
Doctors and hospitals, while having access to some life-saving techniques, can also introduce certain other risks to women, especially during childbirth. No maternity care provider can ever guarantee a perfect outcome, which is why it is important to let every woman make decisions about her birth based on her own research, without assuming that there is an objective right answer for EVERY woman. Where have you been for the past 90 pages? Next, please...... |
Well the evidence comes for the horse's mouth, my dear. This is what the mother wrote about her experience with Birth Care, etc. on Citysearch. While we cannot ascertain that mom indeed wrote this, pretty much everything points to this being THE case at hand. The founders of this organization have some integrity issues Provided by Citysearch Posted by by MDawn at… on 01/09/2011 The founders of this organization have some integrity issues they need to resolve. "When I asked about birthing my breech baby vaginally, they gave me the names of 5 midwives who were experienced birthing breech babies. And she went on to tell me how she had only delivered one, because they, BC, hadn't realized it was breech until delivery. Note: when she learned the baby was breech, she chose to birth the baby (at home or in the birth center) instead of transferring the mother to the hospital. It was the birth assistant I hired from Birth Care’s list of approved birth assistants, who suggested I birth my baby vaginally. During labor, after the midwife learned that the baby had changed position and was no longer in the optimal breech position for vaginal delivery, my husband asked her, the birth assistant, what we should do and she refused to answer. (This is someone we thought we had a good relationship with because we took her Bradley class at Birth Care.) After my baby died, I kept going back to Birth Care for postpartum checkups because I felt comfortable with them. Yet, each time I saw the midwife she seemed to be blaming me for my child’s death. When I confronted her about this she denied ever condoning birthing my baby vaginally. She probably did tell me to go to have a hospital birth but the conversation that day was overwhelmingly pro vaginal breech birth. These ladies are both grandmothers and they’re still operating under do as I say not as I do. How am I to figure that out when I’m a scared first time mother staring down abdominal surgery? They never asked why I wanted to birth my baby vaginally. Nor did they counsel against it. Furthermore, they did not explain or discuss the benefits of a c-section in my circumstance. Everyone I paid to help bring my baby safely into this world failed me - including the founders of Birth Care. I'm devastated by the loss of my child. My pain is compounded by callous display of BC’s tremendous lack of responsibility toward my care. Now that they’ve destroyed a life and are being investigated by the local authorities they will probably be more careful with you." |
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Significantly, this original post on city search was taken down. One can only be left to ponder why. Maybe this grieving mom isn't remembering exactly how it happened? Who knows. City search and the author took it down. |
Either way, it is a searing indictment of the Bradley instructor. |
Meant to add to my above post, BUYER BEWARE. |
How so? What if what she said was not truthful or the whole truth. She took it down. She takes back her words. Unfortunately what has been written cannot be taken back so easily. You are being hateful based on a piece that was retracted. Shame on you. |
How does the fact that the comment was taken down mean that the mother "takes back her words"? She certainly didn't print a retraction! There are other more likely reasons the comment was removed. |
I think it's been made pretty clear throughout all of the posts that at the end of the day the Bradley instructor, doula and/or parents were not the "experts" in this case. They were not hired as "providers" and should not bear responsibility for the clinical outcome, so to speak. Granted, I think it's bizarre that no one called 911 during those 33 minutes, but being that I wasn't there, I don't really know what went on and can't speak to the situation. My re-quoting mom's words was merely to point out that she did infact state that the baby turned from the "favorable" breech position to an unfavorable one. Since footling breech is pretty much regarded as the "unfavorable" one, I'm assuming (again, could be wrong here) that baby went from frank or complete breech to footling. It is regarded as highly risky to attempt a footling breech delivery since the risks of head entrapment are far greater. If this is the case, the call should have been made to transfer for a c-section. Maybe mom refused transfer, but gathering from what we've learned about the court proceedings + mom's interpretation of the delivery from CitySearch, there was no mention that a trasnfer should be made after the footling presentation was discovered. One can only speculate but I'll take mom's words over anyone else's |
If indeed the baby turned during labor from frank breech to footling breech, the whole thing makes more sense from the perspective of the mother. Vaginal delivery of frank breech is not particularly risky *with a trained provider*. OBs are no longer trained in breech vaginal delivery. KC -- by all accounts -- was. Footling breech is very dangerous. It seems, then, that the big mistake was not calling 911/otherwise going directly to the hospital when it turned footling. And the responsibility for that lies directly with KC. A laboring mom is not thinking coherently enough to make that call and it was not the birth assistant's place or job to do it either. It was KC's job, and she failed.
That said, if a doctor had been similarly negligent, he would have been sued for everything he had, but not threatened with jail/felonies. |
It could have gone from frank to complete. |
KC had every opportunity to get licensed in VA and chose not to. That's on her. She likely would have avoided this whole fiasco if she's been licensed - then similiar to another licensed provider she would have been deemed negligent and maybe had her license revoked, etc., but NOT charged with involuntary manslaughter. Now, as it stands, she risks going to jail if she chooses to practice anywhere in the DC/MD/VA region before her 8 year probationary period is up. She maybe would have lost the ability to practice in VA, but she would have done herself a service by getting licensed in the ONE state that does allow CPMs. Bad call, KC, bad call. |
True, but frank and complete could be safely delivered by an experienced practitioner (as KC has stated she is in breech delivery). For all practical purposes, both frank and complete breech deliveries require the body and legs to be delivered together before the skull, the body and legs together are infact larger than the skull, allowing for more cervical dilation and a greater chance that the skull can be delivered w/out difficulty. In a footling, the feet first, then body delivery means the largest part left to be delivered is the skull, hence the greater risk of head entrapment. Delivery of a footling breech in a first time mom is just a bad gamble on all accounts. |
Or kneeling or a stargazer, which would be more dramatic increases in risk than frank to complete. Footling, kneeling, stargazing, any of the above would be a massive increase in risk. |
Sadly, that's not how things often pan out in our legal system. I have zero doubt that she agreed to this deal in order to avoid jail time. |