The New Pro-Life War

I am devoutly Catholic so when we realized that we were infertile, we knew that certain options were off the table for us. That was freeing in a way as we had to be more creative and really get to the bottom of what was causing our infertility. After about 18 months of actively working on our health, both of us loosing weight, charting, surgery for me, meds and supplements for both of us and shots for me, we were blessed to find out that we were pregnant. You would have thought that that was when the fight ended but that was just the beginning of the fight.

Here in the U.S. we have a about a 1/3 c-section rate and I'm here to tell you that I really think that the devil is behind it. That's not to say that I think OB/GYNs are knowingly in league with him but lets face it most don't realize that prescribing birth control pills puts them in league with him. It amazes me how my friends who are Catholic and formerly infertile fought the fertility 'system' so to speak so hard only to hand over their life and the life of their baby as soon as they got pregnant. And yet I get it too as I know what it's like to not trust your own body.

This is not to say that I'm against OB/GYN's and their interventions, in fact I LOVE my OB/GYN who surgically corrected my body so that I could get pregnant. But seriously folks OB/GYN's and their interventions only belong in at most 30% of births and c-section belongs in at most 15% of births. The WHO statistics show that above 15% c-section rate = women and babies needlessly dying. I wish I had more time to devote to this topic but as it is I'm blessed with a wonderful 4.5 month old who wants attention 24/7 and rarely takes naps. Also, due to a whole slew of breast feeding issues I've ended up an exclusive pumper which takes more time than is even reasonable but I'm committed to sticking with it. What I hope to do here though is post links to articles and research to hopefully help at least one woman not become a statistic.

Last night after Mass someone asked me if my child was born at the local Catholic hospital. When I said no that she was born at home, the man said that I was brave. I chuckled and thought "No the women who give birth in hospitals are brave." I don't want to get too into home birth vs hospital birth as I want to help all women and of course most births in the U.S. happen in a hospital. I pray that someday through speaking out we can change the birth system in the U.S. so that women and babies will be safer when they do go to a hospital. In the meantime, there is a war going on. This is a PRO-LIFE issue as women and babies are needlessly dying.

Side note: Anti-Catholic / pro birth control / pro population control comments will be deleted. Let's keep the conversation on birth.