FAYETTEVILLE — A small group of eight men and women stood in the hot Labor Day sun, at the corner of College Avenue and Millsap Road to raise awareness about the need for informed birth choices, evidence-based practice and humanity in American maternity care.
Their handmade signs bore messages such as “lower c-section rate,” “birth matters” and “we can do better.”
Their goal was to reach people calling attention to too many cesarean section births and labor-induction births occurring in U.S. hospitals.
“We’re not really protesting,” said Rochelle Boyce, of Rogers. “We want to raise awareness about more evidence-based treatments. We don’t want people to think we’re anti-hospital.” Boyce is a trained doula, a person who provides support to mothers-to-be in the birthing process.
The streetside campaign in Fayetteville was part of a national rally in 110 cities in 45 states Monday, sponsored by ImprovingBirth.com, a national advocacy group.
Jennifer Keith, a Springdale mother of two, said her first child was delivered by cesarean section but when she sought a vaginal birth for her second child, the procedure was denied by a hospital.
Once in labor, she was told by a Rogers hospital that her choices were to continue in labor at home or have a cesarean delivery in the hospital, but that hospital policy prevented a vaginal delivery in her case.
Keith said she participated in Monday’s event “to help spread the word and to make one or two woman question their care.”
Dawn Thompson, a event organizer with ImprovingBirth.com, said in a news release, “We are asking providers and hospital administrators to work with us to save lives and improve outcomes by basing care of women and babies on the best evidence and research.”
Although the rally was in Fayetteville, just blocks from Washington Regional Medical Center, the action was not directed at that hospital specifically, Boyce said.
Still, Washington Regional released a written statement Monday from Carla Rider, director of nursing and women’s services at the hospital.
“Following recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, one of our perinatal safety initiatives includes our practice of eliminating non-medically indicated inductions prior to 39 weeks gestation,” Rider stated. “As a result of this safety initiative, in 2012 we have had zero elective inductions prior to 39 weeks. Additionally, Washington Regional’s cesarean section rate is below the national average.”
Rider also noted the hospital was one of the first hospitals in Arkansas to initiate the process of achieving Baby Friendly Hospital status as defined by the World Health Organization. The hospital also participates in the Exclusive Breast Feeding perinatal core measure, a program by several health organizations to increase exclusive breastfeeding initiation and duration rates, she said.