Group Rallies To Raise Awarness About C-Section Rate

DENVER (CBS4) - It's something many mothers and doctors make the decision to do, but one group held a rally Monday saying scheduled cesarean sections are happening too much and they may not be the best thing for the baby.

A small group of mothers and fathers in a low-key family affair demonstrated in favor of improving child birth. They want to encourage what they call the "normalcy of birth," and it was all about awareness and education.

"We're kind of pushing for a gentler labor," Kalie Harris said.

Harris is with a group called "Improving Birth." The rally is a national event for change. Organizers say it wasn't a protest, but rather a public outreach to raise awareness.

"A mother's body knows when to give birth and how to give birth," a demonstrator said.

So the midwives and doulas, mothers and fathers, want women to know they have options.

"We're seeing a really high C-section rate and a lot of unnecessary inductions and C-sections, and we'd like for birth to get a little further away from that," Harris said. "It's healthier for moms and babies."

In Denver they took a walk around Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center.

"We're not trying to say that any one hospital is worse than the other hospital," Harris said. "Lots of us work in hospitals, lots of us work with OBs, and I would never say that they're not necessary."

But what they are trying to do is encourage health care providers to use the best evidence, what the research shows, in making decisions about what's best for mothers and babies.

Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center issued a response to the rally saying the hospital is "proud of our heritage of providing safe, compassionate and satisfying care for mothers and newborns by promoting evidence-based practices."

They gave a number of examples, including eliminating elective deliveries at less than 39 weeks, and supporting vaginal birth and vaginal birth after C-sections.

LINK: Improving Birth