Article about maternity care in the LA Times

Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times

Childbirth: Can the US improve? is a a step in the right direction, and I applaud its portrayal of a well-informed woman who sought and achieved a VBAC, but the tagline ("C-sections are expensive. Doctors ask if we are doing too many") strikes me as as incorrect--in fact, it's women, families, midwives, and other concerned parties, so much more than doctors, who are questioning the current C-section rate. (And they aren't doing so simply because it's expensive--their concerns center around around the known risks posed to mothers and babies.) Like so many media articles, however, this one is quick to blame the so-small-as-to-be-almost-neglible "too push to push" phenomena of patient-choice Cesareans for the rising rate, dedicating almost no time to the far more common "physician's choice" Cesareans, which may be cited as "necessary" for anything from a suspected large baby (not a valid indication) to going past a woman's due date to pretty much anything else under the sun. I was disappointed that the article didn't make a single mention of midwives, either--basically, it laid out the problems with US maternity care and ignored the fact that the solution to our problems (and the reason that the other countries discussed in the article are blowing us out of the water in terms of outcomes) is staring us in the face.