C-Sections, Placenta Previa, & How They Hurt Tori Spelling
What are the risks of multiple c-section? I wonder if anybody ever mentioned them to Tori Selling.
Everybody seems obsessed with celebrity birth. People accuse Ricki Lake of highhandedly increasing the home birth rate. Everybody talked about Ms Jolie's planned African water birth. Celebrities, though richer and better looking than the rest of us, still get to be judged by their birth choices. And also, sadly, they still can be hurt (even endangered) by the sorry state of current obstetrics and anti-VBAC sentiment.
A few weeks ago we talked about Tori Spelling and how her 4th cesarean section landed her back in the hospital for emergency surgery. It has since been revealed what her re-hospitalization was for. Apparently her "C-section scars burst open" requiring her to return to the hospital.
In addition to revealing why she was re-hospitalized after her birth, Tori also mentioned how difficult this fourth pregnancy was for her. Tori spent four months on bed rest due to placenta previa. Placenta previa is a condition in pregnancy where the placenta grows over the cervix. It can be deadly, as you can imagine, due to the risk of hemorrhage. A full placenta previa eliminates the option of vaginal birth.
As you can image there were lots of nasty comments directed at Ms Spelling following her birth. (Probably because some people are mean and trashy.) People said she had too many babies. People blamed her for the complication because she had her children too close together. People accused her of going back to the hospital just to get a tummy tuck.
You know, I think all of that is kind of disgusting. I have no idea why Ms Spelling had her first cesarean section. There is something I do know though-
She is not responsible for the outrageous c-section rate in this country.
Tori is not to blame of the total LACK of options regarding VBAC for birthing women.
It is not Tori Spelling's fault that she had placenta previa either.
Placenta previa is an incredibly RARE occurrence in your first time mom or in ANY mom. BUT this study found that,
"The rate of placenta previa at second birth for women with vaginal first births was 4.4 per 1000 births, compared to 8.7 per 1000 births for women with CS at first birth."Did you catch that?
Simply having ONE c-section almost doubles your chance of placenta previa. DOUBLES.
What about women who have two or three or more c-sections?
Is anybody talking about the very real and very scary risks of repeat c-section?
We hear a lot about the risks of VBAC. We hear a lot about the risks of home birth. But we stay mum on the subject of the increasing risks of CESAREAN.
It is time we opened out mouths and started talking about this.
It makes me absolutely ill that this mother spent her pregnancy in fear of losing her baby and her own life. And it makes me so sad that this worry and this risk was most likely caused (and certainly increased) by a medical intervention that may or may not have been needed.
How many women are dying because we ignore the risks of cesarean and talk about the risks of VBAC? How many pregnancies are dangerous because we remove the option of VBAC and make c-section look easy, even desirable.
I wish all women healthy and joyful pregnancies. I am so very grateful that we have access to modern medical care WHEN NEEDED. And I hope that we use these interventions when they are NEEDED, and not at other times. I hope that we can stop sacrificing women and babies because we don't want to give them options.
Wishing Tori and her family a joyful and healthy recovery.
Comments
It's a BROKEN SYSTEM; I don't see why people are wagging their fingers at the momma. Who knows? Maybe if she didn't have PP she would have wanted a VBAC?! And even if she didn't it is HER body and HER birth. Not that there isn't inherent risk, as there is, but I just don't see how it is helpful for so many people to trash her.
And I totally agree about how everyone is quick to put disclaimers about home birth and natural birth, etc., etc. but if you utter a word of risk about induction or cesareans or anything else that is medically indicated everyone spazzes out and loses it. I don't GET it!!!
I fought tooth and nail to be "allowed" to give birth in the way that I chose but got my VBA3C in 2006.
i think it is a shame that we have become so accustom to these sorts of things. how birth horror stories are all over the place and how so many of them might have been prevented if we could just view pregnancy and birth differently. our system is so broken.
But the TRUTH of the matter is that many women are told after the FIRST (not the third or fourth and with no birth spacing taken into account) cesarean that they must ALWAYS have c-sections. OR they are told they can "try" for a VBAC and then they are sabotaged the whole way. Have you talked to women planning VBAC after just ONE c-section? Because where I teach there is ONE hospital out of 5 or 6 in the area that even ALLOWS VBAC. And then you must be continuously monitored and deliver spontaneously by 41 weeks. Truth is those things alone make it impossible for most women to VBAC because- A) their insurance doesn't cover that one hospital B)they carry babies slightly longer than that or C) constant (let's be real - SUPINE) monitoring really makes it next to impossible to actually progress.
So while Tori's LAST birth (her 4th c-section with a placenta previa and a very close birth spacing) most certainly needed to be a c-section I think I could make a pretty strong argument (and I did) that she (and all women) should have been given the option and availability of VBAC after her first c-section. So there.
You should relax with your judgement and let women decide how they want to deliver. While there is risk with a C-Section, it is actually safer for the baby than a vaginal birth (no risk for hypoxia etc.).
Vaginal birth can hold as much risk as a C-Section.
So while your intentions are probably good - you should worry about you and let other women make their own decisions without judgement.