Cesarean awareness month Toolkit

#CAM2022

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What is Cesarean Awareness Month?

  • April is Cesarean Awareness Month (CAM)
  • CAM focuses on all topics surrounding cesareans, including reducing preventable cesareans, supporting cesarean recovery, and advocating for vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC)
  • ICAN was founded in 1982 as a grassroots movement to serve these needs
  • We need your help to grow Cesarean Awareness! Download the infographics, start a fundraiser, wear your CAM2022 T-Shirt!

Cesareans…

Why the Need

For Awareness

  • Researchers estimate that almost half of the cesareans performed could be safely prevented.
  • If families don’t know these options exist they can’t advocate for them.
  • Cesareans can be more or less “family friendly” depending on the practices and protocols at a facility and provider support.
  • Preventable Cesareans may be responsible for up to 20,000 major surgical complications a year, including sepsis, hemorrhage, and organ injury.
  • Often the future risks to birthing people, and their future pregnancies and children are not even mentioned.
Advocacy
Membership

Brianna Barker and Justen Alexander, ICAN President and Vice President speaking to care providers about the health and emotional impacts of Cesarean and VBAC
Elizbethton, TN 2019

Line drawing of lotus on water logo with Your natural Birth underneath

Press Release: 2022 Cesarean Awareness Month

CAM-2021-press-releaseDownload

“For our law to COMPEL the Defendant to submit to an intrusion of his body would change the very concept and principle upon which our society is founded. To a rule which would know no limits and one could not imagine where the line would be drawn.”

Judge John P. Flaherty on McFall v Shimp

Call to Action

CESAREAN AWARENESS MONTH

2022

Hashtags
  • CAM2022
  • ICANshare
  • CesareanAwarenessMonth
  • CeareanStories

  • Lowering the rate of preventable cesareans is vital to improving maternal-child health
  • Policies do not override a persons’ right to informed decision making.
  • VBAC bans are unethical and unenforceable for hospitals to institute. People have the right to informed refusal, which includes declining a cesarean.
  • For most people, VBAC carries lower risks than a repeat cesarean.
  • A healthy birth incorporates emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being.
  • When a cesarean is necessary, it can be a lifesaving surgery, and worth the risks involved.

Share your Journey

Writing and sharing your story can be healing, and ICAN loves to amplify your stories to help reach others that feel connected to similar experiences, if that is your comfort level. And a picture can be worth 1000 words.

Key Messages

  • Lowering the rate of preventable cesareans is vital to improving maternal-child health.
  • Policies do not override a persons’ right to informed decision making.
  • VBAC bans are unethical and unenforceable for hospitals to institute. People have the right to informed refusal, which includes declining a cesarean.
  • For most people, VBAC carries lower risks than a repeat cesarean.
  • A healthy birth incorporates emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being.
  • When a cesarean is necessary, it can be a lifesaving technique, and worth the risks involved.

Thank you

to our 2022 Cesarean Awareness Month Sponsors!

Advocacy Warrior Sponsors

Mission Supporter Sponsors

Expecting New Life Birth Services

Heather McMillen, LPC

Cesarean Awareness Month Profile Frames

Make yours and tag us on social media!
Dismantle the disconnect w/ awareness
Make your own with our Canva Template