBAC success rate.
Discuss your personal medical condition with regard to VBAC and repeat cesarean. You may need to review your operative record (documentation of the surgery.)
Ask what safety measures are in place to respond to an obstetric emergency including a uterine rupture.
Try to get the hospital informed consent forms for procedures that you may need (for induction, an epidural, pain medications) during your pregnancy so that you have the time to read and understand them.
Make a list of the advantages and disadvantages of planning a VBAC or scheduling a repeat cesarean and discuss them with your partner.
Consider having a doula at your birth, a midwife as your primary caregiver, or giving birth in a birth center.

Giving birth is a transformative experience. Your caregivers should make you feel cared for, respected, and supported in your wishes and needs.

For more information about your rights in childbirth see the slides in Module 12 of the VBAC Education Project.

Reblogged with permission from Nicette Jukelevics, a member of ICAN’s Advisory Committee, from her website VBAC.com. The VBAC Education Project, as outlined at that site, is a powerful teaching tool for communities and embraced as part of the educational initiative of ICAN.

Is your care provider VBAC-friendly? Here’s how to tell.

June 13, 2017 by Vice President

With the rate of cesarean births in the United States holding at a little over one in three, many women face an important decision when having subsequent children: plan a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) or schedule a repeat C-section? Since 2010, the guidelines issued by the American Congress of Ob/Gyns (ACOG) assert that a VBAC is “a safe and appropriate choice for most women who have had a prior cesarean birth, including for some women who have had two previous cesareans.”* So not surprisingly, more and more women are choosing VBAC.

Even with these guidelines in place, many mothers unfortunately still find themselves in an uphill battle to find a care provider who truly supports VBAC. A care provider who says that he or she supports VBAC birth but puts strict limits on the labor and birth process may be “VBAC tolerant” but not exactly “VBAC friendly.” So how can a mother know if her care provider is truly VBAC-friendly? Here are three important questions to ask:

What is that care provider’s track record?

One of the most telling factors in determining whether your care provider is truly VBAC friendly, rather than someone who just pays lip service to the idea without any real plans of follow through, is to look at VBAC success rates for both the provider as well as the location(s) where he or she attends births. How many successful VBACs has the provider attended? How does that rate compare to his or her repeat cesarean rate? These are important questions to know and important questions for your care provider to address. It should be a major red flag if a care provider bristles at these questions or dismisses such questions as irrelevant.

What “requirements” does he or she have for a VBAC candidate?

There are several factors that are encouraging to both mothers and providers because they increase the chance of VBAC success. These are:

Spontaneous onset of labor, but not necessarily by 40 weeks
Carefully considered use of intervention to speed or strengthen labor
The reason for a prior cesarean is unlikely to be repeated (such as a baby in the breech position)
A supportive and patient care provider
Giving birth in a setting that routinely supports VBACs
Having had previous vaginal deliveries, either before or after cesarean birth

However, a VBAC, as in any birth, should be treated as its own experience with its own unique characteristics. VBAC success can be achieved without needing to pass a “checklist” of requirements. Even in this list, there are considerable gray areas. For example, while spontaneous onset of labor contributes to VBAC success, a provider who “requires” that a mother go into labor before 40 weeks is not truly VBAC-friendly. Another example would be under the criteria of how likely a reason for the prior cesarean is to be repeated, such as a mother whose prior cesarean was for suspected cephalopelvic disproportion, or CPD (when the mother’s pelvis is too small to allow for the baby to pass through). A provider who determines early in pregnancy that such a scenario is likely to be repeated is also raising a red flag. Actual cases of CPD are exceedingly rare, yet CPD is often cited as the cause for a cesarean, deemed “failure to progress.”**

What about the other care providers in the practice?

If a care provider shares the responsibility of attending births with others in his or her practice – and there is a chance that one of the other providers may attend your birth – it’s important to consider their track records and stances, as well. It doesn’t do much good if your provider truly supports VBAC but the others, who are just as likely to attend your birth, do not.

Nothing in life is without risk. Surgical birth and VBAC both involve certain risks, and a VBAC-friendly care provider will counsel a mother on the potential benefits and risks of both options. These risks will vary greatly between individuals. So when considering a VBAC, it’s important to find a provider who will look at each mother as an individual and work with her to determine what will be best for both the mother and her baby. The chances of a successful VBAC birth increase greatly with a care provider who is truly supportive.

*“Ob/Gyns Issue Less Restrictive VBAC Guidelines.” ACOG

**“Cephalopelvic Disproportion.” American Pregnancy Association

Reblogged with permission from www.PlumtreeBaby.com. By Jennifer Stutzman, Freelance Writer.

You are not alone. ICAN support is for all women.

April 25, 2017 by Vice President

Are you having a hard time finding women who support your desires for your birth? Do you think nobody understands how you feel? Have you had an undesired cesarean, necessary or not? Are you trying to decide if VBAC is right for you and your baby? Does a repeat cesarean feel like a safer option for you? Did you have a cesarean after trying for a VBAC? Wherever you are in the process, trying to conceive your first baby or ready to deliver your fifth child by cesarean, ICAN is here to support you!

When women gather together it is a powerful experience.

ICAN’s mission is three-fold and encompasses all women who desire to give birth. Those of us who lead and the ladies who come for support are working together to create a space to encircle and empower women through the birthing journey. When women gather together it is a powerful experience and everyone benefits from the open communication that ensues. Each woman’s experience is unique yet it brings a familiar connection that is relatable to us all. As Marcie Macari (author of She Births: A Modern Woman’s Guidebook for an Ancient Rite of Passage) has said, “Birth is a rite of passage of women. Their journey should be honored, their rights should be fiercely protected, and their stories should be shared.” When stories are shared, people find healing. That is the heart of ICAN: healthy, whole and confident women.

ican-is — Courtesy of Tara Simpson Photography

Sometimes the journey to birth and beyond can feel lonely. Many women don’t have supportive family members or friends who understand their desire to birth in a particular way or avoid unnecessary interventions that can be commonplace these days. ICAN helps to bring women together to facilitate a safe place for anyone needing understanding and support. We all desire the community of a non-judgmental place to discuss questions, fears, and experiences. You’ll find, as Stephen Gaskin once said, that “the wisdom and compassion a woman can intuitively experience in childbirth can make her a source of healing and understanding for other women.” You are not alone.

ICAN supports your right to choose how you will give birth.

Through Facebook groups, monthly meetings and blog posts, there are many avenues to connect you with the latest evidence, and encouraging stories to help you heal. Please know that we are not exclusive. While VBAC is a popular topic these days with more women choosing that route than in previous years, the fact remains that there are risks with any delivery method, and most women who have had one cesarean delivery will choose a repeat cesarean for subsequent births. ICAN supports your right to choose how you will give birth. Each of us processes our cesarean experiences differently. Some women find comfort in the process of planning for their cesarean, while others do not. We at ICAN respect both of these valid perspectives. Our desire is to support you in the way that is best for you. Our hope is that you will have the correct information to make the best choices for you. We want you to know that we truly care and are here to help you along the way.

Written by: Melissa Mathewson, former Chapter Leader of ICAN of Jackson, MS