ICAN’s upcoming conference (April 8-10) was recently featured in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
While the conference will cover issues, such as caring for a Caesarean scar, legislative advocacy and delivering breech babies, the weekend will focus on educating women and health-care professionals about the latest evidence regarding vaginal births after Caesareans, said conference director Maureen Hetrick.
Conference speaker Dr. George Macones, was quoted extensively in the article.
Macones, tapped by the national institute in developing its VBAC consensus, has published more than two dozen studies about the safety. He has reviewed records of almost 25,000 women at multiple hospitals and found that the risk of uterine rupture (c-section scar breaking apart during labor) is less than 1 percent.
“VBAC is not as dangerous as it has been painted to be,” Macones said. Several other obstetric procedures carry the same, if not higher, complication rates.
Macones said the “perfect storm” led to the marked decrease in the VBAC rate: physicians’ more aggressive use of medications to induce or speed up labor (which can increase the likelihood of a C-section), the rising cost of malpractice insurance and patient preference.
It’s not too late to register! Visit the conference website for more information.
