Anna Davis and her daughter Brooklyn, 11 months, take part in Monday's Rally to Improve Birth at the Jenks Green Acres Market. MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World
JENKS — About two dozen people held up signs Monday reading “Know Your Options,” “Birth Matters,” and “We Can Do Better” at the second Rally to Improve Birth.
This year the Tulsa-area rally, coinciding with more than 170 similar events across the United States and other countries, was held in front of Green Acres Market in Jenks.
Close to a dozen vendors including midwives, birth class educators and women’s health providers were on hand to answer questions and provide assistance at the maternity fair held in conjunction with the rally.
“We want to bring awareness to the crisis in maternity care in our country,” said Missy David, spokeswoman for the Tulsa rally and a doula who provides counseling and support before, during and after childbirth. “It’s not hospital birth v. home birth. It’s about respectful, safe maternity care.”
About one in three births in the U.S. are by Caesarean section, according to the World Health Organization, which recommends no more than 15 percent of births be performed by C-section.
Oklahoma’s C-section rate, 32.4 percent, is close to the national average of 33 percent, David said.
The many reasons for the high percentage of C-sections in the U.S. include financial motivations and matters of convenience, she said.
“A lot of Caesareans are performed between 5 and 6 p.m. on Fridays,” she said, and added inducing labor can also lead to C-sections. “A Caesarean is major abdominal surgery. It’s not just ‘no problem.’?”
Dr. Corey Babb, an obstetrician at Hillcrest Hospital South, said there can be legitimate medical reasons for inducing labor or performing a C-section, but women need to know what their options are when it comes to giving birth.
“Patients have a right to their own care, a right to ask questions. That’s something that’s so important,” Babb said. “Patients get scared and pushed into one way of thinking. Every patient is different. Every birth is different.”
Brooke White had her first child by Caesarean and vowed she wouldn’t do it again.
“I felt defeated. I knew when I left the hospital I would do it differently,” said White, so when she became pregnant with her second child three years ago and then twins a year ago she found doctors who would perform a VBAC, vaginal birth after Caesarean. “I wasn’t willing to take no for an answer. I felt so empowered that my body could do that.”
Jenks
An AEP-PSO spokesman said 64 customers lost power about 4:40 p.m.
The game kicks off at 7:05 p.m. from the
University of Tulsa’s Chapman Stadium.
