On my soap box about women's rights

Something has been bothering me for a few months - the push for c-sections in Santo Domingo and the scare tactics used by these obstetricians and the impact this is having on the Dominican culture surrounding pregnancy, birth, and postpartum periods(at least in my eyes). Santo Domingo is very similar to many other U.S. cities and is also similar to the U.S. in the fact that the rate of birth by cesarean is unconscionably high. As an aside, the country also has the lowest breastfeeding rate in all of the Americas with only 8% of mothers providing breastmilk as the main source of nourishment for the first six months.

Why is this issue tugging on my heart now? Because in the past few months, I think every locally engaged staff member who gave birth plus every friend of a locally engaged staff member who gave birth did so by c-section. I'm upset because I've listened to the conversations of these educated women in this society talk about how they can't have a vaginal birth if the baby is too big although the pelvis opens up 33% wider than usual and really only about 3% of women truly have a condition that prevents babies from making it through the birth canal, or if they are 40 weeks or approaching 40 weeks then the doctor is ready to schedule surgery, and how they found a doctor that supports vaginal births (yet the same doctor makes other statements that indicate otherwise).

It is disheartening to hear these women talk like they don't have a choice at all or worse, to try and encourage a woman who actually fought for her right to choose a vaginal birth!!

I mean how can an experienced OB explain to a woman that if she doesn't start labor by day X then they will skip the pitocin and induction and just schedule major surgery?!?? And not for someone with a high risk pregnancy?!? How can the same OB (supposed last of the OBs that still support vaginal births in the capital) schedule a c-section for a woman days prior to the due date only because that woman got anxious and grew tired of waiting??? Where is the professional integrity? Doesn't anyone care that healing from surgery AND trying to take care of a newborn baby is not the ideal way to enter the postpartum period?

To say that I'm disgusted by this birth culture is an understatement. Not only are women having c-sections more often than not, but there is also this unspoken pressure to look pretty at all times...so much so that some O.B. practices have on-site hairstyling services where a woman can have her hair done DURING or immediately after delivery. And in this same upper middle income country, a disproportionate amount of infants are malnourished, in part due to a very low breastfeeding rate - even for mothers that are poor and cannot afford to provide the amount of formula necessary to adequately feed their babies.

In my non-qualified, non-scientific opinion, the choice not to breastfeed, elective c-sections (elected by the patient or doctor), and physical beauty above all else (including healing) are all indicative of a culture that undervalues women's (and by extension their babies) rights to adequate healthcare and to make informed, educated choices about their bodies.